One of the good things about being a freelancer, besides taking a nap and baking cupcakes at noon once in a blue moon, is that I get to travel to places I haven´t been before or, even better, places I love already! ❤And Bergen is the destination holding a special place in my heart- my husband was born there, the architecture is gingerbread-cute and I lived there for 3 months some years ago, when interpreting in a trial on human trafficking. Too bad it rains 250 days a year, including yesterday and today.  Never mind that, let me tell you about my stay. I arrived yesterday evening at 6-ish, got comfortable in my chic hotel (since the other ones I´d stayed in before were fully booked) and went out again to meet my lovely friend, Heidi at Colonialen in Litteraturhuset. It was a year since we´d seen each other in Paris- we both have busy lives, work, husbands and kids/pets, we try to time a meeting when in each other´s town, but it´s not always easy. I´ve known Heidi for 15 years now, she was my “fadder” (a sort of door-opener) when I first came to Volda as a freshman and I looked up to her, she was the embodiment of cool in my book! 😉So we talked some and then talked some more. Bread and olive oil came and we tried not to eat too much, so we´d save place for desert. Then she ordered fish and I had boeuf bourguignon. I rarely order anything else but fish when fine dining, but this time I was soaked from the rain and needed some real protein! 😉 The food was exquisite, but too filling to leave room for desert. I need to go back soon, I´m hoping for a case again in December! 😉This morning, the sky was grey and it was raining cats and dogs. I woke up at 7 (God knows why!) and by the time I needed to be in court I was already tired. 😉 You know how it is..We were done by lunch time and I had the loveliest salad with my colleague in Kafe Magnus, a cosy place adjoined to the court house, while talking about the interpreter´s status and how fed up we are with writing letters and battling wind-mills.Adriana ordered a pulled pork and veggies salad and I had chèvre and beetroots. Besides loving chèvre, I had the lowest self-esteem ever on account of the hotel mirror! What is it with hotel and dressing room mirrors? Every time I enter a fitting room, I feel like chopping of my thighs! And I´m not even kidding! 😦After lunch I went for a quick stroll, but the wind was blowing madly and it was raining heavily, so I ended up in a lovely shop called Second Love, where I found the perfect black sweater! It´s just the kind of shop I´d open myself, if I liked people enough to work with customer service all day. 😉  More about it in my next post!

The last hour went on slowly, I was cold and wet, so I took off my boots and curled up in the hotel sofa, with a warm cup of tea and wifi.

As refreshing it is to be out of town for a day or two, nothing beats getting home again to my pooches! ❤

xxx, Alina