I Sommerlyshuset
In this episode, we make new friends, sleep a lot, and do the laundry.
Good hosts
It feels so good to be welcomed into someone’s home. We spent three nights in Tromsø, sleeping in Sietske’s room and enjoying the quiet moments in our days with Ira. She welcomed us when we arrived, showed us where the bicycles lived, helped us figure out the laundry and all of the normal new-place things, and then set us free to play at life for a while in a beautiful home in the north.
Most of the time we spent in Tromsø, we spent catching up on clerical things. We shopped for groceries. I bought bigger rubber gloves and some truly majestic rain pants.
I am now invulnerable to the elements.
We got a few things squared away with the bicycles. I checked in with my future employer, wrapped up some loose ends with the Cap Lab, and chipped away at the blog. Our friend at the City of Flagstaff’s land trust program called. She’s helping us through the process of selling our house, so we had a super awesome call with her in the middle of a Norwegian shopping mall. We took lovely and much-needed showers, and got all our laundry clean and dry. We even took a few minutes to map our travels to date.
It’s amazing how busy days off can feel when you have so much to catch up on.
The fun stuff
The rest of our time was the best of our time.
We went to the museum of polar exploration, which was fascinating and sometimes very challenging. Reading about man’s ingenuity in the mechanization of seal harvest hurt. The section on the Nansen expedition was amazing, though, and seeing one of the original kayaks (from the 1890s voyage) was awesome. I could have spent days in their map room; the collection of ancient and absurd maps of Norway on display was just too cool.
We walked, and rode, and sat by the Prestvannet, the small lake in the center of Tromsøy. The lake itself is lovely and serene. The walking trails around it are busy and social. After riding hard to reach Tromsø, we were a bit worn out, and may not have been able to appreciate it fully.
We had long, lovely conversations with Ira, about books, music, Norway, hopes and dreams, travel, and the collapse of the Greek educational system. I hope we get to see her again someday. Best of all, Ira and Jean from downstairs coordinated a little pot-luck dinner for all of us. H made a big pan of delicious fried rice, Ira whipped up a pot of Greek lentil soup, and Jean made pasta.
Still hungry, Anouk and I spent a while making pizza and pouring leaves from one vessel to another. I just wish my Norwegian were good enough to understand what that was all about!
We talked with Jean about kitchen design, then Mattias got the guitar down and we had a great sing-along. Lessons learned:
- Put your windows over counter space, not above sinks or stoves. It’s better.
- Learn to play a few songs on a common instrument. Sharing music with people is great.
Leave-taking
We had initially planned to stay for 1-2 nights, but had so much fun, and took so long to get our act together, that we ended up staying a third.
We made fancy dessert, met Sietske briefly when she got home on our last night, and talked bikes and plants and islands and other good things before turning in. Such a wonderful stay!
New friends
- Ira
- Sietske
- Mattias
- Jean
- Anouk
- mjødurt
