Are You A Real Traveler?

How can you tell a real traveler?


After 23 hours of traveling, 3 flights and five hours of sleep...


The first thing I did upon arriving in Bergen, Norway on July 6th, was drop the suitcase in the room, grab the camera, and go.


I have real affection for Norway. It is beautiful and charming in a European/High Rockies sort of way. The architecture is European and the scenery has the feel of the Rockies, if you are more familiar with America than Norway.


Norway's topography is extremely vertical. Between infamous Norwegian pines gracing quiet hills and strong granite cliffs, there is always something pleasing in the background of pictures.



Often there is serene water in the foreground.


First, my tiny and cute hotel room:





Then the beautiful harbor:








This was a cool fountain in the town center, water started at the highest point and flowed through this little maze.





And a sign, cause I love signs. I need some Gratis Cube Puff.





Bergen on July 6th, after traveling so far, is a time warp. Already you have no idea what time it is, cause your body is on one time and you are physically in another.


Add to it the fact that it never gets dark. They claim the sun sets. But it never gets dark. (It is extremely north.) It twists your mind and becomes completely surreal.


I looked outside my room at 1:30 am. The hotel was on a busy city intersection. Notice the word was. When I retired to my room that evening there were tons of cars going this way and that and people walking in all directions. It was noisy, like a city normally is.


At 1:30am, the view from my window had a completely different feel. With the lush green and warm light, it looked like maybe a mid-summer twilight. In the peace, though, there was a tang of the eerie. The streets were deserted and it was completely, ear ringingly, silent out. It was both beautiful and somewhat out of the aptly named Twilight Zone.


The next day we were in Eidfjord which practically defines picturesque. The Norwegian Fjords, very narrow sea inlets straddled by steep granite mountains, are a must see for the serious scenic traveler. It is cool, even at the peak of summer, but its beauty and the endless day make it an amazing destination.


I should let the pictures do the talking:




Unfortunately the low cloud cover masks the towering high of the mountains.





My home


I just love this picture. Somehow it define serenity.






(Though I don’t know who is jumping into that %$*^# cold water.)





There were ten mountain streams pouring into the fjords everywhere you looked. I took this picture for the guy fishing off the dock.


I see trolls and I just need to get my picture taken with them:





And lastly, modern art. This statue stood at the center of what could barely be called a town (a few restaurants, a market and a gas station). I love her. She might look strange to an American, but her features are definitively Scandinavian. Her brow is bent into a pronounced V. Her eyes are large with full upper lids, and that button nose is a tell tale sign.





This is my friend who is Swedish and female and therefore named Anna, like seemingly all other Swedish women. (She would kill me if she knew I did this.)


But look at her and then at the sculpture.




I think the similarity is striking.


At the moment we are sailing out of Russia and I reminded by the rocking ship that I must get some sleep…