Familiar

Mon 25 May, 2009

Yesterday was Sunday in Tromso, and it was so quiet you could just about walk down the middle of the streets. The stores were all closed, and half of the restaurants. The 7-11 is always open, along with Shell gas, and a few other mini-markets. It's also a few weeks before the summer season gets going and most of the activities I wanted to book are hesitant to do so for just one.

That being written, it really only feels like a pause. Tromso is the largest city up here and has the world's northernmost University, brewery, and cathedral. Apparently there's a lot of research, education, and technology. The diversity of the trendy shops has given it the nickname the "Paris of the North". If not for the surrounding mountains covered with snow, it kind of feels familiar.

I strolled around, getting my bearings and sort of ran into a large movie-plex. To make a long story short I took a day off from "Norwegian" and did "American" yesterday by watching the new Star Trek movie and having Burger King for dinner. And by the way, the movie is awesome and very intense. A definite thumbs UP.

But all of that was yesterday. Now here we are on a Monday and we'll see how things change. I've a car rented for the next 48 hours and we are going to get out and about. There is so much to see and experience up here that goes beyond the surface. This culture, and it's indigenous residents are very intriguing. I'm excited... let's see what we find

Comments

Local take on Fast Food?

Posted by Dave on Mon 25 May, 2009.

Deb,

For our BK dinner, I was just wondering if there were any local modifications to the menu?

In Hawai'i, the breakfasts are familiar, just fused with local cuisine (rice instead of hash brown, spam instead of ham, Portuguese sausage, etc.)

Dave
p.s. Interesting Tromsø city details at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troms%C3%B8

Re: Familiar

Posted by debra on Mon 25 May, 2009.

Hi Dave, The BK was just an impulse and tasted pretty sub-par. There were only two employee's that I could see. The menu was standard this time around; but I know what you mean about local variations, I've run into that too.
At breakfast it's a standard offering regardless of any of the locations I've visited so far. Norwegians like to eat cold cuts/lunch meat and cheese (salami, ham, swiss) on bread or wasa type crackers. They also always have the following (it's quite a spread!) Soft and hard boiled eggs, scrambled, bacon, sometimes a potato of some sort, baked beans, several hearty full grain bread choices which you slice yourself, 3-4 cereals that includes granola, raisins, drinkable yogurt, several milks, orange and apple juice, pickled beets, several herring choices, pate, caviar, cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, cole slaw, sometimes one fruit choice cut up, spreadable cheeses, coffee, tea, cocoa, and sometimes I've seen little baby frankfurters, meatballs, and fish balls. You can really get a big meal in and skip lunch for the most part. Phew

I'm lovin' this trip!

Posted by Kathy on Mon 25 May, 2009.

I'm lovin' this trip! Norway is so beautiful. I can't wait to see more.

Kathy

Re: Familiar

Posted by Ida on Tue 9 June, 2009.

"The diversity of the trendy shops has given it the nickname the "Paris of the North".

Actually, the city got this nickname early in the 1900s, when we had a direct trade connection with Paris. The fashion got up here really quickly as a result of this, and the locals started using some French words in the local dialects after having spent time talking with the French merchants - "trottoir" or "jetée", for example. When Norwegians from the South came up here at that time, they thought that the ladies of Tromsø were so much better dressed than further South in Norway - they dressed just like the ladies of Paris - so they nicknamed the city "The Paris of the North".

Re: Familiar

Posted by debra on Tue 9 June, 2009.

Thanks Ida for giving us the background on that little tidbit about Tromso. So glad to have you along as our official local expert.
For others just new to this journey, you will be meeting Ida again in an upcoming post