I remember well my very first day in Norway, even though it was in 1969 - over fifty years ago. We had come to Bergen by boat and were making our way towards the city centre. We, that was Colin and me. We had started learning Norwegian at London University in September 1968, and had been sent to Norway for a few months in order to learn more of the language.
Our suitcases were rather heavy, so we decided to put them in left luggage while we tried to find somewhere to spend the night. Neither of us knew what “left luggage” is in Norwegian, so I found my dictionary in my suitcase and looked up the word. It was a very long word for me to get my untrained tongue round, but I asked a passing man, and he answered “Skur sju”. I had no idea what these two words meant, so Colin started searching in the dictionary.
“I think I’ve found the first word,” he said proudly.”He said skur, that means shower.” “Don’t look at me, “ I said, “I had a shower on the boat.” “Or it could be scrub, or shed, “ he added.
In the end we knew that we were looking for Shed Seven, which is one of several small buildings that are dotted along the seafront in Bergen harbour.
Having got rid of our suitcases we went to meet a teacher at the university who had promised to find us lodgings for the night. It was in a bed and breakfast place near the Cathedral, and I remember being amazed by the sumptuous continental breakfast that we had the next morning.