Bergen (23 Jan), Part 2

I said bye bye to this magnificent place. wait for the tram down and entered the tourist shop.

Norwegians have strange soveniors.

Finally, the tram came, I wanted to buy a ticket, just to realise that it didnt cost 18Kr, but 35 Kr. 7 Sing dollars to get down is too much. I decide to walk down.

I followed some people and signs, then saw a sign that says "this way to terminal" (downhill), but the path is going upwards. It is really really really turn off to see a downhill sign going upwards. I thought for a while whether I should bash down, cos I saw a faint path. Then an AngMoh in front of me, who was obviously, as disappointed as I am with the f-up sign, took off and bashed down the vegetation. He had no backpack, so he went real fast. I decided to take the same path. If there's any wolves or whatever, they probably eat him first.

Using this army path (more exciting than army really), I reached the bottom, albeit not knowing where I was anymore, because I lost my bearings while bashing down.

Reaching the bottom


I lost my bearings already.

So I took out a Map, but then I decided to just walk Bergen somemore.

I was deciding where to go, when I saw this great old church. Never fails to attract me, such old architecture.

And I walk more..

I was thinking whether I should just start going to all the science center and supposed places of visit. Then I thought that that's not really the way to live and smell and tour Bergen. I mean, living in Singapore, I dont even visit the botanic gardens, zoos, whatever, everyday. That's just not the Singaporean life. I walk to hawker centers and stuff. Im sure, people here dont visit their science center everyday. So I prefer, to see, what the people here see, daily. Hence, I decided to continue, on foot.

Reached the harbour. I guess this was what bergen is famous for, and what ludek mentioned that is nice to sit by.



This is a bad photo. I waited a while till someone came and help me take a photo. And that guy cant speak English, but he can understand. Its quite an old big man. I dont know why his aim is so bad, I was completely not inside the picture the 1st 2 tries. Kudos to him, he was willing to learn and I taught him to aim here and press this button. And I think he did not press the button properly the next 2 tries. Maybe, on the 5th attempt, he got a shot of me, in this penguin post. I wanted a new one, but then, he tried so hard, lets not be too demanding. I said 'yea this is ok'. He looked happy, thumbs up and left (5 attempts. he must be a happy man)

Great Architecture by the harbour. Its suppose to have some heritage meaning, which I dont bother to pay for a guided tour to find out.


I followed the harbor towards the sea. And saw these 2 castle.

I tried getting into these 2 castle, but couldnt really find the way in. Asked a few passer-bys, but they have no idea either. Saw some people going in and coming out of a house beside it and I walked it, stood there for some time, got a few weird stares, only to realise that there was some function going on inside.

So I ended up sitting here, and eating my mat-pakke, its quite a good place to chill, because u still have the harbour view to the left.

When Im done, I walked to a building, and sat on the floor, taking a serious read of my bergen guide finally. I didnt know where else to go and it was 4pm already. Realised that almost every tourist places in bergen closes at 4pm. And most shops in bergen opens at 11pm, closes at 4pm. knn. Damn slack pple. Maybe cos its winter. So here I am, at 4pm, dont know where to go, thinking that I wasted money coming to bergen and that I should meet Peter now. Then I saw that the acquarium (their aquatic zoo), closes at 6pm. Great. Im going there now. And I was told, that if you go to Bergen, you have to visit their acquarium. A little excitment I regained, as I also plan the route for tmr. (I have only 5 hours man). So I stood up, and rmbed that the toursist center says I can take bus 25? to the acquarium from the center. (And I have bergen card! so free bus!). So I asked a few passer-bys, how to get to the tourist center and the bus stop. I asked those at the bus stops, assuming they are better, but astonishingly, no one knows. Then I saw a girl on ear phones walk past, and I asked her. She's smart, she knew that I wasnt that concern about the bus, so she asked "where are u trying to get to?".
Me: "Acquarium"
She: "Well, walk there"
Me: "What?"
She: "Yea, in Bergen everyone walks. Its faster and its not that far, its just on the opposite side of the harbour"
Me (after climbing the mountain, I feel like slacking really). "Ok"
She: "Im walking in that direction, so we can walk together and that I can show u where to turn next"
Me: "Ok, that;s good"
She: "Where are u from?"
Me: "Singapore"
She: "Oh! I've been there. For a short study trip. Im a marine-time engineer, been to your beaches"
Me: "Oh really!. Thats cool, and rare!"
And some other convo..
Then, went we past the ferry
She: "Actually, u can try to take the ferry, across the harbour. Then u're just in front of the acquarium"
Me: "Oh. that's nice. I wonder if my bergen card enables me free ferry rides, I think so."
She: "Well, u can try and ask them, its just here"
Me: "Ok. I'll do just that, so.. good bye!"
She: "Yea. nice meeting u"
So I went to the ferry, asked the ferry person, told her I have bergen card, so she said "I give u discount"
Me: "how much?"
She: "16 Kr"
Me: "Ok, that's alright" (that's like $3.50 sing. its ok)
So I searched my wallet, then I pulled out my bergen card and showed her
She: "Yea, but u have to give me MO-NEY"
Me: "I know that, I just want to show u that I have the card"
She: "I trust you, dont worry"
(Norway pple, everything is a stupid trust system. So easy to abuse)
Me: "Ok, here's ur money"

