Cooped up all day in a hotel in Bodø, Norway in February

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We had an extremely relaxing day in Bodø, Norway today: we ate all our meals in the hotel and didn’t leave the building at all, except for a brief stroll in the evening around town. Masayo and I just worked on our computers and waited for the next meal.

It was actually pretty great, although my BGs jumped around, with more lows than highs but, most importantly, uneven overall.

To begin with, I woke up at 3:30 am and was 49. I drank almost an entire bottle of juice I had (39g carbs) which I thought too much, but it felt like a pretty thin 49 (diabetics will understand what I mean).

I got up at 9:30 and was surprised to find I was still 69 — not over 200 like I was half-expecting. Masayo and I went down to the breakfast buffet and stuffed ourselves like we did yesterday.

Then we began the day of nothing. Masayo did some work online in the room, while I worked downstairs at a table in the restaurant on my computer. The coffee and tea were free, and the time passed easily. It was kind of fun.

At 3 pm I checked, because it was waffle time, and my BG was 224. How disappointing. Maybe my lowness had made me gun-shy about the breakfast-time Humalog shot.

At any rate, the waffles were great again. It felt indulgent to sit inside eating all day, but this was the celebration of the trip’s end, after all, so why not relax some?

We did some more work all day, never once setting foot outside the hotel, and at 7 pm it was dinner time. My BG was an even 200 — better, but not good enough.

Dinner tonight at the hotel buffet was lasagna. It was excellent, just like every other meal here has been. Like the lasagna I had in Trondheim, it seemed to have no pasta in it, just meat and cheese. But I duly shot up for it, and had the usual fruit, salad, bread, and dessert.

I also saw a couple drinking wine, and asked one of the staff people at the hotel about it. It turns out you can order wine and they add it to the room bill. I got a glass of red wine — $12, but it was nice.

After dinner we went out to walk around a little, just to get out and get some fresh air. We walked by the water’s edge again, gazing into the darkness and listening to the quietly lapping waves.

Then we came across a small plinth in front of the library, on which was a Crybaby wah-wah pedal for guitars. Why? We didn’t know. So I walked up and stepped on it (I play guitar and in fact own a pedal just like this.)

When I stepped on it, a speaker high above on a light pole came to life: someone’s pre-recorded voice boomed over, saying something in Norwegian. Then Masayo tried, and a different recording played. Each time, a different 2- or 3-second clip played. It was loud, and echoed around the harbor.

Interesting art project. But it was time to return to the warm womb of the hotel, where I found that I had overdone my shot for dinner: now I was 55. I had a Twix.

Finally, at 1 am, I ended up at 148, a great BG to have before sleeping. It had been a long and uneventful day, full of good food and absolutely no expenses at all (except for the wine, which I’ll pay for later). My BG was up and down but hit the bull’s eye (close enough) in the end.

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Europe. How heavy! Tonight it was too cloudy to try to see the Northern Lights — tomorrow will be our last chance. I hope we prevail.

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