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.....

Im going ALL-INN in Tallinn

So I amazingly woke up in Berlin to catch my flight at 830 to Riga, I didnt know what to expect from Riga but it was super nice, the airport is great and boy do they love their flowers. The latvia lat (currency) is on par with the pound so just about the strongest in the world, which sucks but whatever. I paid 30 pence for a bus ticket to the center city and went down to Funky Fun Franks Hostel which is right on the river. They had a room and they gave me a free beer so It was nice. Riga is stag party central for the UK which is both a good think a bad one. Party town. The city was really beautiful though, 40% of the downtown is art nouveau and the old moat is now a great park with paddle boats and everything. I went to the museum of the Latvian occupation which included German and Soviet. Amazing, I love history so yeh. Well stayed 3 nites there then caught a bus to Tallinn. Tallinn has alot more investment, lots of really cool new buildings plus a much larger and beautiful old town (called ALL INN). Much more touristy, lots of tour groups from cruise trips, fewer strip clubs and crazy people getting drunk.. Went to the occupation museum here, very different, seemed like more Estonians volunteered for the German army than in Latvia. Beautiful country, would love to go hiking but currently not equipped for such. Gonna catch a cruise-ferry across to Helsinki tomorrow and then onto Stockholm on the 13th.

Berliner for the Fourth of July

Well I finally made it around to getting to Berlin, I tend to stay longer in cities that ive met good people and gdansk was one of them. Two swedish bouncers, looking all tough but really nice guys when it came down to it, plus a couple of other people in the hostile that were cool. One was an older swedish guy, then there were 2 swiss girls, and then there was a norwegian family, and then a bunch of insane scottish guys (i dont really like them anymore), and then 2 kiwis that live in london, and then 2 rockabilly norwegian girls, 2 girls from Penn, and finally a nerdy Harvard guy that writes for Lets Go europe (the guidebook im using mostly). Ok well I was going to leave after 2 nites but stayed 4. The second nite the scottish guys, one in particular, got too rowdy and the swedes tried to break up a fight amongst them. The cops got called and the swedes got arrested cuy they are the ones that look all tough. They got out and the scots paid the bale but they were pissed. Luckily the scots left the next morning. I was convinced to stay, mostly because the swedes wouldnt let me pay for booze, they would go buy polish vodka and we would hang out drink all day and then go out at nite. Really good vodka, and cheap too. Well there was a festival going on near gdansk and beastie boys and the roots and bloc party and bjork were the primary headliners. That nite the swedes went and saw beastie boys but i wasnt really feeling it so i took a little nite walking tour of the city which was pretty nice. I hadnt paid for a room so I stayed up all nite.....Anyways the next day I was going to leave again but the Norwegian girls that had just arrived got me drinking and we headed out with the 2 kiwis, the lets go guy, and an obnoxious aussie that just wanted to score pills. So we all headed off to the festival, it was massive, and weird to me cuz it all at nite, not day bands. The day i went was Bloc Party, Bjork, and LCD soundsystem each with a 1.5 to 2 hour set. All 3 were amaying, Bjork was insanely amazing live, and LCD soundsystem is really great..they used to get alot of play at crush went i used to go. Plus the beer was pretty cheap considering, only 2 euro for a half liter (do some conversion..). Anyways it was great, so much mud it was like woodstock-esque. Argh this is a long entry, afterwards headed back and snuck into the hostel and sleeped illegally...meh, left in the morning (even though the festival went til like 4) and got a train to Szechin, former german city now in extreme western poland. Got in at 1130 PM and had to kill 6 hours before train to berlin. Basically gave myself a nite tour, the city is pretty run down but it has some merit. It sucked that the weather was so drizzy but i managed, took little naps on rock walls every 30 min then continued my tour. Came full circle and caught the direct train so i could at least get some sleep. 1 hour on the train, passed out the whole way, conductor didnt even bother asking me for my ticket. Got to ostbahnhof in berlin at 7 am-ish and apparently the train union is on strike, dont really care though since im catching a plane out. So wandered around a bit, found a hostel around noon in mitte, and then got to drinking and making friends. Eventually went out with 2 danish guys and saw a rockabilly show from a band in new york called O'Death. They were great and it was funny, the venue was called White Trash Fast Food but looked like a pimped out chinese restaurant. Very cool, just not enough room for me to dance...The Danes are so enamored with the music they want to learn banjo and bring back the style to the Copenhagen music scene. So last nite got back, had the best sleep of my life cuz its cold and i was so tired, tonite im going to 'A Twisted Independence Day' festival show thing with a rodeo & BBQ and more bands (Also O'Death again) Ok im out, next stop RIGA!