These mountains look unlike anything we’ve seen before….. strangely shaped, no wonder the local legends attribute them toTrolls!
Trolls.
In the last Post I showed you a photo of a large troll situated outside of a souvenir store in Honningsvag explaining that Trolls are a part of Norse Mythology. That may be an understatement.
After visiting the Troll Museum in Tromsø yesterday and seeing how these beings have infiltrated the lives of the Norwegians (and us!) I can safely state that they are huge both in size and effect!
Tromsø was our next Port of Call as we hopscotch our way down the coast of Norway until we arrive in Bergen in a few more days. The coast here would be akin to the Inside Passage of Alaska as we are meandering our way through the waterways between the islands.
And in Tromsø is the Troll Museum.
To illustrate how the Trolls have weaved their way into even our lives I will invite you to take a short Time Travel Trip back to when we all sat in front of the TV on a Saturday morning watching our favorite cartoons.
Enter Elmer Fudd on an early morning hunt. He stealthily stalks his quarry as the sun is just rising, the birds are softly chirping, and butterflies make their way across the screen. In the background we hear a rather famous piece of music (although we did not know it then). It is Morning from Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, a five-act play first given in the late 1870’s. Mr. Ibsen is Norwegian and his play is about a young man, Peer Gynt who is not particularly nice, has way too many issues, runs afoul with just about everyone including some Trolls and the Mountain King, who himself is a Troll.
Now quickly GOOGLE ‘Morning Peer Gynt’ and transport yourself back to that seat right in front of your TV….. (don’t forget your bowl of Choco-Frosted Gigundo Sugar Bombs!) and while you are at it, further check out ‘In The Hall of The Mountain King’, (a piece from the same production) I promise that a smile will come to your face as you recognize this music also!
Now, who knew that Trolls could have so much of an effect on us way over here! (Rhetorical…. you don’t have to answer that one!)
We did not meet any Trolls in Tromsø, everyone was very nice and the day itself was the best weather we’ve had so far. We opted to have Glenn (our resident Tour Guide) walk us around as we gave up our spots on the complimentary Walking Tour of the city. Tromsø is a bit larger than our last couple of Ports, as the population stands around 80,000 instead of 2500! It is a rather official ‘last chance’ of real civilization before heading out into the Arctic, much the same way Ushuaia is down in Argentina for trips to Antarctica.
Across from here is the Church of the Arctic and behind us is a famous hot dog stand where we had lunch!
Which I guess would also make it the “Most Northern Smallest Bar in the World” as that moniker gets pasted on almost anything around these parts.
Paula and Carol had the reindeer/beef hotdogs while Glenn and I chickened out and had the pork/beef ones.
The Reindeer ones were, according to Paula, “The best hot dog I’ve ever had!”
Many of the old buildings have luckily survived as they were not razed during WWII
All of these Norwegian towns have been very welcoming, very clean, and each has some unique feature about it, no matter what size the town happens to be! And I’m sure that you can tell that the weather has changed for the better!
