Sleep. That is what we needed now. Lots of sleep. Sounds silly to be in such a beautiful place, I know, but we really did need a good down day.
On the 20th of November, the sun bids farewell to Tromso, and stays away until after December. That does not mean that they live in complete darkness though. From about 9am they have dusky daylight that lasts until just after 2pm. This small window shrinks daily until the 22nd of December, when they have a mere 2 hours dusklight.
We lazed around until after noon, when we decided that food might be a good option, so set off to find a grocery store. That was quite entertaining. Some observations:
- fresh vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and greenpeppers are individually clingwrapped
- they have the biggest and shiniest apples! We bought four, and when Nicole ate hers, it was turning brown, simply because she could not eat it fast enough.
- their normal sliced loaves of bread are about one and a half times the size of our loaves
- they have packets of frozen breadrolls, bagels, etc
- brown cheese is apparently quite big here. Asbjorn's wife had told us how they cook the cheese a bit longer, which turns it into a light brown colour. It tastes a bit caramelly.
- they have the best tea "sticks" - a long thin foilish tube filled with tea leaves with little holes. You simply stick this in your cup, and use the top end to stir or remove it with. Really cool!
- vienna balls - little round viennas the size of grapes. We decided that we would use this for spaghetti and vienna balls.
We must have wandered around the store for about an hour, and could not believe that it had turned completely dark outside. And so, even though our brunch was more like a late lunch, it did feel quite strange to have it by candlelight.
We took a late afternoon drive into the city centre, and walked about the streets for a while. Most of the shops were already closed, but we were quite happy to settle for the cheaper version of window shopping. We loved what we saw. Scandinavians are famous for their design skills, and when you combine this with their rich tradition of vikings, trolls and 'Nisse' (their Santa Clause), you can well imagine the beautiful things they have in their shops.
I'm pleased that I opted for selfcatering accommodation in Tromso. It almost gives us the feeling of living here, and so far, we are very happy to be able to 'live' here
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