Venice beneath the veil

Standing atop the troll tongue, a piece of ice age rock, horizontally hanging out of a mountain, overlooking a lake in the west of Norway, I was amazed how I almost skipped it

Starting in Mumbai in the summer of 2010, I decided to pack my bags and head to Norway, starting with the Queen’s Land (Not the one in Australia! Punctuation matters!)

Everyone in Mumbai told me London is expensive, who said Sweden is very expensive, and who in turn gave the crown to Norway! This was naturally very unsettling given my limited budget.
Driving from Sweden I didn’t even realize when I reached Norway! The ø vs the ö gave me my answer. Given the last war was fought 200 years ago, there is great peace. War reminds me of Vikings and I would want to say they were not these horned-helmet, gigantic people as depicted in the movies.

My first impression almost proved my deterrents right! I was casually strolling around a small picturesque port town in the north called Trondheim, where an international student festival happens every two years, when a lady grabbed my arm on the street and asked me if I was an Indian prince and put a marriage proposal for her daughter! Upon prodding she explained that since Norway is so expensive, no Indian man would come here to travel unless he was flowing with riches.

Traveling by metros is not new to me but I still felt odd here. Why? Well no one was frantically checking their watches and instead gazing at the birds circling the sun and smelling the flowers bloom. The clock struck 10.15pm and my train finally arrived.
Wait; did I just say the sun and the night in the same sentence? Indeed! And that is because while the aurora borealis lights up the freezing Nordic skies in the winter, the sun never sets below the horizon in the summer. It’s called the midnight sun.

I bumped into in this lady in the train and I apologized when she laughingly brushed it off saying she is happy to bump into people since there are such less people out here. The sun had not set and clearly the day was not exhausting to set her spirits and I loved their joy for life.

Finally, after my arduous climb to 700 meters, I saw the beautiful fjords and just sat there lost in time for there was no sunset or rise. I smiled myself at the pun and will never forget that I trolled others in thinking I am wealthy by coming here but they did not realize that the best things in life didn’t cost a thing!