The Trip Up

So I'm back to One Piece, have finally finished revising the latest batch of leftovers, posted the Project 2017 recap, and am back home after a brief tour to the Northerly Norths - to the humble abode of the one humble soul I know who lives there... in which home I might be able to reside a few days; spend good times. I mean I did. Good times spent.

I posted a short log of my trip up there... typed on cellphone whilst on foot, and one on the way back. I'm looking at other people's vlogs and thinking they really make travel seem like such a social thing, when so much time is really spent waiting, with time to waste at whim and thumb (touchscreen).

Maybe it's different if you vlog. Is it? Picking up a camera in public though, and speaking to an imaginary audience amidst a crowd, it's just... eh... no...

But vlog or no, it was a fun trip! Cold. Snowy. Exotic! I took some photos.

This is the town I stayed in, as seen from a random tour through the town on the first day/night there.

It was dark, cold and snowy... but cozy and bright all the same. Doesn't really matter how dark it is as long as there's snow! :D Real winter. I can see why people actually live there.

There were trees all over, even mid-city. Here a photo-worthy freezing trio.

And here's the official Christmas tree of the town, radiating an appreciated light of festivity and fun on the empty parking lot beside it... and into the vast and empty skies above.

They actually have a cinema up there too, showing at least one movie each month. Looks kinda oversnowed but... the dates are current ones.

Here's the river beneath the snow, that runs like a moat all the way around the town - coincidentally also the view from my buddy's apartment.

First day with daylight we took a trip to our summer place, not too far away, to see what it was like out of season...

...and this is what it was like! Alien. Ground untreaded and soft. Deep too.

Walls covered with frost. It looked kind of cold, but cozy...

There was no way to cut the grass or garden even if we wanted to.

No way to swim either... and btw this is the lake, if you can't see it.

There's probably no way to traverse the roads there either... if you're unlucky. We did make it back though. Good trip. We shoveled off a thick layer of snow on the greenhouse (it's made of glass) for starters... and then the sun went down and we couldn't see shit so it was time to get back.

Late morning again, we passed a couple wild deer strolling on the sidewalk by the local supermarket (this is one). Nothing out of the ordinary here...

On the way to the airport we saw... well we almost saw... could it really be...

...the sun!? :D On a hilltop, for a few minutes before it disappeared again.

Back in town: on the other side of the river they'd put up a Christmas tree on the mountain. You don't really see the mountain here... but there is a mountain there. It's as high up and as far away as it seems to be if you imagine it's a big tree, a few kilometers away, with a wide river between.

We took a walk one night and took a few selfies in the wonderful winter weather. -30C. That's me.

And here's where it all begins. The edge of town. The signs that tell.

And this is where it ends, back home in Bro! Oh hey we got snow too! :D

That's all I've got... in this carefully selected batch of photos fetched from the hundred or so total, mostly blurred and dark ones I took. Thought I'd save some time and post a few pictures instead of the customary boat of words... because they're worth a thousand right? ;)

Good trip.