The last leg of Crazy Week

So if you've been following this blog, you may have noticed my unusual habit of leaving it un-updated for a while and then writing a festival of posts all at once. I know it's kind of goofy, but I don't have a computer with me most of the time, and I also don't get that many chunks of time when I feel like writing, so then I save up all my adventures and I want to share them all, but I am too wordy to put them all in one post because it would be the longest thing in history and looking at it would make you want to die. So this is just how I do it. Hope you don't mind.

The third of the three cities I went to see last week was Budapest. I once again traveled in the early morning, so I could have almost two days there but only need to pay for lodging for one night. This time I stayed in a hostel, only my second night in one on my trip so far. This hostel was REALLY cool. At first I thought it was sketchy, but it was just really non-traditional. It was basically just an apartment, where one of the rooms had about 8 beds. There was also a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen that all felt like a family residence. They provided some fruit and cake as snack/breakfast, and we could use the fridge and the stove as we liked. There were also supplies for tea and coffee at the ready. I'm afraid of gas stoves, so I never had any tea, but I liked that it was there.

There was also this little room in the entry where the people running it hung out. They had a tv going, and a couch one of them slept on, and a computer that played music and could do other stuff. I asked if I could use the internet, and he just moved over and offered me that computer. It was pretty goofy, and I didn't stay on long because I wasn't sure if he wanted it back or whatever. But cool, and free. There also wasn't any secure place to leave luggage, you just kind of left it in their room or your room and hoped for the best. It was a crazy place. Also, the apartment right next door seemed to be the home of an elderly couple. I kept glimpsing them through the window on my way in and hoping they would invite me in for tea and adopt me, but they never did.

Budapest was really cool. It felt really different from the other places I've been so far in Europe. The first day I explored and toured around on my own, and the second day I did a bit of that, and a bit of a free guided tour my hostel advertised. I'm really glad I did that. I got to hear a bit from a Budapest native the history of the place and the insider view, and where merchants were ripping tourists off, etc. Some amusing tidbits I got from guide Gabor:

Hungarian is a crazy language. To illustrate: the way Yoda talks in Star Wars was developed by translating the script into Hungarian, and then back into English. (I feel like I should check my sources on that one, but if true, awesome.)

He also told a few jokes about Hungary being a "post-communist country". It's no longer communist, but it's not exactly a regular functioning, economically successful democracy either.

-Hungary has two seasons: winter and construction.
(Because the latter is slow and inefficient and they pay workers to mostly sit around and do nothing).
-Tax dodging: the Hungarian national sport.
(Funny, but sad, as it creates a vicious cycle. He said 80% of the population REPORTS their earnings at minimum wage--obviously most of them actually make more than that.)

I also managed to show up on the anniversary of a big demonstration that happened in 1956, and only two days after their National Day, so there were flags everywhere and even a couple of demonstrations going on while I was there, though I didn't really know what they were saying. A lot of the buildings looked really gorgeous from far away and weren't that impressive close up, but they had a really old synagogue and church (both restored since WWII and communism) that were exceptions and were quite spectacular.

I tried goulash, though I found out the next day that it's pretty touristy and most Hungarians don't actually eat it that much. Oh well. I'm glad I tried it anyway. I also tried some Hungarian wine, which isn't that famous out of the country, but it is actually really well regarded and delicious if you know who to ask. It was a really pleasant little whirlwind tour.

And so, Monday the 26th I left Budapest after a little more than 24 hours. I got on a train to Zagreb, Croatia at 2 pm. I passed the ride reading and writing (mainly related to The Bell Jar). I got to Croatia in my raggedy former Soviet Union feeling train at around 8 pm. I had a moment of panic that no one would speak English, and I wouldn't be able to navigate my way to the bus station, but actually the info lady did, and the walk was pretty short and straightforward. Also, on the way, I found the coolest souvenir of all time. There was a Croatian license plate, just propped up on a wall next to the road, like someone had lost it and someone else thought they might find it if they left it like that.

