
The boat departs tomorrow. For the time being we're in a guest lodge in Nybjen, an area about 3 kilometers to the south of the main town. It's still in the walkable safe area--no rifles needed--although whether you can walk without falling ass over teakettle on the ice is another question. You can more or less spot the locals by their speed. While a Boston photographer and I were picking our way up the slope, a family came down in the other direction all but skating on their boots. As we watched the dad did the run-and-let-go game with the stroller. I saw another guy biking down the same slope--and as much as I've biked in Chicago in the winter, there is just NO way I'd even attempt this. But I guess you don't live here if you can't adapt to ice.
The lodge reminds me a bit of being at the Accademia dell'Arte. There are 27 of us, so the group size is comparable; we're all in rooms off a long corridor; we're all artists; very few of us have any idea how to speak the local language; and none of us has ever done anything like this before. It'll be interesting to see whether the resemblance holds once we're on the boat.