Leaving Narvick, Bergen, Oslo, and Amsterdam

After spending the night in Narvik I was off to Olso, in southern Norway. I left at 7am in the morning, and took a 6 hour bus to Bodo, which had so many stops I could not have covered more than 100 miles. My next leg was a 7 hour train from Bodo to Trondheim. I arrived at Trondheim at 4 pm and had 5 hours until my train left at 9pm for Olso which would arrive the next morning. With the time that I had I decided to do a hike up the mountain right outside of Trondheim. It was not a spectacular mountain, but it was covered with moss, curvacious boulders and shrubs. After about an hour and a half hike to the top I headed back down to town and bought diner and then headed to the train station. Because I was too cheap to get the sleeper train car my night was spent in an uncomfortable recliner with an inflatable pillow that would not hold any air.

After arriving to Oslo I went to UseIt, a youth travel agency. I was hoping they would find me a hostel with a social environment, but instead I ended up at a 60 year old man's apartment which he shared with his friendly dog. The lady at UseIt told me the hostels were full, but I think she may have wanted to just make fewer phone calls. After getting settled I went to get dinner at a local deli and see what the city had to offer. It turns out that it offered more than I wanted, since after about 10 pm the black prostitutes start looking for men to seduce. It took me off gaurd for a while since I was in the city center, but it seemed like it was a common occurence in this city so I just accepted it as daily life in Oslo. The following day I decided to visit two attractions the Vikingshiphuset and the Vigelandsparken. The Viking Ship Museum consists mainly of 3 oak ships that were found in Oslo in the 20th century that had been use viking king's tombs. I am not sure but I think the ships weren't ever used except for a burial vessel. I then headed to a the Vigelandsparken where Gustav Vigeland made almost a hundred sculptures. The one that stood out the most was a 50 feet tall grainite column with bodies flowing around it. A girl I met suggested the meaning was the importance of compassion, but I thought there was more to it than that I am not sure what though.

That evening instead of staying at the apartment again I decided to take the night train to Bergen. Once again I was on an uncomfortable recliner with an inflatable pillow that does not hold any air. I got into Bergen at about 7am and headed to the hostel. Since it was so early I could not get my room, but I ended up sneaking in and making breakfast. Later in the day I checked in and then decided to do a hike that a guy at the local fishing shop told me would be good. To begin the hike I took a bus to the edge of town to where a gondala carries people to the top of a mountain called Ulrich. The hike followed the ridge line from Ulrich to Mount Floyen. Walking along the ridge line you could see the entire city and the surrounding mountains. Thought it was beautiful I had a hard time having a great time because there was so much wind that froze my ears and the terrain was so rough that I couldn't walk very fast. After a few hours I made it to Floyen and then started my decent back to Bergen. In the even I just made a simple dinner and hung out with some other hostelers. One of the guys was from Chicago and we ended up playing Rummy for about 3 hours.

The next day I didn't do too much because I was so tired from the hike the day before. I slept in and then walked around the city and went to the Torget, fish market. It was quite interesting visiting the fish market. I was just looking at what they sold and one of the men offered me some salmon which was great. I kept looking and asked what this dark piece of meat was and he told me it was dried whale, he sliced off a piece for me. It tasted a lot like beef jerky except a lot more salty. I then asked what else do Norwegians eat and he showed me a dried eel, so then he cut off a piece of that and handed to me. Both the whale and the eel turned out to be especially good, though very different from American cuisine.

In the evening I hung out with the people I had met the night before. They were from all over the US a guy from Chicago, Wisconsin, Washington, and a Girl from Oregon. I even ran into the Prashanth, who I traveled with to the Artic Circle, but wasn't very excited to hang out with him because he turned out to be really weird up in the Artic Circle. After haning out with the other Americans for a little while of talking and getting each other's backround we went to a pub that was modeled after Americas 50s. Everywhere it had the bright orange plastic house items with the black and white checkered linolium floors and Elvis Presley playing in the background. I liked that place because it had the cheapest beer in town for about $12 a pint, but mostly because they had free popcorn.

