One thing I felt Selja was lacking was a characteristic row of boathouses you find along the Norwegian coastline. The Norwegian
naust is most often quite small, very often red, always made of wood, and sometimes furnished inside for family nights or even habitation, making them little cabins as well as storage buildings for boats.
The two left-most thumbnails are from Øygarden, the belt of islands west of Bergen. If you are ever in Bergen, the islands are always worth a visit, particularly if you rent a car and can really go exploring. The villages are pittoresque, the landscape itself is really special, with few trees and windswept rolling hills, and of course a view of the Atlantic Ocean, there is an American diner, you can hike mount Liatårnet and get one of the most spectacular views of the municipality, and there's even a WWII museum commemorating the brave sailors who ferried resistance people, supplies, and refugees between Norway and England. There's also plenty of room for hiking and pitching a tent.
Now, with the tourism pitch out of the way, let's see what Selja has in store for us today!
Naustrekka, a backyard soccer field, and an old bridge that is no more
So here is Selja's row of boathouses, simply called Naustrekka, or Boathouse Row, by the locals. It turned out to be somewhat tricky to get good screenshots of due to its length 
. I have to tell you, though, detailing this pittoreque row of boathouses was so much fun.
They may not look like much, in fact it possibly just looks like a row of 1x1 houses, but to me this is such an integral part of Norwegian culture.
Random backyard detailing. I like to add trampolines, benches, swing sets and barbeque grills, but I find that this easily makes all the backyards and areas between houses look too alike. Sometimes it seems to be enough to just add a pair of soccer goals.
For those having problems translating the Playstation 2 graphics, the white specks are supposed to be flowers
Sunset idyll.
My take at an old demolished bridge. This used to be the connection to the island. Now, like the old graveyard, it's become part of Selja's history. I can picture the local kids hiking out here and swimming out to climb the pylons, for then to hang out on top with a great view of the surroundings. Then if the river's deep enough, they probably dare each others to jump or dive off.
I dream of somehow exporting this town, buildings and all, to Unity or some other engine and making some kind of Night in the Woods-style game set in the town. If I did, I'd totally have the characters climb one of the pylons with a backpack's worth of snacks and have one of the game's conversations take place up there at some point.
The footprint again. You can see the new row of naust along the edge of the outermost island. I love how 'interconnected' everything is starting to feel, as in, you can be in some remote part of the town, but you can still look across the river at some other neighbourhood, harbour, or hiking trail.
Last bus to Naustrekka.
By the way, taking these screenshots finally prompted me to get some smaller buses from the workshop. No more giant tour buses to service this tiny backwater town
!
Edit: funny I should go with "Selja" for my town's name. I looked up the actual place the town is named after, and it turns out it's the name of
a specific monastery - and I've actually been there.
I went there with my class on an excursion with my
folk college way back when. We rode a boat to the island and got a guided tour with a history of the monastery. We were shown a spring that would make you one day younger when you drank from it. We were told that the first person to ring the bell would get good luck (I seem to recall), so some of the students raced each others up the spiral staircase in the tower to ring the bell. A couple students rigged a tightrope between two walls in the ruins. Selja is one of my fondest memories from that school year.
I guess it was meant to be.
