Norway - Bergen

We arrived at Bergen under a gloomy sky, but the festivities in Bergen kept us from being down.

We arrived from Oslo at around 6:30 AM, tired from the 7-hour train ride. Fortunately, the train seat was not too bad; I had enough leg space for myself, and since we were riding the night train, they provided us with thin blankets and inflatable pillows. Oh, and a pair of ear plugs and eye mask. Not the best quality you can find, but it was definitely much better than nothing :)

Light breakfast at the cafe in the station was certainly refreshing. We had a sandwich + orange juice + coffee deal for 75 NOK. Pricey indeed, but in general things in Norway are pricey. And currency conversion hurts even more.

At around 9 AM, we headed to our first destination: the Tourist Information centre. From experience, the tourist information is always the best place to visit when you first arrive in a new city in Europe. They are almost always very helpful.

The Tourist Information centre is located directly next to the Fisketorget, or the Fish Market.

The Fish Market was starting to get busy when we reached there. Right after we got our tickets to Flåm bought from the Tourist Centre, we headed back to our hostel to see if we can check in earlier. When we were back to the Fish Market again around noon, the Fish Market was brimming with merry.

According to the Tourist Information, the day we arrived (8th of June) was the Torgdagen (Market Day), where people sing and sell goods on boats, and also sing and dance in traditional Norwegian clothes. There were also additional stalls selling traditional local dish set up at the back of the Market.

Most salmon meat around the world is exported from Norway. Why not try it at its country of origin? :)

The Fish Market is just overflowing with fresh seafood. And most stalls can cook them right away for you!

By the way, this was my first time seeing live scallops:

Quite different from what I had in my imagination.

Ah, by the way, I found a really interesting food: røkt hvalkjøtt, which is translated as smoked whale meat.

These black pieces of meat are smoked fish. The flavour was really, really strong! I tried a sample from a counter, and... I would say the meat was lean, gamey... it's just really hard to describe. I had whale steak before, and I had to say that I didn't quite like it.

What was even more interesting is that the Market Day also featured unique firetrucks of the town.

Around noon, the city streets were occupied with firetruck parade. It amazes me that there were so many different firetruck models in this town, and that firemen were highly appreciated in this town. In Indonesia, you could almost say that people don't really have faith in our own firemen. And the firemen are under-appreciated. I have not seen any Indonesians saying that the firemen are cool, or they want to grow up to be a fireman to save people. Nope.

Anyways, we left Bergen for a tour around the fjords (will be explained in the next post about our day trip to Flåm). The next morning, I headed to the top of Mt. Fløyen (320 m above sea level), which can be reached by a mini train called Fløibanen Funicular in 6-7 minutes, or 1 hour by hiking. We didn't have much time left, so I bought a round trip ticket up and down the mount for 80 NOK. The view from up there was just splendid.

From Fløyen, I decided to explore Manakirken (St. Mary's Church) built in the 12th century, only to find out that it was under construction. I was so stupid to even try going there because it was even written on the free guide book we got from the Tourist Information centre that it was closed. Well, at least I saw it :P

On the same side, west to the city centre and close to this church, is Bergenhus Fortress Museum and the Haakon Hall - 13th century Royal Ceremonial Hall.

I didn't enter the museum because I had no time and the trip has cost me so much. I don't want to spend more money on museums at this point.

Next was the Bryggen Houses. These houses often appear on postcards from Bergen.

And then I spent the rest of the day exploring the city centre.

Den National Scene

Øvre

Across the Pestplassen, on Kyrres Gate ("gate" means "street" in Norwegian)

Ah, and on the 9th of June, the Volkswagen Auto Club Bergen (VWACB) held a Bug Out, where VW owners showcased their cars at Pestplassen, just next to Lille Lungegårdsvann, a lake close to the train station.

Two thumbs up for Bergen. It's a great city for a weekend getaway :)

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Ireland - English Market

When I was exploring the city a couple days ago I noticed a sign that says "English Market", and I wasn't sure what it was. It turned out to be a very interesting place to get your groceries. And, to fill your tummies!

The entrance looked somewhat fancy, with a nice gate and a sign that says "English Market". I can't believe I missed this place when I was walking on the very same street two days ago, and I could have Googled it to find out what the English Market was because it has its official website http://www.englishmarket.ie/.

The interior is nicely decorated with Christmas lights, perhaps because right now it is just about 2 weeks after Christmas. The floors are very clean, and the good thing about this market is that it has roofs. Getting fresh air and a little bit of sunlight as you select your goods might sound like a better idea, but when light rain is prevalent, I'd prefer indoor shopping.

Meats, fresh vegetables and fruits, spices, jams, Asian goods, seafood... almost everything you need is there. However, why get the usual stuffs when there are local goods to taste? 

Well, as I mentioned in previous two posts, I learned that Ireland is famous for its black pudding, which is essentially a pig blood sausage. However, there is this special kind of black pudding that is made out of cow's blood, and I got this information from the IT help desk at the university. Yeah, I know, it's so random. The IT help desk guy was very friendly and knowing that we just arrived in Ireland, he asked if we had some typical Irish food and I replied that we had black and white pudding on our first day. The conversation dragged on and he told me about this Clonakilty black pudding (Clonakilty is a small town in West Cork; see wikipedia page here).

There's also the white pudding version, but the IT guy said that the black pudding tastes better. I saw this on the market, so I grabbed half of a loop of the black pudding.

He also told us that Irish exported about 60% of its mussels. Salmon is also another commodity to look for in Ireland. Well, just look at the salmon meat I found in the English Market:

Huge!

My friend who was queueing for the IT help desk was concerned because I was done with registering my laptop for Wi-Fi usage at school (it's very annoying how we can't just get a password and use the school Wi-Fi without having to physically register our devices), and yet I kept talking about something totally unrelated to IT. Any minute longer, I think the people queueing behind me would be pissed off, so I had to take my leave. But at the very least, I gained some valuable information about the local food :)

Also, I did a little research on Irish traditional food and found out about the spiced beef. Well, I also managed to find the spiced beef in the English Market!

I bought the sliced version instead of a big cut of it because I don't know if I would like it, and even if I share it with my friends, I will have to eat the beef slices more than twice this week.

The spiced beef tasted wonderful. The rims are salted in the right amount, and the aroma of the beef bursts in my mouth the moment I chewed it.

It's only been 5 days since I landed on Ireland and I'm already getting used to living here :)

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