Walkabout: OTELLO & Nordnes Book Cafe!

Fists up in the air in victory pose! Smile! yay y y!...cuz....I Found a new BOOK CAFE!

yeah I was that excited,). Yeah I do like books, and art, and book cafes with art galleries that much. Did I say it had a m a z i n g views of the Klosterets, Mt Fløyen, the sea, and Mt Ulriken?

So let´s recap:

BOOK cafe
with art gallery
free toilets
area with books you can read
area with books you can buy
FIKA (homemade cakes and coffee)
lots of large tables where you can study, read, talk..
or eat and enjoy the views

A few cafe cats from around the neighborhood, Mrs is the grey one:)

Mrs owner is very nice, we stood outside for a while talking about the snow, Ulriken, Mrs. The concrete sidewalk path and main concrete entrance where you walk in is heated, so Mrs and the other 2 cats like to sit there, as when it´s cold out, they are sitting on heated ground!:)

There´s crayons, markers and coloring books and paper for the kiddies too.

Hordaland Art (forget the exact name) of the Kommune and county sponsor this art library book cafe, so that even when the gallery is closed they keep the cafe open! Students come during exams especially to study, artists obviously are there, and put up info posters too.

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The rest of the Walkabout Saturday yesterday :


Buses were fine on schedule all day, despite the cold, snow and ice. After a stressful kaotic Friday of all morning with no buses due to sudden winter snowstorms causing wrecks, lorries toppling over bridge barricades, cars sliding off roads, and roads both in the city and on the islands, I was grateful simply for having such a calm Saturday, normality of buses again, and a day of enjoying the beautiful weather and spectacular views!

I forget whatall I did, saw or went to, but the main highlights were absolutely the book cafe, and walking around Nordnes, looking as if it couldn´t decide what season to wear,)

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Lots of autumn colors everywhere, blue skies, snow-capped mountains, black still sea, snow lingering over most things, a bit of ice though mostly slushy like someone had tried to freeze snowcones or crush ice.

Walked around Nordnes mostly, waiting til later when the doors at Kino (the local movie theatre) opened to let people in to see Otello. Live broadcast from The Metropolitan Opera in NYC. A new experience for me, seeing Opera in HD etc in a movie theatre, but, now in hindsight, I did really enjoy it! I especially enjoyed all the behind-the-scenes looks they showed between acts and scenes, of the changing props, lights, cameras, entire sets, etc. They interviewed the different actors (um is the correct term?), lighting team, props team. Amazing they have to, say last night, have everything ready for Otello, then have barely 3 hours later that night to then have everything ready for The Tempest showing in (their) evening. For them, Otello was shown in the day (which was our night).

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Walking around the Kino to kill a bit of half an hour til doors opened, I took a few videos, including inside one of the local candy shops, which reminds me of that candyshop scene in the ORIGINAL Charlie and The Chocolate Factory movie with Gene Wilder. The best part was I found actual M&Ms, which imho are way better than non-stops and similar. I bought a few small bags to use on the halloween cake today.

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VIDEOS of inside the Kino

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Walking back at exactly 10:23 (giving me just enough time to catch a bus leaving at 10:38) it was suddenly bitterest freezing cold out! Even in my thick down coat I was C O L D! no gloves. and Remembered earlier in the day being annoyed with myself for wearing such a hot coat, as I was burning up in it! Walking briskly to the bus stop near Kino, through cobbled streets and alleys so narrow you could hold out your hands and touch the buildings either side, walking past people in full halloween costumes and makeup wishing I had my camera out too to take photos as others were, I still was distracted by how C O  L D   I was! By the time I arrived, I only had maybe 10 minutes wait outside, but I paced back and forth the entire time, trying to keep warm by not just standing round waiting. Helped a bit. So glad when the bus arrived, it was precisely on time as normal and not late as unusual, and they had the heaters full blast! warmth, ah!

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OH YEAH! Earlier in the day, Spent a few hours walking around Torgallmenningen which was set up for International Week, with free concerts, fresh hot homemade food from various countries, and fresh hot music from Cuba singers so good people were dancing salsas etc in front of the concert; rap music, classical flute playing and lots of other music. Booths were set up for cultural awareness of various topics, with free info, free food, and some food for a small fee. I got Norwegian heart waffles, and some African fish stew. Everything was delicious, and hot!:)

I stayed and listened to the Cuban music, including asking the guys dancing where we could hear that music in Bergen, and they told me a few clubs just round the corner, and one over in the opposite direction near Bryggen. Will go, and post about it soon!

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Again was thinking of the colors of homes being so close to the colors of the mountains, sky, earth, trees, etc here, and how it changes. In autumn for instance, last few weeks the black and yellow ochre homes were so close in color to the yellow leaves, black stone of the mountains, and black fjord. The colder temps now have changed the stone mountains from blackest black, to a deep dark green brown. In summer the mountains are lighter in color to either of these colors, more grey. Autumn here marks the time of year most colorful matching the colors of the bright varied colorful homes. See previous posts.

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Today:

yellow ochre and black- echo the yellow trees black oaky wood and black stone of the mountains and fjord

blue echos the blue skies with wisps of white clouds

red and green, the colors of the trees, sky, leaves on the ground

yellow ochre and green, the colors of yellow leaves fallen on the green grassy grounds

purple, the deeper fading sky near night

black, all around if you really look--sky at night, starry night, moon in black sky, black stone mountains, black fjord

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