I don't know if I did someone a great disservice by taking it, but I really doubt it, and I think it will be the coolest thing ever to put up on my wall when I get home. It was just sitting there BEGGING me to take it. But then when I was crossing the border I was really afraid that customs people would get mad and be like "WHY do you have this? Are you a spy?" and then I would get beaten and deported. So I am trying to figure out a way to ship it home, so I don't have to nervously lug this random, dirty, somewhat suspicious object around for the next month and a half, including BACK through Croatia.

Next up...Bosnia!!! (I can't resist. I think I've found a new favorite place. It's basically the coolest place I've ever been. But that's all I'll say now.)

Next stop, Vienna

Vienna didn't remind me as much of Before Sunrise as I thought it would. I didn't meet any dashing strangers on the train there. But one of the roommates of the girl I was staying with (Resa, a friend of my friend Ina, an Austrian Udubber) showed up at the exact moment I got to their door and tried to figure out which button to push. Which was kind of like a miracle. Or at least a convenient coincidence.

Resa was REALLY sweet and a very nice host. She gave me some Austrian lemon flavored beer that first night, and it was by far the best beer I have ever had. It didn't taste bitter or crappy at all, the way beer usually does, to varying degrees. It was just sweet and lemony and delicious.

I think I was in Vienna for three nights and two days, but it's all sort of a blur now. I walked around a lot, and even had a companion for the first day of it! Which was kind of a nice change of pace. She took me to this crazy Austrian art museum though, full of these messed up Expressionist painters, and it was great at first, but after an hour or so it made me hate life. Then I went to an Opera, which was a totally great opportunity and experience and all, but I got a standing seat in the balcony, and I'm too damn short, so I was climbing on the rails and supporting my weight in all kinds of bizarre and inappropriate and acrobatic ways for the entire 3.3 hour event, and there weren't any likeable characters in said opera (Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, which incidentally, has nothing to do with the Macbeths you Shakespeare buffs might be thinking of), so I went on having a rather depressed, bleak and Russian view of the world for the rest of the evening.

However! I also got to go to a cool Viennese cafe. The waitresses were really inattentive, rude and unpleasant, but that's part of the experience. Actually, I found rude to be kind of the shtick in Austria, and it was the first place I have been where I wouldn't want to live, just because most people are very rule-bound and unfriendly. People kept getting mad at me for STUPID stuff. Like I wasn't wearing/holding my backpack in the right way in the museum, and five different guards tried to get me to do it differently. I'm still not sure why it mattered or what the most correct position for my backpack would have been. Also I tried to pet a horse and got yelled at. It just made me kind of angry. Also in the cafe some dude started smoking a CIGAR at the table right next to us. That's when I remembered I was in Europe...

I really enjoyed Vienna, even though a lot of the people were douches. I even stumbled upon this random military festival, where I got to climb into a tank, and they were sending people on huge zip lines and kids were rock climbing and music was playing and there were all these army dudes in uniform everywhere. Very bizarre. But I saw the pretty buildings, and I relaxed a little bit, and Resa and her friends were super nice to me. So that was good too.

Pretty Prague

So I spent my last day in Germany rallying my spirits for The Great Tourist Surge. Between October 21 and 27 I was in 6 countries. It was crazy. But it was fun and interesting and good too, and I walked around a lot and saw a lot of cool stuff.

In Prague, I officially couchsurfed for the first time. This was one of the sources of my stress while I was at the Wards', because I wasn't sure how much time I needed to spend looking for hosts, or if I would actually find one, or what it would be like when I did.

But I did find this guy Phil who hosts people ALL the time at his apartment in Prague, along with his roommates. They are all studying at the Film School and they are a very international bunch (American foreign service brat, Ukrainian, Swedish, Colombian). However, they were working on a film the day I arrived, from 3 until "the evening", so I had to make sure I got there in time to get let in, and nab one of their phone numbers, and then I had to keep myself busy in the city until 10, when they said they would be back.

