Tourists and trolls and trills

Touring Bergen March 24 2007 - 10
by thinkbigshrinktofit.

It's been a delightfully busy end to March. Last Saturday I met a blogger, her husband and two of their friends and guided them around Bergen. I had excellent company in all four of them. We ended up on the top of Fløien, where the funicular goes, and there we met some characters. Good use of old trees, I'd say. Say "hi" to the nice troll. Maybe it'll go home with you!

Also say "hi" to the blogger I guided: Emily, an American who is trying to figure out this living in Norway bit. I could go on a bit about that myself, because I remember my own struggles (and I still struggle, sometimes) but by and large, it's a good place to live, and by and large, people are nice anywhere you go. Emily writes well about her experiences (and about her trip to Bergen) and also takes some good pictures.

It is Palm Saturday, going on Palm Sunday, and the beginning of what the Norwegians call "the quiet week", the start of the annoyingly long and boring Easter holiday. Well, it was annoyingly long and boring when I was a kid, because then nothing was open, not even the movie theater. You see, Mondy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are all holidays with everything closed. Now, gas stations, movie theaters and some cafés are open all through "the quiet week". Myself, I have that week off, giving me 10 days straight of no work. I plan on doing some housework to get some stuff to a flea market, getting my balcony ready for flowers and summer, and playing tourist in my own town.

This past week has also had nothing but sunshine, like heaven on earth. Today, I deliberately made an extra walk to buy a latte and ended up in a bit of north wind by the local pond; the wind and sky made the rippling pond a brilliant blue. I was serenaded by a starling in a tree (quite the varied song), and while I sat by the pond, I suddenly realized that the stick poking up from the reeds was an egret (sorry, no pictures, but maybe later). I met a neighbor and he told me the egret lived here and when it got too noisy for it by the pond, would fly up to the mountain behind us. He didn't know where its nest was. So I'm looking forward to seeing this bird some more.

With any luck, the next time I walk, I'll have my camera and I'll be able to capture both starling and egret.