I'm often greeted in a number of ways when I answer questions while I travel. Probably the biggest question I deal with when people see my license plate is 'where are you coming from?'. Invariably I tell them China. I'm almost always met with 'oh you flew here from China?'. Then I tell them 'no, I rode here'. At that point, I'm usually met with a blank and baffled look, while they try to process the information.
I started the morning with a conversation a couple of motorcyclists at the local fuel stop in Alta, Norway. They had seen the license plate and stickers on my bike and we talked. Then out of nowhere the one blurts out "I saw you in the paper a while back". I thought to myself wow, people still remember that article.
I headed south out of Alta and into Finnish Lapland. It was a beautiful sunny morning that had me retracing some of the road I came in on. Am I glad I did, it was beautiful. Gone for a while was the familiar N. Michigan look and now I had the Colorado look, a rugged valley following a stream. Alas, that ended and the familiar look came back. Trees, sand, small dunes by the lakes. Again, I would have thought I was home, if it were not for the reindeer and the AC + latitude.
Still in Saami Lapland I pulled into a small cafe in a tiny town along the way to have a coffee and warm up. After I finished, I was engaged in conversation with a guy walking his dog. We looked at the world map on my windshield and talked about the northern latitudes of North America. He really wanted to go there. Then he blurted out "I remember you, you were in the newspaper over in Norway". Yep I thought myself, twice in one day in two different countries. I'm still surfing my 15 minutes of fame.
I continued into town to come upon a church on the hill. It was one of those moments you hope doesn't happen. I picked up my camera and the "memory card is full" light kept flashing. Darn shame too, because there upon the hill was a genuine Lappi wedding complete with traditional clothing. The first time I had see the clothing was on a lady at a souvenir shop near Nordkapp. I thought it was just for show, like German Leiderhosen. But the entire wedding group was wearing the same outfits, and they were blue and quite striking.
(click here to see someone else's view of it) I managed to stop up the road and off load some photos to free up some card space, but by the time I had gotten back the wedding was over and the cars were disbursing. I got the low down from a couple of young Czech backpackers who were walking by.
I also saw a lot of reindeer today. Crazy animals, you almost think they have the same rights as the people here. I say that, because you'll see them walking down the sidewalks in small towns, completely unconcerned about the people. I even saw one crossing at a marked cross walk in front of me, I almost fell off the bike laughing.