The next day was full of scenic travel. From Bergen I took the train to Voss and then took a bus to Guadavan. Guadavan is the location of one of the tips of the fjords. I boarded a ferry that cruised through the fjords. It was like the Rocky Mountains had been droped into the ocean and only the top 800 yards stuck out of the water. On the cruise I must have seen about 25 waterfalls, which never seized to be spectacular. After about one and a half hours of being in the cold I headed to the inside of the boat to get warm. Soon we were at Flam, which is a city right along the fjords that has a train to the main railroad. After an hour in Flam I got on the train. This train ride is one of the most famous and steepest in Europe. It took us along a ridge line that over looked the valley that was filled with barns from the mountain farmers. At one point the train stopped near a massive waterfall, so that we could get out and take pictures. The train arrived at Myrdal, where I was going to take a train to Oslo, but could not go because Oslo had no hostels vacancies. I decided to go back to Bergen for the night and possibly try to get on a night train to Oslo.

It turned out that there were no trains that ran to Bergen at night since it was a Saturday, so I ended up just staying in Bergen for 3 nights. It was annoying since Norway is just as expensive as London if not more. It actually didn't turn out to be back, since I got to hang out with the fun guy Chicago and drink some beer.

The next day Chicago guy and I headed to Oslo. On the train we met two men one was from Seattle and the other from Alaska. They were involved with fish conservation and one of the guys was visiting Norway to buy I think millions of dollars of fishing sonar equipment. It was great to meet the guy from Alaska, since I had just finished the book Alaska by James Michner. We spent a lot of time discussing Alaskan history, the Iditorod, and the fishing and hunting there.

At Oslo Chicago guy and I headed to the hostel on the out skirts of the town that was very nice and relaxing. Again Chicago guy and I got some beer and played some cards and then headed to our rooms. In the morning I began my journey to Amsterdam. I had to get on the train to Copenhagen and had a lay over there until the train from Copenhagen to Amsterdam left. The train to Amsterdam was a night train, so I got a 6 person couchette. I probably should have gotten the 4 person one, since the couchette is about the size of a handicapped bathroom stall. To get away from the crowd I found an empty cabin, but was soon kicked out by the train conductor. I eventually made it to a free section of the train where there were no people, so I just relaxed and read.

I arrived in Amsterdam at about 9 am. I had a long walk to my hostel, Stay Okay, because I had only a crappy map. When I finally got there I found out that there were three Stay Okay hostels and that mine was actually a 30 minute walk away. I finally got to the hostel and found it to be very nice except for the 200 seventeen and 18 year olds staying there. The first day I didn't do too much except walk around. In the city square I found a group of brake dancers performing, that were very good. I didn't stay very long because I didn't want them to finish and then ask me for money.

The next day I did the free walking tour that a local company puts on. There were a lot of people my age there. I met a girl from Australia, another from California, and a guy from Alaska. The tour was 3 hours long and took us through the churchs, the Red Light District, and showed us the narrowest house in Amsterdam, which was only about 2 meters wide. No matter where we walked about every 5 building we would get a strong smell of weed, it thought the stuff smelled like crap. It was interesting that there was a church right next to the Red Light district. Most of the people thought it was strange because you had a church on one side of the street and prostitutes in windows on the other side of the street. The tour guide explained that it made perfect sence to put the two right next to each other because the men could go to the prostitute, sleep with her, and then afterwards go to the church and buy a free coupon to sin. So it turned out that this worked best for the church and the prostitutes. Half way through the tour we took a lunch break and I sat with the two girls and guy that I had met. I knowtice that the girl from Australia had a ring on that had the Christian fish on it. I asked her about it she told me she was a Christian and that she does YWAM in Australia. I thought this was interesting because Luke Kincaid and one of my friends, Russel Glass, from Auburn did YWAM in Australia. After the tour the group I ate lunch with went to the Heineken museum. It took us through the brewery process, and then to a room where we got to send video emails. I send a few one to mom and dad and then another to Sam Brown. They were the only email addresses that I knew. After the museum I went to dinner with Christina, the girl from California. We got some pizza and then a little while later the Australian girl met up with us.

