Nuno Prospero dos Santos

According to Google Analytics, my blog has become famous around Bergen, Norway. I don’t have a clue about what are you looking for here, but you are welcome… Velkommen, Bergen Venner! I have been in Bergen a few months ago and this is my first post about it.

Bergen is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The center is a small village nearby the sea which has an original architecture – everything looks like a “dream-village” where people live in peace and harmony. You can find harbors for everything: small fishing boats, leasure boats and huge cruise ships. If you get lucky, you’ll find the traditional fish market place open! A nice place to experiment a nice snack with fresh shrimp, salmon and other seafood, right after being caught in the Ocean (by the way, this was our best meal in Norway!).

We took the Oslo – Bergen train. It is considered one of the best train trips of the world. It’s easy to understand that award – the beautiful landscapes from ocean to montain, passing through green fields, florest and snow plateaus are breath-taking!

One of my favourite hobbies is hiking. Leaving the car behind for one day and taking a long walk through nature. Simple and cheap. All you need is a good pair of shoes, something to drink (and eat) and… a good map!

When it comes to maps, a lot of companies appear with high prices. Google Earth / Maps has made a huge step bringing these kind of data to any people (with a good Internet connection and a good browser). However, it’s hard to print and it’s street-oriented, rather than Nature-oriented, which means that Google bought only detailed maps of the cities, the places that I try to avoid when hiking. :)

I’ve found a nice site with maps for many many countries. It has all Portuguese maps. They were made by the Portuguese Army and can be acquired on paper for about 5 €. This is a nice solution for hiking lovers: choose the appropriate map on the site and then go to Army and buy a high quality version on paper.

*update* 1) URL change 2) it’s so funny to find deprecated information in 2 years old posts…