I met up with Karina after getting lost in Bergen. The town is similar to San Francisco, but much smaller and built on the hill sides surrounding the bay. The downtown is quite old and has several inlets coming in from the fjord. Cruise ships stop by and the cruisers do whatever cruisers do when they are not on the ship. Karina drove me around and then we went up to her home about two thirds of the way up the hill. This was her parents estate, a large home and several outbuildings, that they had purchased long ago. He was an archaeologist that refurbished and saved many of the old German homes along the waterfront. The Germans had originally come to do trading with the fishermen. Karina now rents out rooms in the main house and in one of the outbuildings that has been converted to apartments. Needless to say, it has a great view of the town, the bay, and the surrounding hills.
I left the bike there and the next day we drove four hours north to the village of Vevring, located on one of the fjords, where Wenche (pronounced Ven-ka) lives along with her brother, mother, cousins, uncles, aunts, etc. The festival was started 40 years ago as a sort of home coming, keeping the old friendships alive, and keeping the old customs and ways alive. There was only 60 or so participants, half local and half from out of town, either past residents, friends of locals, or relatives that had moved out.
The grand scheme of things was to go catch fish, get together and eat them. So I teamed up with Einar, a man about my age, and rowed the boat and he laid out the nets. We did this each evening for three days and went out each morning to see what we caught. Day one and two were disappointing, but we scored on day three with five cods, a couple of trout, and a St. Peter's fish, an oddity in this area. Fortunately, Einar and I were not the only ones fishing.
We had a fish expert on hand who would gather together the day's catch, explain to everyone what was what, open then up to see what they had for breakfast, and then pass them over to the cook. We all shared in kitchen duties with a semi formal work roster. I learned a new way to fix carrots and got pretty good at filleting fish. The cod and salmon were cooked/smoked in various ways by the men of the village and there always seemed to be a pot of coffee going and the great pancakes that they make on a large griddle. Lunch and dinner were communal affairs and we had breakfast in Wenche's home along with two other couples and whatever strays came around. Did I mention it was raining all week. I had my rain jacket from the bike, but had to borrow rain pants and the proverbial nor eastern rain hat.
Saturday they had an opening of an art show in the room behind the quick shop and Saturday night there was a one woman play (in Swedish!) put on in the room above the old milking parlor. We had dinner in the milking parlor that had been converted to a dining hall by adding picnic benches and tacking on a kitchen at one end. This village, like many in the world, has seen a conversion from farm life to working in the city and just living on the farm. But there is still home made beer and wine and smoked salmon! Some traditions just can't be stopped. Saturday, Stig took us out in his covered 35 foot boat for a three hour cruise around the fjord.
I taught the group in the house how to play 'Oh Hell' and we played til 2 am. Speaking of which, one never has to worry about getting any thing done before it gets dark - it just never does. The sun will go down around 10:30 and its back up again at 3, but it just seems like a long twilight.
Karina and I returned to Bergen on Monday afternoon, I did my laundry and repacked, ready to head further north. Karina was headed south to her other home in Mandal.
There are lots of photos at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/109078628479246209734/FishFestivalJune2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCMK6uYW0icnhaA#
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| Einar and me after our big day fishing |
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| Talking about the day's catch |
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| Wenche's house on the fjord |
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