Gent Turning Troll: Rooftops, sushi, cocktails and comedy. A great Friday night!

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.