Spring

So, slowly, spring is coming to Norway. This means that the day temperature is consistently over zero and there is no snow on the streets. This also means that some people are running around in t-shirts (while I decided to remove my scarf and my hat from my daily look). Fun, fun, fun.

Since I came here, I have heard consistent rumors that there exists a bus to Sweden that takes people to a supermarket where everything is (kinda) cheaper. The rumors proved right, and with some hacking, you could misuse the bus to get to Sweden and go from the nearest train station directly to Stockholm. Which might be interesting information for those from TU Dortmund who are going here or to Stockholm next semester.

Speaking about the bus, I was reminded of a rather old Soviet joke from the eighties referring to food distribution problems: “What is long, green and smells of sausages?” — “The train from Moscow to the suburbs”. In this case, the question should be “What is short, white and smells of food and alcohol?”, since even in Sweden, the alcoholic beverages are cheaper than in Norway. There also exist theoretical restrictions on the amount of food and alcohol you can get across the border; in practice, the border is wide open. Kinda hard to enforce import restrictions if you are a a member of the Schengen treaty but outside the EU.

In other news: I finally managed to finish Andreas Eschbach’s “The Jesus Video”. Well. I certainly liked the first two thirds, but the end was somewhat disappointing — the character development is abrupt and very uneven. Next on the list is “Anathem” by Neal Stephenson and as I know him, it will take some time.

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