It turned out that they were still filming when I called them at 11:30, and had lost track of time and forgotten about me. They told me to wait outside the flat until Phil showed up, which was a little after midnight. I was pretty disgruntled about that. But other than that, they were really great and we "chilled out" together a bit, which was really nice. Then I crashed, exhausted from getting up at 4 am or whenever it was, and wandering the city for 8 hours.

I just remembered I already wrote my post for Prague in my journal. Hurray! Here it is:

I think Prague is my favorite place of all time. I spent years resenting my parents for coming here with Adam and not me, and the last few days expecting the city's splendor to snap me out of my slump, and my expectations of how cool it would be were not disappointed. I might have been expecting it to be more foreign or Russian or something--it feels very European, but it is totally unique. The varied and lovely color schemes of buildings- incorporating all colors, but always complementing each other, often in soft subtle pastels, make the city unrelentingly beautiful. The river and its bridges and the buildings that line it are stunning and breathtaking. And the PALACE overlooking the city is the most beautiful building I have ever seen--better than Notre Dame, Versailles, anything I can think of. Move over Montezuma (and AC), I've found a new dream castle for me.

I finally saw a changing of the palace guard (after about 4 other missed opportunities in other cities). It probably would have been anticlimactic after the castle if I hadn't accidentally become part of it by trailing the guards from their post to the place they swap instead of waiting for them from an outside vantage point. It was around the hour and I saw them start to march, and I didn't want to miss it! It was awkward but hilarious, for me.

Except for the language, I may have found my new home. It's calm, it feels clean and safe, it's bohemian, artsy, intellectual, lovely, old, romantic. I want to come back and see the castle again, and the inside too if possible.

I also found the Jewish quarter, and though I didn't tour or learn anything, it was nice to at least see these old buildings. It's cool they're still around.

I've lately been annoyed with myself because I can't work up the courage or resolve to go into random bars by myself to meet people and make friends. It's just hard to know which bars it would even work in! Especially since I don't speak the language in these places. I would feel like a real tool going into a bar and ordering a drink and sitting by myself. (Which I actually did in Prague, while waiting for my hosts to surface!) But maybe this will be resolved eventually...

Before I left for my trip I talked to Jon Cannon about Rules for Wandering. When he first asked me what mine were, I didn't think I had any. But then I thought about it more, and realized that if at all possible, I like to take a different route back than I take first, so I cover twice as much ground and don't go over the same streets twice. I also look for water. If I'm feeling really aimless, I get a map and try to find all the things on it that are labeled and/or look interesting.

On the big Charles bridge in Prague there were three street musicians playing. The first was a woman singing opera accompanied by a boombox. The second was this guy with a crazy array of percussion instruments, singing and drumming, and doing the didgeredoo. Kind of hard to explain...And the last was a jazz group, performing/singing Hello Dolly with their Czech accents. I just thought this mix was very funny.

OK, that's enough about Prague. It only covers my first day, and not my epic search for the secret Mecca known as "Bohemian Bagels." The end of the saga is that I found it, within 2 hours of needing to get back to my flat and get all my shit together to get back to the train station and catch my train to Vienna, and I had 55 Czech marks left in my wallet. A bagel with cream cheese cost 60. I asked a woman if she had an extra 5, and she didn't, so I scooped one out of the tip jar. I know it was wrong, but it's like a quarter, and I needed that damn bagel!

I also ended up in the REALLY touristy part of the city the second day, and I didn't think it was quite as cool as the rest, but all in all, it was pretty sweet.

Guess my good mood couldn't last forever

Since leaving Copenhagen, I've continued to experience a certain degree of malaise. I spent the majority of Friday on trains, getting to southern Germany. That was fine. Pretty relaxing and peaceful. I finished reading Crime and Punishment.

