I have not yet done an article about the place I live, simply because dozens of blogs did it before me and just repeat what the other one say and the following will tell... but let's go.
Built  in 1968 in the village of Fantoft, located in  the Bergen Valley south of the center, Fantoft Studentboliger  was the first big Student House in Bergen Kommune and was at this time surrounded by woods and meadows.
The rumour tells that these ugly post-Stalinian buildings and the oppressive promiscuity brought several people to suicide in the 1970's. Don't know and care about those rumours, but Fantoft was mourned two days ago by the suicide of a Norwegian girl. Rest in Peace.
So it seems that the architects, Jørgrn Djurhuus, Erik Dogger et Erik Fersum, have missed their destiny of Jailbuilders. In the 1980's, Joseph Luns, the NATO "Boss", came for a conference at Fantoft and left this remembered sentence; "Have I come to a prison?".

About 1300 persons live here, among themselves, 600 foreign students. The 700 other people are Norwegians Students (a minority), and Asylum seekers. Their is several types of habitation, but the two main are the following:
There is 9 Blocks from A to I. A & B and E to G are double single-rooms with tiny kitchenette and bathroom. C & D are single rooms with private bathroom and shared big kitchen for 8 rooms. H and I are administrative buildings, night club, etc. Another building is a massive and great sports hall. The best rooms are of course in C/D blocks.

The whole residence is furbished, and equipped with cale TV, ADSL, and internal free telephone. Fifteen minutes walking from the residence you can find an old stavchurch, the summerhouse of the Norwegian Royal Family, a Gas Station, various shops a,d nice places to see.

• Coordinates: 60°20'45.65"N, 5°21'18.10"E. Various photos HERE.

Well, I usually don't like football and all the white trash/beer dance/hooligan/stupidity  which often go with it. But  Brann deserve this article... this good Norwegian team  won the Norwegian cup in 1962 and 1963...  then nothing for 44 years. Yesterday they crushed  L.C Lyn Oslo thanks to the Norwegian-Cypriot Karadas. This dude put a marvellous goal in the prolongation, 10 minutes after Oslo put one (Brann first goal happened at 15'). Less than one minute later Karadas put another one by "accident" and the game stopped. I don't know the points-rules and co, but it seems that Brann is unofficially already champion of Norway for 2007, even if there are still 3 matches to play. One against Aalesund, one against Viking Stavanger and I don't remember the last one. So no need to say that it was party downtown yesterday. However the city got empty  around midnight, as Norwegians ONLY go out on week-ends. But that's another story...

Happy youth... and crowd.


NRK is here... as the cops.

Everything is good in Norway. The society is great, the landscapes are awesome. Some bad sides anyway, some hypocrisy or some hidden facts and defaults. But the perfect society doesn't exist. No, the bad  side in Norway - i mean the one you see the most - is the food. Food is shit (will be treated in another article) and beer is not very good also.
All my ratings describe the beer present on the foto and its form (can/bottle).

Some facts about beer in Norway:
26 breweries
2 "giants": Carlsberg-Ringnes and Hansa Borg : 85% of the market
First independant brewery: Mack, with 7% of the market. This is the most northern brewery in the world.
Commercial breweries are 100% bottom fermenting (low fermentation) and german type beers.
90% of the beer being sold is "Pils" .What is called  "Fatøl" is supposed to be a "draught beer" (beer on  tap). Unfortunately, Ale and original breweries are closing one by one.

First of all - we are in Bergen - let's start with Hansa Pilsner. From Bergen, it is the default beer served in more than 80% of the bars of the city. To be honest, it is a piece of crap. Watered and untasty, but one of the "cheapest" (commas because cheap doesn't exist here). Sold in bottles (33cl) or cans (33/50cl). 4,7% of alcohol.



Let's continue with Hansa Bayer: Good surprise. A dark lager with round and bitter-caramel taste. Sold in 33cl bottles, it's for the moment one the best Norwegian beers i've tested. At least it have a real taste, though a little bit too much malted. 4,5% of alcohol.


Hansa Fatøl now. Supposed to be a draught pale lager, it makes me think to a quite-good pils with taste and foam. Better than the hansa Pilsner, more expensive too. 4,7% of alcohol.


