Heading into the Wild Blue Yonder: From Bergen to Norway's Awe-inspiring Fjords

奔向野外广阔蓝天：从卑尔根到挪威震撼人心的峡湾

Gateways¹ tend to be things you wander through without dawdling1, without expectation, on the way to somewhere else.

门户往往不是你满怀期待、信步通过之地，而是通往它处的一段路程。

So I was wary⁴ on arrival in Bergen to see posters describing Norway’s second-largest city as ‘the gateway² to the fjords’, even though they were high on the agenda during a short, but irresistibly⁵ sweet, trip to a part of the world about which we know far too little.

所以，一到卑尔根我就小心地看着一张张海报，上面将挪威的第二大城市描述为“通往峡湾的门户”，尽管后者才是这次短途游日程上的主项——旅程虽短却充满令人欲罢不能的甜蜜，通向世上一个我们知之甚少的地带。

Mind you, I’d heard the joke about the tourist in Bergen who asked a local lad: ‘Does it always rain here?’ To which the boy replied: ‘I don’t know, I’m only seven.’

请注意，我曾听过一个关于卑尔根游客的笑话。他问当地的一个小孩：“这儿常下雨吗?”小男孩答道：“不清楚哇，我才7岁呢。”

Sure enough it was drizzling⁶ as we arrived in town (a sort of Scottish drizzle⁷, but with an hour’s time difference). We checked into the Radisson Blu Hotel along with a few hundred others who were there for a medical conference of some sort or other.

不出所料，我们到达镇上时正下着蒙蒙细雨(有点像苏格兰的毛毛雨，不过两地有1小时的时差)。我们下榻于丽笙蓝标酒店，这里还入住了几百位来此参加某个医疗会议的人士。

No, not exactly a boutique hotel experience, but one that plonked2 us bang on Bryggen, the famous and much photographed wharf3 with its higgledy-piggledy wooden buildings that rightly have made it on to Unesco’s World Heritage List.

不，这并非只是下榻了一次精品酒店，而是将我们一下子抛到布里根这一被镜头竞相追逐的著名码头。此地错落有致的木质建筑使其理所当然地入选联合国教科文组织的世界遗产名录。

Then, as we started exploring, we realised this particular gateway is one where dawdling³ is very much in order. Bergen is perfect to negotiate on foot. Safe, hospitable⁹, self-assured, it’s no surprise that easy Jet has just added this former capital city to its roster¹⁰ of Scandinavian destinations.

接着，探索旅程开始在即，我们意识到闲逛是通过这一特别通道的上佳之选。卑尔根非常适合步行穿越。旅途既安全又舒服，让人充满信心。英国易捷航空将这一挪威古都列入公司的北欧航线名册也就不足为奇了。

Quaint¹¹ doesn’t do Bergen justice, though it does have a toy town air about it with its immaculately4 clean streets and unthreatening, unedgy vibe. And here’ s a sweeping¹² generalisation: Norwegians seem effortlessly (dread phrase) ‘comfortable in their own skins’ — and comfortably off, too.

用“古色古香”来描述卑尔根并不恰如其分，虽然它的确有种玩具古堡的架势——街道一尘不染，全无压迫紧张之感。一言概之，挪威人似乎毫无负担地(挺邪乎的词)——且衣食无忧地——“安于自我”。

The oil rigs in the north of the country keep the economy nicely lubricated while making the likelihood of EU membership as remote as ever.

该国北部的石油产业保障其经济相当顺畅地运行，但也令其加入欧盟的可能性一直遥不可及。

That’s good news for Norwegians when they take their krones abroad, but not so good when the rest of us bring our pounds to Bergen. Make that £7 for a beer, £10 for a glass of wine.

当挪威人在国外花克朗时，上述情况是利好消息，但对我们其他这些在卑尔根花英镑的英国人来说就不那么好了。买杯啤酒要花7英镑，而一杯红酒则要10英镑。

Famous Norwegians? Tricky¹³. There are lots of explorers and plenty of champion skiers. There’s the former Manchester United footballer Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the playwright¹⁴ Henrik Ibsen and the composer EdvardGreig, who came from Bergen and whose home is now a museum and concert venue¹⁵.

挪威有哪些名人呢?问题有点难度。这里诞生了众多探险家和滑雪冠军。还有前曼联球员索尔斯克亚、剧作家亨利克·易卜生及作曲家爱德华·格里格，后者就是卑尔根人，其寓所现在成了博物馆和音乐场地。

For sure, it’s the country’s landscape that is the real star. And it’s certainly easily accessible from Bergen. We got an 8.40am train for the popular all-day trip known breezily as Norway In A Nutshell.

当然，真正令人瞠目的是该国的风景。当然在卑尔根便可一览。我们乘坐早上8点40分的火车进行了当地很流行的一日游，其名如熙风般令人舒爽——挪威缩影。

This unhurried, but substantial tour starts with two spectacular hours on Northern Europe’s highest railway to Myrdal, where the station staff wear Postman Pat hats and merrily blow whistles. From Myrdal you switch trains and drop down to the famous little port of Flam through snowy mountains and past dozens of waterfalls.

这次旅程从容自在却内涵丰富。旅途的头两小时相当壮丽——我们行驶在通往米达尔的北欧海拔最高的公路上。这里的站台人员都戴着派特叔叔式的邮差帽，快活地吹着口哨。旅客要在米达尔转车，途经白雪皑皑的山峦和十几条瀑布，最终到达著名小港弗洛姆。

I expected to see Julie Andrews and her Von Trapp brood skipping beside the rickety track. And then, when we stopped at the Kjosfossen waterfall, everyone spilled out onto a platform 2,400 ft above sea level and two women in flowing red dresses appeared from behind a giant rock and began dancing seductively.

