Blå Rock, Tromsø, Norway
Created | Updated Dec 1, 2003
BLÅ ROCK CAFÈ, TROMSØ, NORWAY
(Means obviously Blue Rock (not a huge stone, think music)
THE BUILDING
Built, probably, just before or just after WW2, it's painted blue.
It has got 5 partial floors, but there's still air between them so you can look from the 5th floor down to the 1st. Thats rather crazy, because normaly a house of its size has only got two floors.... The point is obvious, lets just do something that makes this normal little house seem bigger. It does.
All over there are guitars with signatures on them by famous (and less famous) artists and there are some drums hanging upsidedown in the ceiling. The bad part about the drums are that there are no signatures on them. There are of course lots, lots and lots of bandposters all over (some with signatures), many fotos with famous musicians on them (all with signature, though they might be fake), covers (and just in case you didn't get it there are signatures on them too). There are also some moovieposters and other posters, which is marvellous. They are not marvellous simply because they are moovieposters or other posters, but because thay have no signatures.
If you're sitting at the 5th floor, you'll suddenly see the phrase; STAY SICK, written in yellow and red letters, why is it there everyone asks. The answer is; nobody knows for sure, but the only explanation ever heard was about a drunken student falling from the 5th floor, he fell down and hit the ground at the 1th floor.... He didn't die, though he stayed sick. By the way, STAY SICK is also written on the beerglases and the t-shirts of the people working there.
Stay Sick is however an album by The Cramps. Cramp is according to the Oxford advanced learner's dictionary of current english; sudden and painful tightening of the muscles. This makes the hole thing of course even sicker. Thats probably the reason why Blå Rock still keeps staying sick...
Blå Rock of course have a jukebox, but it's wasted money using it, because if you intend to stay there for a while. They'll play everything on it anyway, otherwise it's not really a point in being there....
In this Cafe they also got a pinball table, right now, they have a Guns n`Roses Flipper, which is ok.
and last, the toilets suck, but though they work perfectly well.
and absolutely at last because of the floors there are awful lot of stairs there and no elevator.
ALCOHOL
At night, the bar on the 2nd floor serves vodka, whisky, cognac (which norwegians are very fond of) and so on and of course also beer, to stay in this area you have to be 20 years old (at night).
If you are 18 or 19 you can stay on the 1,3,4 and 5 floor. on the 3d floor there is a bar serving beer, and some other ((silly) soft drinks)
This means that if you're above 18, but under 20, and handicapped, you can't stay in Blå Rock, because of all the stairs and the non-existant elevator...
The very good thing about Blå Rock is that they have 75 types of beer, like; Mack (local brewery), Koff (Finish), Grolsch (Dutch), Newcastle Brown Ale (English), Murphys (Irish), Budweiser (AM), Budvar (Czech, and much better than Budweiser), Carlsberg (Danish), Erdinger (German), Leffe (Belgian) and so on
They also have all the normal and not so normal types of spiritus, Fernet is a good one, people claim that if you drink Fernet you can drink as much as you want to the rest of the evening without puking. Don't believe them!
HAMBURGERS
Blå Rock claim to have the best burgers in town, they are right.
They can be brought anytime, besides at night, which is a pitty.
The hamburgers have names refering to whats inside them, just use your imagination; Elvis, Red Hot Chillipeppers, Dead Kennedies, Astroburger, Dinosaur Junior and so on, all of them can be brought as 100gr or 200gr, besides Dinosaur Jr. which is always 500gr.
There is also some other food, but you woudn't like to eat it. Not because it tastes bad, but because the burgers are so good!
PEOPLE
The people working there are nice, some more than others, but they are overal nice. Quite a few of them are musicians as well.
The people who goes there is a mixture of musicians and others. That means that the amount of musicians compared to other people is higher here than anywhere else in the town of Tromsø. Thats just positive, because musicians are, mostly, positive and good at, mostly, singing or playing an instrument.
OTHER THINGS TO REMEMBER:
Don't sit down at the table next to the bar at the 2nd floor, its reserved for the people working there and their frends. This means that it's never free anyway, and if it is, nobody will say anything if you sit down. So in real life it doesn't matter at all.
Ask before ordering a burger, they are VERY popular and if you are in a hurry you might not be able to eat it (It takes time to make really good burgers!).
At night you may have to pay 30NOK (3£/4$) this occurs almost only on fridays and saturdays.
There are frequent (good) concerts (for example The Hives and Flaming Sideburns) at Blå Rock, but then you'll have to pay an amount which changes, mostly between 100 and 250 NOK (10£-25£/15$-35$).