We headed over the Alaskan guys hostel, so that we could meet up and then head to the Red Light District. It was quite interesting at the hostel, since it was a combination of a Coffee Shop and Hostel. At first you would not think that is an intersting combination, but in Amsterdam a Coffee Shop means a place to buy weed. So inside the hostel it reeked of marajuana, they had cheap beer and there was fun people there so it was no problem. We walked over to the Red Light District and knew we were there when we passed the windows filled with dildos, leather masks, strap ons, and lingerae. We kept moving and it was surpizing how much the Alaskan guy knew about it. It was as if he had read a entire book on it. He explained the process of hiring a hooker, the cost, and then went on explaining the coffee shops. After the stroll we went to a bar to get a few beers and some food. I then walked the girls back to their hotels and then headed back to my place.

The next day the girls from the previous day proved that they were not typical tourists in Amsterdam, since they invited me to see the bible museum. I wasn't planning on doing this, but it turned out to be fun and informational. It was great to see how I was provided with christian community in a location that was so anti-christian. After the bible museum we headed to the Van Gogh museum. I really had never appreciated art before this museum, but really was intrigued by his work. It all had a strong sence of emotion that came along with it. That evening I went back to the hostel and then chilled out and listened to some music.

Helsinki, to Santa, to the Fjords

So much has happened since my last post. I think it was almost a week ago that I was able to get online.



From Tallinn I took the ferry back to Helsinki. It was a nice ride and took about 3 hours. I spent the afternoon on Helsinki waiting until my 9pm train arrived. I walked around for a while, bought lunch at a grocery store and ate in a park, and did some laundry. The laundry was a little awkward to do. In my guide book it suggested a cafe that was combined with a laundrymat. I got there and it was packed with people eating lunch and I didn't see any laundry machines, so I asked where they were. The lady took me to the rear of the cafe to a single tiny washing machine. There were a group of people eating their Sunday lunch all around it, so I had to ask them to move as I pulled out my dirty underwear, smelly socks, and used bed linens. I am sure it was not very appetizing to them, but I did have clean close after having to sit there for 2 hours. At around 6:30 I met up with my aussie mate named Prasanth, we had met in Stockholm and I decided to tag along on his trip up to northern Finland. He was a great help and had a lot of good ideas of what to see.

We boarded the train around 7:00pm and did not arrive in Raveniemi until 8:00 am the next morning. As we were leaving the Raveniemi train station we ran in a lost Japanese girl named Ayoko. I don't think she had a map or a clue where she was going. We invited her to follow us to our hostel, where she too was staying. In the afternoon the three of us went to Santa's village and took pictures with him. Though Santa is willing to give free gifts on Christmas he charges $32 dollars for a picture with him. Though he does know how to speak English, Finnish, Japenese, and German. After hanging out with Santa we walked over to a tiled path that had a set of coordinates on it. That coordinates was the line that followed the Artic Circle. we took a few pictures of us jumping across and then headed to Santa's postoffice where we sent postcards home. On our way back to our hostel we went to the grocery store and bought dinner and then prepared and ate it at the hostel. In the evening we all went to to a local Irish bar and met a guy named Steve.

