Aug 16, 2006

WHERE'S WALDO?
HARDANGERFJORD, Norway: I wake in a resort built for merchant-princes. My brain staggers back over the eight-hour layover, the connecting flight, the long drive through darkness. What continent is this again?

I spot a bidet. Must be Europe.

Much as I like my job, it has disorienting moments like this.

Before I'm fully conscious or caffeinated, I'm zipped into a survival suit and tossed into a Zodiac. The rubber boat slaps up the fjord. I sit right in the bow, one hand laced under the plastic lifeline, the other holding the peaky hat.

"Edward, we're in Norway," I say to my friend. We've burned through a lot of passport pages together this year: Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, England, Canada and now here.

"Good observation," he replies. "Say, you really are a highly trained professional."

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:54 PM

    I'm not getting the Jay vibe from the hat, Ax. But you're WORKING the Jackie-O sunglasses and Peter Pan collar on the survival suit.

    Love, La Modiste

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  2. See Hobbes at Petra. Gooooooooo Hobbes Gooooooooo.

    No flannel shirt, but this is close as my archives come. Phew!

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  3. Anonymous7:28 PM

    So why the coy author photo, then? You're not so gruesome...

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  4. Why, shucks. Thankee, good stranger.

    The keffiyeh photo amuses me, pure and simple. The red-check design is for Jordanians (primarily men these days), so it's an absurd thing to swaddle onto a gringa.

    However, a Bedouin sheik proposed to me, while I was veiled ("I think I have found Wife Number Two!"). So obviously the look's a good one in context.

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