Our overnight back from Narvik was uneventfully sublime. Have I mentioned how much we love trains? It takes much more than two 22-hour train trips in 3 days to diminish our enjoyment of riding the rails. On this trip we reunited with our old friend Alf and learned how to make the seat into a bed (last time I slept on the narrow seat because we didn't know the trick). The Norwegian landscape was just as beautiful coming down as going up and when we got back to Stockholm this afternoon, for the first time we found the ticket office without getting lost (we have walked around that station in ever-expanding circles numerous times looking for that ticket office which appears to pop in and out of time warps).
The next train to Oslo wasn't a perfect connection--this one required two transfers, one of which had only 8 minutes between trains, but nobody seemed concerned because trains here are on time. And we had just booked an airbnb apartment in Oslo and didn't want to come in late to make our host wait up so we didn't want to wait for a through train. You can see where this is going.
Yes, the second transfer was late. By 15 minutes! Unheard of!! The conductor placated the unhappy passengers by offering everyone on the train a free drink and goodie from the bistro. But we were still stranded in Kongsvinger--for a whole hour. We were late coming into Oslo, it was getting dark, but we found our bus, got to the apartment, Anna (the owner's) sister, Solvieg, was there to meet us--everything was going smoothly again.
Then Solvieg found the key to the apartment was missing from the key ring. She invited us to her home while she tried to track down the key but we declined (we were dirty and tired and belonged outside) and settled on the steps to wait. The man next door, Torvil (?) came home and we had a nice visit with him. He's going to California in a couple of months to visit his in-laws. Then Solvieg came back with glasses and a cold drink to keep us company while we waited for Anna's son-in-law to come (in an hour) with the key. We had a great visit and then she went home to finish up the bread she was baking. We sat on the steps some more, giddy after such a long and silly day. We'd get up occasionally as residents came by on the steps, all very friendly and a little perplexed at these people with luggage camping out by the elevator. Then the neighbor across the way, Walberg, came out and invited us to wait in her apartment. We declined again but she stayed to visit and we found lots in common. Walberg has some California relatives coming in a couple of days and invited us over to meet them on Sunday morning.
Anna's son-in-law brought the keys, but in the meantime we've developed a whole community of friends here.
No comments:
Post a Comment