Odin Pilsner. It seems to be a Danish beer but let's go... served in cans (50cl) or bottles (33cl). Usually badly noted buy customers, i prefer this one to the Hansa Pilsner. Slight metallic taste, watered but mild fruity bottom, round and quite-strong top. 4,7% of alcohol.


Mack Arctic Beer: Pale lager... nice and fresh top, touches of citrus. But the rest was way worse than all the others ones described above. Definitevly not a beer for me. 4,7% of alcohol, 50cl cans.


Mack Pilsner: "Good" Pils in the German way ( Ludwig Mack was German...), way better than Hansa and all the crap. My favourite Pils from here, for the moment. Balanced and good to enjoy with a meal. Hop and nut notes. Bad noted buy most of the customers... 33cl bottles or 50cl cans.


Mack Sommerøl: Pale lager. Sweet malts and some hoppy hints, refreshing and a almost not bittered. I drank it fast during lunch.


Mack Summerparty: Pale lager. Supposed to be sweet and funky, probably to take over the female & posh market. Artificial taste, watered,  and the remaining bitterness is more "acid". Better to frink water...

Hei alle sammen...
I have not written here for a while, again. I have to work that out... life begins to be a routine here, between courses, alcohol, nights downtown and so on. The courses are often cool, sometimes shit and boring. Actually life seems to be holidays. I have not been to the sport hall or to the mountains for three weeks. Shame on me, I had promised to hike at least 2 times per week.

On september 2nd I went with some friends in Øygarden, by bus. Øygarden is a commune formed by a gate of island west from Bergen. It was rainy and windy but nice. Raw, uncrowded. Great.
Reminder: All my pictures are on Flickr. Clic and browse.



On wedneday 12th I had a road-trip in the Sogn county with French friends of mine who were visiting me. I drove 500km in 12 hours. Bergen - Voss - Vik - Hella - Nornes - Sogndal - Kaupanger - Lærdal - Aurland - Gudvangen - Stalheim - Voss - Bergen. We had everything: sun, rain, snow, rainbows...



A couple of days later we went to Lysekloster, 20km south of Bergen. It is ruins of an old Cistercian Monastery, back from the XIIth century. This place is "kvlt" in the Black-Metal history because the videoclip of Immortal "The call of the wintermoon" was shot here. TRUE !



Sunday 15th I had a trip at Troldhaugen, Edvard Grieg's house, with some spanish friends. The place is only 3 busstops from Fantoft, where I live.

Well I just realized that  I have been here for already one month... here I can't find any time to do all what I would like to do... Stucked between walks, parties, courses, and so on. I would need 35 hours a day. I'll try to sum up that last month with a few lines and photos...
So  as said before I arrived July  27th. My friend went back to France August 3rd. A big BBQ party  was organized  down  the blocks of the  student hostel the saturday before the introduction week and it was fucking great to meet people, espite the fact that 35% of Fantoft is probably German and 15% probably French. Spanish are many too.  I also met some great people from Afghanistan. Until 7/9th of August I was alone in my floor but it got crowded in 3 days...
Then the Introduction Week (fadderuken or mentor week) started with some presentation of the university, of the courses, help to register step by step and so on, and some social activities (means massive drinking in Norwegian, hehehe). Best time of this week as a BBQ at a place called Kollevågen in Askøy, 30 minutes north from Bergen sentrum. Pølser and beer contests... fucking great. The 17th we had a free boat trip, could have been nice if the sky had not poured tons of water on the area. We were soaked by water and rowned into fog.


The week after, courses started, except Norwegian language courses. My first course of SAS13 (Norwegian history) was a walk in the old Bergen and turned into an urban history course. My first course of SAS14 (Norwegian art/culture) was just a presentation course... The same week I had the Hole In The Sky Festival. Four days of madness and mind crushing... 22, 23, 24, 25th of august. Most appreciated bands, in no particular order: Immortal, Meleschech, Vreid, Blood Tsunami, Deathcon, TestamenT, Deströyer 666... and many more. Met great people. Some frenchies I know came and we had a sunny and hot hike at Ulriken the 21th.


This monday (27th) I finally started my Norwegian courses. Its pretty cool, except once again the fact that 75% of my groups is actually German people. Otherwise, there is one guy from Sudan, one from Chile, 2 from Hong Kong, one from Czech Republic. Dag, the professor, comes from Lofthus in the Hardanger, so we learn the "West Coast" Norwegian (yo nigga!).
Stay tuned for updates.