So I took this picture, on the ferry, to the other side of the harbour.
I reached the harbour. And the ferry lady was nice enough to offer me directions to the acquarium w/o me asking. She said 5 mins walk. But I learnt, in Norway, when whatever time they say you need to get to this place, multiply it by 3. So 15 mins. Saw a great church/cathedral (i dont know whats the diff, but pple here insist there is), and they said acquarium is just behind. I wanted to give up walking, but some passer bys tell me that its just abit more. Abit more and abit more.. they always say. So I walked. And eventually, I reached.

This wasnt in door. This was outdoor. Apparently, the temperature here is just nice for them.

They have some pretty interesting aquatic species, I tried my best to make physical contact.

Inside the acquarium. Reminds of underwater world, but underwater world, is really much better. Sometimes, europe is overrated.


They call this the Norwegian Lobster. Actually its just a hybrid of prawn and lobster. Well, actually its just a prawn with pincers.

Nemo and Dory. Perfect.

This is quite nice.

And this is cool. At least a little creativity.

Why ur one hand so big.

This is prolly the weirdest aqua I ever seen. Its suppose to be dangerous I think. Look how its young congregate at the small corner.
Oh yes, btw, I was also reading on the different creatures. I learnt that there are a few kinds of fish, that has the ability to change its sex. There is one kind, where the female can change to male, if she desires, when there are too many females to males. And some other weird cross-sex stuff.

This acquarium is suppose to be full of dangerous fishes. I was disappointed that I could take a good shot, bcos all of them are stationary or hiding. And I was disappointed that they didnt provide information, on why they are dangerous.

I continued walking, up the stairs, into a very dark place. I didnt know why it was so dark, but I walked and realised that this room is full of crocs in cages. I walked to a cage, it was so dark, but I saw a croc in the water. It wasnt huge. The croc saw me, then it stealthily submerged, and without a sound, drift towards me. I knew it locked me as a target. Although separated by a fence, I felt my hair stand, and heart pound faster. You learn about it on discovery channel, and in movies, how the crocs move towards their prey w/o a sound. But now, I see it live, and I was his target.
Then, it laid motionless beside the fence, 10cm from me. I wondered why it didnt attack me, perhaps it realised we were separated by a fence (then the croc is dumb to realise it now). I cldnt help it, the fear got the better of me. I kicked the fence, and IMMEDIATELY, the croc sprang up from the water, opened its jaws, and tried to bite me. Thankfully, the fence separated us. And there was no camera or security around (Norwegians, can u stop being so damn slack and have some security!)


This shit below, it tried sprang from the water and tried to bite me.

If I hadnt got enough scare already, walking past the below make me go "oofff" and the other visitors looked at me. This is an ANACONDA. Its bloody long. Click on the picture. Enlarge it, see how the coil in the center actually belongs to it. Its full length is unimaginable.

Bloody snakes. My hair still stand seeing these pics. There's more. I shall not post.

HUMONGOUS lizard.


I pity the seal. It lives in a swimming pool. Damn you acquarium, can you give it a more decent habitat.



At night, I visited the pengiuns once more, and they were still there. I was expecting a feeding show to start at 6pm, then I rechecked my booklet, and realised that feeding at 6pm is cancelled in winter. Damn, I have to come back tmr at 12 or 3 pm to catch it.

More of Bergen, to be continued.

Monday. Hospital and Move House.

