The Elfstadenroute (elf=11, staden=town, route=route) signs are what I both hate and can't live without at the same time. These are the tiny signs posted all over Friesland, telling me when to turn when I'm biking. Sometimes they are high up on a pole on the other side of the street and sometimes they are nearly hidden by tall grass on the side of the road. Occasionally, they are not there at all and you just have to figure out that you are supposed to turn. It amazes me that we haven't gotten lost yet. Luckily, we have approximately 10 different maps of various detail helping us figure out where to go. Once we get to each town, the guidance basically stops and we have to find the VVV(prounced vayvayvay) tourist office to get a stamp on our record page. It definitely adds a fun scavenger hunt aspect to the whole trip.
The B&Bs we have been staying are small and quaint. The first night we were the only people there; the second night there were 6 others; and tonight there are 4 others. The towns have been too small for restaurants, so the B&B owners cook delicious dinners for us using almost all local ingredients. Our host tonight is the first person I've met (in Norway and The Netherlands) who doesn't speak English, which is ok because Jerry can communicate the basics in Dutch. I wish I could talk to him though because he seems really cool. Big, bushy white beard, Einstein hair, and a giant, goofy smile. I was pretty jealous that the other table of people had a very lively conversation with him at dinner.
The past few days of riding have been much better than the first day. We've had better weather, our muscles are finally beginning to adjust, and we've gotten very little head wind. Yesterday was pretty uneventful. We went through a few particularly cute villages, but mostly we were just riding along fields of crops and animals. There is nothing quite like the smell of manure wafting by to motivate you to bike faster. We made good enough time that we were able to take a bus from our hotel to the first town we were supposed to stop in the next day. We wandered around there for a while and then got to breeze through it this morning, getting a good start on the day.
Today was the 2nd longest day, distance wise. We had tail winds for a good part of it though, so it was pretty easy. In one town, we stopped for a few minutes to find a pharmacy (I am now the owner of a pretty awesome knee brace) and ended up passing a planetarium from around the 1700s. By planetarium I mean this guy who was a genius and turned the ceiling of his living room into a moving replica of the solar system, and turned the room on the floor above it into a mechanical room full of cogs to keep the model moving at the right speed. This thing has lasted for centuries, always keeping the exact right time, monitored by one swinging pendulum. It has all of the planets, the date, the moon phase, astrological signs, time, etc. It was definitely worth the half hour break for the tour.
Today, I also fell for the first time, though it was at an extremely slow speed-- we were trying to read the route sign and I ran into a pole. To be fair, I could have caught myself if my feet reached the ground, but here's the thing: Dutch women are GIANTS. As in, women's average height is like 5'10". Ok, according to wikipedia it is 5'6", compared to the US's 5'4", (fun fact: it is 5'7.5" in the Dinaric Alps and 4'8" in Bolivia) but I swear I haven't seen a single person here shorter than me. Regardless, even when I point my feet they are a good inch or 2 from the ground.
Last observation for the night- most people here have their stables attached to their houses. Mostly, they are pretty nice, new looking houses too. So you'll see something that could easily be in Ballentyne (Charlotte people reference only, sorry others)but it has a HUGE room attached to it. I guess it makes sense for conserving heat in the winter and having easy access to the animals, but I can't imagine that the smell can be kept completely out of the house...
Alright. Time to sleep. 2 more days and 4 more towns to go!!!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Friesland
It’s 9pm and I’m already in bed, ready to read a few chapters of my book and then go to sleep. Today was the first day of the bike ride. We rode for 6-7 hours, a good portion of it along the dikes next to the sea. Talk about head wind! We were expecting it to rain for a lot of the day, and the first hour or so was a miserable torrential downpour, but after that we had a blue sky with a slight breeze. Though I can’t really feel my butt and am a little sunburned, I still had a great day. I was worried that by the end of today I would be dreading the rest of the week, but I’m really looking forward to it (just not how sore I’m going to be when we start riding tomorrow morning).
The landscape is much more varied than I expected—there are some cute little villages and forest paths thrown in with the never ending pastures of cows, horses, goats, and thousands of sheep. We’ve also biked by a bunch of windmills, but they’re mostly the industrial white kind, not the cute wooden kind. It gets a little monotonous at times, but I’ve astounded myself with the number of songs I know the lyrics to and can sing in my head. Plus, it’s a constant challenge to make sure we are following the right path.
This is a very specific route, which goes around most of Friesland. There is a very famous ice skating race, the Elfstedentocht, along the canals in Friesland that goes through 11 towns, so in the summer there is a bike race that takes a slightly different route, but also goes to each of the towns. We’re not racing, obviously, but we’re doing that route. We have a page with a space for each of the town halls to stamp that we were there, and if we get all of them we get a certificate. Maybe I shouldn’t be telling this to whoever is reading my blog, but I’m a sucker for certificates, so that’s pretty good motivation in itself to complete the tour.
