I knew I'd take a hotel in Bergen, one can't sleep inside a hearse in town - not as a single woman at least.....
So I took the very first that crossed my way - the Dreggen right by the Bergenhus, the medieval tower and hall of the former capitol of Norway. The hotel was very nice, the price was off-season and not too high for N - I had a view to the oldest building in Norway - so what more could I desire. I had a decent shower (that's welcome if one sleeps in the car mostly, and I watched norwegian TV, Bergen channel - very funny.

The next afternoon - when I woke up - I'd given up my "cultural plans" and took it easy til the concert would begin, I had a walk around Bryggen, the oldest quarter in Bergen, once hanseatic, it's totally built of wood and tells stories about the hard old days. Nowadays it's home for the most expensive shops and restaurants (surprise...) and some inviting odeurs and sympathetic light try to seduce you at night as you pass by.
I met some friends for an affordable Pizza and then off to the Hulen.

Mayhem at the Hulen

That place was packed! Quite a huge club, various rooms with the good old "down to the ground" ambiance - just THE place to see Mayhem. Support were Hades Almighty, a Bergen band (former Hades). Mayhem were better than in Vienna (at least Maniac didn't announce ..."we're Mayhem from Norway"....well really, we didn't know....), they had some pig-heads on stage and shot fire-works off (which was a bit ridiculous for the sound was so low in there that the blast from the fireworks was much too loud, it was simply too much for that low ceiling, whatever). Of course everybody was there - all of Immortal (I think there was even Demonaz) had 'their' table, some Gorgoroth, Enslaved, Aeturnus etc. and loads of beer - good brew, not expensive, so I'd totter home long after my friends had left. It was great fun there, that's what a BM concert must be like, beer on the floor, great noise and bad air.
On my way I got to know some strange people from the US, they didn't make it to the gig, but they also knew all of the guys (seems that Bergen is a small place...) and so we hung at some bus-stop I don't remember, fights going on around us, people were very aggressive - but most of them were some gangs of arabian youngsters, checking on drugs in the nearby park - so let's stagger on, folks!

Vidden - endless and eternal

A long sleep followed, I was still a bit shaky and weak the following afternoon, but a good coffee brought me back to life. I took the bus + cable-car up to Ulriken to see the fabulous Vidden behind Bergen and the seaside with the many little islands around Bergen. I've often seen that on the web-page, where constantly updated web-cams show you those great sights.
I knew I must see this in reality; but it was much better than I ever imagined: The endless high-plateau with the soft hills, carved by old creeks during the ice-age, full of highland moss, no trees - just the wideness of the landscape - that's great! And as you turn around you are blinded by the glittering sun that reaches the water - a dream! Bergen shrinking to a small bunch of houses, surrounded by many suburbian villages and silvery lakes. I had a forced march up to the highest "pike" here - you want to reach a certain spot by all means but the further you get the more distance is between the two of you....so I got really sweatty and exhausted after all (must have been the beer...), but as I reached the highest spot I had a great view over all the area. That was worth everything.
Fully alone up there I felt like the ruler over the complete surrounding landscape. The soil was soaked by the heavy rains of the last days, it made a characteristic sound as I stepped on the spongy ground - the vegetation must be entirely moss there - just like in Scotland. I found it extremely hard to take the last cable-car back and then leave the town for the next places I had in mind - I get very romantic in such situations - I imagine the ships embarking for Scotland or England, Harald Hårfager and his crew coming back from some trip .... but there were some more things to see in this huge country.....
The ride back in the noble double-decker bus to the tourist-centre in the middle of Bergen lead us through nice residential-areas, beautiful old wooden houses in old-fashioned gardens, a very nice town, unfortunately one does never see this side of Bergen in tourist-folders (maybe that's even better...).

Another officer...

