Norway? Well, it's hot and sunny in summer.

Or so I told my lovely wife.

This turned out not to be the case. Although it had been the previous week, all we got was rain the first week in Bergen. We made the best of it anyways.

Most of Sunday and Monday were write offs. Sunday we'd been so exhausted after travel that it was all sleep. Monday was much the same.

We did have a mission on Monday we wanted to take care of though. Sim cards for our phones. To be able to use our own phones would just be so damn handy while we were in Norway that it became our first priority. It was easy enough (in theory). We just stopped by a shop in sentrum, picked up cards, popped them in... and off we go.

Unfortunely for some reason, simple is never simple enough. We got the cards, no problem. Popped one into Beth's phone. It worked. Popped one into my phone? Not so much.

On the day we bought our iPhone4's... Mine had camera issues and I had to take it back to the Apple Store and get a replacement. Unfortunately, we think that the guy who replaced my phone gave me one locked to Rogers instead of the unlocked I had paid for. When you're in a foreign country and testing this, very little can be done. Rogers official response was "We don't care." Apple had no response. So, one working phone was better than none at any rate.

The first person we ended up seeing in town was my cousin Helge and his wife Tove. As always, it was great to see them. Helge and I have had some great adventures in the past and are quite close.

The pure amount of smokers in Bergen amazes me. People constantly have a cigarette between their lips. It's hard to comprehend how an otherwise healthy people can have such a common unhealthy habit. I remember the first time I was here people could still smoke in malls etc. Now it's all outside, so at least there's that. The amount of money people must spend on them here though is insane.

Tuesday night we took a trip out to dinner in Arna with my Grandmother's sister's family. Arna is an 8 minute train ride from Bergen Central Station. A quick shot under one of the seven mountains.

Again, they are all wonderful people and I've felt a strong connection to them since the first time I was here. We had a good visit and then hopped the train back under the mountain to Bergen.

Already I realize that everything on this trip is going to seem a lot more quick and brief than usual. Even the first time I was here I stayed longer than two weeks. On the flip side though, since we were here only eight months ago last, it doesn't seem like the normal "you have to catch up on three years worth of events". We'll see if there's a happy medium between the two.

My cousin Glenn, whose place we've been staying at in Bergen was back from his work on Tuesday. He arrived when we were on our way to Arna. He was planning on heading up to the family cabin in Lindås. Camilla (his sister) and Martin (her fianceé) were already up there.
After promising to call us back as the plan progressed, the next we heard from him he was on a boat to the cabin. Plans? Who needs em.

Now we just needed to find a way to Lindås.

It actually turned out to be a pretty easy trip. The great thing about buses in Norway is that they go pretty much everywhere in the country. It is a proven fact, however, that if there's anyone in the country who does not speak English, it's a bus driver. I'm pretty sure there's a spot on their application form that if English is stated as a spoken language it disqualifies you from being hired.
At any rate, we made it out to Lindås and after about an hour enjoying free wifi in a little cafe, somehow managed to wake up Glenn to come get us. Mission successful. We had arrived.

The cabin in Lindås is a beautiful place and exactly what I needed at this point in the trip. Accessible only by water, it was built by my Great Uncle Ledvin about 40 years ago. We had the chance to come here during Beth's first trip to Norway and enjoyed it immensely.

We spent the afternoon out on the boat, fishing. Didn't catch a single fish but that was alright. It was great to be able to spend some time with Camilla, Martin and Glenn. After the fishing we spent the evening back at the cabin... Drinking Hansa and playing Jenga. It was an amusing night.

Then it was time to go back to town. The weekend was getting closer, as was the reason for this trip, the family reunion in Sogn. We could only hope the weather would get better as we made the trip up there. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.