Today we got to the first town, only to find out that the town hall was closed on Mondays. Disaster! Luckily a man walking his dog came up to us as we were biking through the town and, after a short conversation, we mentioned our disappointment at not getting the stamp. By lucky coincidence, he happened to have the keys to the local church and said they also had the stamp there so he would let us in and give them to us. I reitterate: everybody here is so friendly!
That’s all for now. I’m about to have the heaviest sleep I’ve had in a long time:-)
The landscape is much more varied than I expected—there are some cute little villages and forest paths thrown in with the never ending pastures of cows, horses, goats, and thousands of sheep. We’ve also biked by a bunch of windmills, but they’re mostly the industrial white kind, not the cute wooden kind. It gets a little monotonous at times, but I’ve astounded myself with the number of songs I know the lyrics to and can sing in my head. Plus, it’s a constant challenge to make sure we are following the right path.
This is a very specific route, which goes around most of Friesland. There is a very famous ice skating race, the Elfstedentocht, along the canals in Friesland that goes through 11 towns, so in the summer there is a bike race that takes a slightly different route, but also goes to each of the towns. We’re not racing, obviously, but we’re doing that route. We have a page with a space for each of the town halls to stamp that we were there, and if we get all of them we get a certificate. Maybe I shouldn’t be telling this to whoever is reading my blog, but I’m a sucker for certificates, so that’s pretty good motivation in itself to complete the tour.
Today we got to the first town, only to find out that the town hall was closed on Mondays. Disaster! Luckily a man walking his dog came up to us as we were biking through the town and, after a short conversation, we mentioned our disappointment at not getting the stamp. By lucky coincidence, he happened to have the keys to the local church and said they also had the stamp there so he would let us in and give them to us. I reitterate: everybody here is so friendly!
That’s all for now. I’m about to have the heaviest sleep I’ve had in a long time:-)
The Netherlands!
I think the only thing I don’t like about The Netherlands is how complicated they make it by sometimes calling it Holland and calling the language Dutch. But honestly, I don’t even dislike that completely. I have to give them some props for being original. And to be fair, they actually call their language Netherlands, so it’s really more of an English problem. Speaking of which, the Pennsylvania Dutch are actually German. Who knew?! But anyways, after my two days in The Netherlands, here are my favorite things:
1) Amsterdam is beautiful! I had no idea that it had so many canals and quaint streets. I always pictured it as a much more industrial looking city. Other than the Jewish Museum gift shop (I got a hamsa to replace the one dad and Jane got me a few years ago there that was stolen with my car keys) and the Van Gogh museum (good museum but super touristy and loud), all we did during our one full day there was wander around looking into shops and galleries, and people watching. I had so much fun taking it in, I didn’t take any pictures. I think mom took a few though that I can steal from her.
2) Everybody is so friendly! Every shop we went in, the people went out of their way to be nice to us even if it was clear we weren’t going to buy anything. This was great in Norway too. Us Americans really need to step up our game on being likeable. I don't know how irrational this is, but I tend to think that everybody hates tourists, especially American ones. I go to great lengths to pretend like I'm not a tourist, which usually includes refusing to look at maps, getting really really lost, and having to ask (in English) for directions. It always surprises me when somebody proves me wrong. It took until Saturday night and was a huge mess, but the airline got our bags to us, and everybody who was helping us was pretty friendly about it the whole time. Actually, the people in Latvia weren’t too bad either. Yes. Our bags were in Latvia.
3) Cheese!!! So much delicious cheese. And cheese shops on like every block. With lots of samples. Here’s the thing- I like cheese probably more than is socially acceptable. Like, more than dessert. Did you know that pesto cheese exists? It does and is incredible. How much is an appropriate amount for me to bring back to the US? Three wheels? Four? I may have to throw some gouda in there too. Making room in the one backpack I brought should be interesting.
That’s about all I have to say about The Netherlands so far, but I still have a whole week ahead of me. Mom and I met up with Jerry on Friday, so our duo has become a trio, which is nice because, even though mom and I got along great, spending a week with one person 24 hours a day is a lot. Also, Jerry has spent a lot of time in The Netherlands and speaks some Dutch, so he’s a great guide. It’s relaxing to have a few days break from constantly consulting maps.
Right now we’re in Joure. Tonight we had one of the best meals I’ve had in my entire life. I won’t describe it because I just couldn’t do it justice, but on our way out we made reservations to come back on Friday when we finish our bike loop. For the next five days, we’ll be biking in a loop around Friesland, from town to town, going about 30-40 miles per day. It’s definitely doable, but right now I’m really wishing I had done a little bike training to prepare for this. I do have some pretty awesome biking tights, waterproof pants, and biking gloves though, so at least I look the part. If you’ve got any energy to spare, send it my way. Not sure how many of the hotels we’re staying in have internet, but I’ll keep you updated as much as I can.
