Sleepyheads

So, we`re supposed to be in Æro (I asked last night, it`s pronounced eru, kinda like emu, but with an R instead) by now. We are not. We`re still in Odense. We overslept. Did`t hear the alarm one little bit and woke up 20 minutes before the train. Oops!! Could have been that awesome beer we had just before bed. We decided to take a more leisurly pace, and here we are. This is the home of Hans Christian Andersen, so we may go by his house or something. l saw a store last night that really interested me, so we`ll probably stop by there too. Not that I can buy anything...all of it`s too big to carry!

Chris says I was being a bit of a Negative Nancy last night. I didn`t mean to be. Sorry if it came across that way. Thing is, I have to deal with all of the hiccups. Well, he does too, but Í`m the one figuring out the logistics of it all. As he says, he just shows up and hands over the Visa. Too funny!! No worries though, we are on track and are totally enjoying ourselves.

It`s funny, this trip is starting to feel realllllllly long. We`ve both noticed it independently of each other. Our last European adventure was only 5 days less, but it didn`t seem nearly as long. One thing I`ve learned, I really don`t like McDonald´s all that much. We ate it again yesterday in the Stockholm train station while waiting for our number to be called so we could make our reservations. Not my favorite. Neither of us can wait to get home and be able to have a $10 dinner. Dinner for under $40 over here is pretty difficult.

One thing I thought of yesterday, we all but missed the famed Stockholm city hall. It`s where they have a banquet for the Nobel winners, and is supposed to be cool. We kept putting it off and were planning on doing it yesterday, but ended up with only 40 minutes in the city. I managed to get a decent picture from the train. Kind of disappointing, but as Bob says, you always gotta have something to do next time!!

st-marcopolo.dkWhat country are we in again?

Chris asked me that this afternoon. It`s Denmark, the last country of our trip. We sailed from Tallinn to Stockholm last night. We were supposed to take a night train to Copenhagen tonight and then on to Æro Island in the morning. Tommorrow is May Day, and being as we are in the countries we`re in (I`m not gonna say Socialist Tendancies or anything), nothing is as it should be. The Swedish trains ran today as if it were a Sunday, meaning no night tain. Honestly, I`m not really sure what Sundays have to do with night trains, but whatever. So, we traveled during the day. And actually, it was quite nice. A day with not so much walking, and we actually got to see the scenery. We`re starting to be too old for the night trains. I know, I know. We aren`t that old yet, but whenever we`ve taken them, we haven`t gotten but a couple few hours of sleep, and those few hours were ridden with wake-ups.

So, here we are in Odense. It is Denmark`s third largest city. We`re glad to be here. I slept like a baby last night. Literally. I woke up like a million times. That would be on the boat. The boat that was not so impressive. We`ve actually been on quite a few boats lately. This was technically our third cruise-type boat (our second being the shuttle to Tallinn - there were actually cabins on it!). Like I said, we were not overly impressed. There was no pool on this one, just a sauna. There was only one shopping shop and one tax free shop. The Stockholm - Helsinki boat put it to shame!! I know I haven`t talked about that boat, or any of Helsinki for that matter, but bear with me, I will.

I`m actually a little ticked at myself that we are here in Odense. I thought we were doing the right thing. I`d read somewhere that the ferry to Æro stops at like 6 pm or something. Turns out it runs until 10:30. I figured that out after we were already here with a room. I just now found out that the ferry service doesn`t run at all tomorrow as it`s May Day. I stick my tongue out at May Day! They say here that it`s like our Labor Day, but not really...in oh so many ways! For instance, ferry service doesn`t stop. The easiness of this trip has gone out the window. The first week was pretty great (let`s leave out Oslo for a moment). The second week seems to be one pitfall after another. Not to say that we aren`t having a great time. We are, it´s just there`s been a bunch of set backs. I´m just sayin`s all.

So we may have to spend an extra night here. I`m going to Æero if it kills me. It`s nice and idyllic and quaint and quiet. All things we need. Plus, our feet are well rested from the lack of touring today. But man, have those packs gotten heavy. Mine has this special way of pressing right on the nerves in my shoulder!!

On an upshot, we are staying in an awesome little botique hotel, and it`s only 595 Danish Krone (divide by 6). For this place, the only is appropriate. By far the nicest place we`ve stayed so far. I guess this is a slow week because he said they have plenty of rooms for the week. In fact, I think he charged us the price for a room with the bathroom down the hall (we`ve had our fair share of those), but we have a bathroom (wC - water closet) ensuite. Yay us! And, it sounds like it`s a good thing they have plenty of rooms. We may be sleeping in tomorrow and reading books (I read a whole one by James Patterson today. Beach House, I think it was. WOW!! Good book. Great twist at the end!) and then seeing what there is to see here.

Tonight we had a fabulous dinner. Service in this part of the world is not quite on par with that at home. In fact, you could even call it non-existent. In most places you don`t tip. I wonder if they got paid less and relied on tips, like at home, if they`d give more/better service? So the service stunk, but the food. Oh my, the food! It was awesome. The guy at the hotel recommended the place. Marco Polo (click on the top M). They love that name over here. You see all kinds of things with it. There`s even a clothing line called Marc O`Polo. Anyway, the food rocked.

Afterward, we tried in vain to find a place with ice cream. Finally, we ended up back at the hotel. Chris went upstairs already. I`m on the free computer in the lobby. He`s probably asleep already. It`s annoyingly easy for him to sleep. Today, I was miserable on the train. Seriously. In bad shape. And there he sat, sleeping. Ooooohhhh, I just wanted to pinch him!

*update* I just talked to the guy at the desk. he says it doesn`t make sense for the ferry to not run, all the shops will be open. I checked again. It was January first. Ugh! Like I needed those two years of my life I just lost!!

we found the photo nazi...he`s in Estonia

Before I begin anything else, I`d like to mention that it`s cold here. Seriously, teeth chattering cold. Stockholm was gorgeous the other day. We saw people in tube tops (okay, that was taking it a little to the extreme, but it was close to that warm...low 70s, I`d say). Our first day in Finland was also lovely until the sun started to set. Since then....brrrrrr! Today, I have on 4 layers plus my hat and mittens, and at times I`ve still been cold. It`s the first time I haven`t gotten hot and sweaty carrying my pack.You know how Scandinavians always have that ruddy complexion? I always thought it was a sun thing. It`s partially that, but it`s also from the wind. More than one day, I`ve come in at the end of the day with serious wind burn. Today would be the worst. I was nearly blown over by the wind as we packed it back to the ferry terminal.

We had a nice day of sightseeing. The turmoil of the nights seems to have died down. Probably from the daylight. The waiter last night said they`re expecting it to get worse before it gets better, as May 8 is a holiday. The anniversary of the end of WWII, and apparently some group always buses in a bunch of Russians from the east (where they`re more prevelant...makes sense that theref`s more of them there...)

So, we finished up Rick Steves`walking tour that got so rudely interrupted last night. Tallinn`s old town is lovely. That`s mostly what we saw. Old churches, the old town hall and Town Hall Square. I mentioned yesterday that Chris saw his first Russian Orthodox Church. Today we went inside. It was gorgeous. Painted a shade of teal that you`d never expect to see in a church. There are no pews or seats of any kind...they stand during services. All services. And they`re not short. Can you imagine? It said no photography, but I hid around a corner and took a couple. Funny thing is, I wasn`t the only one!! Some people would say that`s being disrespectful, but for me, I was so in awe of the beauty that I want to never forget it. So I snuck a couple!

We had lunch at another touristy joint. It`s called the Beer House, and is Bavarian Style. But get this....no photos allowed. Are you kidding me? You build a place like this with the total cheese factor flying off the end of the spectrun, and you want people to NOT take pictures? Of course, I snuck a few. Actually, no one really seemed to care....except our waiter. He was the only one admonishing the photo takers. So, whenever we gave or got something from him, I`d whip out the camera. I`ll show him!!!

You are tourists, it is not safe for you

These are not necessarily comforting words, especially when said by a cop. I`ll give a little background. We woke up in Finland yesterday (I`ll do some back tracking on the rest of Sweden and Finland later) toured around a bit and then took the "high speed" ferry over to Tallinn, Estonia. By high speed, they mean 2 hours time and 30 Euros per person (add 30% to translate to American....we`ve stopped doing the math, it`s just easier that way). So, we got here and needed to head to the room office. They call themselves the B&B office and cooridnate travelers with rooms in homes all over the Baltic States. Great! Perfect even! Except we were later than I thought we`d be. I just couldnt actually find us on the map. When I did find us, we hadn`t gone out of our way, just another route. Maybe a little more circuitous route. We picked up a map at the boat terminal, but when comparing it to the map in Rick`s book, I was a tad confused. It looked like there was only one way into the city from the boats. Ha! Try like 15. But, we got there, and it actually was a fairly good route (I love being lost and then finding out we never were lost in the first place, just didn`t know where we were).

We finally got to the office. And wouldn`t ya know, it`s locked up tight. We went around trying different doors, and Chris banged on doors, but it was to no avail. We were up a creek. Funny thing, I was thinking earlier that day that the Amazing Race would be so much more interesting if they had to find their own hotel rooms. Heh. Anyway, we just sat there on the step for a bit thinking. I got out Rick and started trying to find another hotel that was fairly close. I think I forgot to mention, Rick says the cabs are unregulated, so he doesn`t reccommend using them unless it`s totally necessary, so we walked. Ugh.

