The Olympiad Trip - Day 17

So today was the final rest day ... and given the schedule for the time I have remaining in Tromso, may be the very last time I get any decent rest - tomorrow the round starts at 11am, so the morning bus leaves at 8:30, while the following day my flight out of Tromso leaves just after 10am, so the bus from my accommodation leaves at 7am! ...
Today I ventured into Tromso & decided to go to a few museums - the Tromso Museum at the south of the island, as well as the Polar Museum just north of the city centre. The Tromso Museum was of particular interest as they had the 'Karpov Collection' on display - Anatoly Karpov's personal collection of chess-related stamps from all around the world. Of course they also had other displays, as a museum does, and they were also interesting to look at as well. The Polar Museum was something of an afterthought, but I decided to go there because of the special offer at the Tromso Museum - entry was 50NOK, or 60NOK to have entry to the Tromso Museum, the Polar Museum & Polstjerna (a former seal hunting boat, which I skipped).
The Tromso Museum was particularly fascinating for me, not only for the Karpov collection, but in particular to see the various displays about Sami culture (the indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden & Finland) & the similarities with Australia's Aboriginal population. The Sami had a particular political history where their culture appeared to be dying out & it was the end of World War II & the departure of the invading Germans that saw a return to promoting Sami culture. Since the mid 1940s, there have been a variety of laws & other measures that have gone some way to preserving Sami culture. The museum also had some interesting information about the Northern Lights.
The Polar Museum had a focus on exploration in the Polar regions, so featured people such as Raold Amundsen heavily & looked at aspects of the people, vessels &challenges faced on these expeditions.
As with an earlier post about the Kasparov party, I'll just post pictures from today without comments - needless to say that I took quite a few!

Tromso Museum - Karpov Collection

Tromso Museum - Sami People

Tromso Museum - General

Polar Museum

Around Tromso

In terms of the chess, the Australians face Germany in the Open division & Malaysia in the Women's. In terms of the overall result, the Open is currently has China (playing Poland) one point ahead of Hungary (playing Ukraine), with eight teams a further point behind them, so there should be plenty to play for on the top boards. In the Women's, it is Russia (playing Bulgaria) who lead by a point over China & Ukraine (who are paired against each other), with Germany (playing Georgia) a further point behind. This makes the top two boards particularly interesting, while the teams just behind also have plenty to play for with an outside chance to sneak into the medals if results go their way.
Chessbase have a good preview of the final round, with top team pairings, as well as the current leaders for the boards prizes.

With the Closing Ceremony to follow the last round, I'm not sure when I will be able to post my next update, but I'll be sure to post a wrap up of the final round & closing ceremony at some stage, as well as an overall summary of my Olympiad experience.