Gent Turning Troll: May 2013

Recently I was attended my first ever Norwegian football game, now I have resisted ever writting about football on this blog as its probably not the right forum for it but it in this case I will make an exception. To give a little background, I am a big football fan and support the Royals of Reading who wear blue and white hoops. Sadly they have just been relegated from the Premier league but hopefully shall return soon.

When I first moved to Norway I wanted to try and follow Norwegian football, partly just because I love watching any type of football but also because the Norwegian football calender runs through the summer with the large break in the winter meaning it could provide some ideal entertainment when English football is having its big break in the summer. The most obvious team for me to follow would have been Bergens team, called Brann, meaning fire. Alternatively though I have pledged my alegence to Viking of Stavanger. The reasoning is pretty simple, most football fans I know from Bergen arnt actually big into Norwegian football and follow English football instead. The only real big followers I know of Norwegian football is my group of friends from Stavanger who are naturally all big Viking supporters. Given that I was certainly the only Reading fan in Bergen I did not also want to be a lonley Brann fan as my Bergen friends did not watch them much, but if I chose Viking I could watch games with friends and soak up there passion. I could also mention that Viking play in blue and white and Brann in red so im keeping with my colours but this is more just a handy coincidence.

So there we have it I am offially a Viking gutt (Viking boy) and I have watched several games on tv with friends and really enjoyed it. The standard is of course pretty poor generally but seeing as Im used to watching Reading in the Championship (second teir of English football) its not much of a stretch and I can still really enjoy it.

Recently was a big date in the Norwegian football calender as Brann of Bergen hosted Viking of Stavanger, as the two large cities on the west coast this is a pretty strong rivelry and I jumped at the chance to attend. The atmosphere and everything was basically identical to going to a game in England and given it was the first year in five I had not attended a Reading game all season I was set to make the most of this. Brann's ground has a capacity of around 17,000 and attendance for the day was nearly 12,000. About 500 of those being Viking supporters crammed into the corner of the oldest stand at the ground. The atmosphere in the away section pre-game was actually brilliant with a couple of crazy guys standing in front leading the chants and waving gigantic flags.

The game itself was sadly a disapointing result with Viking going a goal down just 3 minutes in and conceding another 15 minutes later which would be the final of the day ending the game 2-0 to the home side. Despite this though it was still a great day out, I'm really glad I went and I'm looking forward to my next game.

We got there very early, I can assure you it did fill up nicely. I like this picture as it shows what I feel to be three quite interesting things about the stadium:

1. The stands are simple but nice. About 10 years ago when my girlfriend went to her first and last ever football match she said there were no seats and just concrete steps, fortunatly there have been upgrades

2. The condition of the pitch was pretty shocking. One must bare in mind the weather has only just turned warm but it is also very early in the season so I was surprised.

3. As always in Bergen, you cant go anywhere without sseeing mountains. Pretty sure from no stadium in England can you see mountains in the distance.

I had a very random but brilliant Friday night, the kind I feel you can only really have in a City. Some say Bergen is not that big a city, especially as you'd expect, those who have lived here there whole lives or those who insist on going to the same rubbish places and would probably complain there are only a few bars in London. I grew up in a relitevely small town and Chester City, where I was at Uni was about as small as a city can be, so I for one really appreciate the large amount of options in a city like Bergen. Here is a little rundown of the evening and a couple of shamless plugs.

Friday nights festivities began with a drink on the roof of Zachariasbryggen with Marianne and another couple we are close friends with. Zachariasbryggen is a big building consisting of a piano bar, a few restaurants and a couple of bars and is right in the heart of the city over looking the harbour. This is typically not my cup of tea for an evening but its roof terrice had just re-opened after being closed for the Winter. I first experienced this place with Marianne and my Mother-in-law last year where we enjoyed some pricey but tasty mojitos in the sun. It was not so warm this time round and we stuck to beer but thanks to some very effective heaters this was still a really nice a cosey place to have a few drinks in the fresh air. Also given it was only 16:00 (4pm) there was noone else about.

After Zachariasbryggen roof terrice we all went just one floor down to Sushi Sagrada in the same building. I have been here several times and I can safely say that it is my favourate sushi restaurant in Bergen. There are definatly much better value places, Nama is arguably right up there as its sushi is always great and very fresh with warm rice etc, but its not nearly as cosey and for me is more of a lunch place. Sagrada is a little protenteous some might say, but I have no problem with that. The Decor is lovely, staff are friendly, the veiws over the harbour are beautiful and what I love about there sushi is they are very experimental with lots of really great choices you wouldnt expect to see in the average restaurant. All of this does of course come at a price. On this trip for example with one beer and enough Sushi we spent about 350NOK (just shy of £40) a head. If your talking wine and a second course this can easily double, so naturally we arnt here as often as I would like. As always the sushi was excellent and we decided to go for a few drinks elsewhere before out two friends would have to leave for an early night. It was around 18:00(6pm) maybe at this point.

For our drinks we decided to hit another place I have much more recently discovered but also absolutely love! It is called No Stress and is a absoloutely quality bar set up by local barman to provide everything they wanted in a bar. This shows a mile off, the place is very relaxed with cool retro decor and a reggie vibe. There collection of spirits are by far the best Ive seen since leaving England, they have a full fresh fruit bar and very skilled barman. I was never a cocktail barman myself but very close friends and my former housemate were so I consider myself relitvely well educated on the subject. There is nothing I love more than being able to walk up to a bar and debate ingredients and method for a drink by those who truly know what they are talking about and this is the best place to do that. 3 rounds later (consisting of Hendriks Mojito's, old fashioned, whisky sour and a sidecar) our friends sadly had to go home so Marianne and I decided to have a little wonder around as it was still early and see what we felt like doing.

It was a little before 21:00 (9pm) at this point and we saw a poster about a stand up show at Ricks Theatre, This is a small venue that regularly holds music and comedy events. The main act, was Craig Campbell, a histerical Canadian guy who we had both seen online and on TV a few times. One of our favourate things about him was he is particularly brilliant and making location relevent jokes. We had seen a show he did a year or so previously in Norway on youtube and his observations about the country were histerical. The gig started 15 mintues before we saw the poster so we immedietly ran to the venue and bought tickets for 150NOK, a very good deal if you ask me. We got in the room and it was very full so we were standing at the back, but smug with how brilliantly random it all was we ordered some beers and settled down to listen to the first of three Norwegian support acts. Suddenly a guy walked from the front and happened to come strait to us saying there were a couple of seats left. We walked passed all the standers and stood in the isle looking stupid looking for a seat and thinking maybe he was joking. Then suddenly right near the front and centre, as second row back and on the edge of the row., were two amazing seats, made even better by the fact there was not even anyone sitting directly infront of us on the front row.

When everything comes together like this it can really make your week and it certainly did. I didnt understand a lot of the Norwegian support acts but I got the jist of a few jokes and certainly found myself cracking up a few times. Craig Campbell himself was out of this world seriously hysterical, Ive only been to a few live comedy shows including Russel Brand at the O2 Arena, Jimmy Carr, and a couple of not really well known people at small venues in Chester. Craig Campbell really did blow those out of the water though, the randomness of finding outselves there completely unplanned with the best seats in the house may have helped, but to focus on that would not be doing justice to his outstanding comedy. He is about to start a massive tour in England and I strongly strongly suggest anyone who can, makes the effort to see him. I even had a little chat with him from the audience after he asked if their were any English people about as part of build up to a joke.

So there we have it, one of my top 10 nights in Bergen, if not top 5 or even 3. Bergen I take my hat off to you for providing such brilliant memories.