norway, briefly

I was scheduled to give a talk at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH in Norwegian) back in March, but I had to reschedule due to illness.  I finally made it a couple of weeks ago for a quick visit.

Alas, the visit was quicker than intended.  My flight from Dublin to Copenhagen was delayed by over 3 hours (due to an unspecified delay on the flight from Copenhagen to Dublin), and I missed my connection.  So I spent hours in the Dublin airport and hours in the Copenhagen airport, and I had to cancel my dinner plans with my Norwegian hosts.  At least SAS gave me vouchers that covered a light dinner in the airport.

I was slightly amused and disappointed when the immigration person in Copenhagen looked at my passport and asked me if I had any Norwegian ancestry.  I say disappointed because my last name is Danish, although the spelling is probably "Americanized".  (My father's mother was Norwegian-American - thus, the amusement.)

I arrived at 10:15pm at the Bergen airport.  On the bright side, I was at my hotel by 10:45pm.  The taxi was quick and amazingly expensive (about 50 euros).

The next morning, I had an amazing breakfast at my hotel.  Of course, smoked fish - including salmon - was essential.  One of my hosts kindly met me at the hotel.  We took the bus to campus, which was great because it went through the center of town and by some of the main touristy spots.  So, at least I was able to see them, even I didn't have time to do any sightseeing.

The weather was great as well - sunny and warmer than Dublin (not that it took much, as March and the first 1.5 weeks of April were unseasonably cold).

I enjoyed meeting with professors in the department.  The views from the cafeteria and the conference room were stunning.

My talk did not go particularly well.  I did not have good time management, and I don't think I explained the results very well.  But I still had an enjoyable visit - my first visit to Norway.

I took a taxi to the airport after my talk.  Bergen is incredibly beautiful, and the NHH economists are very nice and do interesting work.  I hope I can visit again, hopefully for longer (and during the summer).

I forgot to any pictures, sadly, so here are a couple of links to websites with photos (rather than risking copyright issues by copying them).

https://www.google.ie/search?q=bergen+photos&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=H7JqUYfGLZO2hAfEmoHACA&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1017&bih=502

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g190502-Bergen_Hordaland_Western_Norway.html

http://www.visitbergen.com/en/Pictures-from-Bergen/

On this trip, I also tripled the number of countries where the only place visited was the airport.  Specifically, I can add Germany (Frankfurt) and Denmark (Copenhagen) to the list (which formerly contained only El Salvador (San Salvador).