Norway August 27th aka Sunday

Breakfast was amazing. I was expecting something good as this was a factor in my hotel choice. I was to learn though that everywhere served good breakfasts. Still, this one was wonderful with an expansive buffet that I didn't even see the full extent of. I feasted on fresh fruit and a couple of rounds of something similar to scotch pancakes... but not. Plus a pot of tea. I had my own teabags and was served by someone who looked to be from India (and I think had an accent that would also indicate that) so I felt like there ought to be a joke about colonisation possible. I failed to think of one on the spot but gave an apologetic smile and expressed my thanks when she brought the pot of hot water over.

The trip to the airport went smoothly. On the (expensive) train to the airport, there was a flat screen that looped through adverts, news and general train information. I noted amusement that one advert featured a pre-teen flossing and also noted how bilingual everything was. Adverts clearly aimed at locals would be a true mix of Norwegian and English. I observed later too when I met up with Erik that he switched easily in discussion with e.g. bar staff (obviously talking more in Norwegian when not wanting me to understand).

I met up with Joe and Lisa at the gate for the flight to Tromso. Flight got in around 1pm and we headed to the town center in a taxi. It went through a tunnel that was expansive enough to include a roundabout. This prompted much glee (and I was to drive through this myself the next day when we went to Senja). The hotel allowed us to drop off bags and then we headed across a bridge to our first actual piece of tourism. It was strange that we'd been travelling for two days and weren't yet at the final destination.

The tourist spot was a church. It was small and unspecial but an amuse bouche. Then we headed up a cable car to Storsteinen mountain ledge where there were great views. It's hard in retrospect to talk excitedly about this and indeed at the time I was not exactly astounded but it was certainly nice. The thing I most remember though is scrambling around the mountain top with Joe talking about science and tech and generally enjoying the exercise of conversation.

We rounded off the day with a simple meal at the hotel which was part of the cost of the room. I found the food simple but tasty and pretty much hitting the mark of what I wanted especially when topped with a delicious chocolate fondant with raspberry sorbet.