Today, I went to hospital for check. Doctor suspect it to be worse again, meniscus tear. So decided to send me for MRI, which I need to book the appointment myself cos they don’t have it there. Then went to Kringjsa, and enquire about my missing room. They said they just sent an email and that my room will only be ready by 24^th feb, cos they need to paint it. I wondered if it was really necessary, and that it really takes 3 weeks to paint a room!?. But then again, since it costs the same, I’ll move. And since I have an elevator, a cleaner kitchen, I’ll move. So I said I’ll move.

This is really troublesome, cos now, I may have to change address 3 times. And its worse cos im waiting for my Norwegian ID, my Norwegian Bank Visa Card, and my package from Singapore. What if they mail it to the wrong address?

I went to the post office, to change my address. The guy beside heard me talk then asked “Are you from Singapore?” I said yes. He said “I recognise the accent. I lived there all my life. But Im Norwegian, so now im back”.. I realised how happy it makes me.

Yesterday, the snow was too much, so all the trains and buses weren’t functioning much.

Anw, I went home, and packed my stuff. I thought that I needed someone to carry my huge luggage and that I’ll manage all the smaller ones. So I called Peter. And he was free. He said he could get Anne. I said it wasn’t necessary, but it could be of help (then can faster).

I returned Juling the plate and cup and asked her to help. She was ok with that. Then, Peter and Anne came, came into my room, and Anne wanted to carry my backpack.

Me: I can carry that

She: but its heavy

Me – I just carried the bag.

There were like 5 other smaller bags, so I expected another person or take 2 trips. But Anne said she can carry all of that. I was so surprised.

Me: “Are you sure?”

She: “Yes”

And she did. We walked in the snow. I didn’t take any pictures of them helping me move house, that’s cos I didn’t think of it then, and I was on 2 clutches, and I thought it wasn’t appropriate. Anw, you should have seen Anne, She basically had 5 bags on her shoulder and hands (and its freezing -21 degrees today according to weather forecast). And halfway, my sling bag slided off her shoulder and she was supporting it on her elbow. (I know how heavy it is, it has my laptop and stuff in it).

Me: “Let me do it”

She: “No, you’re the handicap one”

Then she bent down and restored the sling onto her shoulder. In the building, I was going up the 7^th floor, Anne decided to WALK UP THE STAIRS TO THE 7^th FLOOR! CARRYING MY 5 bags!! I am seriously impressed.

Onto my floor, they really really liked my new room, they said it’s so Norwegian and Scandinavian, cos its all wood and wood, and they liked the view the most. They love it actually.

And then they left, Anne decide to walk down the stairs and Peter followed.

After they left, I sat in my room, and I teared a little. Like they were so great. Help me move house. The thing is, I rmbed, Anne initiated to help me move house even b4 I got injured, and Peter wanted to be part of it. I said its ok, but Anne was trying to convince me saying that its quicker that way. And so, it really did happen. I was touched, and I teared, when I recalled the sight of her having 5 bags of my disgusting raw food and unwashed clothes and laptop on her hands and shoulders, and walking up 7 stories with that. And Peter pushing my huge luggage and carrying my shoe bag.

With God’s gentle touch, the one with the worse first impression is now the best. With His loving kindness, I learnt not to judge, even the most snobbish and pretty-looking people.

Dear God, I am so loved, and I have done nothing to deserve this. Thank You for everything.

Sunday.

Mugged, and wrote my first assignment, for the group. At first, I wrote using such complicated grammar and words, that I was sure, non of my group mates would understand what I wrote. So I changed to vocab and words, simpler, for them, for the teacher, and for better grades. (if its too hard to read, i'll surely fetch a bad grade).

I managed to rush the assignment b4 8pm, and watching Man U vs West Ham on the internet (Good!). Then I decided to go to amatoren cos they screen movie there every sunday 8pm, and some friends told me I'd be there. I managed to get out there on just 1 clutch now :). But I was late, like 820pm I reached there, and when I reached there, there was no seat. I saw Matteo nearby, tapped him. He saw me and then I didnt expect him to stand up, and gave up his seat for me. I was expecting more like "is there another seat?" cos I came late, and everywhere is dark and expected him to know where the empty (bad view) seats were. But he was so nice. The movie was GORY. People keep shooting one another, and at the end, the guy chopped his mate into pieces and put it into a machine to dice it into blood. Yucks. And full of foul language and basically, I didnt understand why these europeans find this show funny. Well, there were like some weird indirect jokes which I dont get much of it.

