A wake up call from the reception downstairs at Jacob’s Apartment woke me up at 9.15am. It was Erik and he kindly wanted me downstairs in fifteen minutes.
I took a quick shower and found a small bag containing a box of yogurt, slices of cheese, jam, and two rolls. I decided to pack everything in my little bag and headed downstairs.
Erik drove me to the square next to the daily fish market, where I met Siri Giil, the information marketing coordinator of the Visit Bergen Tourist Board.
Erik introduced me to Siri, letting me know we would meet again later in the day.
Siri explained what the day would entail and welcomed me to Bergen. She handed me a card designating me as the Guest of Honour. “Yes, with your project, you will serve as a bit of an Ambassador of Bergen for the day, sharing the beauty of this city with the world.”
I was overwhelmed! She treated me on a cup of coffee and told me I was going to get on a bus that would tour around Bergen for the coming three hours. And the card would let me in for free and also to some other places in town.
I got in the bus and the guiding lady asked me for a ticket and I showed her the card. She seemed to never ever had seen such a card. It had my name on it and represented “www.letmestayforaday.com”.
“Whom do you represent?” she asked. I looked at my card and showed it to her again, and then saw all the American tourist in the bus.
Probably the lady was not familiar with the Internet, so to protect myself by telling about my whole project in front of the bus, I decided to tell her a little lie. Just to see if she would catch it… For fun.
I got on the bus, and the guide asked for my ticket. I showed her the card, which had my name and the website “www.letmestayforaday.com” on it. She looked puzzled, clearly unfamiliar with the card.
“Whom do you represent?” she asked. I showed her the card again, noticing the curious American tourists on the bus.
Realizing she might not be familiar with the Internet and to avoid explaining my entire project to everyone, I decided to have a bit of fun with a small fib.
“I represent the Royal Family of Holland,” I said.
“You’re from the Dutch Royal Family?” she asked, sounding surprised. The passengers began whispering among themselves.
“Are you a prince or something?” an American tourist with a strong accent asked me.
“Is that seat available?” I asked with a smile.
What I noticed before I even got to Bergen: this city loves visitors. And in all the tourism media the city is called the Gateway to the fjords.
In Bergen, large ocean steamers often dock and let their guests explore the town for a few days. Bergen is a delightful place to wander, with its rich history embedded in old houses, narrow streets, and abundant monuments.
Along with my Guest of Honour card, I received the Bergen Card, granting me free bus travel in the city and access to several cable cars that ascend the six surrounding mountains.
The bus tour covered all the essential tourist spots, and our guide did her best to entertain us with lively stories.
In just three hours, I saw Håkon’s Hall, the largest and most imposing building of the royal residency in the 13th century. We passed the Museum of Decorative Art and made our first stop at the Gamle Bergen Museum, located north of the city.
This open-air museum is a reconstruction of a small town, featuring more than 40 old Bergen houses from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The bus then headed back south towards Fløyen, one of the city’s mountains.
Further south, we arrived at Troldhaugen, the home of the famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). His house is now a museum, preserving the interior as it was during his lifetime, filled with memorabilia. A nearby modern museum provided detailed information about Grieg’s life and his significance to Norwegian culture.
Through Edvard Grieg’s music, global audiences first became aware of Norwegian culture. His music has become integral to Norway’s national identity. Despite his strong national consciousness, Grieg was also a cosmopolitan figure, blending Norwegian traditions with new European cultural currents. He had a unique ability to compose music that resonated with people not only in Norway but worldwide, making him one of the great international stars of his time.
Grieg’s music, rooted in Norwegian folk traditions, gained popularity in concert halls and homes globally. He was not only a great composer but also an outstanding concert pianist and conductor. Grieg traveled across Europe with his successful concerts until his death in 1907. You can listen to Grieg’s compositions online, and you’ll likely recognize his music as the pride of Norway.
After visiting the museum (the waffles in the cafeteria were excellent!), the tour concluded back in the city center.
I met Siri again, and she asked for my thoughts on Bergen. I shared my impressions, including anecdotes about the guide and the typical American tourists on the bus. Europeans often recognize elderly Americans by their dyed-grey hair (which looks bluish in the sun), curved caps, and super white (brand new) sneakers.
Siri treated me to a lunch of chicken salad at Singer, where we sat outside on a sunny terrace overlooking the busy fish market.
As the information marketing coordinator for the Visit Bergen Tourist Board, Siri spends much of her time assisting, guiding, and supporting tourists. We had a lively conversation about the quirky questions foreigners often ask Norwegians about their culture. American tourists, in particular, are known for asking some of the most curious and unusual questions.
For example:
“Don’t you have to protect yourself against the polar bears and the penguins?”
or “Is it true that the people who live on the thousands of Norwegian islands walk around naked?”.
It’s very funny to try to understand how other people experience a time in another place.
After the lunch I thanked Siri for the tour and the lunch and headed back to my apartment.
