Time to Copenhagen

On the way from Bergen to Oslo I was able to see more of the countryside than on the first time when it was night. After saying farewell to all my new friends at the hostel in Bergen I set out for one more look at the city before hitting the train station and off through the mountains to Oslo. I didn't leave the station once I was there, just set off towards Malmo and Copenhagen. By this time it was night and I would be arriving in Malmo around 5 AM and then on to Copenhagen. I slept for most of this leg of the trip arrived in Copenhagen. They were doing lots of construction on the train station but I managed to avoid most of it. The first thing I noticed before I got money was people drinking beers on the street. The Scandinavian paradise where open container laws do not exist and beer is cheap and plentiful (oh and they have a free state within the city borders where hippies have a commune with legalized weed and such). Get my bearings and head out to the hostel I chose... On the way I pass Tivoli though didn't go inside or anything. Looks pretty cool, somewhat strange to see a theme park in the middle of the city but thats cool. Bike riders are everywhere and they have their own lanes, grade separated from both cars and peds. They even have their own traffic lights. I get to the hostel and it is a huge skyscraper highrise. Very nice to say the least. The room is basically like any hotel room I have stayed in except with 6 people in it on bunk sort of dillies. Bathroom was v. nice, full kitchen downstairs to cook so perfect. Drop off my stuff because I am too early to check in and head out to take a look at the city for a bit. Hit up the usual, churches, palaces, etc. Then I hit up the supermarket and load up so I can have meals on the cheap. Stay for a few days, check out the little mermaid, Christiana (the hippie commune), and then head out to Hamburg the lesser known city of sin.

Finish to the European Trip

Well it has been a year and I never really finished out the adventure. It stopped far too soon as far as the blog is concerned, so here goes nothing, an attempt to finish it out!

Ice Bergen

So went back to the hostel took a nap then awoke around 11 to go peruse the city. Bergen, not surprisingly considering its name, is surrounded by 7 mountains and a whole lot of lakes. It is in a fjord so technically its on the ocean but its a ways from open water. Explored the famous fish market where youre probably more likely to hear spanish or basque than you are to hear norwegian. The old city, the hanseatic part at least, was built by german merchants that at the time made up a sizeable population within Bergen. Really cool, alot like the buildings in gdansk which isnt surprisng considering they were both hanseatic. Took a look in the castle which got blow up pretty bad in world war 2 due to an accident. A fishing boat from nazi occupied netherlands was delivering explosives to the german troops in bergen and it blew up, on hitlers birthday...which is why they were so suspicious. But it turned out to be an accident (Otherwise the norwegians would claim responsibility today, but they dont). Within the castle was a museum about the occupation and that was really cool, although I felt like they were hastling the allies in part of it...The germans were using Bergen as a U Boat repair base and of course the brits were bombing it, in the museum it was like they were mad about the fact that norwegian mechanics working at the sub pens were being killed. Im sorry but if ur going to further the war effort youre kind of fair game. If youre really anti german youd be skiing around the mountains ambushing them with weapons the brits were dropping for them, not fixing uboats. Ok no more rant. The hostel people were american students and I befriended them so I ate dinner with them a few times and hung out and watched movies with them in their apartment which was a nice break from the normal hostel routine. The following day I climbed the highest mountain in Bergen named Ulriken, which I think is a pretty cool name. It was a beautiful day and at the top I could see from the glaciers in the inland all the way to the ocean past the archipelago of the fjord. Very awesome. Decided I kind of want to take up hiking more seriously (and camping) back home. Stayed another day and kind of relaxed before heading toward copenhagen via oslo and malmo sweden. Over all I had a really great time in Bergen. Next stop Copenhagen.

Oslo Start

Although trondheim was nice, it was too rainy and cold for me. It was officially my most northern point that i reached in the trip. Apparently they didnt hear that it was summer. So down to oslo i went. Everyone told me meh it wasnt that good, but I liked it. It wasnt like a party town by any means, but its like washington dc, lots of monuments and castles and good stuff to see, lots of free museums too which is a definite plus. Saw the scream (famous painting by norwegian artist) and a couple others, did a viking tour, saw the viking boats that they found preserved, so cool...these things were so sturdy that they look like u could still sail them, even today. The palace was cool, as was the fortress...i think they shot at german ships from it when they invaded in ww2. Cool city, just not for party animals. Only stayed one nite and headed to bergen the following nite train. Got off the train groggy at 6 am and saw a girl holding a sign for a hostel, it said cheapest in town and was recommended by my guide book so i said hey lets go, so she was happy cuz it was cold and early and i was happy cuz i had a bed. Bergen next post!

Trondheim-lich maneuver

Well I took the train from stockholm up through the woods and wilderness of northern sweden. Unfortunately the 2nd class seats were all filled up so i bought a bunkbed onboard...its weird i think if u buy on board u have a better chance of getting one all by urself, which i did while other people were in with 3 or 4 other people. All well. So I slept and woke up every once and while and saw the scenery which reminded me of Maine. Eventually we got to the border station and had to change trains at about 10 in the morning. It was freezing and raining, so cold...but got on the norwegian train and headed to norway. First stop was hell, yeh thats what it was called. And it was cold in hell, really cold. Kept going and got to trondheim, it was cold there too and drizzling but i managed. It had an almost venice shaped layout, with a "grand canal" sort of river winding through diving the old city and the port from all the newer stuff. Surfed the web in the library for a bit then headed out and explored. I had intended on meeting up with some norwegians i had met that were from trondheim but it turned out they got back just the nite of the day i got there so it wasnt happening. Looked around, was reminded of lafayette overlooking the delaware at this one riverbend. Beautiful old church, and some really cool old wharfs that looked alot like the ones in gdansk, maybe trondheim was also hanseatic? dunno. I know bergen was. Well I look about for some more but decide the cold is making me angry (reminiscent of Madrid the first time) so I got on the train to Oslo. I never get reservations which makes the train dudes unhappy but they let me go...which i did again for that. I got to oslo, found a hostel, checked in and headed out into the city everyone told me to skip....

