Day 7 – Norway 2017. Preparing for a big feast

Yesterday, after visiting the Polar Museum I met with Ceci to go shopping. They were having friends for dinner tomorrow (that would be today as I write this blog), so we needed to get ready. Ceci and Greg wanted to roast a turkey, and prepare all sorts of ancillary dishes (mashed potatoes, green beans, apple crisp, and the like), and I wanted to make a bacalao a la vizacaina (both to give them a foretaste of Christmas, and because I grew up with the idea that the best salted cod came from Norway and here was my chance to do the dish with authentic ingredients).

Afterward we all went to pick up Evan from day care, and following up with another trip to the big supermarket to buy some more stuff. Once we came back and had dinner, Ceci stayed to give Evan a bath, while Greg and I went in safari, hunting for the northern lights. Conditions were as good as they were going to get, with a clear sky and a solar activity index of 2.7 (more than 2 is propitious for good northern lights), and Greg had recognized a somewhat distant fjord, Ersfjordhofn, as a good viewing spot. Our safari was a rousing success! We started seeing the ribbons of light even before we got to the head of the fjord, and once there we braved the wind to get into a really dark hollow from which we could observe the spectacle in relative comfort. It was not quite the rainbow of colors you see in photographs; rather, the light appeared in faint ribbons or shreds across the night sky, hang in there for a few minutes, and sometimes increase suddenly in brilliance and wavy pattern, to a few seconds later disappear just as suddenly.

In the “intermissions” I gazed at the northern sky, and was quite shocked to see the North Star almost directly above my head (actually 70º from the horizontal, but without a sextant I would have guessed a much steeper angle). I have never before felt so close to the North Pole.

As for today, Evan went to Barnehagen but the rest of us stayed home to cook. Ceci was a bit paranoid that with so many dishes to prepare we would not have enough time, but three pairs of experienced hands proved to be more than a match for the challenge. The bacalao spread its garlic aroma throughout the house, a mountain of potatoes was cooked and mashed into a creamy consistency, pumpkin pies were baked, and a delicious turkey roasted itself for nearly 3 hours until it reached perfection just as the first of the guests arrived.

The guests included Anna, her husband Alexis, and little Fjodor (all three from Russia), Laura from the Netherlands, Max from Finland, Frank from Svalbard, and Haeicka from Finnmark (the northernmost state of Norway. Except for Haeicka, whose relationship to Ceci and Greg is being the downstairs neighbor, all others are work colleagues of Ceci at the Polar Institute. Haeicka is a member of the Sami tribe of original inhabitants of northern Norway, is a hunter, and has the unheard amount of 7 rifles—a factoid that triggered considerable discussion because guns are strictly controlled in Norway. I guess I should also point out that Fjodor is a year and half old, and one of Evancito’s best friends.

The dinner was a smashing success. Each of the guests thought about bringing a bottle of wine, so there was plenty to enjoy with the rich variety of dishes. Our visitors were a delightful chatty group, and they were tickled pink to have been invited to a feast American style. The children played until they were beyond exhaustion, the dads sat to watch a football game together, and we all got “to explore the world” as we exchanged stories about the places we have visited. Frank lives in Svalbard, working at the university there, and had many interesting stories to tell about life in the end of the world. The main town there, Longyearbyen, only has 2,000 inhabitants, but is a busy point of embarkation for people working in the Arctic Ocean (try searching for the TV series “Fortitude”, which intends to portray life in this last frontier, even though it was filmed in Iceland). It is also a hunting paradise (Haeicka embellished on many hunting stories), and has a healthy population of polar bears, which every other year kill an unsuspecting tourist. I am totally going to plan a visit to Svalbard next time Ceci goes there (but in the summer, because going in the winter is totally crazy).

By the time the guests had departed, rolling down the hill with full bellies, we were exhausted ourselves. However we were good at it, washed most of the dishes, pick the turkey carcass clean, put away the leftovers (they are going to be living on leftovers for a week), and picked up all the toys. We had earned a good night sleep!