The Briny Braggarts of Bergen's Bryggen

Jet lag has few advantages, but one of the few is the opportunity to experience a new place very early in the morning.

Bergen is Norway's second largest city (a bit over 200k people) but most of the parts that you would want to see are centered around the harbor. It is, and has always been, a maritime town--a mountain-coddled hamlet with saltwater blood.

So, I made my way down to the wharf in gray sky half-light. The streets were emptied, and there was no noise. Coming from NYC, I am used to a cacophony of horns and hordes--so this was a welcome counterweight to my usual routine. My music teacher in grade school taught me that no matter how quiet it is, you can always find at least 3 sounds. I counted the sounds in my head: #1. water playing against the hulls of boats. #2. the screech of a gull. #3. the synopated ping of ropes against a flagpole. well played, miss abernathy. you have yet to be proven wrong on that front.

I walked around the harbor to the Bryggen on the other side. The Bryggen is an historic wharf district in Bergen listed among UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. It has been around in various iterations since the Middle Ages. The reasons for its multiple lives? Fire. Given that it has always been built of sturdy wood planks (as most of Norway seems to be), it has repeatedly been destroyed by fire.

The area is essentially a little village of commerce--multi-colored gabled structures, many still showing the cranes that once hauled in fish from the many boats in the harbor. This was always the heart of Bergen, where generations of fisherman and merchants plied their trade for centuries. I walked in the alleys of the Bryggen, which was nearly deserted, and tried to imagine what life was like. I imagine life smelled like fish and sounded like a bunch of sea-worn dudes boasting about all the fish they caught.

I should have pictures up soon--you can see that many of the structures are still on a slant. This was from the explosion of a Dutch munitions boat in the harbor, blowing the roofs off and knocking the foundations askew. It's pretty cool.