I found a place that looked kind of close (there`s no kind of scale to Rick`s maps) and we started walking. As we walked, it seemed like there was a weird feeling in the air. When you get to former Eastern Bloc countries, they look at you, as a tourist, with distrust. But here, they see their fare share of tourists. I thought maybe it was because it was a Sunday, but the city seemed deserted. That was of no concern to us, though! We needed a room. So, we kept walking. Without meaning to, we happened upon the Kalev Spa Hotel, but it was not to be. They were full, and I was actually disappointed. They have a water park, and people come there for a restful, sporting vacation. The guy at reception called another hotel for us. Nothing.

So, we kept walking. The neighborhood looked Soviet-era and rundown. Heck, it literally was rundown! But, we kept walking and came out onto a beautiful street! One one side was a lovely guesthouse that didn`t have anything, but on the other was their associated Hostel which did. Yay! This is easily, hands down the nicest hostel situation I`ve ever had. Lovely place. As travel snafus go, this one was fairly painless. Thank goodness!

By now, it was later in the day, but we decided to go do at least part of Rick`s walking tour (those are pretty much always great) and then dinner. What a lovely town Tallinn is. A mix of old-world charm and Soviet-era remnants. The sun was setting and the lighting awesome. We walked, we read, we took pictures. Some of the buildings have signs on them in Estonian and English. We read those too. Very interesting. We did notice a preponderance of police. And we were getting odd looks from the police. We definitely stand out. First of all, no one wears a white coat over here. I was aware of that coming, but it`s not like I was going to buy a new North Face coat! And that`s not to mention the camera glued to my face. And then there`s our accents. It`s pretty obvious.

Anyway, these groups of five or more cops were everywhere. We also noticed shop after shop with the windows smashed out. One still had the rock in the sill. Of those without the windows smashed, so many had the windows boarded up. It was wierd. It felt like the city was maybe more run-down than we though. Or maybe something we didn`t know about was going on. It was most definitely the latter. We continued following the walking tour and that led us through this terriffically old wooden gate up to the upper town (Tallinn used to be two towns, an upper and lower, and this gate has supposedly been there for hundreds and hundreds of years). We were enthralled by the Russian Orthodox church. Chris had never seen one before, only in my pictures. Weird, though...there was a fence across the street. Huh? Well, all the locals were shimmying between the temporary fence across the middle of the street and the wall. When in Estonia.....

Thing is, though, they all turned right, we were to turn left. Where there was noone but a couple of cops...this time in riot gear. We turned with the crowd for a moment, and a cop said something. They said things back. It was all in Estonian, which, suprprisingly, I don`t speak. We shrugged our shoulders and went on about the little tour. Weird thing is, the cops let us. Finally, I asked one if he spoke English. He said, "a little." That`s what they all say. I suppose I would too if I were them. You always feel weird speaking in another lanugage. I asked if this area was closed or something, and he said yes. You should go that way and go down. Hmmmm....okay....just a few more pictures, though. I guess none of the police bothered us because our tourist status was obvious and we wouldn`t be bothering them.

We took a few more pictures, saw the front of the church and noticed much more activity in the direction the first cop had pointed us. There, we saw a group of 6 or so cops, and down the hill they were putting up another fence across the street, but this time reinforced with concrete barriers. We asked them what was going on, and the first one didn`t have a fabulous command of English, so he brought another one over who might know the right words. This guy says, "It is like Germany and France." So what pops into my little head, "Riots?" No response. "Strike?" "No, not strike". "So it`s riots." Then, to make us feel better, he says, "You are tourists, it is not safe for you here. You should go to your hotel and stay there." And he and his buddies try to figure out the best way for us to get home because it really isn`t safe. Oh my!! At this point, we both got seriously nervous. And by nervous, I mean scared. About this time, they were arresting somebody up where they were putting up the fence. Finally, the cops asked us where our room was, and decided that was OK as it was in the old area and there are enough police. Again, OH MY!

There was a little problem in this scenario. We hadn`t eaten yet. And we were hungry. And for Jamie to not eat would be baaaaaad. Really. My blood sugar goes wonky, and if you`re not careful, you might just become headless (maybe we shouldn`t have eaten and then run into some rioters! Ha ha!). So, we went to this place we`d seen on the way called Old Hanse. It`s set in medieval times and totally toursity, but totally cool. Chris had wanted to go to this cool beer hall, but decided drunkeness & rioting do not mix! Anyway, it`s almost entirely lit with candles, and the food was out of this world! The mushroom soup was to die for! Our waiter was awesome. He seemed to be helping almost all of the tables in our area, and those he wasn`t waiting on, he was helping to translate into English and telling what is going on.

Here`s what he told us: the city/state decided to take down an old Soviet WWII memorial. It is Soviet and all. Well, there were some unknown soldiers buried underneath it and they wanted to exhume them, identify them, and give them a proper burial in a military cemetary. I guess this memorial was in the center of a sidewalk, so people were constantly walking over the grave. Well, this set off the Russian minority, who started protesting. And things started spiraling out of control.

Walking home after dinner (it was past 11 by this time), we felt more at ease. We didn`t have far to go, and there weren`t THAT many people out. We did stop for a picture or two, but there was noone around, and the old city wall was beautifully lit. As we walked down the even more deserted street that our hostel is on, we were just a touch more nervous. Actually, the most unnerving part was the bands of cops. We`d see one after another after another, in just a few blocks. At least we knew we were being looked after....as we were virtually the only ones on the street.

We made it back uneventfully, but neither of us slept well. Every little noise woke us. Well, for me it was the guy at 3:15 running down the street screaming. After that, I had a hard time. Part of what got me was the winow breaking, and we were in a street level room with a window. Everything is fine, though, and Chris is still downstairs sleeping. I´m on the one computer here. I`ve had a doozie of a time finding internet cafes in Finland and here. There`s wifi access everywhere, but what good is that with no laptop (though we have 2 sitting at home waiting for us!).

The cops said everything should be re-opened today. Should being the operative word. They weren`t sure. We shall see. We have until 5:00, then we take another cruise boat back to Stockholm. Where, we`ll spend the day, and then hopefully go to Denmark. We`re not really sure about the night train situation. We may be taking a last minute flight!

Here`s the only story I could find about there riots.

Aurland

So, I never got a chance to talk about the rest of our time on the Fjords. I have a list of things I want to do and see in my life. On it were Oktoberfest in Munich, check, Cinque Terre in Italy, check, the Fjords of Norway, check, Macchu Picchu, Red Square, and numerous other things. The Fjords are the whole reason we went to Norway. To fulfill my dream. I`ve wanted to see them since I was a kid. And was not disappointed. I think I mentioned that I wanted to do more, but couldn`t becuase it wasn`t May 1st yet. What we did was truly wonderful. More than once, we said, "Wow! This is so surreal."

I talked about the bus ride and the boat ride and that we were in Flåm. I can see why Rick says not to stay in Flåm. There is nothing. Some touristy restaurants (where we had fish and chips and cherry, marzipan cake), some touristy shops, a market, and a couple of touristy places to stay. All in all, we`re talking about maybe 15 buildings down by the water. Maybe. And that includes the train station. If you walk back up the river about 1 km, there`s what might be referred to as a town, but it looked to have max. 30 buildings. So, after walking around a bit, we decided to head over to Aurland.

The bus didn`t leave for hours, but the boat did leave to head back to where we came from. We talked to the guys running it, and they totally understood why we wanted to get out of Flåm. Cracked us up. Since we`d told them previously we were going to Aurland, they were all too happy to have us back on, and even let us on for free. It was the coolest experience. They pulled right up with the front of the boat facing the dock, and we walked a little gangplank down to the dock. We were the only ones getting off. I was alittle nervous what with the big pack on my back, but it was fine.

The town is small and deserted, as it`s not May 1st yet, but it was glorious. Right on the water, with the mountains behind. We had an awesome view from our window. It`s quite possible that we were the only people in the hotell! We walked around for a while taking tons of pictures and loving the fact that we got to enjoy more time on the fjords.

We were also exhausted. So, at like 5:00 on the dot, we headed for dinner. We went to the hotel`s pub. We were the only people in there, so we watched Isdans with the worker (we`re still debating if it was a he or she...I say he). It`s Dancing With the Stars, only for Ice Dancing. We totally got into it! For dinner, we had cheeseburgers. They were actually cheeseless and had Thousand Island dressing, lettuce, cucumber, and tomatoes on them. And they were quite possibly the worst cheeseburgers one earth. Thank goodness for the fries. I ate all of those. And they were good! Seriously, I didn`t know you could do such bad things to meat.

After dinner, we went to the convenience store next door and picked up chocolate for dessert. We talked for a bit with the gal working in there. She`s married to and Englishman. We talked about how dead the town was and how busy it gets in summer. We were glad we were there now. But, she said she`s always glad to see the first tourist because that means the warmer weather is coming soon. We talked about the beautiful train ride we`d be taking tomorrow and how the Japanese tourists go from side to side in the "carriage" taking pictures of everything. I found a little too much familiarity in that statement!!

