Trondheimsbesøk for å treffe Nils Kristen

Last weekend I took a little vacation to Trondheim to visit Nils. It was a very nice trip. It began before dawn on platform 9 3/4 at Östersunds Västra Station. I was drinking tea from a jar through my strainer-straw--(how shall I complete thee, sweet conceit? "sucking out its vital juices while I buzzed around like a mosquito trying to stay warm in the late October morning" or "lapping up its vital nectars whilst I flutterred about like an Antarctic butterfly..."). Anyway, while I was standing there, another fellow shuffled onto the platform and mestruckup a conversation withal. Now he can say he has met an eccentric barefoot from Alaska.

He was pratsam ("prate-some") and talked until he got off. It was fun to sit by him, even though he was from Malmö in Southern Sweden and was therefore endowed with a nearly unintelligible dialect, from my perspective. I picked up bits and pieces though. He had been to Alaska once. He also explained to me that Norway is like Sweden's little brother, parading around with its oil-money & newfangled independence, striving to escape the fraternal shadow. I thought it was a funny image.

It was a nice nostalgic journey to travel westwards on the trainline because I got to see all the aulden haunts through the window as we rushed passed Järpen, Åre, & Meråker (I did an exchange at a ski gymnasium five Falls ago). Even Trondheim brought back memories since I spent a little time there before.

Nils met me at the stasjon and we had a great time. We got along wonderfully right from the start (I wonder if he thinks the same thing) and I really enjoyed being around him again. It was two years ago that he skied for UAA so it had been a while since we had seen each other. I think we'll keep in much better contact over the next two years (all in svorsk, without an ounce of English of course), before it's Nils' turn to visit. We have both changed a little but in similar ways, I think.

Nils Kristen

"Unnskyld, skulle du kunne ta en bild av oss? Tusen takk"

By fortune there was a farmer's market that Saturday.

These two got in the way when I was trying to take a picture of the chalkboard.

Hahá--I rememered to get a picture... The funny thing is it means the same thing in the context of Norse mythology as it does to the majority of our three readers.