Bergen & 17.Mai

Grete, Ida and I went on a road trip to Bergen this weekend!  Bergen is the second largest city in Norway,and it's population is....are you ready for this?  385K.  Yea, I know.  It's annual precipitation at 88 inches. (Sister city to Seattle, probably). Luckily for us, it was sunny the whole weekend!  The 17.Mai, Norway's Constitution Day (equivalent to our 4th of July) was this past Sunday, so there was a huge celebration as well.  Peep the pics, yo! 

Ida w/her stunna shades!

Made it to Bergen in 3.5 hours and met up with Karina and Anette.  Here we are sitting on the Blue Rock in the heart of downtown Bergen.

Karina, myself, Ida, and Grete had a few beers at a local pub, Hectors, before calling it a night.  (Cheapest beer I've bought here in Norway so far - 38kr = $7.50.  Woo hoo!)

In Norwegian high schools, the senior class celebrate "Russ" for the last part of the year.  You see the kids wearing the red overalls and usually pulling pranks every where you turn.  We ran into these guys after Hectors...I think they were trying to hang their Russ pants on the flagpole?

Day 2

The main street, Torgallmenningen.

Eurovision 2009 is the equivalent of American Idol, for all of Europe.  The final competition was on Saturday night, so we had a little party.  Annnd....Norway won!!!!! 

Lovely ladies.

@ Tiger Tiger w/Ida and Karina.

Waiting for the bus after Tiger Tiger.  Anette and I had to get a picture standing on the Blue Rock!  There were many interesting characters out and about at that hour...

17.Mai!  We woke up early on Sunday and went to the city to see the parade.  On the 17.Mai, Norwegian men and women wear their traditional outfits, called Bunads.  It was so great to see everyone out and about, all dolled up.  About half of the men choose to wear their Bunads, and if they don't, they usually wear suits, like Sverre (above).  

Brann is the soccer team for Bergen, so their section of the parade was particularly loud.

Bergen is known for their traditional marching drumline during parades/national holidays.

There was also a mini amusement park set up in the city.  We couldn't resist.

Did you know that Norwegians consume more ice cream per capita than any other country in the world?  Just doing their part. :)

It was such a long day!  We took a break at a local pub...it was so nice to be able to sit outside in the sun and just relax.  I've taken so much for granted in San Diego!

And lastly, we stopped by a well known hot dog stand.  Hot dogs, ice cream, sunshine...wait, I'm in Norway, right???