When I arrived in Stuttgart, although it was pretty late and I was tired, I decided to seize the moment, and went to an Irish pub in Boblingen to hear Dave (Kirsten's dad) play some rock standards with his American band. This area of Germany hosts the headquarters of the US army for all of Europe. So there are a lot of Americans and English speakers running around. There is also a lot of crazy army propaganda on the radio and television. It's all pretty strange.

I had a nice time in the pub, though I spent the first set worrying about the fate of my giant backpack sitting near the door under the coat rack. Since experiencing theft so recently, I was trying to be especially cautious. But eventually I got to put that in the car, and I could loosen up, get a drink and chat with some of the locals. Finally there were some pleasant young men my own age! :) I had to argue with one of them about the merits of American culture, but it was good-natured. One of his parents is Libyan, so I can sort of understand his distaste.

I've been staying for the past few days with my friend Kirsten's family. They are super nice and accommodating, and I feel totally at home here. There are 8 year old triplets (two boys and a girl). They are very cute, sweet, intelligent and energetic. The weekend was actually quite exhausting just because they were so eager to play. But the whole time I've been here I've felt a bit morose. I think it's largely because everything reminds me of Kirsten and makes me miss her! And that leads to a more general sense of loneliness. I've also been trying to plan the next stage of my journey, which I think is going to be the most difficult.

Basically my plan for the next few weeks is: 1-2 days in Prague, couchsurfing with strangers; 1-2 in Vienna, staying with the friend of a UWC friend, 1-2 days in Budapest, staying in a hostel. Then I need to find a way into Bosnia (where my Eurail does not work, and neither does the translator button on the bus website), where I will be staying for a few days with some friends of my parents in the foreign service, posted to Sarajevo. The tourism website for Bosnia has tips on how to avoid land mines.

After I leave Bosnia, I want to travel along the Mediterranean coast; Italy to France to Spain. But I don't really know anyone in any of these places at the moment. Once I get to Spain I want to go to Morocco and spend some time in both of these countries, and choose one to setup in for a more extended period, renting an apartment and just taking care of myself for a few weeks. However, as this gets closer, it is starting to seem less feasible. It seems in many ways smarter to just stay here, where I can relax and have other people take care of me. But I am determined to press on. I am feeling travel weary and full of trepidation. But I know there is a lot of awesome stuff still out there to see and do, and I might as well try to enjoy it. I've started getting some responses from Couchsurfing.org, and I am hoping that turns out to be a great experience, and not awkward and stressful. I don't know why I'm feeling so negative, but I hope I am able to snap out of it.

I'm also annoyed that I have to pay train reservation fees everywhere I go. They've been around 10 dollars or more, each time, and each time I get really mad. My Eurail pass was really expensive to begin with and I kind of thought it meant I could just hop on trains whenever I felt like it. But a lot of options require reservations, and I don't know the system well enough to know if I will have a seat if I don't reserve one. Grrr. It just makes me grouchy. But I guess I just have to accept it and try not to let it bug me as much.

So anyway, I'm setting off into the great unknown at the crack of dawn tomorrow, albeit against my will and better judgement. Hopefully all these cities will prove so cool and beautiful that I will return to a more jovial, excited and enthusiastic state of mind.

Copenhagen: not my scene

I'm sad to say, Copenhagen and I didn't get along too well. I think it was largely because I have gotten used to staying in smaller more manageable, idyllic towns where I don't feel like I need to go around and see the sites, but can just do what I feel like and relax and soak it in. Being in a real city, with lots of cars and bikes whizzing by me all the time and big buildings and everything else was a bit disconcerting at first. I think it also made me feel more alone- to be in this big place where I was so foreign and didn't speak the language or know where to go. Of course, most people there speak English, but still. I didn't feel an affinity for the place right away, instead I felt sort of uneasy.