我期盼见到茱莉·安德鲁斯及冯特拉普上校一家(《音乐之声》里的人物)在老铁轨边上滑雪。后来，当列车在肖斯弗森瀑布停下时，大家都蜂拥而出，来到海拔2400英尺的月台上。一块巨石背后突然闪现两位身着飘逸红裙的女士，开始翩翩起舞，好不迷人。

Apparently¹⁶, they were dressed as mythical¹⁷ forest creatures called Huldras and their dresses were disguising cow’s tails. If they could lure¹⁸ a man, their tails would drop off and they could return to normal life in the city. A good summer job for budding ballerinas5.

显然，她们扮成了神秘的丛林精灵Huldra(北欧神话人物，牛尾人身的女妖)的模样，其长裙伪装成牛尾。如果她们能诱得男人上钩，身后的尾巴就会脱落，她们就能回到城市正常生活了。这种表演真是芭蕾新秀们的一份夏日美差。

Our return to normal life was an abrupt6 one in Flam, where a huge cruise ship occupied the main dock. This is cruise central in summer, so you just have to regard Flam — with its microbrewery7, museum, touristy restaurants and souvenir shops — as a fjord hub.

到了弗洛姆，我们又突然回归到“现实生活”中，一座如峡湾“心脏”的巨大游轮赫然占据了主码头——里面小酿酒 厂、博物馆、游客就餐的饭馆及纪念品店一应俱全。

For us, it was where we hopped¹⁹ on board a boat and chugged all the way to Gudvangen via the Aurlandsfjord and the narrower Naeroyfjord, both magnificent, both virtually unsullied by the trappings of 21st-century living.

而我们，则在此跳上一艘小船，在全程突突作响的发动机声中到达古德维根，途中经过了奥兰德峡湾和更加逼仄的纳若峡湾，这两个地方都那么宏伟壮丽，显然未受现代生活的侵染。

At one point on this two-hour cruise, I popped my head into the captain’s cabin to ask a question and he invited me in. He was a dead ringer for Captain Bird’s Eye.

在两个小时的游弋中，我曾把头探进船长室打听事情，并获邀进入。他真是像极了鸟眼船长(注：是西方家喻户晓的美国最大的冷冻蔬菜食品公司Birds Eye食品公司广告中的人物)。

‘Do you mind if I do?’ he asked, picking up a packet of tobacco and cigarette papers. ‘Not at all,’ I said. ‘Do you mind if I steer²⁰ the ship?’ I asked a few minutes later. ‘Not at all,’ he said.

“你介意我抽烟吗?”船长一边拿起一小包烟草和一些卷纸，一边问。“完全不介意，”我说。过了一会，我问，“我能来掌舵吗?”“没问题，”船长说。

And so, for the next ten minutes, I was at the helm8, steering²¹ a perfect line through some of the most perfect waters in the world.

就这样，接下来的十分钟，我操纵舵盘，熟练地在世上最无暇的水域之一行进。

It was only later that the captain explained we had been on auto-pilot all along. After arriving in Gudvangen, we took a bus to Voss. The route included the Stalheimskleiva road, with its notorious hairpin²² bends that make San Francisco’s Lombard Street look like child’s play.

可后来船长就向我解释，我们其实一直处在自动舵模式。到达古德维根后，我们乘公交到了沃斯。斯塔尔黑姆斯克雷瓦公路就在这条线路上，其迭起的险弯是出了名的难行，相比之下，走旧金山的九曲花(正式称伦巴底)街看来就容易得多了。

I concentrated on admiring the gushing9 water crashing over the rocks on either side of us, rather than imagining our bus crashing into the rocks and joining the gushing²³ water.

我全神贯注地欣赏起两侧岩壁上一泻而下的流水，却未想见我们所乘的公交已然闯进重重岩壁，汇入滔滔流水中。

While waiting for our final train back to Bergen from Voss, I bought a rug made from reindeer10, then followed that up later with fillet11 of reindeer²⁴ at the excellent Bryggeloft&Stuene restaurant (founded in 1910) on the wharf⁸.

在等待从沃斯最终搭火车回卑尔根的当尔，我买了一条驯鹿皮做的小地毯，后来又在码头上鼎鼎有名的Bryggeloft&Stuene餐馆(1910年始建)买了一条驯鹿肉。

After rounding off the night with a couple of Aquavits, the local liqueur12 made from potatoes, we were ready to sleepwalk back to the hotel. Next morning we took the funicular13 up to a wonderful vantage14 point high above the city: a busy port, a purposeful town, mountains, bridges and water everywhere.

晚上几杯白兰地下肚，享用了当地土豆制成的利口酒后，我们如梦游般晕乎乎地返回旅馆。翌日，我们沿索道登上海拔高于这座城市的一处绝佳地点：这里有繁忙的港口、刚毅的城镇、起伏的群山、数不清的水桥和无处不在的湖水。

We gulped²⁵ the crisp air and marvelled²⁶ at it all. We had read that 90 per cent of all the buildings burned down in the devastating²⁷ fire of 1702, but brave Bergen bounced back — and today this charming, unpretentious15 city is far more than a mere²⁸ gateway to somewhere else.

我们呼吸着清新的空气，心中满是叹服。从文献上我们得知这里90%的建筑物都毁于1702年的大火，但勇敢无畏的卑尔根浴火重生——而今，这座迷人且朴实无华的城市绝不仅是通往别处的门户通道。