FRIDAY, JUNE 26...ARCTIC SUMMER

Who would ever believe that green, delicate growing things thrive within the Arctic Circle...

The imaginary line around the top of the earth encloses the Arctic Ocean and a scattering of isolated, cold islands and the frigid top of Europe, Asia, and North America. As global warming melts the polar ice cap, it will become possible to navigate around the entire Arctic Ocean in summer. Norwegians don’t worry about a flood of tourists flooding into the Arctic region. Too few people is the bigger problem.



The thirteen Hurtigurten Coastal Express ships are the buses for the West Coast of Norway. The MS Trollfjord is one of several that provide easy transportation between towns along the coast. Bodø is the Northernmost terminus of the railroad. It is the largest town north of the Arctic Circle... 40,000 cold souls. The town was completely destroyed in World War II, so everything here is new looking in a very old sort of way. It is possible to take a train from Bodø and eventually make it all the way to the Pacific coast of Russia and to the Eastern coast of China. When we are in Kirkenes we will be only a short distance from the Russian border.

As I post this on the Internet, we are making our way across a fairly long stretch of Atlantic Ocean to get to Samʂund.




Hundreds of bald mountains scarred by advancing and receding glaciers are the epitome of loneliness. Alienation is an issue for all human beings; but in Norway aloneness is an acute condition which has become a part of the national character. We have only to read Ibsen and look at the art of Munch to know that dealing with loneliness is not a new problem in Norway. Loneliness can be seen in the way people build their houses. Even in settlements where people might be expected to huddle together in tight clusters, homes are spaced well apart. Day after day summer light baths the northern world in an optimistic glow that seems never to end; but it does end in December when the sun disappears and doesn’t show itself again until February. Where I live in San Diego, thecycles of daylight and darkness condition us expect any gloomy day to be gone soon. Here in the far north people say those who don’t learn patience go mad.