The good life...

Ah, the weekend in Bergen, with Ellen Marie and Carl Phillip and Co. Glorious.

Friday. May Day. It is a proper holiday here, time off work, parades, flags everywhere. Ellen Marie wanted to walk in the local parade, which is as simple as finding a sign to get behind. We joined up as they were beginning after we had a walk in the very charming neighborhood of Nunez (sp?), which is probably very expensive, but then again, so is all of Norway.
I peeled off to walk about town on my own and do a bit of writing. After the parade, we got a soft ice cream - I was told I could have strawberry and chocolate, so asked for both - and what I got was vanilla soft-serve rolled in this weird strawberry candy and cocoa. It was very bizarre, but fun enough to try.
Carl Phillip hosted a board game party at his house, so we made our way back and he had made us all a lovely veggie soup for dinner, then right into socializing and games. I was a bit low on energy and did not make much effort to start conversation, so most of it was held in Norwegian, and I slid out of the scene after the first game (Elfenland), a long one since we were all working on the rules as we went. Despite my self-exclusion, it was a fun time and I was feeling everyone's good vibes, though I was disappointed we never got around to Twister :(

Saturday, meant to go for a full-day hike, but the weather did not cooperate, so we wandered town again and went to the Hanseatic museum at Bryggen. It was quite interesting - huge, sturdy wooden houses with high ceilings and very heavy door-latches built by German traders who set up office here in Bergen for hundreds of years, back in the day. We wound up doing a bit of shopping, which made EM quite happy. Among the treasures, she bought the game Carcassonne at this game shop that was having some kind of costume contest and giving away free comic books. I appreciated the Lara Croft look the most, perhaps, but the whole scene was lively and interesting. Groceries (oh god, the cost of food!) and home to make pizza for dinner. Yes! We read the rules to the game before crashing asleep on the table and giving up on the day.

Sunday and the morning weather was just fine, indeed. Over breakfast, we discussed this article, which Nick linked to me and I thought important to share with EM because we have a continuing theme about positivity in American culture vs. other nations (Norway, Russia, and Ireland, for instance): http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/09-04-15.html#feature
Another late start to the morning and we decided on a relatively short hike up Lovostakken (sp?) which is perhaps the prettiest little urban mountain ever. It was a very good hike with amazing views and a good sense of distance from the city below. We had fishcakes for lunch (special Norway diet exception) in the shelter of a friendly boulder. The cakes came form Sostren Agelene, sister restaurant to Madame Bergen, which are local institutions, but were bought by a large company some while back which has now found itself in a bit of a pickle and has announced it will close both. People are unhappy about this. After an adventurous descent, back to town for ice cream, proper gelato for me this time, and then home to rest, study, dance in the kitchen a bit and make pizza again, as it just struck our fancy. And was just delicious again. This time we got in a round of Carcassonne, and it was quite fun. Such a good day, such a lovely weekend. Mellow, melancholy, leave-tomorrow kind of mood to the evening, lightened for a moment by CP sharing a video of Michael Jackson-inspired dance performance for a high school talent show. Quite impressive. Hilarious. But impressive. Had to reprimand him for not busting out the dance a little more while I've been here.

Sharing time! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofd-SzGweTo&feature=related