Bergen Pinball Club

Today we got to visit The Bergen Pinball Club, a private pinball club a short walk from the city center. 

I contacted them in advance and they said to let them know when we were in town and they would work out a time. We agreed on Saturday at 3pm. There was talk of a donation but not how much so I visited the website and looked at the membership tiers. I came up with a price that I thought would be fair and generous was going to go with that when I got there. 

We arrived at the address and messaged them via Whatsapp and they came out to meet us and led us in via a side entrance. 

It's a shoes off place so don't wear holey socks. 

The layout of the club was explained to us. It's laid out roughly, by era. 

There is a nice map showing the rooms and their eras. 

Pinball Map shows them having 130 machines, but they weren't all available for play. There were still a good number of games that I had never played before, so that was great. 

We got a really nice tour of the facility and then I bought a T-shirt and we made our donation of 300 NOK each, or about $60. The donation ended up being above what I had worked out in my mind, but we were there and the money was going to pinball machine upkeep. 

Lots of work was happening because about 20 people were coming later in the day. 

Sadly, Alarm wasn't operating, but what an amazing looking machine!

Robot wasn't working either but they turned it in for me so I could get a good photo. 

Kjell is very passionate about the machines here. This was a very rare Mythology. It had an issue and couldn't be played, but Kjell cleaned the glass so I could get a good photo. 

Enough with the broken machines, here are the machines that played great. 

The back glass for Laser War was wacky and the game was fun. 

Look at those near vertical side flippers!  

The Firey 30s had a crazy outlane gate. 

The gate closed off the inlane!

But there were switches around that closed the gate which opened the inlane and closed off the outlane. 

This might be the only publicly available Walkyria in the world. 

A Solid State version of Joker Poker

It was a really great afternoon of pinball. It was one of the most unique pinball experiences we have had yet. 

After pinball we walked back to city center and waited in line for a delicious hot dog. The hot dogs here are out of this world. 

On a Train to Scavanger NO - Oslo Wrap Up

This morning we set our alarms for 7:30am instead of the usual 8am. We have woken up to an alarm every day but one day so far on this trip and that's uncommon for us now that we don't work. We went down and ate breakfast and then packed some sliced meat, cheese, bread, pickles, and some mustard on a plate and took it upstairs to make train sandwiches. The train food is more expensive than the regular food and our trip is 8 hours so we need food and snacks for sustenance and entertainment. 

We arrived at Olso Central quite early and explored it as well as checked on our trip. 

We looked at The Big Board and it said our train was cancelled between 2 places we didn't recognize. We went to the help desk and they seemed confused about what we were reporting. It took the attendant a few minutes and 2 phone calls to determine that a fire was blocking our original route and that we would be diverted south to avoid it. We would still be on a train, but the trip would be 9.25 hrs now. Oh well, it's considered an epic train trip so we just get to see more epicness. 

Walking to Track 3

Our train arrived and we excitedly boarded. We were looking forward to seeing just how great our upgraded seats would be!

Sad Trombone!

We asked the conductor if we could switch seats and he said the train is fully booked. Today is the start of a 3 day weekend so everyone is taking advantage. 

The seat ain't great but it's better than this photo makes it look. 

Oslo was a great week long stay. We rode a ferry to the small islands in the fjord for the price of public transportation. 

We got off on Greasholmen Island, which doesn't have people living on it, and did some hiking. 

We hiked for an hour or so and then got back on the ferry and enjoyed the rest of the ride. 

When we hit dry land, we used our transit pass to have a hot dog with a little blanket on it. 

Donna got the potato salad hot dog, which is exactly what you think, a hot dog with potato salad on it   I got the jalapeno hot dog. The jalapeno was actually pickled jalapenos in a creamy sauce, like a potato salad without the potatoes. They were both delicious and the little blanket was a potato bread made out of potatoes, so you could eat it!

The next day we went to The Munch Museum, the largest museum in the world dedicated to one artist. It was amazing. There were so many great paintings and they had an awesome collection of paintings by painters that were inspired by Munch. 

We did see The Scream but didn't take photos. There are enough photos of it. 

The top floor of the museum has great views. 

The following day we walked to the Botanical Gardens 

It was really cool hiking around the gardens. 

We also visited Oslo City Hall. 

Another day we hiked Ekebergparken Sculpture Park. It's a giant nature area with sculptures throughout. It was really cool and there were good views of the city from the top. 

This marks the place where they think Munch had his, I guess panic attack, at sunset and painted The Scream depicting the feeling of existential dread. 

I, however, was not feeling existential dread. 

We saw stones set in the shape of a boat, to signify a Viking burial ground. 

These crystals glowed with led lights. It's supposed to be amazing at night. It was amazing during the day!

The views from near the top were awesome. 

This gnome has something for you!

The next day we walked around near the waterfront some more. 

We went to a fish shop and I got some freshly caught and cooked shrimp and ate them in the bed. 

That might we had tickets for the Orchestra. It was a great show. 

And that catches us up to this train ride to Stavanger. While I was typing this I noticed the lady behinde airing out her feet. 

I tried to ignore them and continued enjoying the train ride. I do find myself thinking that it's just Americans that are gross and have no sense of others, and that all Europeans are fancy, but I guess that's not the case. 

Now we are in Stavanger for 4 nights. It's a 3 day weekend and the younger generation has found enough money to get plastered at the bars here in Norway. It ain't easy to get throw up drunk on $16 4.5% beers, but they are doing it. 

The sun setting on our hotel room view.  See you in the morning Stavanger!