An evening stroll

This evening I decided to brave the cold and go into town for the opening of Pepperkakebyen (the gingerbread town). I arrived really early, and no one else was there yet, so I decided to catch the furnicular up one of Bergen's mountains to see if I could take some decent photographs of Bergen by night.

It was freezing on top of that mountain. To be exact, it was -12. I hope you appreciate the photos, because I wasn't sure at the time if my ears were going to survive the experience!

After I'd taken my photos, oohed and ahhed a bit about the view and hidden in the gift shop long enough for my fingers to thaw out a bit, I trotted back down again to see if any progress had been made on the gingerbread town front.

I timed it just perfectly, arriving just as the honourary mayor of the gingerbread town (she had a mayor's chain thing made of gingerbread, it was well cool) was giving her speech and cutting the ribbon. It was quite a big event for a lot of people, because last year a couple drunk guys managed to get in and smash it to pieces the night before it was supposed to open. But this year, security had been increased tenfold, so everything was perfect.

This is a song from a Norwegian children's book which has been stuck in my head for weeks, so I was very happy that they had hung it up outside

They let us in for free, I think because we'd hung out and listened to the speeches and stuff, and it was the sweetest thing ever (excuse the almost-pun). There weren't just gingerbread houses, there were gingerbread churches, castles, bridges, buses, boats, planes, oil rigs, lighthouses etc. It was incredible. Most of the contributions seemed to come from nuseries and companies who'd made gingerbread versions of their own buildings and things.

I was admiring a particularly handsome gingerbread harbour when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned round and blinked in confusion as a reporter from NRK (Norwegian equivalent of the BBC) asked me what I thought of the town, and then waved his microphone in my face. Argh.

Yes, it's a gingerbread oil rig


Gingerbread ship with a gingerbread lighthouse behind


Gingerbread fairground ride

I trotted round a couple times, leaving soon after the incident with the reporter. I was feeling decidedly Christmassy, which is wrong really considering it's still November, so I thought I'd go and take a photo of some of the street lights as well:

Tomorrow they're having some sort of big Christmas lights party in the town centre, and I have it from a reliable source that they're giving out flame torches and stuff. I like fire a bit too much...