We went back to the room and found the Discovery Channel on our tv. So, there we sat, watching Mike Rowe and Dirty Jobs. We love that show. His dry humor cracks us up. And I promptly fell asleep. At like 6:30 in the evening (or so). And then I woke up....at 2:30. And couldn`t go back to sleep....I`d already had 8 hours of sleep! Finally, after another 3 hours, I did, and we got up at a normal time.

We had to take the bus back to Flåm to cach the special railway. We were unsure of the bus schedule, but showed up when we thought it was coming, and eventually it did. We sat in the very front of the bus. We shouldn`t have. It felt like we were going to go off the little road skirting the mountain and water. When noone was coming, we drove down the middle of the road, and it truly looked like no other vehicles would fit. But they did. Oh my, they did.

We arrived unscathed and had a bit of time to walk around Flåm. Still unexciting. But the scenery was glorious. I didn`t want to leave. The weather was great and the views awesome. I kept taking picture after picture in hopes of remembering some of the grandness of it all.

We took the special little cog railway from Flåm to Myrdal. Wow!! Wow!! Wow!! The grand views were out of this world. I don`t know what else to say. It was a sight to behold. In Myrdal, we boarded the train for Oslo. We spent the next 5 hours being treated to even more amazing scenery. For the first few hours, it was all white. Houses were still buried in the snow. There was even one train station that was built into the tunnel, I guess because of the snow, and the snow was coming inside of the tunnel. Again, surreal. There were skiing resorts and never-ending mountain lakes with brightly painted houses reflecting in the water and rocky little islands with trees stories and stories tall. And more waterfalls than you could ever count.  I`ve never seen anything like it. I am so glad we broke the trip up. We were really able to enjoy everything. Well, I was. you-know-who slept. And then we were in Oslo. I`ve already shared that story. Let`s not rehash that.

Stockholm suits us

We had an amazing day today. Just fabulous. We love Stockholm. I knew we would. The day didn`t start out so well, though. Not at all. First, it took us forever to get out of the hostel. That was really no big deal. We just had to come back three times. Typical Jamie! Ha! It was really warm out today. A lady we spoke to later in the day said it was the first really nice weather they`d had. And it was glorious. Anyway, one of the returns to the hostel was for the removal of extra layers. We were already sweating.

We went to take the subway (T-bana) to the center of town (going down the way we should have come out last night), and the woman wanted to charge us 40 skr per person. Last night it was 52 total. This is for a trip of 2, count them 2 stops, and the exchange rate is about 7 skr per one dollar....that would be a $10 trip! So we decided to walk instead. We were pretty sure which direction we wanted (and we were right). We didn`t have a map, but we figured we were only a block or two east of the center and a few blocks north. We were right!! And, it was a lovely walk. We saw way more of Stockholm and it`s people and it`s stores than we would have otherwise. We happened upon the main shopping district where we bought flavored marshmallows (too bad there`s no fire pit here!) and the best strawberries I`ve ever had in my life. We spent about $4 at the outdoor market, and they were all well worth it. Oh, you should have smelled those strawberries! I wish I could bottle it. Even Chris, the non-berry lover thought it was awesome.

We walked our way into the map in Rick`s book, down the main shopping stree/pedestrian mall. Wow! were there a lot of people!! And this was at about 10:00 on a Wednesday (had to check my watch for what day it is. I can`t keep that straight any more. Don`t really need to. Just need to know where we`re going tomorrow!) We saw some interesting things, not the least of which was the Mongolian Barbecue place with the outdoor seating, and clear acrylic_type seats that were lime green. I mean totally neon lime green. It was the craziest thing. HAD to take a picture. The diners thought I was nuts. So, we`ve made it on to the map, and we`re walking along looking for the TI; we need some information.

Okay, total digression here....there is an old man at the table next to me, and he keeps belching really loudly. It`s just the two of us in the room (I`m at a little kiosk in the breakfast room of the hostel), and it`s kind of weird. They are to.tal open-mouthed, body-jarring belches. Okay, digression over.

So, we`re looking for the TI. And looking, and looking, and looking. I mean literally, we looked for this thing for an hour. We were using Rick`s map. You can see where this is leading, can`t you? He mentions that his maps are NOT to scale, but we`re talking poorly drawn here. In hindsight, there was a little blacked out spot on the map for where the TI was, but the "i" on the map (universal symbol for information/TI) was grouped with some other stuff with an arrow pointing down the block. If there had just been an arrow going from the "i" we would have been fine. But there wasn`t.

So we searched and we hunted and we gave up, and we went back again, and we asked in the 7-eleven in the underground mall (it was in a basement, we knew), and they pointed us in the wrong direction, and we looked some more, and we gave up again, and I got really, really, really frustrated, and we went back again, and we asked in the central subway station, and they said, "oh yeah, it just right there", and we went back to where we`d been three times before, and it wasn`t there, and I cried, and I said I wanted to go home...just get on a plane and go home (we needed to get there to find out where to go to book our cruise to Helsinki tomorrow night), and we crossed to the other side of the street (still don`t know what posessed us), and walked to the middle of the block, and we turned to look over our shoulders back across the street, and there it was. The god-forsaken Swedish House/TI. So we went and got our one piece of information and a map. Arm me with a map, and I`m good to go. Apparently without one, I`m dangreous!

The gal didn`t know THAT much information, but she did give us what we NEEDED to know. So, we walked to the Silja Cruise Line office. And it was a nice walk. It was a nice day in a nice city, and we knew where we were going, so we were able to enjoy it. Along the way, I noticed an art store, so we wandered in. Whaddaya know? They had scrapbook supplies! Most of them were imported from the States, and yes, I own almost all of them. I did find some awesome pens by Stablio that I`d never seen before and stocked up on those. Yay!! Love the pens!!

We made it to the Cruise Line office and got our sailing stuff set. It felt like it took forever, but I got to sit down for a while, so it was OK. By that time, it was already noon and I was starting to feel like we were wasting the day. But we weren`t. By this time, we were enjoying seeing Stockholm. We walked back down another street toward the TI, as there was a lovely park area with hot dog and ice cream stands (and a Fridays, which Chris aviods like the plague, but I´ve had good experiences with them overseas...just not at home!). Anyway, on the way back down, we saw some great stores, including Rolex and Urban Outfitters. I love UO, so we went in. We wouldn`t pay any of the prices for the stuff I like - most of it we can find at home. Chris was highly entertained by, "The Hello Penis Book." Yes, you read that right. It had a hole cut out of the center, and was basically a storybook. Not sexual, but just a little storybook. I think what cracked me up the most was the thought of someone actually taking it seriously. The ridiculousness of it all!!

So we went back out to the park, which turns out to be one of the most popular in Stockholm. I can see why, it was gorgeous! What looked like Cherry Blossom Trees lining a reflecting pool on both sides, with plenty of seating and cafes lining the entire park. There were families and workers and students and people playing life-sized chess games (quite seriously, I might add), and it was lovely. We got hot dogs and sat by the water enjoying. Here´s a funny, the hot dogs were 13 skr each. The bottle of Coke we shared? 24. The dogs rocked, so we each had another. And then, we went back for a third time for ice cream. I had Creme Brulee and Pistachio. Chris had Chocolate and Cappucino. Oh man was it good. As I always say, "Ice cream is a cure all." And boy is it!

We were feeling much better after lunch (I guess I should say I was feeling better - headache), so we decided to head to the Vasa Museum. We weren`t sure if the ferries were running yet or not, as nothing officially opens until May 1, but we decided to try. Apparently they are, just not all of them, so where we were, there was no service. So we walked. I saw a sign that said it was 1.1 K away, from my running, I know that is nothing, so like I said, we walked. Along the way, we happened upon a lovely little harbor side cafe, so we each had a beer...for $7 each!! No matter, it was good, and just what we needed. We sat and enjoyed the weather and the city (again).

Finally, we made our way to the museum. Thankfully, it`s open until 8:00 on Wednesdays. We spent nigh on 3 hours there! We both felt, hands down, it was the best museum we`d ever been to. The Vasa is a man-of-war ship that was commissioned by the King of Sweden and was built right here in Sweden by a Dutchie. It went on it`s maiden voyage in 1628 and promptly sank in the Stockholm harbor not far from where the museum is today. It was found in the 1950s and brought up over 5 years. Then, they spend another 17 years filling all the voids in the wood with wax to preserve it and another year doing cosmetic stuff. So, 23 years later (I`m pretty sure it was `79), they were able to put it on display. Incidentally, the day they brought it up from the water was the very first time they did a live broadcast. Guess it was a pretty big deal!! Chris says 23 years is a long time to wait to see a return on your investment!

Most of the ship was in tact, including all of it`s statues, many of the cannons (it`d had double gun decks, so it had 64 cannons, which, coupled with the ship not having enough ballast was it`s undoing), the bodies of the few who perished (most got out alive), and all the goods that were on the ship. Many of these things (including the skeletons) were on display in the museum. It was truly fascinating - and I took like 200 pictures. It was just awesome. They really did a good job. We even took a tour (yes, in English). Wow! Just wow!

Finally, we left the museum. And wouldn`t you know, we missed the last ferry. So we took the bus. But it was going back to where we`d been lost trying to find the TI & we didn`t want to go THERE again! So we hopped off the bus and headed to do Rick`s walking tour. It was in the old town section of Stockholm (the Gamala Stan neighborhood) and included the Royal Palace, several churches, and some very skinny lanes. It really was a lovely walk. We`d have been more into it if we (and more importantly, our feet) hadn`t been so tired (and by the end of it, hungry). We did see a Rune stone set into one of the buildings (Rick said that`s what it was, anyway) and some army boys practicing in the courtyard of the royal palace while the Royal Guards did their thing. Poor army boys aren`t that well practiced. One of them tripped over another`s gun!

