I'm sure you've heard about the attacks in Norway. We are staying with Audun's aunt and uncle and cousin in Fana, outside of Bergen. The bomb went off in Oslo almost right after we got on the train out of the airport, and I am amazed that we didn't get stopped somewhere along our journey. We had no idea anything had happened, actually, until Silje picked us up at the train station. We took buses around the city center, which was closed for some other construction reasons, and then made it on our train to Bergen. She had been sure we wouldn't have gotten out of Oslo.
There is constant news coverage on TV and the Norwegian king, who is really respected, just gave a statement to his people. They are so sad and cant believe what happened, especially the young people who were tricked into approaching this guy disguised as a British police officer. We had porridge on the porch tonight with our hosts and they told us what they know and what they learned on the news today. Yesterday they thought maybe 17 kids had been killed. Now it is more than 90, and he pursued them at close range while the police were more than busy with the explosion in Oslo. Like we know, Norway is the country to stay away from violence and not to think extremist thoughts. Its been so interesting to be here and to have conversations with people about what has happened. For a while they thought it was a group of people, perhaps Al Queda, who organized the attacks (planning them for maybe 8 years since we got involved in agriculture and started stockpiling powerful fertilizers to create his bomb(s).
We are in Bergen and spent a lovely slow day exploring Bryggen, Bergen Castle, the Fish Market, and hiking Ulrikken, one of the seven mountains surrounding the city. Our practice with Norwegian (Paul with much more experience than me) has been thwarted a little bit in Bergen, because they pronounce everything very differently. Tomorrow we pack up and drop off our stuff at the Bergen YMCA, where we stay tomorrow night. We are hoping to go to Edvard Grieg's house and hear a concert around lunchtime, and then visit the tourist office for some information about our Monday morning ferry. There is a funicular, too, that will give us a similar view as our hike today. Amand, Audun's cousin, was our tour guide.
We are safe and away from Oslo for now, but we are wondering what the city will be like when we visit next week. It is sad here.
There is constant news coverage on TV and the Norwegian king, who is really respected, just gave a statement to his people. They are so sad and cant believe what happened, especially the young people who were tricked into approaching this guy disguised as a British police officer. We had porridge on the porch tonight with our hosts and they told us what they know and what they learned on the news today. Yesterday they thought maybe 17 kids had been killed. Now it is more than 90, and he pursued them at close range while the police were more than busy with the explosion in Oslo. Like we know, Norway is the country to stay away from violence and not to think extremist thoughts. Its been so interesting to be here and to have conversations with people about what has happened. For a while they thought it was a group of people, perhaps Al Queda, who organized the attacks (planning them for maybe 8 years since we got involved in agriculture and started stockpiling powerful fertilizers to create his bomb(s).
We are in Bergen and spent a lovely slow day exploring Bryggen, Bergen Castle, the Fish Market, and hiking Ulrikken, one of the seven mountains surrounding the city. Our practice with Norwegian (Paul with much more experience than me) has been thwarted a little bit in Bergen, because they pronounce everything very differently. Tomorrow we pack up and drop off our stuff at the Bergen YMCA, where we stay tomorrow night. We are hoping to go to Edvard Grieg's house and hear a concert around lunchtime, and then visit the tourist office for some information about our Monday morning ferry. There is a funicular, too, that will give us a similar view as our hike today. Amand, Audun's cousin, was our tour guide.
We are safe and away from Oslo for now, but we are wondering what the city will be like when we visit next week. It is sad here.