The next morning Ayoko departed and headed to Oslo. Since we lost our third member Prashanth and I decided to pick up Steve to replace Ayoko. We rented bikes from Artic Adventure Co. and road up to the highest peak in Raveneimi. It really wasn't that high, but it was hard to ride a bike up it. This peak included a hotel with a great view over the town and also a mountain louge that went to the bottom. We did not get to ride the louge, but contemplated getting McDonald's trays and riding down. For about 2 hours we sat inside the hotel and drank coffee around a fire that the hotel staff asked up to make. When we were leaving the hotel we asked the staff if there was a good place to use a sauna in Raveneimi. One lady suggested the local recreational building. We headed down to the sauna. When we got there we were told we need to rent bathing suits, and then were told that bathing suits are not allowed in the sauna. This wasn't so bad though we just stripped down and headed to the sauna where we spent about an hour.

The next day Prashanth and I headed to Kiruna Finland , a mining town with in the artic circle. After traveling across the Finnish Swedish boarded where we were to transfer to a bus in Haparanda. We thought it was funny that right on the boarder there was an Ikea. At the bus station we meet some men that said that Kiruna was a boring town that that Abisco in Sweden in much more entertaining. When we arrived at Kiruna we found that there are few words that could describe this town better than depressing. We arrived at our hostel, The Yellow House, that had great reviews and met the owner. We came to the conclusion that he reminds us of the killer in the movie Physco, Martin Bates. Our arrival was late so we decided to get some dinner and then head to bed. The next day we went to Kiruna Church which was beautiful and model after the Sami's people, native lapplanders, archicture. In the afternoon we hiked up a mountain that was the local ski mountain to get a view of everything. Looking away from the city was scenic, but looking at the city was not very nice. Most of the buildings had little dimension and the backround of the city were mountains covered in mine shafts. That evening we were heading to a local bar and ran in to a guy named Matt from the UK that was also staying at the hostel. We invited him to join us for a few beers as we all discussed this strange town. The next day we decided not to stay in Kiruna as long as we planned and decided to head to Abisco, Sweden.

The train ride to Abisco contained nothing, but mountains, snow, and pine tree. I felt like I was in Alaska even though I have never been there. When we arrived at the hostel we met the man that ran it and immediately he gave the presence of a grandfather. The hostel was set overlooking a huge lake with snow covered mountains in the backround. Prasthanth and I was walked around this small town of only 170 people bought groceries for the next couple of days. At the super market we ran into a girl named Madeline, we talked for away tring to find out what there is to do in Abisco and her answer amounted to "nothing". Since there was nothing to do we decided to invite Madeline and her friend Emma, from the local outdoors store, to hang out with us at the hostel. When we got back to the hostel we found Matt the guy we met in Kiruna at the hostel, it turned out that he could not stand Kiruna and decided to come to Abisco. It turned out that the girls we met earlier could not make it that night, but we replanned for the next night. Instead of the party the hostel owner had a sauna that he invited us to use. It was an authentic Swedish sauna, that was heated by a wood burning stove. It was a great time, but once again it was required that no clothes went into the sauna. After being in the sauna for about an hour the owner left and then almost immediatley came back in and told us that Norther Lights were out side. This was something that I wanted to see, so I dried off and ran out side. The sky was covered in green lights and concentrations of brighter lights that looked as if they were flames dancing across that sky.

We were planning on only staying in Abisco one night because it was such a small town, but ended up staying two. The next day we went up to the hostel owner's dog cage where he had 52 huskies for his dog sleds. We played with the dogs for a while and then took them for a walk. Walking a huskie is nothing like walking a laborador, huskies are ment to pull weight and they don't care if you don't want to be pulled. So for a full 2 hours us three were being pulled by each of three huskies. With the dogs we walked to a canyon 2 kilometers from town. The canyon was where the river from the mountains ran. It was a roaring river stuck down in 75 feet tall canyon walls. The river ran through an underground tunnel and then out to the big lake. Since the girls could not hang out the night before they invited us to their friends house. Prashanth, Matt and I went over there around 9:00pm and met all their friends and had a great time exchanging stories and travel histories. A couple, Paula and Peter, were especially friendly and asked if they could show us around the city the next day.