Stocking up in Stockholm

Ok so technically Im in Oslo, but since Im behind on these lets talk about Stockholm. Got into stockholm and after a night of partying on the boat didnt realize we had arrived, we had been there for like an hour in port before I eventually sidled off the boat. Didnt know where to go to get to town, had a map and it looked like I was pretty far away. The finns are smart they know to put the passenger terminal right near the middle of everything, the estonians too, but not the swedes. So I huff it from the port to town since I dont have any swedish kroners, all the scandinavians except for the finns use their own money and not the euro, what a hassle. So eventually get into town and see a hare krishna parade. They are giving out candy and cookies so I tag along and have some fun with them for a bit. They invite me for free food but I decline and head off to find a hostel. Get to one, starving as all get out, and the sign says (all booked sorry). Dejected I go sit in the park and decide which hostel to try next. Something, however, tells me to at least ask inside, couldnt hurt. So i do, and they have a bed! Plus free pasta. So I cook up some pasta, use up whatever free food (left by travelers) that i can find and eat a big ole meal of pasta and cheese. Go on the internet and get worried because Av writes me that her car cut out on I-95 and becky writes me if Ive heard from her. I get worried, go to the sun sentinel online, really had a scare, but she was ok, scary though, she had to push the car off to the side on her own. After all that excitement I went and relaxed and fell asleep in my nook, my bed was like in a cave with no sunlight no nothing, so it was definitely good sleeping. Spent 3 nites in stockholm total, saw the city, got pissed when they wouldnt accept my student ID at this one museum and boycotted it. It was actually pretty hot in stockholm. The guidebook was wrong though, there were not very many free museums! However I dished it out for the modern art and architecture museums, very very cool, saw warhols marilyn monroe and some other stuff by him, not to mention all kinds of other cool stuff...If i forget to mention it later, I also in Oslo yesterday saw the scream by munch and some other stuff by him, I really like his work, madonna by him is really good, and some of the other ones are really sad. Anyhoo, yeh I think thats it for stockholm, reminds me of boca, all rich people trying to be beautiful, whether they are or not...I dont know how they afford their lifestyles but I never see anyone working, weird. Caught a train out to middle of nowhere northern sweden on my way to Trondheim Norway, woke up every once in a while and thought I was in alaska with the forests and waterfalls, very beautiful, had a whole cabin to myself too which was nice. Ok thats all, gotta go to Bergen, ill tell you about Trondheim, Hell, Oslo, and Bergen, next time.

Helsinki in a Blink

So headed over to Helsinki, took a nap on the ferry before arriving..it was a 2 hour ride. Got into helsinki and its alot newer than most of the European capitals since it was founded in earnest until the 19th century, but its still cool. They say that the Finns speak with architecture because nobody can understand their language....thats about right. The main street is like 20 letters long, and some of the words look like they just added vowels next to each other for fun. Like Jaanooriaasiinakissii sorta thing but with the letter with 2 dots over them. Its funny, but I was sorta of used to it because it was the same thing in estonia. I took a look around and was starving so I hit up the supermarket, I never eat out anymore because Ive learned the value of a euro goes much further in a supermarket in europe...got some food then got lost then got found then found the hostel i was looking for. More like hotel. Free full buffet breakfast included and the rooms were huge with no bunk beds, my room only had 3 beds in it, so spread out. It was nice. First nite a guy was snoring so I whipped out my complimentary ear plugs all the way back from spain courtesy of Renfe (Spanish Train Company) and slept like a baby. Woke up and saw all the sites, contemplated getting a free bike but they were not surprisingly almost impossible to find so I walked instead. Basically did the whole city in one day, went to the cool church that looks more like a greek temple, went to the FREE money museum..ha the curator was funny, he was so into money and stuff and I was like the only guy in there because tour groups never go to free museums..so i played around looking at the old money and then played a game where you pretend like youre in charge of the interest rates...I had some serious issues with deflation, like money increasing in value...actually worse than deflation..all well. Then I went to the City Museum which talked about the city all the way from the founding to the present with all kinds of artifacts, very cool. Saw another cool church later that was built into like solid granite, so it was kind of underground, but the dome of it has like glass so it was amazing inside. Hmm what else, walked up the waterside to a park with a monument to a famous composer, but cant remember who, it had like all these big metal pipes as a sculpture that resembled a huge organ. Walked back past the cool art museum, the old olympic stadium (there were kids playing soccer so I stopped and watched), the theater, and then back. Met a couple of Belgian guys that gave me the scoop on the belgian beer scene, so I am totally prepared. The next day I checked out some of the citys supposedly famous works of architecture but wasnt impressed and then happened to meet up with a bunch of Basques that I had met in Tallinn totally by accident at the train station when I was getting my Eurail validated. So since they just arrived I sorta gave them a tour a bit and then bid them farewell, very nice guys btw, hadnt met a basque before them, then I went to my cruise ship and got ready to go to stockholm. Holy crap they love their duty free shops.....