Observations
Bergen Experience
0Monday, 13th July, 2009
Bergen is a small city with a big tourist information center and quite a few Indian restaurants (compared to other european cities – and being Indians we found it to be very interesting). Having said that we loved our time in Bergen with some really beautiful weather (including a nice sunset) on one of the days. We saw glimpses of Amsterdam in Bergen – specifically around the harbour front. View from Mt. Floyen was great and the hikes around it were great.
What we found really interesting was the Stave Church hidden away from the city center. That’s the original form of Norwegian churches and it ressembled so much like a buddhist or chinese temple. Made us wonder whether they were just converted to christianity 1000 odd years ago.
Being a vegetarian food for me was largely Italian (and I do thank Italians for internationalizing their food) but my wife did enjoy some really good local fish.
Oslo Observations
0Saturday, 11th July, 2009
Yesterday we started our vacation in Nordics and landed in Oslo after a long journey via London. I was pleasantly surprised to see a very friendly immigration officer at the point of entry. She was visible thrilled when she found out that we were travelling from Hong Kong as she was making a journey to HK the very next day.
Oslo was gray and drizzling. Our hotel was centrally located and we managed to get our after relaxing for a couple of hours. Oslo’s old town is very small and in no time we walked the entire area. People are friendly and relaxed (compared to their western european neighbours).
We observed a couple of amusing things:
1. Like many other European cities Oslo also has beggers dressed up in historic costumes and standing in the middle of high streets. For the first time we spotted two begger dressed up as Micky Mouse. I wonder whether they’re building brand equity for disney or destroying it 
2. Most retail stores were running ‘SALG’ – a term for Sale or Reduced Prices. Some of them actually stripped off the shop window mannequins to communicate reduced prices…
Sun god finally decided to smile on us and we managed to take some bright pictures of Oslo. Hopefully the weather will continue to be bright during next two week.