Spring flowers, green grass, rain, and ridiculous trendiness in Copenhagen, the capital of the happiest nation on earth (see here for details) made me giggle all day because of the how ridiculously different it is here than in NAO. Now I have been to all the Nordic countries (plus Estonia, which sort of counts as Nordic) but no other European countries (since people here said Russia is not Europe).
On my last day in Naryan Mar, I watched national Nenets spring games, which included jumping over sleighs, lassoing, a running race in traditional fur clothes (in a blizzard), and a sleigh race along the river (the first finisher ironically wins a snowmobile). I left early cause I saw some folks I didn’t want to talk with (since at that point I just wanted to leave Russia safely) and instead attended an ethnic Russian’s birthday party/BBQ in the nearby forest, which included a visit to a BIG bear that lives in a tiny cage at the city dump and subsists on apples and other food from random townspeople (ahhh Russia). Here are some photos (if they load)...
Today is the day I begin to forget all the Russian I learned and to attempt to relearn all the Greenlandic I already forgot from the fall.
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