The border

Today was my first visit to Sweden in 29 years. That will make you feel old. I went to Sweden (Stockholm) to visit a friend in 1980, before I was a senior in High School. So actually today barely counts, as I only went about 5 miles over the border. Norway is quite narrow in the region where Trondheim is located, I don't think it took even 2 hours to drive to Storlien from Trondheim. There isn't much there except a small village and some ski runs which weren't open yet. There actually is a strip of bare ground in the woods where the border goes through, which is sort of funny. I ended up going to a Coop store in Storlien, which is probably 90% full of Norwegians driving across the border to buy cheaper groceries. They were quite cheap too compared to Trondheim prices. You gain about 20% from the exchange rate right now so even if the price is the same in kroner it's really 20% cheaper than in Norway. I bought a bottle of glögg (spiced wine) for about 25 Swedish kroner, which is basically what you would pay for a 1/2 liter of Coke in some stores here. I saw a Norwegian bus driver outside the store honking his horn to get the shopping grannies to finish up inside so they could get back to Trondheim. The sun came out for 10 minutes on the way back home, but it's so weak now you don't even have to use sun glasses anymore. You can just stare at it like an old light bulb. Hei hei sun! where ya been?