When we contacted Paula and Peter they asked us to come over for coffee and cookies. After the coffee was served Peter pulled out what looked like a 2 pound prune. It turned out that it was actually a dried reindeer's heart. I had a slice of it and it had good flavor, but too saltly to eat much. After the coffee they took us to a Sami village, their native people, where we saw their traditional house, storehouses, and traps. That afternoon we said our farewells and started our trip to Narvik.

We arrived in Narvick at night and headed to our hostel and then headed out to find what there is to do. As we were walking we ran into a 13 boy, who we invited to participate in a snowball fight. It was Prashanth and the boy and Matt and I. It is fun to have a snowball fight with Australians, English and Swedes when you are American, they don't play any throwing sports. They may be good at kicking soccer balls, but they are no good at throwing. I ended up hiting Prashanth and the boy multiple time, but we all had a good time.

Turku and Tallin Estonia

A couple of days ago I took a day trip to Turku from Helsinki Finland. I boarded a train around 1 pm, it took 2 hours to arrive there. Nothing really stood out there. They did have a nice river running around the city, a windmill from the 19th century, and a nice cathedral, nothing exceptional, but I am sure that they have secrets that tourists don't know about. I think it is hard to find those great places in smaller towns because it is hard to find the little secrets of the area. After talking to a friend that visited his friends in Turku he said that he went to traditional Finnish sauna's and saw some other incredible things. My goal after hearing this is to meet more of the locals and try to find the secrets, I think that is where I will have the most fun in Europe.

Since Turku was only a day trip, I spent the night in Helsinki. The next morning I was off to Tallinn. I took the boat SuperSeaCat that was more expensive than I would have liked, but it worked well and Tallinn has proved to be amazing. Tallinn is a city straight out of the middle ages. I am staying in the old town, which has a castle wall around it with guard towers every 100 yards. They have narrow cobblestone streets that are lined with shops of glassblowers, blacksmiths, and handmade sweaters. Yesterday I went up to their Roman Orthodox church and saw its onion dome tops and then their old lookout tower from the 14th century.

Tomorrow morning I am taking the boat back to Helsinki, where I am meeting up a an aussie named Prasmanth. In the evening we are boarding a night train to Ravaniemi, which is in northern Finland. We are planning on having some outdoor adventures, seeing Santa, and hanging out with Finland's native people, the Sami.

Stockholm to Helsinki

I arrived at Stockholm 3 days ago after a 6 hour train ride from Gothenburg. It was only suppose to take 3 hours, but I had to take a slow train because the other ones were full. I stayed at a place called the City Backpackers Hostel, which was considered one of the top ten hostels in Europe. I only thing they got that reward because they give free pasta. The first day I walked around the city and saw some of the churches and the royal families palace. At night I met about 10 people mostly from Australia and American and we spent about 4 hours watching YouTube videos. This was actually a great time and I felt like I made some really go friends. I met a guy named Beau from Australia, he was Australia's equivalent to a redneck from Alabama. He actually invited me to go kangaroo hunting if I ever came there.

The day after I went to the Vasa Museum which contains a ship 17th century ship that was pulled up from Stockholm's harbor in the 1950's. This was absolutely the best museum I have been to. The ship was in perfect condition and the museum did not contain to little information or too much.

At around 3pm I was off to Finland via a ferry from Stockholm. I was quite impressed with the ferry, since it looked just like the cruise ships that I have been on. Usually you get a cabin with 3 other people, but I was fortunate to have one to myself. I was traveling with a guy named Edmund from the UK and he was stuck in a room with 3 men he did not know, so I invited him to stay in my room. The ride took 17 hours and we arrived at 9 30 this morning. When we arrived it was rather uneventful we just went to a Russian Orthodox Church and a Protestant Church.

Tomorrow I am going to Turku Finland, then to Tallin Estonia, and then up to northern Finland to see were Santa and his reindeer, and the Sami people live.