More Norway

Ok, it’s 9pm here and I’ve finally finished attending the ICCC for the day, given my presentation to SSCI via webcast, caught up on work, and had dinner.  If you read my post from this morning, you got quite the jumbled list of subjects.  Here’s what I was talking about.

(Oh, and before I forget, I’ve got pictures HERE:  http://photos.nothingnoteworthy.com/v/travel/2009_norway/ )

Toilets, toilets, toilets

The bathrooms here in Europe are pretty interesting.  I did the tour de potty in Copenhagen, Oslo and Tromso.  In the Copenhagen airport, the restroom stall walls were floor-to-ceiling, including the door.  It was a very robust door; I liked it – very private feeling.  And then I went to flush — no handle, and no auto-potties…. I was presented with two buttons, one larger than the other.  Being a righty, I picked the one on the right, and the toilet flushed.  But what did the other button do?  Super-flush.  Wow, that was cool – -there were two different buttons depending on how much flush you wanted.  I found the same thing in the Oslo airport.  Here in my hotel room, the buttons aren’t small — they are a good 6-inches across.  But same thing; large button for large flush, small button for small flush.  Why can’t we have this in America?  And why can’t we have floor-to-ceiling stall walls?  We need to protest.

Internet

Internet service here is interesting.  It could be normal, or maybe it’s just an artifact of staying in a hotel.  Instead of giving me unlimited internet usage (even for a flat fee), they give me scratch-off cards that are good for 4 hours at a time.  After four hours, I have to scratch off another one and log in again.  This is a pain in circumstances like this morning when I have to blow a whole 4-hour card just to check my email.  But there seems to be an unlimited supply if you ask nicely at the front desk.  Download speed is ok (almost as fast as our cellular modem at home), but upload is via carrier pidgeon.

Copenhagen Shopping Mall

I stepped off the airplane in Copenhagen and had to go through security and Passport Control.  The nice lady at the “Transfer Station” told me I should go through Passport Control and then follow the signs to the B gates.  So, I did.  I was not prepared for what I found on the other side of Passport Control.  The Copenhagen airport isn’t an airport — it’s a shopping mall with some gates.  There are more stores there than some of my local malls have, and I swear the airport must have been an afterthought.  It was simply amazing.

Being Green

My hotel has quite a few “Green” features; in fact, it seems to be a lifestyle over here.  When you open the door, there is a little plastic thing that says “Card Here” on the wall.  It took me a little while to figure it out — actually, it took until I realized that I had no power in my hotel room.  You cannot turn the lights on or use outlets (except the bathroom) until you put your hotel keycard in there.  My guess is that it is a way to force you to turn off the lights before you leave.

The hairdryer also seems a bit green.  You can’t just turn it on and leave it on.  There is an on/off switch on the base unit, but on the hand-held part, you have to press down a button with your thumb to keep it running.  And there are no little soaps and things here — just soap and shampoo dispensers on the wall; much like what you’d find at the sink in a public restroom.  I can’t complain though; these little differences aren’t inconvenient and I’m sure they save quite a lot of cash and resources when you amortize them across all of the people who must stay at this hotel in a year.

Reindeer

I had reindeer for dinner last night.  Actually, it wasn’t just reindeer; it was reindeer medallions over vegetable salad with a cranberry and congnac sauce.  I’ve eaten venison quite a few times, and this was much milder than the standard deer entree.  It had a slightly peppery flavor — not gamey at all, but slightly more flavorful than beef.  The sauce was perfect with it.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Tonight I had a pasta with pesto sauce and bacon.  Not bacon flakes in the pesto, but the whole thing was topped with 6 strips of bacon.  I know, you’re cringing.  Apparently it’s very popular over here, and it is very good.  I was surprised at how well the salty bacon went with the peppery basil, but it did.  I definitely need to try this at home.

Taxi Ride

Just one more thing before I go to bed.  I have no clue where we were, but on the taxi ride from the airport we ended up going through an underground tunnel.  It was probably to get us through the mountains on the airport side of the island.  But this wasn’t just a tunnel; this tunnel had traffic circles, turns, and stop lights.  No kidding, it was amazing.  And there was construction going on, too — while we were cruising along, there were work crews down there boring out other areas of the tunnel for future traffic.  Crazy.

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