I have found more and more on this trip that the places I like to be when I am touring cities alone are the places where it feels less like a city, less like a foreign country, and more appropriate to be alone. Namely, I gravitate toward parks and quiet walks by water. I guess it's a cop out, but it's free and someone stuck all those parks there in these crowded places for a reason. My FAVORITE part of Cph. that I saw was this canal where there were all these epic and very pirately, old fashioned sailing boats. I took pictures of a few of my favorites, which I will eventually put up on Facebook.

There was other good stuff. It grew on me as I explored. It's a pretty cool blend of old and modern, as many European cities are. There was a really cool exhibit up in preparation for the world emissions summit (or whatever they are calling that thing) called 100 Places to Remember (Before They Disappear). I wandered into the "free city of Christiana." I thought it would be interesting because it was founded by hippies in the early 70's, and people there can just sell and smoke hash and weed totally in the open. But it turned out to just feel kind of sketchy and uncomfortable. Ah well.

However my visit was tainted by an awkward interaction with a plump Greek man of about 30 who turned out to want more from me than friendship and pleasant conversation, and who for some reason demonstrated to me that he had literally a huge wad of cash with him. That was weird. And then while I was still recovering from that experience, I discovered that my bag that had had my passport, 30 UK pounds and chapstick had vanished from my backpack. I missed all three items, and the bag itself, very badly. And I was really mad at myself for not being more careful and somehow letting this happen, even though I had been trying to be careful all along.

In the end it was all right. The US embassy in Cph. turned out to be really efficient and pleasant. I had a new emergency passport less than 24 hours after losing the old one. And it was kind of cool to see how that whole process worked. But I feel like my Copenhagen angst was somehow warranted.

Magical Denmark

Fun facts:
1. Number of forms of currency I currently have with me: 5! USD, GBP, EUR, NOK, DKK. Could have gotten Swedish Kroners as well, but didn't want to overdo it.
2. Legos are Danish. I went by the summer home of the guy who owns the company. Apparently he breeds horses in his spare time.
3. Sunday, I saw a porpoise.

How Denmark has maintained its quaint, idyllic, old-fashioned charm:
-Sheep instead of lawnmowers. They probably have lawnmowers as well, but I haven't seen any yet.
-Burning wood instead of oil. Also, windmills never went out of fashion here.
-Their houses and churches are all painted white with red clay brick roofs.
-Children actually fly kites on the weekend.
-It's very flat and totally surrounded by water.
-There are actual houses with medieval straw thatched roofs, that people actually live in.

It's no wonder Hans Christian Anderson hails from this part of the world, if you ask me.

Denmark is really lovely. The pace of life seems slower here. Really, it has felt slower than Brown and the US in general most everywhere I've been, with the exception of London. People are cheerful and friendly. They eat a lot of fish and build a lot of bridges. And ride a lot of bikes.

Today I have been exploring the city of Arhus. It is the second biggest city, after Copenhagen, but it is quite small. The population is something like 250,000. I'm visiting my good friend Anne, which is really great and fun. On the way here, I met two huge African-American basketball players who are playing for Danish teams for the year to build up their stats to try to get into the NBA. Really random. It was kind of nice to meet some Americans though.

Anne and I went to an Occupation Museum today, which had a lot of artifacts and information from WWII, when the Nazis occupied Denmark, but there was a fairly active resistance force in the country. We also went to the main church in the city, which was beautiful, and we went to a crazy Turkish bazaar, which was mostly just bizarre. Aarhus is totally charming, particularly the old-fashioned, European architecture, and I think I could live here, except that it's expensive, and kind of cold. Tomorrow I head to Copenhagen.

The two main things I learned from my stay in the country with Rasmus's family: I don't understand Danish, and I'm not crazy about Danish food. They were really great though. :)

Sailing the seas, and other Scandinavian adventures

Ways I have gotten around Scandinavia so far:
1. Bus
2. Tram
3. Walking along an entire tram route in Oslo (to avoid getting lost without a map)
4. Trains
5. Hitching a ride from Torp airport to Asker, Norway from Olav and Asalan & a ride from Korsor to Keterminde with Rasmus's aunts (cars)
6. Hiding in the back of a two man van driving through Sweden
7. Sailing a yacht from Marsden, Sweden to Korsor, Denmark.
8. Ferry


Methods of transport I have not yet used extensively but would like to in my life:
1. Bicycle
2. Motorcycle
3. Helicopter
4. Hot air balloon
5. Horse
6. Camel
7. Elephant
8. Whale
9. Parachute/hang-glider
10. Submarine
11. Scuba diving

Let me know if I missed any good ones!

Sailing was as awesome as I hoped it would be. Even though we weren't actually sailing for that much of it, and it wasn't as hard core as it might have been. The boat had lots of modern amenities: flushing toilet, hot water, electricity, high tech navigation system, even an auto pilot feature we used most of the way. An engine and motor, which we also used most of the way, since the winds weren't really strong enough to counter the current and get us moving as quickly as we wanted. Also due to the electricity, Rikki was able to set up a wireless internet router and his laptop. The internet didn't work when we were way out to sea, but a lot of the trip it did.

He taught me a bit about navigation, though, and I got to try my hand at steering for a few minutes. I stood unofficial watch at the stern most of the day, just because I like to perch. I also took one of the three official watches through the night. Mine was 8 pm - 12 am. It was very trance-inducing and inspiring and amazing. It's hard not to believe in a greater power--call it God, fate, the universe, but something good and benevolent, when you are looking out at all that water, and realizing just how big the world is, and how many possibilities there are. And things just work out. If I hadn't taken and hated and dropped Hindi last fall, I might never have gotten the wake up call I needed, and taken this trip at this time, and then I would have been in class yesterday instead of on the stern of that boat. It really moved me.

Even my last-minute, haphazard attempts at getting in touch with contacts to stay with on land worked out seamlessly. Rasmus and his aunts passed through Korsor, the town Rikki and Stein dropped me off at in Denmark, on their way to Rasmus's family home outside Odense. They picked me up a few hours after I landed, and drove me straight there--no need to navigate or pay for buses or trains or anything.

It's really quite amazing how things have just been working out for me on this trip so far, with one or two minor exceptions. I guess it's partly due to my ability to roll with the punches, but sometimes it feels like a bit more than that and luck.

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One more adventure tale: Before we set sail from Marsden, we spent the night in harbor at an island there to wait out some stormy weather. We had some time to kill, so I went to explore the island on foot. I left around 6:30 pm and the sun began to set shortly thereafter. I struck out on the rocky path near the shores of this rugged, largely uninhabited place. However, it turned out to be a bit bigger than I expected, and as the sun set, I realized I could get lost if I didn't return to the boat before dark. I started running along the path instead of walking, to avoid that fate, but the rocks were wet from rain, and I didn't want to fall. At some point, I lost the path entirely and took to bush-wacking and rock-climbing in the gathering darkness. I found my way back to a path by following lights I saw ahead and telephone wires I eventually spotted. I figured where there are wires, there are usually roads, or other trappings of mankind. I was wrong, there was no road beside them, but they did bring me closer to a path I could follow back to the harbor, back to civilization. Once I was there, there was some light, and it wasn't too long before I found the boat again. It was a bit scary though, and I was glad to learn I have some instinct for survival. I guess it wasn't the first time I've learned that, but sometimes you need a good reminder.

Norway - A country I'm going to have to come back to.

I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I love Norway. Even though it is at least as expensive as everyone warned me it would be. And today it is chilly and rainy, and it definitely gets cold at night.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday primarily travelling. I packed up, got from Glenesk to London by train, during which I sat across from a girl who had a disconcerting habit of staring at me, found a youth hostel and went to bed there. I met some cool Australians in the room, but I didn't really feel like partying it up. Next morning I sorted myself out and traveled from London to Stansted airport, and took a flight to Oslo/Torp.

On the way to board the small Ryan Air plane (which cost me about 25 bucks, by the way :), I saw an elderly fellow struggling with the stairs and his luggage. He was weighed down by two bags of duty free alcohol. I asked him if he needed some help, and he assented. I carried all his booze onto the plane, and then I sat between him and a nice man named Lee, who was going to visit his wife and baby in Norway.

The fellow I helped was named Olav. He is about 75 and Norweigan. He was some kind of mechanical/naval engineer (similar to the sort of stuff my grandfather used to do) and he has had such an interesting life. He listed off all the places in the world he has been and lived, and it certainly put me to shame. He lived in the North Sea for 15 years. He lived in Libya. He's been basically everywhere. He's also been married for 48 years. He reminded me of my grandparents, and he semi-adopted me. A few minutes into the trip he asked me where I was going. I said, "I'm going to stay with a friend in Asker." (a suburb of Oslo). He said, "My son-in-law who is coming to pick me up lives in Asker. He can give you a free ride there." And I was like...Umm, OK! Sure! Seeing as free stuff is great, strangers are great, and basically risk-free hitch-hiking is absolutely my idea of a good time.

Olav's son in law was a Kurdish former-communist refugee from Iran who has been living in Norway for the last 20 years. His name was Asalan (I think. May have misheard). He was also really cool and nice. Olav wanted me to meet his wife, because she used to study at a college in Minnesota and speaks good English. Unfortunately, she also has a heart condition and she was fast asleep when we rolled up at their house. It was quite scary. I rode in the car with these guys for about an hour and a half (through the beautiful sunset scenery of rural Norway) to get to Olav's village Kongsberg. And for a little while there I thought I was going to have to witness this man dealing with the loss of his wife. But it turned out she was only sleeping. Phew! But we didn't really get to hang out or drink tea or anything. Then Asalan drove me to Asker and I met up with my UWC first year Robin, and his girlfriend Sarah. They have a cool basement apartment underneath his parents' house. Upstairs reside his parents, his cool, adorable 16 year old brother Magnus and his much younger brother Daniel (3). They're all super nice and welcoming. Basically from my first moment with Norweigans on, I have found them very friendly, warm, welcoming people.

The scenery reminds me a great deal of Maine and Vermont. The trees are changing color with the autumn, there are LOTS of them, there are farms and mountains, rivers, lakes and sea coast. The houses are cute and bright colors. I know there is more dramatic landscape to be had in other parts of the country, but so far I have really liked what I've seen.

The weather was really nice my first day in town, Friday. I was in Oslo from about 11:30 am until a bit after midnight. I spent a great deal of that time walking, and my legs were indeed tired by the end of the day. I didn't do or see anything in particular (I didn't have a map, or destinations in mind, and I was totally experiencing sticker shock everywhere I looked). I did accidentally stumble upon the cemetary where Henrik Ibsen was buried. That was pretty sweet. He's a good playwright, so I went to pay my respects. Then I enjoyed the very pleasant hills, grass and sunshine to be had there, cemetary as it was. Did a few stretches and sit-ups. :) I also found the National Library (which I identified by the semi-cognates those words are in Norweigan to languages I recognized). Browsed over a few cool paintings and an exhibit about Arctic exploring, navigation and map-making. I also found a lot of parks.

After that, I got lost. I wanted to get back to the central train station, but I was given bad directions, and I wandered into the residential neighborhoods. It was a bit frustrating. I don't like getting navigation wrong, and I like being able to rely on my wits and instincts. But eventually I did. I found some tram stops with tram maps on them. They listed the train station I was looking for on them, so I walked along tram lines, checking at each that I was still going in the right directions, until I finally arrived back at the station. It took a while, but it was pretty satisfying to manage on my feet, and not have to pay for any public transportation during the day.

I had about an hour's rest at the train station, and then I met back up with Robin and Sarah and we went to see some of their Norweigan friends, another couple. We hung out at their apartment for a while, drank some very pleasant beer and ate some pizza. They gave me some grief about being American, but I am both good natured and accustomed to semi-eloquently defending my native civilization, so I didn't mind much. After a while we went to a club next door, and heard some really nice live music in English. A lot of their music, and TV, and books are.