We decided earlier that pasta was sounding super good, so after our walking tour, we went in search of food. Little did I know, my Christopher spied an Italian restaurant during our jaunt around Gamala Stan. So, we walked back over, and into what was apparently a little Italian neighborhood. Oh my gosh! The food was outstanding. We got a huge calzone-type situation and the chef`s special shrimp scampi. It was all to die for. Far and away the best food we`ve had on the trip. Actually, the best Italian food we`ve had since we were in Italy. We almost didn`t want the meal to end. We ate outside and watched the world go by. We even ordered a wine that I could drink. Celia something. It was a very, very good night. Awesome end to an awesome day.

We really like Stockholm. Like the city, like the people, like the food (Italian food counts, right?). Chris likes that people will make eye contact with you here. The fact that they didn`t bothered him in Oslo. Maybe they thought if they did, you`d mug them? Thing is, Stockholm is still a huge city, but it feels more like Bergen than Oslo. We were standing at the entrance to a park today, looking back over what we`d just walked through, and a woman just walked up and asked if she could help us find something. So nice!

Yum....crow tastes good

By the light of day this morning we realized what the problem was last night. We exited the subway station in the wrong direction. Most stations have 2 different directions you can use to exit. So does this one. We did not choose wisely. If we had, we would have been literally 5 feet away (okay, maybe 10) from the hostel`s front door. Now, in our defense, if Rick had added just three little words to his directions,"exit towards Stadsbibliotek," we would have been saved an hour out of our lives. And not just any hour, but an hour at darn-near midinight after 7 hours on the train with 5 kabajillion pound packs on our backs. When I write my travel guide, I will include things like that. It`s all in the details.

Where is Rick Steves? I`d like to ring his bell

I mentioned in my last post that Rick had 3 strikes against him (or at least his guide book). That post was made from the train station. This one is coming from our Hostel. Notice the time difference. It took us forever to get here. No, literally, foever. Look at the time stamp. That`s a long time for a trip that`s only two stations on the subway. This is how bad it was.....I didn`t take a single picture. Need I say more?

I mentioned earlier that Rick (our at least his book had) 3 strikes against him. I can`t remember them all, but suffice to say, now he has 4. Actually, after this last one, he may have 5! Yep, it was that bad. Now, I don`t expect a guide book to have a map to everything - that would be impossible. But, if you`re going to have directions in your book, make them have some semblance of accuracy. Or even actual directions. Something. You could go so far as to have someone like me write them, but I`m not even asking for that. Tonight, we wanted to get to the hostel. So, we followed the directions. We took the subway and walked. Chris just came by. He explains it this way...he just leaves out all the important information on how to get from point A to point B. I love how that man can sum up exactly what I´m trying to say so perfectly. Back to the story. Rick says you take the subway, and it`s right there.

Rick says it`s, "across the street from T-bana: Rådmansgatan, just off Sveavägan at Rehnsgatan 21." What he fails to mention is that you have to walk a couple of blocks down the S-street (in the right direction, mind you) to the street named Rehnsgatan, making sure not to go down the first street that has that on the street sign and thereby thinking you are on the right street and unable to find the hostel and so trying the door code on every possible door and finally stopping in a posh hotel to ask for help. The hotel guy was actually helpful - in a round about way. He drew it on the map and I noticed he indicated the correct street was one over from where we though. Whadday know, when we looked up, the street name had changed (and we both saw it, so we weren`t just wrong). Finally, we found the hostel, and I can only describe it as......charming. So far so good! I just glad to have my pack off my shoulders. It`s somehow jacked up and putting pressure on the nerve in the front of my shoulder when I carry it, but we can`t seem to figure it out.

So, I´m tired, painfully thirsty, I stink, my breath is horrible, and I`ve got a case of the grumps. But we`re here, and we`re off to bed. Stinking Oslo. This is all Oslo`s fault. (Chris is now sitting here waiting for me, trying to read the comics in Swedish. He just giggled. Is there something I should know?)

Rick`s got three strikes, but he`s not out yet

It seemed as thought the travel Gods were against us in Oslo. We got up early, dropped our bags at the train station (in the meantime, I delted the awesome pics I`d taken of our hell-hole hostel this morning. guess it wasn`t meant to be...we think I got one yesterday, though) and headed to the sculpture park, and it was cold again. Did I mention it was WARM yesterday? I contemplated wearing my Chacos for shoes today. Good think I didn`t. It started misting as we entered the park and got worse from there. Wouldn`t you know it? The park was nice. There weren`t as many sculptures as I expected. Rating-wise, I`d give it a just OK. I am glad we saw it, but I`m not sure why people rave on and on about it. It would probably be more enjoyable if we had more leisurely time, but we had a lot to see today! And see we did.

We went out to the Ski Jump, and it was literally socked in and getting worse by the minute. We could only see a few feet in front of our faces. But, we`d bought the Oslo Pass and the entrance was included, so we forged ahead up the jump tower. Look up effort in futility in the dictionary, and you`ll find a picture of us today. It was ridiculous! It jost got worse the further up we got. We could see the start of the jump and that`s it. Oh well, at least we saw something. We did get something of an idea of how high and how big it is. I`m not sure how ski jumpers do it!

So, we headed back into town. I was thinking today, you know you`re a backpacker when you carry a day-pack so you can have food with you and not have to pay $15 for hot dogs. That was us. On the subway ride back, we broke out the lunch. Big crackers with cheese and some cookies for dessert. Doesn`t sound like much, but man that cheese is good. And don`t worry, we supplemented.

We saw several elementarry age classes on the trains today. I was thinking how much easier it much be for them to take class trips when they don`t have to hire a bus and driver to get everywhere. They just all hop on the trains. And they were so well behaved! As it was lunch time, several of them cracked out the food. Now, I know open-faced sandwiches are all the rage over here, but it never occured to me that that`s what kids would carry in their lunch. Once little girl pulled out two open faced sandwiches. Made me giggle! Just stick those together and make a sandwich out of them! They`d be much easier to eat!

We went down to the docks and had a few mintues to spare before getting on the ferry to the museums, so we wandered. We`d read that you can buy fresh shrimp by the bag. They weren`t kidding (both Rick and frommer`s)! For about $10, we got .5 kilo (have no idea what that is in English!). Oh my gosh! They were amazing! We ate them on the ferry ride over. Holy yum! Some had a bunch of stuff in them. We weren`t sure if it was eggs or dirt, but they came off with the shell, so we decided it was shrimp caviar and went with it!

The Folk Museum was super interesting. Only a couple of houses were open, but still it was cool. My main gaol in going there was seeing the stave chruch. I knew it was my only chance to see one. They`re wooden churches built hundreds of years ago in a special style and pay homage to the Viking history of the area. WOW!! Totally worth the price of admission. Except for the French tourists who wouldn`t go away. They were everywhere! We were running behind, so we just walked around a bit and headed over to the ships.

We had to skip the Con-Tiki and the Fram, but we went to the Viking Ship Museum, and are we glad we were! Holy awesome. There were several ships, two of them large, and it was just amazing. Their we were plagued by Japanese tourists again, but no matter, we were lost in the beauty and awesomeness of it all!

We actually had to run to get the ferry. There we are in all of our tourist glory, camera in hand, running down the streets of this old, lovely section of town. The workmen doing renovations on all of the houses had to be guffawing at us. I would have! Good thing we ran too. The ferry stopped only long enough for us to hop on. Meanwhile, I decided to take one last picture, and dropped my lens cap. I could only watch as it rolled into the bay. Lovely.

We rushed to the train station, got some groceries for another picnic onboard, grabbed our gear and rushed off to the train. And here we are in Stockholm. And thank goodness. We`re excited to be here. We can`t wait to see what this city has to offer tomorrow. It can only get better!

I wouldn`t say Olso`s my favorite city on earth

You know, when you`re traveling like we are, basically backpacking across Scandinavia, there are bound to be bad moments. We`ve had so many good ones, so many things have gone right, even better than right....better than we could have expected, that something would have to go wrong. That thing would be Oslo. First of all....first of all, I`ve been to a lot of cities in my short life, and I have very rarely felt unsettled walking through their streets. Today I felt that...a lot. Even with my big, scary husband walking beside me, I felt a little nervous. Even he felt a little nervous.

Never in my life have I seen so many drugged out junkies and miscreants in one small place (and remember, I lived in the Netherlands!). We should have known. Rick says this is where the, "troubled youth" go to try to fit in...or to find others like them. That should have been a tip-off. Troubled youth is commie liberal speak for a whole city full of drunks and drug-heads. (and by the way, this is from a man who said on his blog last week that he`s always suprised to meet a nice Republican. humph! and he`s the one who talks about keeping an open mind)

Apparently the area around the station is a hotbed of activity. The city powers-that-be knows there are skads of drug deals going on (and the remnants of said deals) and decided rather than round up the offenders, they`d look the other way on soft(ish) drugs. But, they do have cameras up to keep an eye on things. Yeah, that makes me feel better. I`m probably painting a worse picture than reality, but I do have to say that never in my life have I felt like I`m receiving so many unsettling looks. I constantly feel like I`m going to be mugged. So does Chris. It`s weird. Maybe it`ll be better tomorrow. Oh wait, I know it`ll be better tomorrow...we are going to Stockholm.

