day 16 - toget

Not much interesting today, mostly rail travel from Stavanger to Oslo. While waiting for my afternoon train I took a morning bike loop around the bay and visited a few museums. The bike ride put me over 1000 kilometers (1 Megameter?) but was otherwise remarkable only for being the flattest bit of cycling for the entire trip. The maritime museum was the usual collection of scale ship models. The stavanger museum was an unusual grab bag of local historical dioramas, preserved animals, and artifacts from other cultures. The sardine canning museum was cooler than it sounds. I was inspired to purchase my first-ever tin of sardines, which was sufficiently unimpressive to make me wonder how this foodstuff sustained the entire regional economy for a century. Also, I ran across a bunch of viking SCA equivalents having a four-way knife fight melee on the grounds of the hospital. (Convenient, if someone gets too excited.) Now I'm on the train speeding eastward through a much flatter Norway than I've heretofore experienced. For some reason, I was originally assigned to coach 4, the "family car" complete with playroom and diaper changing tables. Thankfully, the conductor re-seated me out of my own personal hell. To save weight, I brought no razor along. Two weeks later, it's strange when I see myself in a mirror and the dude looking back at me has a moustache. Hey, that's not me. The tattoo took about a month to get used to. The 'stache won't last that long. We just passed the Telemark canal and I can't say I'm all that impressed. I had originally planned to bike part of the way back to Oslo along its length. Instead, I spent more time in the Hardangerfjord and Lysefjord and I'm glad I did. I had wanted to take a photo of me engaging in a wicked telemark ski stance near an appropriate road sign, but that's probably not work the detour. Norway has been a real challenge to my libertarian economic model. Taxes are out of control and the government pursues all sorts of distorting labor and social policies. My gut is telling me that this place should be heading for dysfunctional implosion, and it's possible that without its north sea oil revenue that it would be. Still, even I have to admit that this sort of socialism does Work. I haven't seen any homeless or obvious signs of crushing poverty. I haven't really had to worry much for my personal safety or about my property being stolen. It's all very pleasant for a visitor. Am I changing my opinions? Heck no. What's good for the guest can be galling for the actual wage earner. But I'm not going to claim that other models don't have their good bits. Big day today - my Pilot informs me that this is the first night since arrival with an actual astronomically-defined sunset. Too bad my first patch of black norwegian sky is going to be hanging over Oslo.