Our last full day in Norge! We slept in a bit, slowly waking to the sounds of a hard rain falling outside. A small breakfast of very scrumptious vanilla bean yogurt with some trail mix and tea was on order for the day. And guess what else? MORE IRONING!!! These clothes are still not completely dry after two days of hanging. Whatever. They are getting packed and tossed in the dryer at home within 24 hours. At least they are clean so we'll only have one load to wash when we return. And I'll tell you what, the first order of business is snuggling my kitties, and brewing a fresh batch of French pressed coffee, made Schmoopie-style!!! For dinner, I want me some Kindho and a big ole beer! Or maybe just head down to our favorite watering hole, Fulton Brewery, and grab some food-truck food. We are ready to come home.
The weather cleared up, for the most part, for a lovely last day. We wandered around looking fruitlessly for Dashiell Hammett novels translated into Norwegian again, perused the fish market that lies right along the pier and took photos of the smoked whale. Yes, they eat whale here, as well as horse, which seems odd to me as ecologically aware as Noway as a whole seems to be, apparently hunting endangered species doesn't niggle at their collective conscience? Speaking of niggling consciences, mine has been in overdrive since we first saw how many women are destitute on the streets here. As we passed one aged women, I finally resolved to give her all the change in my pocket, which was the very least I could do. As I dropped it in, our eyes and smiles met, and I felt pangs tugging at me. Pangs about what I believe in, and how to live up to those beliefs. I fear I fail at it. I know it wasn't much, and the problem is a complicated one that my spare change won't fix, but perhaps it bought her a meal tonight.
On a lighter note, there was a man feeding the birds, and as they flocked around him, we took photos of the gulls, wrens and a funny kind of bird that is everywhere here that John dubbed the "Crowgen", which literally looks and acts exactly like a crow crossed with a pigeon. They are quite interesting and funny to watch, I wish we had video snippets of them. There's another elusive bird here that is so cute, but they flit away the minute we get close enough to snap the shutter. They are tiny and have really long tails that twitch up and down every time they land. Cuteness!
We then hit the kino (cinema) to see Brave, the new Pixar movie. We LOVED it!!! It's awesome and touching and fun. It made me realize, once again, how important it is to make memories and love in life rather than money or status or stuff. That following your dreams isn't merely doing what you want to do or finding the right path, it's making every thing you do important, worthwhile, joyous, meaningful, loving, honorable, fair, just. It's creating the path, not simply stumbling upon it. I got all verklempt at the poignant scenes, and we were gooey-eyed Schmoopies afterwards feeling free and thankful for each other <3 After the flick, we strolled along enjoying the on and off again sunny-sprinkles, and decided since it was fairly clear, we'd take the Floibanen again. What a great decision! The views were beautiful, the whole bay and boats and old fashioned cityscape can be seen from the top. There are tons of hiking trails with impressive Norwegian woods, the forest floors covered in thick, bright green mosses and huge mushrooms, the trees stretching their leafy arms to the skies and their bark coated thickly with lichen, and tons of troll carvings, totems, and play areas built into the trails for kids to play and dream. I've never seen so many trees with true fairy doors! You know, the little openings at the base of trees that lead into mysterious and tricksy portals into Elsewhere? All the tiny doors had moss and clover and perfect mushrooms growing in them, looking like miniature gardenscapes in a fantasy land :)
Taking the return journey down the Floibanen was interesting with the entire thing packed with boisterous Italian tourists, we laughed with them all the way down. Wandering back through the now-familiar route to the hotel through the garden gate, having our last meal here at the To Sostre, snuggling together watching our programs over tea, then heading to bed with our books, eager to step over our own threshold again to our wonderful life in Minneapolis. Leaving home and seeing the wide world is a great adventure, and when I was a younger person, it felt stifling to return to a city that seemed ever to shrink knowing there was so much more out there. But now? Now we return knowing there is so much at home to explore, that every walk we take we see new things and share new thoughts together, and that our home is the perfect place to always return, for that is where we make our universe :)
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