That`s another sore subject. Anyone who knows me at all knows how throughly I research these trips. It`s fun for me. I missed a small little detail. The overnight train to Stockholm doesn`t run every night. Specifically not on Tuesday nights. So, we have to leave here at 3:48 tomorrow. We arrive in Stockholm at 11:00 pm. Great. At least we`ll be in Stockholm. I already emailed the Hostel and asked if they had room. It sounds like they do. That`s a plus. At least we`ll be able to sleep on the train.

We`re staying at a Hostel here in Oslo. The Anker Hostel. As I mentioned earlier, I`ve been to a number of cities, and I`ve stayed in quite a few hostels. I`d have to say, hands down, the Anker Hostel is the worst I`ve stayed in yet. Blech. Rick calls it something akin to a bomb shelter. That`s putting it nicely. Doesn`t it look nice in the picture on their home page? Looks can be deceiving. The entrance isn`t that bad, but once you go around the corner to the staircase? Egads! Dirty, dingy, and downright nasty. But, it`s only one night.

After getting to the hostel, getting checked in (and changed, it`s way warmer here...I saw a bunch of people in shorts today), visiting the Tourist Information Office (ti), talking to the ticket people about the lack of a train, getting online to check for flights to Stockholm (about $287 for both of us), and visiting the TI again, we finally got out into the city. We did Rick`s walking tour. I`m gonna have to say, Rick`s stock has gone down slightly on this trip. The tour? Not so easy to follow. We were starving, so in the middle of it, we stopped at a McDonald`s.

It was quite literally the worst Mickey D`s on earth. The food was horrible. Wretched, even. I had a cheeseburger. Seriously, their cheeseburgers rock! Mine sucked. Blech. Chris had chicken nuggets. He said they were like rubber pellets. And, they were doing some remodeling upstairs. What a mess! But, you had to go through it to get to the WC (bathroom - when I asked for a rest room, the worker girl tried to sell me ice cream!). I visited it twice, lucky me - my tummy wasn`t happy. I think all of the carbs & coke (but more often Fanta) coupled with the earlier stress sent it reeling. As we were thankfully leaving, I noticed a sign. It said that this was the first MickeyD`s opened in Oslo (or Norway for that matter) back in 1983. Yeah, the food tasted like it had been there that long.

We recommenced the walking tour and saw a bunch of stuff as the sun set. Got some great pictures of said stuff and finally abandoned the tour. We just didn`t care anymore. After the hostel, the train situation, and the junkies on quite literally every corner, we wanted something easy for dinner. And what to our wondering eyes should appear? Yep......Hard Rock Cafe. So we went in. And we had nachos. And we paid $6 for my  not-even-full glass of Coke and $10 for Chris`awesome milkshake. And we listened to Aerosmith and Red Hot Chili Peppers. And it was good.

When the bill came, it was 254 kroners. I looked at the bottom of the bill and got excited. I tought they`d converted it to American dollars (it is the Hard Rock after all, and while it was started in London, they were Americans). But, I was wrong. It was in Euros. In Euros, the price wasn`t so bad. Too bad that had to be converted. (btw, to convert divide the kroners by 6, that`s a rough estimation) Chris just looked up the official conversion. Dinner was $42, and we SHARED the nachos! And he didn`t want to go to Australia because it was too expensive!

Tomorrow will be a better day. There are actually some things I want to see here. The ski jump, the Folk Museum, the Viking Ship museum, and the sculpture park. I hope we can get it all in! I haven`t talked about Aurland and how totally awesome it was and our trip from Flåm to Oslo today and how spectacular it was. Yes! There actually was some good stuff today. It was just all before we got to Oslo. It`s off to bed for now, though. We`ve got an early start tomorrow (good thing Chris slept for 2+ hours on the train today!)

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

This is Bobbi... and here are pics of the kids  at Tulsa International Airport... the beginning of this journey. And yes, I got a parking ticket at the airport! Don't you all think Jamie should pay for it??!! I'm not as mad about the ticket as I am about not being able to talk the guy out of it!

                                        

Dear Mom, thanks for the boots

It`s cold. Seriously cold. Last night, as we were walking home from the internet cafe, I felt one little plop of rain on my head. It didn`t start in earnest until after we got back (that would be after getting a tad confused on the umpteen billion switchbacks up to our place and declining the invitation to "party" with some college students - I know, what an old fogey thing to do, but we were sooooooo tired, and we still had to pack and get up early (pre-seven for me!) Anyway, the rain hasn`t stopped since. It`s kind of a Seattle rain, only it`s cold. And by cold, I mean C-O-L-D. Numb your fingertips cold.

Today, we did the first half of Norway in a Nutshell. That`s a train, bus, boat, train trip from Bergen to Oslo. You only get to see two little fjords out of the kabajillions in Norway, but they`re renowned as the best. Our train left at 8:40 and we had to get our Eurail Passes validated, thus the early start. On the way, it rained. Brrrrrrr. And, Chris broke his water bottle. It was one of my Life is Good, Nalgene water bottles. If anyone could break something so indestructible, it`s my bull-in-a-china closet huband. We could only laugh. The girl at the train office (yes, they were open) was unsure of what to do with us. I don`t  think many people use Bergen as a starting point. But, she was totally helpful and got us going.

We took the train to a small town called Voss. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time and we couldn`t get very many good pictures out the window. Had it been summer and warm, I would have rolled down the window and shot out of it. As I`ve mentioned, though it`s most certainly not summer and in no way warm, so we just sat back and enjoyed. Upon arrival in Voss, we were immediately ushered onto a bus. I only had time for one (or two) pictures!

The bus ride to Gudvangen was unbelievable! Seriously gorgeous scenery. I now know why nothing is open until May 1. There were feet of snow everywhere! In fact, we saw a bunch of people on their way to go skiing. I can`t really put into words how awesome it was. We stopped at a mountaintop resort (that`s closed still) for pictures. I think it was called Stalheim. Holy wow! It was even better than the bus ride! The views of the beginning of the fjord and the mountain were just unbelieveable.

The bus dropped us off at Gudvangen, which seemed like more of a boat stop with a few places to stay than a town. We walked around taking a few pictures. Now, we were actually on a fjord. I`ve been dreaming of this for I don`t know how long.

We snapped a few and boarded the boat, afraid we might miss it. All of a sudden, we were innundated by a large tour group (I`ll let you guess at the nationality). We tried to ignore them, but it quickly became painfully obvious that it would be a difficult task. No matter, we were about to tour around not one, but two fjords! Take the train ride and the bus ride, put them together and mulitply by like 50 kabajillion, and you don`t even begin to get to the awesomeness of the boat ride. It was truly surreal for me. I`d been dreaming and planning and thinking about doing this for so long, the fact that we were actually there doing it, seeing it was overwhelming.

Even though it was quite literally freezing and raining, and yes, snowing, Chris and I stayed outside for the whole ride (expect to grab hot dogs, beer, & Fanta and wolf them down...we were starving! nothing is open in this country on Sunday morning!). We were among a very few. The tour group started out inside (many with their backs to the windows - we didnt`t get it), came outside to feed the seagulls and take pictures of them, took a few pics of the fjord and proceed back inside. I can`t be happier that we stayed out. We saw some absolutely amazing scenery, and hopefully got some fabulous pictures. I could go on and on about how wonderful it was!

Now, we are in Flåm. We are going to take a walk here in the countryside and then take either the bus or the boat to Åurland where we are staying tonight. This is seriously cool. Seriously.l

Oh, and did I mention it`s cold?

Which cheese goes best with reindeer?

As uttered by my husband today in the 7-eleven. We were trying to find a cheese to go with the reindeer meat we bought at the market this morning. Turns out it was a salami-ish reindeer meat. We had an over processed cheese with red pepper and tomato bits in it with the salami-ish reindeer and we ate it on fresh bread from a bread store. Excellent picinic we had, topped off with a cinnamon roll that had sugar over the top instead of frosting. And, all of the breads were more sweet than we`re used to. Very, very yummy. But, I`m getting ahead of myself.

We started the day off lazily. We`d intended to get up around 7:45, and I actually woke up long before then, but Chris was sleeping so soundly and was having a hard time waking up, so I let him sleep for an extra hour or so. I finished reading my book (The 5th Horesman by James Patterson - very good), and by the time he got up, I was ready to go. We hit the fish market. Apparently, it used to be a huge fish market, but these days it`s more stuff for the tourists and less fish. Don`t get me wrong, there were still awesome fish stands, but only 3 of them.

The tourist stands were interesting. We actuall bought a couple of things. A Christmas ornament that looks like the front of a Viking ship, and a bauble for Bob (see, I didn`t forget!). We passed by a fur stand. And by fur, I mean pelts straight of the back of local animals. The one they had the most of was seal. Wow! What a wonderful feeling fur. I found myself feeling bad that it was no longer on the back of a super cute little seal, but they are in abundance here, and probably think of them like we would.....well, I`m not sure what we`d think of, but there`s got to be something. The craziest thing was the full wolf skin, replete with face (minus the eyes, of course...it was only the pelt, after all) and feet. Yes, the feet were still on it, and it was hanging by them. And, to tell the truth, it was creepy. Now, we all know I have no problem with the hunting, but these are things I`m not used to seeing, and it was creepy!

