Ålesund, Norway

It is true that I take my travels for granted, because after all, they are part of my work and it is not really my choice to wake up every morning in different country, it just happens.
Same probably for a train conductor, who is too focused on work to actually pay attention on places outside. Also, don't forget, dear reader that I am here to work and have far less free time than passengers who can go outside whenever they want. I usually have all sorts of extra work, drills, meetings and whatnot. It actually happens quite often that I am not exactly sure where I am and sometimes I mix up all these cities, even countries - to my biggest embarrassment, recently I found myself recommending a visit to church in Oslo, when in fact it turned out I was actually thinking about Helsinki (which is completely another country). Oh well. No wonder, since there are so many places I visit every day that sometimes it all becomes one big blur and when I glance outside from the ship window, sometimes i don't recognise the view.

However, there is one really beautiful spot that i want to mention here and that is little city in Norway called Ålesund.

It is absolutely unexpectedly pretty spot, the city architecture is so beautiful and intensely pleasant to eye that it took me some time before I discovered what actually makes it so uniquely pretty - where other cities are usually more or less combinations of different centuries merged next to each other, the architecture of Ålesund is simply breath-taking Art Noveau all over the place. Each house compliments the other, nothing sticks out and everything looks superbly matched - and why is it so, what is the secret of Ålesund? It turned out the whole town burned to the ground a hundred years ago and everything was rebuild between 1904 and 1910, with help of Norway's best designers and architects - that is why all these houses looks so pretty and complimenting each other - it is basically a new city, build around the same time and no wonder it all looks so nice. Than again, we also have completely new area of my hometown Zagreb and although it was built at the same time, results are ugly, modern skyscraper buildings (so called "New Zagreb") that nobody in their right mind could call beautiful. So I congratulate to beautiful Ålesund and its creators, because they didn't just build whatever but designed beauty on every corner and its a really unexpected delight to walk in town and suddenly stop in tracks, just admiring the view. It might be one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen.