Scandinavia
Trip Start
Apr 24, 2007
1
26
Trip End
Jul 25, 2007
Stavanger, Norway
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Since our previous entry we have been to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Oslo, Bergen and finally Stavanger.
We stayed in Amsterdam for two nights, which is certainly enough to get an extreme headache from the constant and unabating smell of cannabis. There is no let up from it, you name it, it smells of cannabis. Similarly there isn't much escape from sex either, everywhere it's in your face (not to be taken literally) and wallpapered across town. Away from the seedy aspects, Amsterdam's picturesque canals and waterside houses are indeed pleasant, we took all this in with a boat trip. One other thing; there are many strange people in Amsterdam and a lot of throat wrenching gargle coughing, could the drugs be related to this at all?
So to Hamburg; 'the gateway to Scandinavia'.
We stayed in a street in Hamburg which is essentially the red light district, which made a nice change from Amsterdam. We went to the docks to see a Russian submarine and had a peek inside, it turns out that submarines are really cramped, hot places.
We went camping in Copenhagen, our last camp of the trip. It didn't rain! Well it did, but only briefly on the morning we left. We even managed to have a BBQ in the glorious sunshine. We had a good old wander around Copenhagen, the city has some attractive parts to it but the bus drivers are not helpful at all. Thats all I have to say about Denmark.
We stopped off in Gothenburg for a couple of nights, it rained tremendously here for the entire time and Nick had scurvy. From what I could see through the gloom, fog and downpour appeared really pleasant. It's worth mentioning that there are no chavs, there is no rubbish, and everything works properly.
In Oslo I went for a cruise around the Fjords which was lovely, it was interesting to see so many tiny islands cut off from the main land and so many idyllic homes scattered around. The guide took it upon herself to explain how hideously expensive these homes were. We both took a look at the sculpture park which apparently celebrates human life, in the center there is a human totem pole which is most disturbing.
Bergen is a very attractive town on the coast and our hostel was half way up a mountainside. The views from the top of the funicular railway were superb and the ride itself hair-raising.
We are currently in Stavanger and I won't explain in great detail what we've done for the pictures speak for themselves. The Fjords here are really beyond description and we've had the pleasure of seeing them on beautiful, clear days. Yesterday we hiked to 'Pulpit rock' which is an astonishing place, a wonderful part of the world to witness before our return home.
We remain in Stavanger tonight and then we are staying in Olso again before flying home. Its been a wonderful end to the trip and Scandinavia has been terrific.
ctothej
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I have just read in a tourism guide that our hostel offers 'moose safaris'. If I had known earlier I would have booked an extra night!
In Bergen we shared a dorm with a Romanian professor of Economics who was on a break from lecturing in the States. He was a thoroughly interesting man who even had the kindness to warn us, as dusk fell, that during the night he 'might snore a little' and that if he did we should gently tap on the bed to wake him. I swear to God that I have never heard a human being, conscious or otherwise, make such a wide variety of noises and at such a volume as during that night. After 6 hours of room-trembling snoring - during which he seemed to developed a radical new four-way breathing method that allowed him to simultaneously inhale and exhale and thus maintain a constant drone below the rising crescendo of terror (as I have taken to calling it) - Chris had taken to hammering on the professor's bunk with his feet but to no avail. This was no man.
In the morning, slightly shell-shocked, we stumbled to the bus stop intending to take a trip down the mountain to town. No sooner had we arrived than a local Norwegian girl (whose name sadly I did not catch during the chaos that was to ensue) appeared and told us that the bus had just left and that it would be quicker to follow her to another stop a little further along. In a flash we were sprinting down the mountainside chasing after a complete stranger who had taken on the abilities of a mountain goat. The thought did occur to me that this might be some local prank played on the tourists and that at any minute our marathon would come to an end in the courtyard of some university and with the girl crying out "Look I got two more!".
Apparently its raining really quite a lot in England. We might not come back!
Yours, for the last time,
Nick -x