At one of the fish stands, we had a sample of salmon caviar. Yum! I think I liked it more than chris. I felt badnot buying anything after the guy gave us the taste. He had a sign announcing the 7 languages spoken at his booth, so I know it was quite touristy, but still. Never fear, on the other end of the stand, we found salmon sandwiches. Yum!! It was fresh (swimming around yesterday, in my mouth today) and tasty. Smoked salmon (raw, but that`s cool) on bread with some sort of spread. As Rachael Ray would say, Yum-o! We`d also gotten grapes at one of the booth and drank a Norwegian beer with it all. So, at not quite 11:00 in the morning, there we sat, salmon, beer, and grapes. It was perfect!

We were originally on our way to the local TI (the tourist information office, the saving grace of tourists in Europe), so we headed that way after our "breakfast," but not without a detour back to the room to get our Eurail passes. oops! No worries, though. When we came back, the girl who helped us get set up for Norway in a Nutshell tomorrow also told us about an event going on today that would have a parade of drummers at 2:00. I doubt our original helper would have told us about it, and it ended up being very cool. But again, I digress.

We deemed it necessary to see some sort of museum. There are tons here, and the local regular arts museum is HUGE!! So, we went to the Hanseatic Museum. Very interesting. The Hanseatic section of Bergen Dates from the 1300s and is called Brygge (or something close to that). It was where a group of German traders ran business (some small, some large) trading the local catch of fish (mainly cod) here and in other areas of Europe. They were based in Lubeck (yep, been there!), and were here until the mid-1700s when the locals took over the trade. It was fascinating. There were several beds in cabinets (literally) in the upper floors where they also did the business end of things, and the bottom floor was where they took care of the fish. Dried Cod, mostly. Not an attractive fish, if you ask me!

We finished at the museum just in time to head over to the "parade." There is a large open area in the middle of the downtown shopping district. It`s long and wide and has a fountain with reliefs depicting local life. I commented yesterday that it would be the perfect place for a bunch of good Socialists to march. Whaddaya know? That`s where they were marching. We weren`t sure exactly what was going on, but there was a lot of drumming and marching and wee little boys carrying crosses. After they passed us, we moved on ahead a little, and caught up to them. There, I was trying to take a picture and oops! I bumped into a lady (just a little, I promise!). She turned aournd and said something to me in Norwegian after I said sorry. Most people here get that we`re American after just one word and immediately start speaking English (a little unnerving at times, if you ask me!). This lady, not so much, so I said, "Oh, I`m sorry, I`m American, I don`t understand." She just looked at me for a moment and then turned away. Another moment later, she turned back and started talking to me. What a boon! She told me all about what was going on and even pushed me closer to the action to get better pictures (yes, literally pushed me. I have a tendancy to want to stay back in not get in people`s way to get pictures. I am only a hobbyist, after all). I`m glad she did push me, I got some fabulous shots. It turns out that this was the 150th anniversary of a local drum corps. Many of the areas of town have these corps that the boys join when they are quite small ( I swear some were 5). When they are old enough, they start drumming, and when they are 20, they have to quit drumming. They`re still members, but they don`t drum any more. On Saturdays (and somtimes Sundays - they had to make special groups for the families that worked on Sat.), you will see (and more imporatantly hear) them marching all over town. The crosses the little boys were carrying were not crosses at all, but pretend bows, and on their hips they wore a quivver painted in the corps`colors. It was all very cool.

The thing that cracked me up the most was that if they march in the streets, the cars are required to stop for them. I guess they don`t use the sidewalks because they`re too narrow? Whatever the reason, each of the three corps we saw today were in the street (we assume the 3 we heard but didn`t see were the same way). The gal I spoke to was from Bergen originally and now lives in Oslo. She was here for the weekend to help tie up ends from her brother moving into a nursing home. That stuff was finished, so now she was just enjoying. She was so kind...explained the whole thing to me!

After spending waaaay to much time at the parade, we headed back to Brygge and wound our way through the old buildings. They are painted fun colors and crooked and leaning and house lots of interesting shops. We didn`t stop in many because, what do we need? But we did stop in one and bought a poster of the harbor. Very cool. Can`t wait to hang it on the wall.

We intended to go up the funicular, but I remember there was a church I wanted to get a picture of after the parade, and got so into things I plum forgot. Even thought it was on the completely opposite side of town, we headed over. On the way, we wandered into a paper store. Anyone surprised? Anyway, how knew that out the back door was a 5 story mall? I can tell you who, the teenagers. No matter what country you`re in, you can find the teenagers at the mall! We looked around a bit, but didnt`t want to buy anything, so we headed on.

The gal told me that was the University section, and we could really tell the difference. We stopped for a hot dog (more like a sausage, really) at 7-eleven. We have seen no less than 6 of them, including the one in the airport. Guess just `cuz you don`t see them in OK anymore, that doesn`t mean a thing! Let me tell you, it was a great hot dog! We also stopped at a local bread chain, Godt Bread. We both got a pastry (guess you dont`t call them a Danish in Norway) that the girl told us was almond flavored. I guess raisin in Norwegian translates into almond in English. There was no kind of almond in them, and tons of raisns. Blech. I hated it. Should have gone with the carrot cake I originally wanted. But, the church (outside only) was interesting, and we saw a little more of the city (including yet another 7-eleven).

We headed over to the train station to get our Rail Passes validated. Didn`t really need to, just thought it would be one less thing to do tomorrow. Our train leaves at 8:40, and we`re already going to have to get up earlier than Chris would like on vacation (or not on vacation, really!). The stinking station was closed! It was 6:00, and the ticket office was closed. The stinkers! The trains still ran, but you could only buy the tickets from an electronic stand. Oh well, at least we got to see even more of the city!

We finally made it to the funicular up the "mountain." Wow! It was definitely worth the money! What a view over the whole city and harbor. My lens cap slipped out of the bag and off the viewing platform. Thankfully, my knight in shining armor when down through a blocked off area and retrieved it for me (not that I wouldn`t have done it myself, but I was glad I didn`t have to). We walked around a bit, enjoying the gift shop and the super-sized troll before venturing into the forsest a bit. We didn`t go far, but it was gorgeous. We found some trolls carved out of trees and strolled around them. Totally relaxing and fun. We took a ton of pictures of and with them!

We tried to eat at the restaurant at the top of the hill. Ricky recommended it; but it was closed and some well-helled party was making it`s way there. So, down we went. But, not before some rude teenagers decided to not respect the que (that`s Chris`s latest catch phrase) and got the front seat. Grrrrrrr.  We were hungry by this point. Seriously hungry. So, we went to one of the restaurants Ricky recommended. We wanted to try whale. When we finally found it, it was closed. And by closed I mean never openeing again. Darn it! I was really, really hungry, and tired, and my back hurt. So we headed for another restaurant. On the way, we tried to stop at a couple of others, but we couldn`t figure them out (and they had things in English), so we forged ahead....all the way back to the base of the funicular. Which wasn`t where the restaurant was! AAAARRRGGHHHH!!! We were only a couple of streets off, though and we found it without too much effort (a little, but not too much....the addresses are crazy here. they stop on one side of the street, but continue on the other. so, it may be number 20 on one side and number 5 on the other. it`s acutally logical, but not when you`re used to things the way  we do the).

Dinner was fabulous. We totally blew the budget on it, but didn`t care one iota. It was awesome. We shared a smoked salmon appetizer, Chris had reindeer for dinner, I had pan-fried halibut, and we shared apple cake for dessert. Again, yum-o! We even drank wine! Me, I actually drank more than one glass of wine. It was Italian from Puglia, and it even got better as the meal wore on. Wow! Oh, and the waiter was outstanding. We`ve met some wonderful people here. They don`t appear outwardly friendly, but all you have to do is talk to them, and their awesome!

So here we are in another internet cafe. Chris is waiting for me (some might call it impatiently). We`re headed back to the room for him to shower, some packing, and sleepy-time. The alarm rings way too early tomorrow (he has to get up earlier than he does for work).

Holy Cow! We`re in Norway!

It`s about 9:20 pm here, and we`re dragging. We just finished dinner on the harbor. Nope, no fish. We came all the way to Norway and had pizza at none other than Pepe`s Pizza! In our defense, it was really good pizza, and there are four of them here in Bergen, so there have to be some Noregians there eating too. Actually we saw a bunch of Norwegians there (and, I must admit....some were tourists. Did I mention it was really good pizza? Oh my! Chris`half was actually better than mine, but either way, it was good. They served it with "Pepe`s Special Sour Cream Sauce" and it was fab. And we had this delicious layered Oreo cookie dessert. Mmmmm....yum!

After dinner, Chris needed to use the facilities. After 2 beers and a coffee....well, it was a must. At least they don`t cost here like they do elswhere in Europe! So, he comes back and sits down and has the wierdest look on his face. He says, "I think that was the most interesting bathroom I`ve ever seen. Now, we`d seen bathrooms where the entire thing was a mural of the Dutch Seascape replete with piped in bird noises (mine had a toothbrush dispenser - his condoms) and another one where one wall was the actual facilities and the other wall was all glass looking out on the planes. Know all this, I inquired. Yep, it was true. Turns out, there was just a grate on the floor that the guys stood on, and a wall right in front of them with water running down it. He really wanted to take a picture of it, but as there were other guys in there, decided it wasn`t the best idea on earth. Cracks me up!

