You know you're in northern Norway when ...

... the local grocery store has a whole selection of dried cod snacks. Not just one brand, but a whole selection. :-D

Reindeer in the streets! :-D

Hurtigruten Midnatsol lying at anchor.

Spectacular ocean views ...

And, umm ... also a little exotic. Heated with excess heat from Snøhvit, Elin says. :-)

I'm here!

The trip went well, nothing out of the ordinary, just two hours on the plane during which I finished a good book and ate a sandwich. I left home at 1:40pm and was here at around 8:30 ... so a pretty long trip, and still in 'little' Norway. :-) Now I'm ready to go out and explore the town. Shop for postcards, perhaps. ;-) And of course take lots of pictures. Check this out, it's the view from Elin's living room. :-o

Off I go ...

So, going off to Hammerfest in about an hour now. My plane is at ten to four. Am currently stressed and nervous. :-) That's nothing special, I'm always like that when I'm traveling somewhere, it's normal. :-) One thing that strikes me: this trip coming so soon after the trip to Ireland really brings home to me how huge Norway really is. In Ireland - get this - we drove 2,275.4 kilometers in 8 days. :-o Yeah, seriously. Paz kept track. But then we covered like half the country ... I mean, we saw SO MUCH ... we zigzagged here, there and everywhere and got to see just a gadzillion wonderful things. Now I will have to travel 2,000 kilometers just to get to Elin. o_O First a two hour flight ... that's about the same time that it takes to fly to Dublin. But this time that will only get me to Alta, so then I have another two hours ahead of me in a bus. And I'm starting from Oslo, not from down south. So seriously, my fellow Norwegians, think twice before you say that you come from a tiny country. The nation is tiny, but the country's massive. :-D

I hope I'll be able to update the blog while I'm up north, but I make no promises. I'll be back on Monday. So, see you then, if not before. :-)

Damnit, and yay!

I was at Tronsmo yesterday making my monthly purchase, and I discovered that - damnit! - I will be missing their backyard sale this year. For those who will be in town (KAS, I'm looking at you ;-) it's August 27th through 29th. I usually go every year, it's the best backyard sale there is. They have competitive pricing and a much more interesting selection than the publishers who do the same thing. I'll be sorry to miss it, so damnit.

But also yay, because of the reason I'll be missing it. I'm going to Hammerfest! I was going to mention it when I bought my plane tickets, but I forgot. :-) I'm going to visit my BookCrossing friend Elin. It'll be pretty exotic for me, I've never been further north than Bodø. And even that was like 20 years ago. So yay. :-) I hope to get to see some reindeer running around. ;-)

So, I'll be missing an annual event for something that will be a unique experience. At least at this point ... I hope this won't be my only visit. I haz a plan. :-) And in any case, it's probably just as well that I don't go to the sale. I still have books from the same event last year and the year before that I still haven't read. :-o

But speaking of books, WTF is up with Outland?? Since when did they close the store in Paléet?? I haven't been there to check, I just see from both the websites that they must have closed it. And reopened it in Church Street, in a much bigger space. Seriously, it's enormous. I just accidentally walked past it yesterday and was so surprised. It's good that they have more space, I guess, but at the same time it's so sad that they're not in Paléet any more. The last time I was there, I didn't even know it was the last time. :-( But what are you gonna do. The new place is badly lit but is much bigger, so presumably they will now have even more cool stuff. :-) Ooh, guess what they have already - pick and mix Legos!! How cool is that! Gah, why is K.* still such a tiny baby?! I see so much fun stuff that I want to buy for her, but, to borrow a line from Erlend Loe, she's so little that she hardly understands anything. Damnit. :-)

*K. is my honorary niece, Calyx' and N.'s daughter. She is only 7 1/2 months old now, but as she gets older, I'm afraid I will have no choice but to spoil her rotten.