This is where I had a little nap and met my host Erik again when I got downstairs after I packed my backpack again at 4pm. I thanked Erik for letting me stay in one of his apartments and for putting me in contact with the Bergen Tourist Board. After a look on the map I’d took the walk through the city to my next address.
I arrived there a little bit after 5pm and when I rang the bell on the ground floor of the apartment complex the door was opened from below. In the hallway a guy called Geir welcomed me and took me along. Expecting somebody else, I asked “And you are?”
“I am the assistant,” he said.
I wondered where I had arrived today if my host has his own assistant. I wish I had an assistant that opened doors!
And suddenly I arrived in an apartment on the second floor where two guys in wheelchairs welcomed me. They were John Alrid and Nikolai.
It was John Alrid who had invited me after reading about me on Startsiden.no, a Norwegian website. It was a long time ago that they put up a link to my website, but at that time John Alrid invited me just to meet me in real life.
So here I was, kind of reserved as I have never been invited by disabled people before.
Nikolai lives in the apartment on the next floor and John Alrid and he both have their own assistant. The assistants do shifts of half days and take care of the most necessary work that has to be done in a house.
Nikolai told me that they both have spinal muscular atrophy, which is a very serious muscle disease. They had been “normal” when they were young, but slowly a wheel chair became necessary and that is how they move around all day now.
We moved from John Alrid’s apartment to Nikolai’s apartment and I discovered that everything was on remote control. The doors, windows, curtains, television, lights, even the dvd-player; everything worked on a little box they both have with them.
In Nikolai’s apartment his assistant Rune started preparing dinner. John Alrid, Nikolai and me talked about travelling, Internet and disabilities.
John Alrids computer has a big roller ball as a mouse and he clicks on the characters on a keyboard-programme on his screen. And he can do that pretty fast.
Everything that John Alrid does takes him a lot of energy, so once in a while he had to “recharge” himself with an oxygen-machine, assisted by his helper Thomas.
When we got to know each other a bit better I would like to know how this happened, this disability. I am just very unknown in the world of disabled people and I think I should not.
The disease makes their muscles very weak and very important nerves stop working. If they move a lot, the muscles have to repair themselves again, taking a lot of life energy. But if they don’t move, the muscles die off, making any movement impossible.
It s a vicious circle that they have to stabilise as long as possible.
Their disease attacked hard when they were young, together with the grow-spurt of puberty. Now they are in their twenties and the disease is more to the background, but still could take them down.
They are now very sensible for cold or pneumonia, because healing that and staying alive this way takes even more energy and sometimes it won’t work anymore.
However it is a very harsh question, I had to ask them.
“You have this disease now, what is your life expectancy with it then?”
“Funny that you ask that question,” Nikolai told me. “Because we were talking about that last night.”
John Alrid: “I think I’ll have another five, six years.”
While the situation could be quite serious for those unfamiliar with it, the atmosphere in the house remained lighthearted. “With my current situation, I hope to reach 70 years old,” Nikolai laughed.
It was clear that John Alrid was more disabled than Nikolai. “But anything can happen to us; we just don’t know what or when.”
(John Alrid and Nikolai are still alive in 2024!)
Rune served dinner, a delicious meal of Chinese noodles with chicken and plenty of vegetables. “Vitamins, mum!” he quipped.
Thomas had done the grocery shopping, and Rune had cooked everything.
“Rune is the best cook in the house. The others aren’t as good,” he laughed.
Thomas agreed. “I prefer easy things, like pizza.”
We had a long conversation that night, and a lady friend of theirs also came to visit. The five of us listened to her stories about traveling the world.
“Have you been to India yet?” she asked me.
“No, but I plan to go.”
“Be very careful,” she warned, sharing a story that would give any world traveler pause. “But you might be lucky because you stay with people who invite you. That way, you’re more protected. You won’t have to search for a hostel or trust strangers on the streets. You just have to trust your hosts.”
She was right.
We also talked about the Fiji Islands east of Australia. I mentioned that I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get there. “Yes, you’d need a sponsor for it,” someone said.
When it got around midnight, John Alrid and Nikolai prepared to go to bed and their helpers helped them with that.
I would stay in a room in Nikolai’s apartment tonight and Thomas would stay in John Alrid’s apartment as he would be Nikolai’s assistent tomorrow morning, and therefore going home wasn’t really necessary for him.
I could use John Alrids computer for a little while and checked my emails.
And someway somebody published about me in a big Chinese newspaper, so I get overloaded with emails from Asian people. I am very thankful, but most of their writing I just can’t understand. People write me their address in Chinese and tell me that they won’t be home tomorrow. “But if you want I can come over on Saturday, my friend. Welcome in China”.
Someway the newspaper wasn’t really clear about how my project works and where I am right now. And a lot of emailing persons want to be my dearest friend. “Please share your travelling with me, you can send you pictures to my email. You can also call me on this number.”
But then I also got angry emails from Asia, from people who ask where I was as they were waiting for me in some Chinese city. The whole family was there and they had invited me and I did not show up! How bad I am… I am a terrible, unthankful person for some Asian people right now… it is all in my mailbox.
Good night Bergen!
Ramon.
