Norway

Landing in Norway in the early October evening found us tired, probably cranky and expecting cold and needle sharp hostile rain pelting us, as we’d been advised was the most likely scenario. Instead we found our welcoming host Linn to be warm and funny and along with this pleasant Norwegian introduction, we had a surprisingly pleasant breezy sundown walk to get settled into our hotel.

The next day we had no early agenda so after sleeping off some jet lag we walked aimlessly through the streets of Bergen and it unfolded in a storybook sort of way: cobblestone streets in front of heavily flowered [even in October!] shrubs winding through cul-de-sacs of charmingly angled homes on either narrow side. There were miniature unexpected playgrounds every so often with old fashioned fairytale-ish metal-spring-powered-base bobbing animal toys that children and very small adults sit on to wobble back and forth. Later this first evening we went to a restaurant that was dark wood and had a rustic masculine Viking vibe with long communal wood tables and a fireplace roaring in the corner.

The second evening we scrambled over the cobblestones to the harbor from our hotel having somehow gotten the time wrong that we were supposed to meet the boat, which was the only way to get to the restaurant called Cornelius. OOPS.

But we did make it!

The boat ride away from Bergen to Cornelius, a small seafood forward restaurant that is cut into the side of a hill on an island was pretty smooth and it was warm enough for us to stand on the outside deck watching the Norwegian flag flapping in the windy wake as we cut through the waves. When we reached the restaurant and disembarked, we were greeted by the main scallop fisherman and owner who went into great detail for a long. Long. And I cannot stress this enough…LONG story-speech about scallop fishing right in the water beside Cornelius and the family history of this restaurant as it relates to the sea life that has long supported a historic and important fishing enterprise.

Don’t get me wrong, what he said was pretty interesting at first and though I forget most of the minute details of it, I do remember that he veered into some salacious/sexist personal tales for a bit too long and did a smidge of tangent rambling. So while his stories were initially charming, it was a relief when they ended. Also, I was kind of focused on sipping the wine given to me as I got off the boat and using the full power of my concentration on staring into the open enormous tank of scallops sitting on the restaurant dock, having just been fished from the sea an hour or so ago. So it was not easy to remain focused on his many words.

The scallops were teaching me more intriguing things! I had no idea that scallops were so mobile.

I watched one, then another and another scallop create this motility by slamming their two shells together and propelling themself backward through the briny waters. It is so fascinating to witness - at least for me it is, having never seen this before. To a native Norwegian though its probably akin to watching a pigeon bob around a park bench searching for crumbs, Norwegians likely see scallops clap-swimming all the damn time.

Another thing that captured my fascination at this restaurant that is cut into a Norwegian hillside?

One wall of this place is NOT AT ALL A WALL. It’s a giant slab of rock, belonging to the actual side of the hill that the restaurant was built around and carved into. Various minerals infuse themselves with the groundwater and sea water and cascade down this rock wall in shades of ochre, red, deepest greens and golds making it an ever changing abstract art piece. It is incredible to sit in the chairs lined with chestnut brown cozy woolen sheep pelt and stare at this wall to the one side and then to look to the opposite side to the vast sea. I wrapped that curly pelt around myself all snug and watched this ever changing artwork on the wall next to us. What incredible times this world can deliver!