I just got back from spending two weeks in Stavanger, Norway.
A. Rhetorical Device: What made you decide to vacation there?
It wasn’t a vacation, it was a business trip. Nobody goes to Stavanger on vacation. It’s essentially the Norwegian equivalent of a New England fishing village that suddenly had an oil boom, thanks to the North Sea. People go there because they work for a company in the oil business, which is why I was there.
A. Rhetorical Device: Are you saying it’s a hellhole?
Not at all. The center of town is general clean, attractive and picturesque, pretty much everyone speaks English as a second language, and the hotels have all the modern amenities.
A. Rhetorical Device: So what’s the problem?
Unless you like pub crawling (I don’t), there’s nothing to do there. You can see pretty much everything downtown in an afternoon, including the Norwegian Petroleum Museum (more about which later), and I wasn’t pining to see the fjords. Beyond that it’s business parks and suburbs, and the sun was rising when I went to work, and setting when I went home. There were maybe three days that weren’t rainy, snowy or overcast. Plus everything is twice as expensive (at least) as it is in the U.S. My hotel hamburger clocked in at $30.
A. Rhetorical Device: So why are you bringing this up?
I’m glad you asked, Mr. Rhetorical Device! Things are going to be a bit slow while I wait for my mind to catch up to my body, so expect several Stavanger-related posts while I get back up to speed.
A. Rhetorical Device: Wait, you don’t mean—
Yes. Vacation pictures, starting with this broad pond in the center of the old part of he city. Click to embiggen.
This is cool, Lawrence! I can’t wait to hear about the Norwegian Petroleum Museum. I can only imagine how many thousands of tourists make that the highlight of their Norwegian vacation.
Best,
Liz
What, no spiffy books found??
I did go to two used books stores, and failed to find a third which seemed to have closed (no sign on the building listed on their website), but didn’t find anything. One was a combined game/video/bookshop a few blocks from my hotel, and they did have one bookcase of English-language SF, but nothing worth picking up, and the other store only seemed to carry mysteries in their English-language stock.
I did looked for Norsk editions of Jack Vance and Philip K. Dick, but didn’t find any (or any Norsk SF, actually).
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