I left off in the A`dam airport. We had skads of time on our hands after going through passport control (you had to go through to get to the other concourse, but didn`t have to actually do customs...weird), so we window shopped. Chris was amazed at how much stuff there was to buy and how many people were buying it. But, the taxes (and prices) are greatly reduced on everything, so it actually makes sense. We decided we were hungry and hit the food court. We went with Sbarro. Yes, pizza twice in one day. We were just too tired to even think about making a decision. We were past the point of exhaustion. Before we paid for the pizza, though I noticed the chicken joint had french fries. And not the regular òle french fries, but the Belgian style fries. Pommes Frites with frites sauce and everything. So we got some and washed it all down with a yummy European Fanta (why can`t they make it the same at home? it`s so much more syrupy there. Oh my, were those fries good. Fresh, hot, and yummy!!

I forgot to mention...on our first flight, there was a screaming brat in the row in front of us. No, seriously, I mean BRAT!! He was horrible. Finally, he fell asleep. Thank God. I thought the guy ahead of him was going to blow a gasket. Then, on our flight to Bergen, there was a screaming little baby right in front of us. And by screaming, I mean top of the lungs bloody murder screaming. It`s totally Murphy`s Law for me. But, what can you do? This one was really, really little. And finally, it too fell asleep. Other than the baby, that flight was uneventful too. Except for the views. The tulip fields are in bloom, and you could spot them from the plane. Totally cool. Green, green, green, pink, red, green, green, yellow, pink. I was so glad I woke up before we took off! Then, as we landed, we got the most spectacular views of Bergen, the water, and the surrounding areas. I was giddy as I was seeing it. This was exactly what I`d been dreaming of. Sleepy little towns spilling into pristine waters. Wow! I tried to take a couple of pictures, but our plane was older and the window crappy, so I`m not sure how they`ll turn out.

We had a total Amazing Race moment on the way to our hotel. Well, it`s not a hotel so much as a house with rooms for rent, and the streets are narrow and short and you see where this is going, don`t you? Just bear in mind that whenever your cabbie asks you 3 times to look again at the address, it`s not a good thing. He ended up at one of the Hotels that had rejected us. She was actually expecting someone, but it was not us. The cabbie was clueless, so I said let`s walk from here. It was a good thing too. He never would have found it! The cab ride was also an immersion into Norwegian money. It was 326 kroners. What? 326? When you do the math (divide by 6) it`s only 50-something dollars! We found the house with just a minimum of looking (after realizing we couldn`t find the map I`d printed out to bring with).

Our place is lovely...but small. And by small, I mean a teeny tiny nook in the attic of an old house. Very Scandinavian looking. And while we are paying like $80 per night for this nook, we`re glad to do it. We have a cool room in a real house, and we`re supporting a local. Cool. We do share a common area and bathroom with a couple of other "roms." The funniest part is, it`s outfitted with Ikea, several pieces of which we have at home.

Bergen is a lovely little city. We were able to walk around a bit and get acquainted this evening. Some awesome medieval stuff. I think it`s fine, though that we`ll only be here one full day. There`s not THAT much to do!

Did I mention I dropped my camera? Yeah. when we were in Schipol, I had to take a pic of the fries, and I hit it on the bottom of the table as I was bringing it up, and the force knocked it out of my hand and on to the floor. It seemed OK, but it has been acting up a bit this evening. I`m not sure if it`s the fall or the cold (it is 37 degrees here right now). I almost forgot to mention, it was snowing when we got here. Just a little, but still, snow nonetheless. Welcome to Norway!

I already heard rumblings about there being no pictures yet. There probably won`t be until we get home. It`s just too hard to do here. So, my words will have to paint a mental picture for you!

'

You are delaying your flight

We had quite an auspicious beginning to our adventure. First, Bob came in with us to take pictures in the airport. Apparently she was away from her car for longer than 3 minutes because when she looked up from the snapping, she was getting a ticket. She never came back in, but was out there talking to the guy for a few minutes. I can't wait to hear what happened and if her connection to the head of the airport police got her out of it.

We got all checked in (Chris' bag weighed 36 pounds, whereas my bag weighed only 23. The counter guy was quite amused that mine weighed less!) and proceeded to security, whereupon we were hereded back out of security. We still don't know what was going on, but men with guns told everyone to exit the area, and they shut all of the doors. The TSA agents said they didn't even know what was going on, but that they'd let us in as soon as possible. Some people had to leave all of their stuff on the conveyor belts - including their shoes! Holy cow! Let me just say, I can't believe the nerve of some people. They were so extremely rude to the TSA guys (who were surprisingly pleasant). On woman was virtually yelling at them to find out what was going on and inform us, and some guy was going off on rants about how the airports are publicly funded. I never figured out his point, but let's just say he was a pain in the you-know-what!

We really didn't have to wait that long and finally headed to the gate. Which, I promise is the worst gate in the history of gate-dom. I pronounced it the redheaded step-child of gates. Cracked myself up! I'm pretty sure it used to be the smoking lounge. Needless to say, I couldn't wait there. Our flight to Memphis was uneventful. Always a good thing. Had a little layover, and ate some barbeque. We decided, "When in Memphis....." Chris got a 1/2 rack of ribs. I thought they were awesome. He said they weren't the best ribs he'd ever had. (counting these, he's had ribs 4 times, all within the last month). I can't remember the name of the place, but I'd seen it on one of those travel channel shows. Jim sombody's Interstate barbecue. Yum!

So right now, we are in Amsterdam. Over the loudspeakers we keep hearing, "So-and-so, you are delaying your flight." Cracks us up. Our flight from Memphis was OK. It was definitely better than the Air France flight! Not too hard to do, though. We sat next to a nice gent, Bruce. Chatted with him a bit. The seats seemed to have more room than most, but it still wasn't enough. Chris and both squirmed our way through the night. I'd say we each got about 3 hours sleep. We're both suprisingly pleasant for so little sleep (and no coffee for Chris). We watched The Incredibles on the way over. NWA (that's Northwest Airlines, not the rap group that I first thought of) has the handy personal selection system. So, we tried to watch the movie together. Somehow I kept stopping mine and having to restart the entire movie from the beginning and then fast forward it. Grrrrrr!!!! Finally, mercifully, I just fell asleep.

I'd forgotten what a nice airport Schipol is. Tons and tons and tons of shopping. There's a "deli" that is really a true deli! They had samples of salmon and cheese out. Yum!! We kind of wanted to buy some cheese, but really, what's the point? Being here reminds me just how much I loved the Netherlands. I wanted to tack on a couple of days here at the end of the trip, but there just wasn't a good way to do it. Guess we'll have to come back. I think we should do one of those apartment rental things. Very cool.

Another funny over the loudspeaker, "Attention. Smoking is prohibited in Schipol Airport....except in bars and restaurants." Cracks us up...the bars and restaurants are all open air, right out in the middle of everything. Chris really wants to try one of the sushi bars or check out the Casino. We shall see.

Update

I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I started Weight Watchers again. I had a goal of losing 15 pounds by the time we left on our trip. I realized that wasn't realistic, so I ammended that to 10 - 15 pounds. I just got back from today's weigh in, and I've lost 14! I'm so proud! It took 6 weeks of hard work, but I did it. I love seeing the results. It helps motivate me to keep moving forward. I still have a lot of work to do, but meeting this goal was awesome!!

Also, I just checked weather.com again. I know we all know that the Weather Channel is always wrong. I don't mean always in your normal weatherman inaccuracies sense of the word. No, I mean ALWAYS. But, their website does seem to do a little better. Well, the forecast for our days in Bergen looks a little better....no rain, just high wind advisories. We can deal with that!

All our bags are packed, we're ready to go..

Truth be told, we're almost ready to go. The bags are packed. There are a couple more things to throw in. It's amazing how much more space winter-type clothes take up than summer/fall clothes! I feel like I don't have THAT much, but my bag sure is full!! I have a couple of little errands to do and some last minute details. Oh, and I guess I'd better put together the carry-ons! I think we're taking our coats as carry-ons with pillow cases so we can have our own pillows throughout the trip! Good idea, Rick!

I can't believe today is the day. I really hope I remember to stop and enjoy being in the middle of everything. Sometimes when traveling, it's easy to get all caught up in what needs to happen next, but I'm focusing on enjoying the fabulous moments as they unfold!

consumed

Today, I am all-consumed with all things travel. Mom and I are running errands, getting things crossed of my list. Incidentally, it's a much longer list than I'd anticipated. Just where did all of these items come from? I checked The Weather Channel for the forecasts this weekend and next week. Apparently, all of the nasty weather we've had here has moved on to there. It's supposed to rain every single day of our first week there. Fabulous. Wait, wait....it gets better. It's cold too. Way colder than last week. Grrrrrrrr!!!! Here's the forecast for our first full day (Bergen, Norway).

