Typical Bergen Weather

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For 's "Show Us Your Home" photo contest.

Okay, so Bergen technically isn't my hometown. My hometown is over in Canada on the other side of the Atlantic, but my current home, as in 'place where I live', is Bergen, Norway. My dad's family lived here when he was in his teens. I have dual citizenship between Canada and Norway, so I decided to live over here for a few years, in my ancestral homeland if you will, because I can.

This here is Bryggen, the historic part of the city and UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. To the far left and right you can see some of the more modern parts of the city, as well as a little bit of the harbour, and behind it all is Fløyen, one of the Seven Mountains of Bergen. Ulriken, the tallest of the Seven, is hidden by the fog and clouds at the right side of the photo. This weather is pretty typical for the city. (My dad loves to tell me about the one summer where there was a grand total of three days without rain.) My grandfather worked awhile in the stone building with the green copper roof over to the far left. Beyond that you can see a bit of the old military fort, Bergenhus Festning.

Either about a half-hour's walking or a much faster ride on the Fløibanen funicular (you can juuust about make out the tracks for it leading to/from the building at the far right of Fløyen), and you're up on top of Fløyen, and from there it's easy access to a whole lot of hiking/skiing trails crisscrossing all over the mountain plateau not visible from here. Pity this and the past winter have been crap for snow. I wanna use my skis, dammit. It doesn't take long to get out of view of the city, to the point where it almost feels like you're the only person on the planet. I love that about this city. The country as a whole, really. No matter where you are, there is easy access (read: escape) to the wilderness, and we have Right to Roam, meaning you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you please once you're out there.

Here's what it all looks like as seen from Ulriken, by the way: [link]

There are flags everywhere and people dressed in traditional bunad garb because this was taken on May 17, Norway's constitution day. Everybody in every city and town and hamlet goes out to their local celebration, but no one knows how to party quite like Bergen.

Especially come summer. Nothing says "party" quite like setting shit on fire. It's that Viking blood.

I love it here.