Anyway. Realised that the 4 girls in my floor were there. The german, norwegian, czech and japanese - thus, I realised that they lived here for 6 months already and that I will never be as close to them and join them for activities, which further makes me feel less sad moving house.

After the movie, I went to talk to Valentina, Carmen, Matteo, and a weird asian girl was there. Being Asians, us, we werent that friendly, so we talked in a group and still never introduced. Val and Matt left. Finally, I had enough, so I broke the weirdness and introduced myself. I managed to guess that she's Japanese. Carmen commented: "Yea, Im beginning to see a little difference between Chinese and Japanese"
Which reminds me and I told the Jap girl, Moe (pronounced as mo-e, like wall-e)
that in Singapore, we tell the difference between a China Chinese, Singapore Chinese, and Indonesian Chinese, just by the looks and its quite accurate.
She cldnt believe me. Yes we can. We do look slightly different.
It amaze me how some people think all Chinese come from China and look like that.

Curiously, Mo-e heard about Singlish and wanted to learn. Carmen, never heard of it, and was really curious. It really feels good you see them trying so hard to pronounce words like "Shiok, Kena" etc. Carmen even formed a phrase "Shiok lah!" and asked me "is that correct?"
Yes it is. :).
I pondered upon Why (not how) Singlish was formed. And so I explained to them:
"Well, Singaporeans are lazy speakers. We find English grammar too much. So we like to omit some stuff. Like 'what do you want', we say 'what u want' / 'where are you going', we say 'where u going'. etc. And some words that we form/borrow, is because English doesnt have the word or you need a longer sentence to express it in english. Like "Shiok" - it means something feels so great. "Kena" - means something bad happens to you. You just need to say "I Kena" and everyone knows something bad happened to you."
Carmen: "John, so how many spoken lang can you do?"
Me: "Well. Spoken, if you count dialect, its 3. I can speak a Chinese dialect - teochew"
C: "is it v different from Chinese?"
Me: "the grammar's the same, but the vocab is completely different"
C: "What do you speak with ur friends in Sg? How did you learn those?"
Me: "I speak english w my friends. I actually learn Chinese, Eng, and teochew together. Cos my parents can speak Chinese, my Aunt and Uncles speak english, my grandmother can only speak teochew. I lived with all of them as a kid."
C: "Why?"
Me: "Well, if my history isnt wrong, we gained independence in 1965. So my parents are older than my country. Before independence, they can choose between English or Chinese education. My granny decided that half her children will be english educated and the other half chinese educated. Then after independence, everything starts to become english"
C: "oh. and so, how common is this dialect?"
Me: "I think only the granny generation speaks it"
C: "So its dying?"
Me: "Yea. I realised that. Well and actually, alot of the younger generation dont seem to be able to speak much Chinese too anymore. And some of my friends, they can understand Chinese, but they cant/dont speak it at all"
C: "Yea. I realised that its kinda sad that English is taking over the world and people are starting to abandon their mother lang, but at the same time, its interesting to see different forms of English - like Singlish - forming"

And another part of conversation:
C: " so you can speak Chinese?"
Me: "Yea"
C: "read?"
Me: "well, if u give me a chinese newspaper in Singapore, I have problems reading it." "Well, I stopped learning Chinese at 16. So, haven been reading it. And Chinese is REALLY REALLY HARD"
C and Mo: "YES I KNOW. I learnt that its like the hardest lang"
Me: (wow! impressed! they know)
C: "I have like german friends who gave up studying Chinese"
C: "Yea Chinese is like pictures right?"
Me: "Yea sort of. We dont have like 'a, b, c, d' so if you see a Chinese word that you dont recognise, you cant pronounce it and you wont know it. Not like the european languages that also uses alphabetic script (hence, giving u guys an easier time in learning English as a 2nd lang, compared to the Asian counterparts like Japs/Koreans). Even Japanese and Arabic, they have like strokes that represent 'a, b, c, d, ...' right? And then they form words with the strokes, but it is possible to pronounce/read a word u never seen b4"
Mo-e: Yea, thats Japanese.
Me: Chinese, no. Either you know the word, or you dont. So its really hard to read.

I wanna meet the 2 of you more regularly, to learn/practice german/japanese. Do that.