The people of Sweden have proven warmer than I (Phil) anticipated. We asked a man today if we could warm up by his fire. He appeared to be in his late 40’s, and spoke excellent English. He was in charge of the set-up crew for the Ice Opening Festival that I mentioned earlier. He was notably cordial.
I give a cheery ”hej” to anyone who gives eye contact, or close. Over half will respond. A bit surprisingly to me, older Swedes are more likely to respond than younger ones.
When we have asked for help or advice, people seem very open and warm. Here's Byrum from Albania who remembered what we ordered in his kebab restaurant the Saturday before. He even offered us an extra helping of kebab.
So why is that surprising? Prejudice, that’s why. Based on a little fact, we conjecture. Reminds me of a favorite Mark Twain quote about conjecture and science.
In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the old Oolitic Silurian Period, must a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have their streets joined together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
— Mark Twain
Life on the Mississippi (1883, 2000), 173.
That quote is awesome. What are the locations in the pictures? (Minus your Albanian friend.)
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