Tuesday 21 August 2012

A room with a view

Well, the photo above shows you exactly what I see when I look out of my window. A window I can't even open, even though I am only on the first floor (second floor for all you oversea people). But it doesn't really matter: I am not planning on spending too much time in my room. I am not too far from the old center (Bryggen) or the old Fishmarket. Not even a five minute walk I would say.

Anyway, I arrived on time and it was really easy to make my way from the airport to the center of town. I left the airport and hopped on the very first bus: ten meters away from the door! It dropped me off at the fishmarket from where I had to walk. Unfortunately I had misunderstood slightly, so in the end I ended up asking. At the hotel they misunderstood my last name and it took some time to actually figure out what he wanted, especially since I didn't want to speak English!

Speaking of English: this Norwegian lark is going to be a bit tougher than I originally thought. I have learnt the language of Oslo and am now in Bergen. They speak, sound and write completely different here! Help!! Why does a country with such a small population need two languages and a gazillion dialects? To confuse well-willing tourists?

Ah well, I will get used to it, hopefully by Friday, because that day (drum roll please) I have an interview!!!! It was hard to understand what the woman on the other end of the line said exactly, especially with the background noise of Amsterdam Airport. But I do have an interview Friday morning. Phew...

Now I just have to get this Norwegian down!

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like Britain with all sorts of accents within such a small region. Of course, it's because various locations were relatively isolated from one another and so developed their own speech patterns. Most of us say "anyway" for example, but in Yorkshire, they seem to say "anyroad."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know just where you are, Mar, when we visited Bergen a year or two ago we stayed in one of the hotels not far away from the fish market -- and I paid $4.00 for a measley cup of tea -- a tea bag and cup of hot water! But it's a beautiful place.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad you made it. Yes that certainly is not a view. Seems kinds silly to have different languages, sorry about that! Hope your enjoy your stay.

    ReplyDelete

Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!