Dream Vacation

Stockholm, Sweden

I awoke this morning to the alarm clock on my hotel room television. A message on the screen instructed me to push the "OK" button on my remote control to turn off the alarm.

When I did this, the message went away and was replaced by a television show. I didn't have my glasses on, but from bed, I could make out enough of the picture to see it was the rugged landscape of western Norway's fjords.

It wasn't a place I recognized, but it looked breathtaking -- more so, perhaps, than any other pictures I've seen of Norway. It wasn't just the steep and wobbly landscape that was so stunning. It was also the two super-tall, super-skinny fishing houses that sat out alongside a weather-beaten pier.

"I have to go there," I thought, wondering where in Norway it was. I sat up in bed and squinted for a better look. Then I realized... I was watching a children's television show.

An animated children's television show.

(I still really want to go there. The houses even talk to each other.)

Comments

[Jen]

Haaa! That's totally funny!

[Jeri]

Hey, that's great! It's even funnier than the sense of deja vu I experienced while watching Ratatouille not long after a visit to Paris... I kept thinking Hey, I've been there! However, the P.O.V. of an animated rat was subtly different from my experience of the City of Light. For one thing, I think he was visiting a better class of restaurant.