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07 july 2005

the few and far between

the days have been tremendously long in scandanavia; since copenhagen my internal clock has been thrown off by the long light days. here in bergen, there's a late afternoon light still at 2200; it's very easy to lose track of time. in fact, i've lost it entirely. in the mornings, the brightness begins at approximately 0430 and has been waking me up, my body programmed to respond to morning light. now that morning light kicks in at 0430, however, i'd like to reset the program; i've tried unsuccessfully at the moment when my conciousness takes control from autopilot at 0430. the system has locked me out. the shades in most hostels don't block much light, unfortunately; i think i'll be reduced to wearing those disturbing traveler eye shades. a reduction. on the first morning of my stay in copenhagen, the top tier of terror was positioned perfectly (designed by some malicious morning person no doubt; blah, morning people) so that the sunlight hit one end of the bed in early morning. the first night i slept with my head on that end and was awakened the next morning not by the light strangely enough but by the sensation of my skin burning; i was shocked awake burning and sweating. better my feet than my face the next two mornings. here in bergen, my bed was again positioned by a window and this morning the sunlight woke me up yet again. i looked outside and it looked like i was going to experience one of the few and far between sunny days in bergen.

i spent most of the day outside exploring the areas that i'd already explored in the rain the day before. the bryggen area is a popular german tourist destination; i saw and heard hordes of germans.

a funicular [funicular; interesting word] up the side of the mountain near the center of town. not for me, i'd make my way up under my own power. back and forth upward to the beautiful views of bergen, finally to the top. some delicious ice cream. back down into town, i waited for _five_ hours for a bird to fly directly over the spot i'd just been so that i could properly point out the area. wow, what a tremendous waste of time. no, not really, but the bird does make a nice pointer. not quite a bird, a pigeon, plague of the city.

while walking around, i noticed that all bergen parks were packed with people young and old sunning themselves on this few and far between.

hungry, i stopped by the supermarket near the hostel and picked up some more lettuce and tomatoes. i needed another delicious salad; giant salad cravings, take advantage of the kitchens. back at the hostel around 4pm. i really wanted to get back outside to the nice weather but i still had travel plans to make and so again i jumped on my computer and started digging through the websites for the hurtigruten, the buses, and hostels. hours, really.

in my research, i learned that the hurtigruten ships stop in geiranger on the northbound journey in the summer. samuel had told me that the geiranger fjord is one of the most beautiful; a 'textbook' fjord from something i read later. i spent much time investigating the north cape area (the northermost tip of norway (and of europe for that matter))... transportation and accomodation options and costs. after much deliberating, i decided to take the hurtigruten from bergen to tromso up the norwegian coast, passing through the geiranger fjord, past trondheim (my flight destination), into the arctic circle, through the lofoten islands (for more incredible scenery), finally to tromso, where the sun never sets. i figured i hadn't had enough sunlight in my life lately; why not completely destroy my sleep schedule with a nice midnight sunlit walk. i didn't think the opportunity would present itself again anytime soon; exploit my location. i'd stay in tromso for three nights and then work my way south and spend some time in the lofoten islands. this new plan of course meant that i wouldn't be using the plane ticket i'd booked to trondheim the night before; wasted money, but i was beyond excited about my new plans. my spontaneous norwegian adventure; from not at all to several weeks, the benefits of traveling without constraints and predetermined schedules. internet booking for the ship leaving tomorrow had closed, so i booked the saturday departure and then a hostel in tromso. this would put me in bergen an extra day; no problem, i'd use it to prepare for my journey at sea. booked another night at the hostel.

posted by paul on thu 07 jul 2005 at 00:00:00 est (-05:00)

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