Day	Night
Rain High 47°F Precip 60% Wind: SSE 15 mph Max. Humidity: 71% UV Index: 2 Low Sunrise: 6:05 AM Local Time Avg. High: 48°F Record High: N/A	Rain Overnight Low 34°F Precip 60% Wind: S 8 mph Max. Humidity: 82% Sunset: 9:12 PM Local Time Avg. Low: 36°F Record Low: N/A

On another, fabulous note, I found my wedding band! Yay! Yes, it has been among the missing. Bad wife, I know. When we moved, I took it off and put it in the ring box. But where did I put it? Last night, I was going through jewelry I keep in my dresser, and whaddaya know, there it was! Who ever would have guessed? Now, it's properly ensconsed on my finger!

Okay, I'm off to the errands. We'll call it fun.

We have a bed!!

The stress level has reduced significantly!! We have a place to stay our first two nights. Man, was I getting worried there. We are staying at Fjellsiden Guesthouse. Say that three times fast! This is not the place I was talking about yesterday. I had an email from him this morning saying that his guest decided to stay through the weekend. I had a feeling that would happen, so last night I did some more research and found this place. I went ahead and emailed just in case, and they have room! Yay!!

On top of that, we have a room in Helsinki now too. It's weird. All of the hostels there are booked already. We don't want to stay there until the 27th, but everything's booked. I actually emailed two different hotels about staying with them, and got a yes from both! First time that's happened in this trip planning effort. I felt bad turning the one down. In his response, he said, "Thank you for your nice email." But it was a little farther out, and I know at the end of the day Chris will appreciate being close to everything.

So, at this point the only places we don't have rooms are Tallinn, Estonia and Copenhagen. Tallinn's hostels still have beds, so I'm not too worried there, and Rick Steves mentions the place I stayed when I visited Copenhagen 10 years ago. How can it be 10 years already? That means next year I will have been out of college for 10 years. 10 years!!!! Let's not talk about it any more. Back to the topic at hand.....Rickey mentions the place we stayed back then. I think he calls it unimpressive. We quite liked it (I remember the breakfast being great - first time I ever had yougurt on my granola - probably 'cuz I couldn't stand to put whole milk on it, LOL! that hasn't changed in 10 years!). Funny what being poor college students and adding 10 years can do, huh? I thought it would be really cool to stay there again. I'm going to check into it, but there are also a couple of places I've heard good things about that I'll check out too.

Today, I'm doing a couple of last minute details. Picking up my new shoes that had to be tweaked at the cobbler (I love calling the shoe repair guy the cobbler), getting a lens hood for one of my lenses & seeing about getting the camera cleaned. Oh yeah, and packing. We still have piles....nothing in bags yet. I had some laundry to do. Now if I can just keep from wearing my clean clothes before we go!

I'm also scrapbooking with Mom and Rachel at Scraphappy's. It's good for me to do something that keeps my mind off of the fact that WE'RE GOING TO EUROPE IN 2 DAYS!! I could very easily cross the threshold from happy/excited into freaking out. I'm working on finishing up a scrapbook of our last European trip. I took all of my blog entries from that trip (they are Sept. 28, 2005 - Oct. 8, 2005), copied them, and laid the text out across 35(ish) pages, leaving room for pictures to tell the stories. It's quickly become one of my favorite scrapbooks ever. I love going back through and reading everything. It also makes me know I want to do the blogging again this trip. I can't wait to come home and make another one of these of this trip. But, I really want to have the one from the last trip done before we leave. So, off I go.....   

stressed

So, it's gone from frenzied to stressed. Seriously. I don't know what's going on in Bergen, Norway this weekend, but whatever it is, we can't find a hotel room! Let me amend that......we can't find a room at a price we're willing to pay. I can't even count how many emails I've sent in the last couple of days. I started a couple of weeks ago, but had a causual attitude about reservining us a room. I mean, it's not high season or anything. Yeah, well, the lax attitude is kicking me in the you-know-what right now. I try really hard to stay in smaller, family run places or hostels. We're even looking at staying in rooms in homes again. These options tend to be among the cheapest. But, they're all booked. I thought it wouldn't be any big deal. Who wants to go to Norway (or Sweden or Finland for that matter) when it's still cold? Apparently, I was wrong.

Now I'm worried about our Norway in a Nutshell trip. Should I schedule it before we go? At this late date, does it really matter all that much? AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! Chris says it's all going to be fine. Easy to say when you're not the one actually dealing with all this stuff! I know he's right. There are still beds to be had in hostels, but I wanted something a little nicer for our first two nights. Guess the old addage is true.....beggars can't be choosers. I thought I'd found us a cute little apartment. I checked the availability and everything & it said it was available. But, when the guy emailed me back, he said the person staying there has the opportunity to extend his stay through the weekend. The proprietor won't know what they renter chooses until morning. I'm going crazy over here. I looked at rooms on Travelocity tonight. There were about 5 around $240 and the rest were full. Again, AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! Actually, it's officially morning over there now. They're what, 7 or 8 hours ahead of us? That makes it at least 7:20 over there. Guess we still won't know anything for a couple of hours, though. And I'm exhuasted, so I'm heading to bed. Here's hoping we have a bed this weekend!

Oh, and how cool is it that I can say, "This weekend, when we're in Norway......?"

Frenzied

Chris and I are totally frenzied right now. We leave for Norway on Thursday. Thursday already. I can't stand it! There's still so much to do. Reservations to make, packing to do (lots of packing...we haven't started yet...at all). Right now, I think I'm more frenzied than Chris (no surprise there, LOL!). Work has been all-consuming for him lately. It's truly been crazy. Pure craziness. I'm excited to get him out of the country where they totally can't get ahold of him. One of his off-shore people (that would be a guy in India) called him in the middle of the night just to talk. I was actually still up, but I don't require nearly as much beauty sleep as Chris. The stress level has gotten totally ridiculous. Seriously.

Anyway, we have a lot of getting ready to do. I usually spend the night before a big trip staying up all night, taking care of all the little details. I've already made (well, really decorated - fancied up) our journals. Chris got me some awesome Moleskine journals for Christmas. I used two out of the three-pack. They're just perfect. Not to big, not too small, and enough pages for the whole trip, but not enough that you feel guilty for not filling it up.

I am a little worried about how much we're taking. Actually, though, I don't know yet how much WE're taking. I asked Chris to make a list of what he wants to take so we (I) can start packing tomorrow. Here's what I got:

• Socks



• Boxers



• Long sleeve shirts



• Short sleeve shirts



• Warm-up pants

Not really what I was looking for in the way of a list! Cracked me up. I even printed off Rick Steves' packing list! No biggie, we'll just do it together. We'll probably get everything out and put it in piles (maybe even actually put it all in the bags) and then go back through and weed out some stuff. I'm just really trying to avoid a sleepless Wednesday night. Although, maybe that would help me sleep on the plane from Memphis to Amsterdam. Nah, probably not. I'm terrible about sleeping on planes. I'm thinking about taking something to help with that this time. We arrive in Bergen, Norway at 4:35, so there will still be time for a little sightseeing, and I'd rather not be falling down sleepy!

On a non-travel note, my little Scooby isn't feeling so well. Poor baby. His allergies are seriously kicking up. Poor little guy. He's got lots of fleghm and is constantly trying to cough it up. We've given him some Benadryl, and it's helped, but not 100%. He's even got little globs of snot that dried around his little poo-bear nose. He needs lots of love right now. Poor guy. If he's not any better by Monday, I'm probably going to take him to the vet. I wonder what giving him Mucinex would do? That stuff really helps me!

Pure Craziness

That's life lately! It's just been crazy around here! We spent Easter weekend in Osage Beach, MO with my awesome friend Andi and her boyfriend, Gio. I was soooo happy to get to see them. I love Andi, and don't get to see her nearly as often as I'd like. We stayed at the Lazy Days Condos. Andi's family has been going there since she was a wee lass, and I've been there with her a couple of times before. It's nice to go somewhere familiar.

We shopped, we slept, we ate. It was perfectly relaxing. Somehow, though, we managed to come home more tired than we left. How does that work? We most certainly did our part to support the economy! Holy cow! We bought a ton of stuff. We found tons of awesome sales with tees for $8 and polos for $10. We stocked up since we won't be going back for a while. (plus, I got a new awesome purse!) And, the Jeep did brilliantly on it's first road trip. If ever there was a perfect vehicle for me, that's it!

Chris and I leave for Scandinavia in 9 days. Oh my gosh. It just hit me...9 days. That's all. Oh my gosh! I can hardly stand myself. Seriously....I was excited about it and aware, but saying it to myself just now really brought it home to me. This trip is already quite different from our last trip to Europe. Last time, we bought our airfare 9 months ahead. This time, it was 4 weeks. Last time, we knew exactly what we were doing & when....this time, I'm still trying to figure it all out. We're flying into Bergen, Norway, then on to Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn (Estonia), back to Stockholm, on to Aero Island, Denmark, and finally 4 days in Copenhagen.

It sounds like a lot, doesn't it? It is a lot. And there's still tons more we want to do than we have time for. We scheduled the trip for now because the airfare was significantly cheaper than even 2 weeks later. But we're running into problems. Nothing...and I mean NOTHING opens until May 1. There are a few things that are open already, but even those things aren't 100% open. On top of that, the things we want to do, like Norway in a Nutshell, are difficult to find out about. Rick Steves suggests reserving ahead of time, but I'm here to tell ya....it's not super easy! Never the less, I'm super excited! We may not be able to see all of the Fjords like I wanted to, but some is better than none, right? Yeah, you could say I'm excited.