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For our final night in Tromso, we made a reservation at Emma's, by far the highest rated restaurant in Tromso according to Trip Advisor. Following a light lunch, we spent the afternoon in the city center, shopping and visiting a few of the free sights, including the library, city hall, and the Perspective Museum, which had photography exhibits. We shopped and shopped for a sweater, but no luck. We did pick up a few postcards and an ornament for our tree (our tradition is to buy one new ornament each year and write the year on it; we chose a reindeer made of Norwegian-looking fabric).
We rested and did laundry before dinner, and then headed to Emma's. They had a table waiting for us by the window, with a view of the old wooden cathedral. The town has been decorated for Christmas, with white lights in the trees and garlands with glowing red hearts across the main shopping street (Storgata).
Since arriving, Chad has been wanting to try lutefisk, a holiday tradition in Minnesota. Many places have it on the menu this time of year, served "the traditional way." I think Emma's probably did the best they could with it, but the fish is pretty flavorless. It is served with bacon drippings, which helped, and mashed peas and boiled potatoes. We took a picture. Lutefisk itself is a whitefish soaked in lye and then water for several days (at a point in the preparation, it is caustic). It has become the fashion in Norway to eat it around the holiday season, though it used to be more of a daily meal.
I ordered reindeer for my meal, served with au gratin potatoes and spinach. It was like a very tender beef, prepared medium rare, and really yummy. Not something you'd order back home too much, but they are apparently plentiful here.
After dinner, we had a mini-pub crawl, stopping at a soccer bar to try the local liquor, aquavit, and the Christmas beer from the local Mack brewery (the world's northernmost brewery), and then another bar where they actually had a Champion's League match on, where we sampled two other Mack flavors (pilsner and bayer).
We got up early this morning to head to the airport for our flight back to Oslo, where this afternoon we'll board the ship for Copenhagen. We decided to try some McDonald's to see if it is the same as back home (it is) and make use of their free wi-fi to post this and hopefully Skype my folks to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and ask them to give my love to the family. Now we're off to the ship (pictured here). Happy Thanksgiving all!
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