Stuck

Some decades ago, in the twilight of the last century, John and I went camping in Yosemite. We were driving my car, a blue Mercury Sable station wagon, which had been nothing but a problem from the time we had bought it used, probably about a year earlier. We were heading down the Highway 120, the Tioga Pass Road, when about halfway from the summit we heard the sound of metal on metal when John put his foot on the brakes. On one of the steepest roads in the West, we had no brakes. 

John somehow managed to get us to the end of the road where it meets Highway 395, and he pulled into a service station in the nearby town of Lee Vining. It was a Friday afternoon. The mechanic took a look at it and shook his head. He listed off the different things that would no have to be replaced to be able to safely drive the car again. The total repair cost was daunting, but even worse was learning that the parts had to be delivered from San Bernardino. We would be stuck in Lee Vining for at least three days. 

I have thought about Lee Vining several times over the three days that we have been stuck in Tromso. There’s a bit more things to do here. And we do not have to deal with those nasty brine flies or the stench of the rotting algae. But it is still boring be stuck in some place where you would just as soon not be. 

We’ve tried to make the best of it. Yesterday, we went into town in the late afternoon and did a little shopping for Christmas. And today we went back into town to visit Polaria, the Arctic research center that is also the world’s northernmost aquarium. The building is famous for its architecture, but it is currently undergoing a major expansion and the whole things is surrounded by chainlink fencing and all sorts of construction equipment. So I found this picture online to show you what it originally looked like. 

Pretty interesting and impressive, isn’t it? But the inside sadly does not quite measure up. It’s fairly cramped inside, particularly if you are trying to get through with a wheelchair. There are the usual displays of the anemones and their relatives. 

There was a tank devoted to the fish that live just outside in the harbor, also pretty predictable. 

I did like the shrimp tank because the glass in front of it made them look enormous. Sadly, that did not come through in the photo.

Also pretty typical, the sea mammals are the main attraction.

I did not have a bad time at Polaria, but somehow the weird building made me expect something other than just another imitation of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

We will finally leave tomorrow heading towards to Gravdal and the Lofoten archipelago. We’ll see what that holds.