(Means obviously Blue Rock (not a huge stone, think music)
THE BUILDING
Built, probably, just before or just after WW2, it's painted blue.
It has got 5 partial floors, but there's still air between them so you can look from the 5th floor down to the 1st. Thats rather crazy, because normaly a house of its size has only got two floors.... The point is obvious, lets just do something that makes this normal little house seem bigger. It does.
All over there are guitars with signatures on them by famous (and less famous) artists and there are some drums hanging upsidedown in the ceiling. The bad part about the drums are that there are no signatures on them. There are of course lots, lots and lots of bandposters all over (some with signatures), many fotos with famous musicians on them (all with signature, though they might be fake), covers (and just in case you didn't get it there are signatures on them too). There are also some moovieposters and other posters, which is marvellous. They are not marvellous simply because they are moovieposters or other posters, but because thay have no signatures.
If you're sitting at the 5th floor, you'll suddenly see the phrase; STAY SICK, written in yellow and red letters, why is it there everyone asks. The answer is; nobody knows for sure, but the only explanation ever heard was about a drunken student falling from the 5th floor, he fell down and hit the ground at the 1th floor.... He didn't die, though he stayed sick. By the way, STAY SICK is also written on the beerglases and the t-shirts of the people working there.
Stay Sick is however an album by The Cramps. Cramp is according to the Oxford advanced learner's dictionary of current english; sudden and painful tightening of the muscles. This makes the hole thing of course even sicker. Thats probably the reason why Blå Rock still keeps staying sick...
Blå Rock of course have a jukebox, but it's wasted money using it, because if you intend to stay there for a while. They'll play everything on it anyway, otherwise it's not really a point in being there....
In this Cafe they also got a pinball table, right now, they have a Guns n`Roses Flipper, which is ok.
and last, the toilets suck, but though they work perfectly well.
and absolutely at last because of the floors there are awful lot of stairs there and no elevator.
ALCOHOL
At night, the bar on the 2nd floor serves vodka, whisky, cognac (which norwegians are very fond of) and so on and of course also beer, to stay in this area you have to be 20 years old (at night).
If you are 18 or 19 you can stay on the 1,3,4 and 5 floor. on the 3d floor there is a bar serving beer, and some other ((silly) soft drinks)
This means that if you're above 18, but under 20, and handicapped, you can't stay in Blå Rock, because of all the stairs and the non-existant elevator...
The very good thing about Blå Rock is that they have 75 types of beer, like; Mack (local brewery), Koff (Finish), Grolsch (Dutch), Newcastle Brown Ale (English), Murphys (Irish), Budweiser (AM), Budvar (Czech, and much better than Budweiser), Carlsberg (Danish), Erdinger (German), Leffe (Belgian) and so on
They also have all the normal and not so normal types of spiritus, Fernet is a good one, people claim that if you drink Fernet you can drink as much as you want to the rest of the evening without puking. Don't believe them!
HAMBURGERS
Blå Rock claim to have the best burgers in town, they are right.
They can be brought anytime, besides at night, which is a pitty.
The hamburgers have names refering to whats inside them, just use your imagination; Elvis, Red Hot Chillipeppers, Dead Kennedies, Astroburger, Dinosaur Junior and so on, all of them can be brought as 100gr or 200gr, besides Dinosaur Jr. which is always 500gr.
There is also some other food, but you woudn't like to eat it. Not because it tastes bad, but because the burgers are so good!
PEOPLE
The people working there are nice, some more than others, but they are overal nice. Quite a few of them are musicians as well.
The people who goes there is a mixture of musicians and others. That means that the amount of musicians compared to other people is higher here than anywhere else in the town of Tromsø. Thats just positive, because musicians are, mostly, positive and good at, mostly, singing or playing an instrument.
OTHER THINGS TO REMEMBER:
Don't sit down at the table next to the bar at the 2nd floor, its reserved for the people working there and their frends. This means that it's never free anyway, and if it is, nobody will say anything if you sit down. So in real life it doesn't matter at all.
Ask before ordering a burger, they are VERY popular and if you are in a hurry you might not be able to eat it (It takes time to make really good burgers!).
At night you may have to pay 30NOK (3£/4$) this occurs almost only on fridays and saturdays.
There are frequent (good) concerts (for example The Hives and Flaming Sideburns) at Blå Rock, but then you'll have to pay an amount which changes, mostly between 100 and 250 NOK (10£-25£/15$-35$).
