Elections and coffee

We just finished our first hike since the elections happened in Norway and I can say that we were are still in mourning that election season is over.   Yes it's true  -- we miss election season.   What possible connection could there be between hiking and elections?  Food of course.  At the start of our hiking trails, there would be a collection of colored booths with people handing out coffee, juice, cookies, and chocolate.  I guess it is perfectly legal to "buy" your votes in Norway by handing out freebies.  No commercials on TV thankfully, but lots of  free handouts.    Actually, the friendly Norwegians seemed surprised that this would be considered unusual, but I must admit that election season would be much better with free coffee around.  

I would mess with the volunteers and say that I wasn't going to vote for them because the other booth had better coffee.  Not sure they appreciated my humor.  One team really outdid themselves with a plastic coffee-dispensing backpack  - no joke, I drink tons of black norwegian coffee.  Actually, I must admit that the red party (the one with the rose icon) was my favorite because they gave out free red roses at the grocery store (I'm not picky these days ;-)  

The actual parties were hard to follow in that there seemed to be a multitude each with its own color and hip logo.  The chart above is the election results showing how the rose team (yeah!) pretty much won out over the blue teams, but there was a little doled out to everybody (including the green shamrock party).  The Arbeiderpartiet or "worker/labor" party  (more liberal) seemed to have their day over the Høyre or "right" party (more conservative).  Those red roses and coffee really paid off I guess. 

The only other big news in town is that one  of the coastal express ferries, MS Nordlys ("northern lights"), caught on fire and is now close to a watery grave unless they can right it with a giant crane.  We were thinking of heading out on a ferry one of these weekends to taste the reportedly excellent pancakes.  Having once lived through a ferry that nearly tipped over in Long Island Sound, I think that maybe the pancakes aren't worth it.  But, then again, what better way to go down on a sinking ship...