Holidays with friends!
Julien and me decided to visit Damien in Bergen, Norway, before he would go back home in the beginning of June... and we are all glad we did it!
Bergen is the 2nd city of Norway with 265,600 people, on the west coast of the country (5,009,150 people) . It usually rains all the time but we got so lucky, we spent 7days under a beautiful blue sky and 25 degrees temperature!
The currency of the country is the Norwegian Krone (NOK) and is more or less the equivalent of the old French "Franc" before we switched to Euro... Except that it's norWAY too expensive!
Being one of the rare countries with no debt and owning a lot of oil thanks to the northern sea, the life Standards here are way higher than anywhere else.
Alcohol is also controlled by the government and very expensive. You can only buy alcohol in one Store Chain, Vinmonopolets, and very expensive. All the taxes are, fortunately, for the government and not private!
Otherwise people are Healthy, in a very good physical shape (running mountains up and down without spiting their lungs hehe), and they seems to enjoy themselves a lot due to their high level of life.
In Fantoft, the Residence where Damien was living for the last year, the Japanese Cherry Trees were blooming. Most of the people living there are foreigners Erasmus student coming from all over the world. Interesting mix of culture! It's always full of life and energy!
When the sun shines in the country (20 days out of 365... haha), people try to enjoy it a Maximum and go tanning in any little park or green areas in the city! This is quiet amazing and funny to watch... (The attitude of fit boys and girls showing off half naked is quiet hilarious!) They take there one time BBQ and spend all day having fun in the grass...
Sadly, once everybody's gone, you can only find a huge amount of rubbish everywhere, with these Aluminium bbqs, plastics and wastes everywhere... Not so ecological and clever for a country controlled by rules and so developed...
The Architecture of the buildings, houses and church are very interesting and nicely designed. Straight lines and clear but still pretty cool! There are also a lot of colors everywhere, which has a huge and benefit effect on the mood (specially if it rains most of the time, otherwise it would be grey, black and white and depressing!... like Paris in rainy days!)
even the sea gulls look good here!
We also noticed the presence of a lot of flags hanging a bit everywhere, which is actually quiet good to be a bit patriotic, not like us in France where if you hang a Flag out your windows, you are considered as a racist and part of the Extreme Right FN! (I guess that something we should change quickly and start reconsidering...)
A nice little hike on one of the 7 Mountains surrounding Bergen... it gives us a very nice point of view on all the bay, and perfect spot for a Sunset! Very very enjoyable! :)
Just a little Street Art graph for Florent ;)
Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords. That's why we decided to rent a car for a day and went to visit these beautiful lands.
Again, everything has a price, any road you drive on got automatic tolls, any parking is taxed, and the gas is 14NOK per liter!
When we went back home and parked the car down Damien's residence, we stopped 1hour to eat something and rest a bit to go back to town to drop the car... we got a fee of 700NOK!!! (equivalent of 100Euros) which make absolutely NO SENSE for a parking fee! I personally think it is a shame, specially for students... that's why we decided not to pay it! ;)
Norway is a beautiful country, but a very little people can afford to visit it...
Julien and me decided to visit Damien in Bergen, Norway, before he would go back home in the beginning of June... and we are all glad we did it!
Bergen is the 2nd city of Norway with 265,600 people, on the west coast of the country (5,009,150 people) . It usually rains all the time but we got so lucky, we spent 7days under a beautiful blue sky and 25 degrees temperature!
The currency of the country is the Norwegian Krone (NOK) and is more or less the equivalent of the old French "Franc" before we switched to Euro... Except that it's norWAY too expensive!
Being one of the rare countries with no debt and owning a lot of oil thanks to the northern sea, the life Standards here are way higher than anywhere else.
Alcohol is also controlled by the government and very expensive. You can only buy alcohol in one Store Chain, Vinmonopolets, and very expensive. All the taxes are, fortunately, for the government and not private!
Otherwise people are Healthy, in a very good physical shape (running mountains up and down without spiting their lungs hehe), and they seems to enjoy themselves a lot due to their high level of life.
In Fantoft, the Residence where Damien was living for the last year, the Japanese Cherry Trees were blooming. Most of the people living there are foreigners Erasmus student coming from all over the world. Interesting mix of culture! It's always full of life and energy!
When the sun shines in the country (20 days out of 365... haha), people try to enjoy it a Maximum and go tanning in any little park or green areas in the city! This is quiet amazing and funny to watch... (The attitude of fit boys and girls showing off half naked is quiet hilarious!) They take there one time BBQ and spend all day having fun in the grass...
Sadly, once everybody's gone, you can only find a huge amount of rubbish everywhere, with these Aluminium bbqs, plastics and wastes everywhere... Not so ecological and clever for a country controlled by rules and so developed...
The Architecture of the buildings, houses and church are very interesting and nicely designed. Straight lines and clear but still pretty cool! There are also a lot of colors everywhere, which has a huge and benefit effect on the mood (specially if it rains most of the time, otherwise it would be grey, black and white and depressing!... like Paris in rainy days!)
even the sea gulls look good here!
We also noticed the presence of a lot of flags hanging a bit everywhere, which is actually quiet good to be a bit patriotic, not like us in France where if you hang a Flag out your windows, you are considered as a racist and part of the Extreme Right FN! (I guess that something we should change quickly and start reconsidering...)
A nice little hike on one of the 7 Mountains surrounding Bergen... it gives us a very nice point of view on all the bay, and perfect spot for a Sunset! Very very enjoyable! :)
Just a little Street Art graph for Florent ;)
Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords. That's why we decided to rent a car for a day and went to visit these beautiful lands.
Again, everything has a price, any road you drive on got automatic tolls, any parking is taxed, and the gas is 14NOK per liter!
When we went back home and parked the car down Damien's residence, we stopped 1hour to eat something and rest a bit to go back to town to drop the car... we got a fee of 700NOK!!! (equivalent of 100Euros) which make absolutely NO SENSE for a parking fee! I personally think it is a shame, specially for students... that's why we decided not to pay it! ;)
Norway is a beautiful country, but a very little people can afford to visit it...
