Day 10 part 2. Rest Day. Bergen revisited.
Now free of most of our bags we decided to go sightseeing in Bergen again. Last year we had explored the Fløiban and Gamlebyen area so we wanted to see other things this time. We also wanted to drop by the Aetat (now renamed to NAV) to try and gauge how the job market was. So we wandered up and away from the fishmarket end of town and headed up towards a large caricature sculpture of Ibsen. The flowers were in bloom and to be in a place with ups and downs was great.
This was the first time that we had been out and about in Bergen on a weekday. We discovered a bar that made us think of Damae's father Oscar. Not far away yet another church and another 'Godt Brød' Bakery. Between the modern office blocks traditional buildings are still to be found and views of hills are all around. Amongst the restrained street decor of Bergen we came across this splash of colour and anarchy.
The town was bustling with people going about their business. Wandering round a commercial district we found the Aetat office and mooched around for a while. Damae finally managed to speak to someone about where jobs for musicians could be found, and some background information about teaching. We also saw again how much emphasis the Norwegian government places on language skills.
Not far away was the functional design museum, which was housed in a lovely building looking out on a square with flowers and grass. We wandered in and spent an hour or so looking around. The museum had less contemporary design exhibits than say the Red Dot in Essen but we did find a room of 'modern' classics (which included the computer chair I use at home made by Stokke. Cool!). The museum had a nice cafe bar on the ground floor so we sampled the cafe lattes and had some cake I think.
Back outside the sunlight was blinding, and we stopped for a couple of seconds deciding what to do next. We wanted to head up to the B&B towards tea time and we needed some groceries for the next couple of days. With a little time to kill we wandered back down to the tourist strip and found an Adecco branch overlooking the harbour. We went inside and a nice secretary answered the questions we had. As with the lady at the Aetat the people at Adecco stressed the need for Norwegian language skills. Our short course had left us with the basics but we needed a lot more practice to make our language usable.
Back out into the sunshine we wandered up into an area of Bergen close by nestling in the hill. Here there were lots of older timber buildings, separated by narrow alleys where no car could go. It was a surprisingly picturesque area, one that we had missed the first time. Our thoughts turned to the practicalities of living here such as moving house and where you could park a car. Maybe we just have to move here one day and find out the hard way.