This morning I stood waiting for the bus and the stereotypical Norwegian arrived wearing his "Skullcandy" headphones, tight jeans, and leaning casually on the bus stop. We both minded out own business of course, but we were briefly united as a car sped by splashing a big puddle of water across both of our legs. We simultaneously looked down at the damage, and then look at each other, and laughed. Then, back to the solitude, but for a brief moment, I think I bonded with a Norwegian.
I made an important discovery this weekend, that despite two years of studying peace studies, I am not a hippie. The big discovery came thanks to the Karlsøy music festival.
The Karlsøy music festival is a five day music/art/political festival that takes place on a small island about 1 and a half hour boat ride from Tromsø. Apparently in the 1960's, a group of people moved to the island to form a unique living community, or commune, in which the ideals of peace, love, and community would actually exist. These ideals are embodied in the festival which gives space for political demonstration, political films, political music groups, and a week of community in a wind-swept, small, isolated island only accessible by boat three times a day.
It sounded like a great chance to take part in a unique festival here in Norway, so Elisa (who has been visiting me from Spain!) and I decided to go a day before the music to enjoy three full days of community. We arrived and saw the small number of buildings painted with sunshines, rainbows, and doves. We walked by the large tents where the music events would take place and headed to the field to find a place to set up our tent. We had packed well for the trip with enough food for a week, even though we were staying three days, including: Spanish tortilla, pasta salad, meat and vegetables for grilling, a one time use grill, 6 litres of beers, a little tequilla, bread and peanut butter, and lots of salty snacks. Unfortunately, our outdoor skills paled in comparison to food abilities.
We arrived to a location that looked good to our untrained eyes, and as soon as we started setting up the tent, the storm arrived. Suddenly the wind started blowing it started to downpour, not in the typical vertical way, but in a horizontal, wind-driven rain that penetrated our gore-tex, getting our tent, our bags, and us completely wet. We got the tent set up and sought refugee inside (of course after helping another girl set up her tent in the name of community). Once inside we took off our wet clothes and realized that everything was wet, from our extra clothes to our tortilla. We ate our Spanish tortilla trying to stay positive, and went into a small building where they showed a documentary about the occupying/squatters movement in Copenhagen. We then went to the large tent where there was a fire and enjoyed a conversation about the medicinal power of red root before heading back to our little tent.
We then endured an extreme night of continuous rain and wind. A constant 30-40 mph wind with constant rain meant that we got little sleep and where constantly shivering. We thought that morning would bring new hope, but instead we awoke to the same strong wind with occasional downpours. One of the sticks of our tent that was facing the wind was starting to bend, and we were nervous that soon we would be blown away like Dorothy. We headed to "town," meaning the one building by the dock where the cafe and post office were connected, and had a cup of coffee with the locals. We started talking with one of the locals who said that there was a boat leaving at 12:15. We looked at each other and decided that was it.
We dashed back to our wet camp, tore everything down and shoved it in my backpack and did our typical dash to the boat just in time to come home. When we arrived from the boat we saw the huge line of people heading to Karlsøy. They looked a little curious wondering if we knew that the festival was just starting, and we just had to nod and admit that, no. We're not hippies.
We headed home to hot showers, movies, and began to eat our food that was already prepared. Pasta salad, grilling, and lots of great snacks. Not bad. Of course, today it is sunny and would have probably been a perfect day for a festival, but I think both Elisa and I are content to support alternative living from a distance. Peace and love from the couch.
The multimedia has been lacking lately from the old blog, so I thought it was time to catch up, in a big way! I have added photos, complete with the locations where they were taken, captions, and space for comments. The pictures start from my family's visit in the middle of June until today. To enjoy them, just click on the photos link above.
I also added a new link: video! We made a few videos singing on the bus on the way to town, so if you want to hear some bad singing and smiley faces, check out the videos.
Hopefully I'll keep up to date now, so keep checking back for more multimedia!
I've had a great time this summer showing off Tromsø to the friendly hoard of silver haired tourists. As you can see from these photos, it's fun stuff! Today we had a perfect, sunny day and a great trip to the Wilderness Center on an island near Tromsø where we had a great view and lots of fun with their Alaskan husky sled dogs. Props to Stewart for the great photos.
Holding one of the two week old Alaskan Husky puppies at the Wilderness Center. Hard not to love them, even if you're not a dog person.
Our puppets, I mean, tourists waving at the camera at our behest while sitting in our traditional Sami lavu. Kind of like a teepee outfitted for lots of tourists
And the great view from the Wilderness Center of both the landscape and the meet and greet for the tourists and dogs. Over 200 dogs and just under 100 Brits. A good ratio I think.
If you want a tour, feel free to come to Tromsø! We'll be happy to show you this beautiful city.
The past weekend has been spent enjoying one of Tromsø's summer highlights: the Bukta music festival! I had the chance to enjoy some great acts like Calexico, Johnossi, and Sivert Høyem and some crazy acts like Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Yes, iggy in all his 90-ish years of glory was on the stage prancing around in his leather skin, sans leather jacket (or shirt). I even got into the front row after moshing around with the relatively peaceful Norwegians. It was a great concert that seemed to follow the typical music festival pattern of lots of rain! But with plenty of layers of rainproof clothes, I stayed warm and had a great time!
Now it's back to the real work, and I'll start by giving two tours tomorrow to a bunch of old British people! But they're usually very friendly so I'll be ready to show of Tromsø.
I just returned home having survived the second attack of the day. Yes, it is the beginning of July and I am quickly learning that it is seagull hatching season. This means that suddenly the bushes and lawns are suddenly filled with ugly, furball baby seagulls. They have an ugly white and grey speckled color like an ugly, old man sweater and they cackle incessently, seemingly protesting their inability to fly. To compensate for this important defect, their parents (and their parents' friends) hover over the babies to protect them.
The parents position themselves on lights and chimneys keeping watch, and when someone approaches their helpless babes, they call out for help. Within seconds two birds are flying circles around the baby while the third is on attack mode...literally. It dive bombs the innocent passerby (me), diving directly at my head with its mouth open, cawking and shitting in its attempt to scare me away...and it usually works. Those ugly beasts of flight are not to be trifled with, so I usually make some weird noise (like uhaww!!) and duck, trying to avoid the onslaught.
It's a dangerous season here in Tromsø, but I will do my best to enjoy the amazing weather and midnight sun while surviving the unprovoked attacks.
What is this weird Crazy Horse-like shape on my blog? Well, the path of my recent summer travels! I have enjoyed a few great weeks traveling with my family through Norway from Kirkenes all the way to Trondheim, then from Trondheim to Asturias, Spain to spend time with my friend Elisa, and now on my way back to norway...unfortunately, Norwegian airlines is a bit slow coming to London so I'll be late getting back to Norway. But, with free internet and plenty of e-mails to catch up on, hopefully i'll keep busy! More to come soon.