I must say, it has been a bit strange to finally break out of the English speaking world on this trip. I know most people around me can speak at least a moderate amount of English. But generally when I pass them, they don't. The signs and maps and street names and instructions are all in Norweigan, and more than anything so far, it makes me feel foreign, a bit lost and out of the know. It makes me feel a bit less self-sufficient as well. And a bit lonely. And Norweigan really is not an easy language to pick up. The pronunciation is so wacky and intense. But I like listening to it. And Robin and his family and Sarah and their friends have done a good job of making me feel welcome.

The best proposal I have EVER gotten over red wine and moose meat

(I decided to split my post on Norway up. This is part 2)

Today the weather was a bit nastier. It was rainy and cold. I roused myself out of bed to go to a nearby swimming pool with Robin, Sarah and their respective younger siblings. Sarah is an artist, and wanted to take some underwater pictures for inspiration. I was tired, but didn't want to miss that. We came home and had a delicious dinner of bacon and omelette, with hot chocolate, tea, salad and blueberry juice. I also made sure we picked some of my long-missed Norweigan brown cheese. Something I was exposed to at UWC and immediately loved. Then Sarah and Robin set off to attend a friends' birthday party. They did invite me to go along, and at first I was tempted, but after all their talk of "I wish we didn't have to go out. It's so expensive and takes so long to get there, and it's such a good day to stay home and watch a movie. But we HAVE to!" I decided maybe I was better off chilling at their pad.

You know how sometimes in life you're just in the right place at the right time? I'm pretty sure I just had one of those moments. Robin suggested a few times that I go upstairs and chill with his parents a bit. I am rarely one of those who needs to be invited twice for that sort of thing. I went up to keep his English mom company as she prepared dinner. She made us some gin and tonics, and we talked about UWC and some other things. I talked to his Norweigan/American dad as well. It turns out, Robin's dad hunts and had gotten a moose recently, and brought back the best cut for dinner tonight. I've had moose once before in my life, back in middle school my music teacher gave me a bite, and I have always remembered it as a very pleasurable thing. So I stuck around and agreed to have a small second course.

The moose was as good as I remembered it, if not better. It is incredibly lean and tender, flavorful and delicious. We had other goodies, and split a bottle of red. At some point during the conversation, R's mom asked me if I sailed. I don't know if it was the sailboat necklace I have on, or just totally out of the blue, but I'm glad they asked. I said, "Not as much as I would like." I have sailed a few times in my life, but I've become rapidly more enthusiastic about the idea since I became a pirate, and I seriously considered spending this semester working on a tall ship in the Carribbean instead of backpacking around Europe, but in the end chose this.

So there it was. All of a sudden Robin's dad was asking me if I would like to sail to Germany with him. I can't tell you how excited and thrilled I was at the idea. Now I get basically every adventure I've wanted recently, all in the space of this one trip. He wants to leave on Tuesday (three days from now). I had been planning on staying in Norway longer, but when the winds of chance call, well who am I to resist? It turns out that if I take him up on the offer, I can see a bit of the coast of Sweden, which I wasn't going to get to do at all, and he can drop me off in Copenhagen on his way to North Germany, which was where I was planning on going next anyway. He said I should think it over, but I'm pretty sure I could never pass something like this up. After all, this is what this trip of mine is all about. What my whole outlook is about, really. Live by the seat of my pants. Do awesome, exciting random things when I get the chance. So it looks like I'm going to learn some new skills, and teach some new people a few sea chanties.

Also, I've decided the best way to deal with pictures for this trip is just to put them in facebook albums. There are two so far. Here are the links:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19491&id=1348740062&l=2c0de186b8 -Norway and the end of Scotland

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18909&id=1348740062&l=6dfc4212c7 -London and Scotland