After a last check at the internet-cafe I packed my things and took the car - but the town wouldn't release me easily... as I was about to drive off the hotel, a police-car crossed my way with two cops starring at me as if I was the Messiah himself, slowly passing by. I didn't think of anything evil and drove on, suddenly remarking some blue flashing light behind me. In Austria it's their usual habit of getting you out their way, not so in N - he obviously wanted me to stop the car. Unfortunately (for him) that was right in the middle of the most frequented area at Bryggen, the street was only one narrow track as construction works were going on, much showing-off traffic on that Saturday night... he almost got squeezed by a bus passing us by (he he). But he wanted it right there by all means (maybe he likes it tight) - well he can have it. "....were do you come from?.....OH, really, again?... do you have a licence?....then I said - do you think I'd come all the way from Austria with this car WITHOUT a licence?!?!.....who knows, he meant....(good boy)...the game went on just like in Oslo (I got annoyed by these guys, who knows if it continues like this day in day out). In the end he asked me to blow into the little tube he held into my face (I'd liked to say sth. nasty there - but then it's getting worse....).
Great! The first alcohol control in my life! I didn't drink anything (luckíly) and so the whole cabaret was over ....fahr zur Hölle...fortunately he didn't understand German, or maybe he was longing to finish this procedure, too.

Fantoft by night

One more jewel was near Bergen - Fantoft, the famous stave church once named Fortun - it was finally rebuilt, after being burnt down by some local idiot from Tyrsveien in early June 92. Still used to european standards I thought I'd easily find the church - but I searched for it until late night.
Visiting the black church at night must be great I thought as I drove to the parking space that obiously lead to the desired object. The road was ending there anyway, so I had a closer look and took some steps into the night through a little forrest. As I didn't know what the soil was like - the battery of my pocketlight was down - and how far it really was I returned to the car after a while. A good decision - after some minutes an elderly guy passed by the place with a plastic bag and a pocketlamp (??!) He definately didn't look like a BM kid... five minutes later a red VW Golf passed, going downhill towards the church's area!! So I was lucky I wasn't there - who knows what those guys were exchanging down there..... I guess they were just as irritated by the long black hearse parking by the church as I was by their activities, I decided to take a sleep and look at the story the next day.
Well - that was a good decision anyway, for the next day I realised the alarm-system around the fence of the church (needless to re-thank a certain person) including video-cameras (..!..) heavens - I might have ended up in another check up in Bergen if I'd gone any further last night .....
The church itself is fantastic, huge, depressing, black, strange, odd, and along with the light that day it had a very special morbide charm on me (see the pics again). The great atmosphere was a bit disturbed by some terrible noisy french tourists (where the hell do those come from?!?!) who took tons of useless photos and blabed all kinds of nonsense, heff, how nice and silent it was before...next time I'll go there by night - now I know where to place my steps...

Stories from the past

Continuing the cultural tour I went back to the Bergenhus (the ancient fortress) with the Håkon's Hall and the Rosenkrantz Tower. Unfortunately it's not 100% original, they had to rebuild it as it was half destroyed when a German ammunition boat exploded in 1944 in the harbour right by the tower. All ancient plans were destroyed by earlier fires and so they had to reconstruct the facade according to old paintings....
The formerly classical tower of old Norman style (a "brother" of the White Tower in London) was changed by Mr.Rosenkrantz, Danish Governor of Bergen in the 16th Century, when the Norwegian Kings were long dead and gone, to a tasteless queery something, he even put a cone-hood onto the classical flat pinnacle roof of the Tower, not in the middle, no, just on one side, looks like a wart - simply for himslef to be able to reach the roof without any rain on his perfumed wigs.....not enough, he'd also had all floors changed, rooms were made smaller, additonal staircases built, looking like maggots on the formerly huge, mighty walls; finally the Great Hall of the tower - the favorite place of the Norwegian King, beautiful early gothic before, was rudely cut into pieces, the tipped bow and all esthetically important details were ignored and new floors constructed - right through the architecture of the old building! That tower's really a shame! It should be the marker of Bergen, and it looks classical from the outside (if you don't approach from the wart-side), was very beautiful in the old days, for sure, but this guy totally ruined the building!
I continued to the folk-museum and the Bryggen-Hanseatic museum, very informing - must have been a hard life those days; and I had some consumption-trip in the Jule-hus, were they sell all kinds of norwegian folklore and x-mas-accessoires. One funny incident - as I look at some tinnies for the window (Odin on this eight-hoofed horse) an old american tourist asks me - what's that? Well, that's Odin on his horse. Who? Odin. Don't you know him? No, I know Olav, but who's Odin? (...long live big brothers' education.....)
I bought Odin on his horse (logical...) and some mugs and pens and elks and an ofen-glove in viking-shape (cute) etc etc.they got some good quality items there, nicely done.