Key West Butterfly Conservatory

Inside the Conservatory

Road to the Harry Truman Little White House Presidential Museum




Warm and very humid here today. I held a $255,000 emerald from the Mel Fisher store today. Also held a $35,000 gold coin. both are from a 1700's ship wreck.

Donated blood this afternoon following lunch. Got a free movie ticket and a free Key West t-shirt.

A few from the Keys

It would sure be nice to never have to work again . . .

Back in the oven we call Central Texas

Well, I'm back at home after travelling for around 21 hours. Not much happened the last two days in Bergen. On Tuesday, my last night, I went to a highly recommended restaurant and had a reindeer fillet. It was fantastic.

But in the end, it was time to leave the cobblestone streets, rain, waterfalls and fjords behind and return home to Austin. I almost had a heat stroke at 10pm when I got off the plane. It will definitely take a few days to readjust to the 100+ temperatures.

Sunday and back in Bergen

So I finished out the day in Stavanger yesterday and moved from the hostel to a Best Western by the harbor (thank you Michelle for looking up the address so I could actually find it after walking for 20 minutes with no luck). It was a small but comfortable room. I couldn't figure out how to work the elevator - or the light switches in the room for that matter. Who knew you had to plug your room key in the wall and leave it there for the lights to work?

I took the ferry from Stavanger back to Bergen this afternoon and am back at my original hostel. For those of you that have been reading since the beginning, you know that means no more photos. But then again, you've alerady seen Bergen.

Tonight there is a summer concert in the 700-year-old church down the street. There's nothing else to do on Sundays, so I guess I'll be there.

I'll spend the next couple of days shopping for stuff to ship back. Fish balls for all!

Saturday - Just a day in the town

Haven't done too much today. It's been raining off and on, so I have stayed fairly close to town.

The wind from the storms has brought out the sailboats in the main harbor area.


I stopped in the National Petroleum Museum. This is the drill control room from an offshore drilling rig. They had a lot of interactive displays. I could control some of the drilling rig parts from these panels.


I also went in some of the local shops. This is a photo from a gourmet food store. All of the bottles on the wall are various types of olive oils. Prices range from around $25 to $250 a bottle.

So here's what money can buy you in Norway . . .

Ride the local bus one direction - $4.00
1/2 liter Pepsi - $4.50
Movie Ticket - $18.70
Burger King Meal - $16.00
Average sit down lunch in a pub (Burger, fries, etc.) - $25.50
Pint of beer to go with lunch - $13.50
A pound of bacon in the store - $22.87
Reindeer fur - $119.00
Dale of Norway sweater - $238.00
Solid brass oil lantern for a boat - $408.00

Wage for a college student washing dishes part time - 120 kroner/hour = $20.40/hour

Not a cheap place to visit, but I guess if you work here it all evens out in the end.

Friday - The trip to Stavanger

I took a 4 1/2 hour boat ride to Stavanger Friday morning. the boat was a lot like the one from Flåm. We made several stops along the way, including one in Balestrand. The Balestrand port was full of wooden sailboats.

Balestrand Port



Market (or Torget) area of Stavanger



The old cathedral in downtown Stavanger. It has been around for 900 years and has been in use the entire time. The inside has elaborate wood carvings and old stone objects (like a holy water basin) that are hundreds of years old and very ornate.

I tried of couple of new foods yesterday, Romegrøt and Risengrøt. Romegrøt was rome-grøss. It's a sour cream porridge that is very thick and nasty. I tried making it once before and thought I made it wong. Apparently not, the real stuff is just as bad. Risengrøt on the other had is Risen-gøød. It's a rice prrodge that is sweet and served with melted butter and sugar on top. It's a lot like rice pudding.

I also tried the bacon-in-a-tube (Bacon Ost) on some bread. It's pretty good. I think it's like a cream cheese that has bacon in it. I also like Snøfrisk, a creamy goat cheese that is like regular cream cheese.

Tonight I'll be cooking fiskekake.



I went to the movies last night to watch Inglorious Basterds. It was a pretty good film. They have assigned seats in the theater, which was something new. We were told that American movies are in English, with Norge subtitles. They were right, other than the fact that a third of the movie is in French and German - and the Norge subtitles replaced the normal English subtitles. I was able to pick out just enough between the three languages to make sense of what was being said.
A little blurry, but the theaters are pretty nice.


It was raining very hard first thing this morning, but appears to have cleared up, so I'm headed out to visit some museums today.

Flåm and boat back to Bergen - Thursday

I took a short fjord cruise in the morning to get a better view of the area around Flåm and the fjord.

This lookout point is way up a mountain from the town of Aurland. I thought the bus driver was going to kill us on the winding one-lane road up the side of the cliff. He was sure he had the right of way up and down and the oncoming traffic could just back up or he would push them out of the way.


Inside Vangen Kyrkje, a church built in 1202 in the town of Aurland. It amazes me that it is still here and used 800 years later.


The town of Aurland from on top of the mountain.


I boarded an expressboat from Flåm to Bergen at 3pm. The trip took about 5 hours and went the entire length of the Sognefjord (where Flåm is located) and then out into the ocean.


The expressboats are really nice. They have full service concessions and a great viewing deck on the roof.


One of the towns we passed in Sognefjord.

I got into Bergen and it was raining - again. Stayed just long enough to sleep and catch a boat to Stavenger this morning (Friday). It was a 4 1/2 hour trip. The weather here is great. No rain or clouds.