Last, but not least, just want to wish a happy happy Father’s Day to the best father in the whole world that anyone could ever ask for- my dad:-) Sorry I’m not home. MMMMMLL
1) Amsterdam is beautiful! I had no idea that it had so many canals and quaint streets. I always pictured it as a much more industrial looking city. Other than the Jewish Museum gift shop (I got a hamsa to replace the one dad and Jane got me a few years ago there that was stolen with my car keys) and the Van Gogh museum (good museum but super touristy and loud), all we did during our one full day there was wander around looking into shops and galleries, and people watching. I had so much fun taking it in, I didn’t take any pictures. I think mom took a few though that I can steal from her.
2) Everybody is so friendly! Every shop we went in, the people went out of their way to be nice to us even if it was clear we weren’t going to buy anything. This was great in Norway too. Us Americans really need to step up our game on being likeable. I don't know how irrational this is, but I tend to think that everybody hates tourists, especially American ones. I go to great lengths to pretend like I'm not a tourist, which usually includes refusing to look at maps, getting really really lost, and having to ask (in English) for directions. It always surprises me when somebody proves me wrong. It took until Saturday night and was a huge mess, but the airline got our bags to us, and everybody who was helping us was pretty friendly about it the whole time. Actually, the people in Latvia weren’t too bad either. Yes. Our bags were in Latvia.
3) Cheese!!! So much delicious cheese. And cheese shops on like every block. With lots of samples. Here’s the thing- I like cheese probably more than is socially acceptable. Like, more than dessert. Did you know that pesto cheese exists? It does and is incredible. How much is an appropriate amount for me to bring back to the US? Three wheels? Four? I may have to throw some gouda in there too. Making room in the one backpack I brought should be interesting.
That’s about all I have to say about The Netherlands so far, but I still have a whole week ahead of me. Mom and I met up with Jerry on Friday, so our duo has become a trio, which is nice because, even though mom and I got along great, spending a week with one person 24 hours a day is a lot. Also, Jerry has spent a lot of time in The Netherlands and speaks some Dutch, so he’s a great guide. It’s relaxing to have a few days break from constantly consulting maps.
Right now we’re in Joure. Tonight we had one of the best meals I’ve had in my entire life. I won’t describe it because I just couldn’t do it justice, but on our way out we made reservations to come back on Friday when we finish our bike loop. For the next five days, we’ll be biking in a loop around Friesland, from town to town, going about 30-40 miles per day. It’s definitely doable, but right now I’m really wishing I had done a little bike training to prepare for this. I do have some pretty awesome biking tights, waterproof pants, and biking gloves though, so at least I look the part. If you’ve got any energy to spare, send it my way. Not sure how many of the hotels we’re staying in have internet, but I’ll keep you updated as much as I can.
Last, but not least, just want to wish a happy happy Father’s Day to the best father in the whole world that anyone could ever ask for- my dad:-) Sorry I’m not home. MMMMMLL
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Good news!
Norway pix are up on facebook! You can only see them if you're my facebook friend though. Sorry.
Oslo!
So I’m sitting in my hotel room in Amsterdam, where mom and I met up with Jerry earlier today. I’m mostly in the dark other than the light from the bathroom and some weird mood lighting along the baseboards. I have no idea how to get any of these lamps to turn on, but I’m exhausted so I’ve decided I can do without them. Plus, at least my bathroom walls are real. In the hotel in Oslo, the bathroom walls were made of clear glass. Luckily I don’t spend much time in the hotel anyways. It’s more amusing than annoying. But on to the past few days. This is going to be a long one…
This has been a great week, but Oslo was definitely my favorite part. Everywhere we’d been earlier in the week was absolutely beautiful, but things moved a little bit too slowly for my style of travel. We spent most of Wednesday on trains, going across the country to Oslo. Actually, yesterday one of the wooden tunnels in Middle Of Nowhere, Norway caught on fire and basically incinerated a train (all passengers and crew were evacuated) so the line is down indefinitely- a bit of good timing on our part.
When we got into Oslo it was evening, so we decided to walk to a big park nearby that was designed by a super famous Norwegian sculptor named Gustav Vigeland. The main attraction (at least for tourists) of the large park is a long pathway flanked by life size bronze sculptures of people, with a large sculpture fountain at the end. It was incredibly impressive (see soon to come facebook album for some pix). One thing that I noticed was that almost everybody who owns dogs in Norway seems to own GIANT ones. I guess the smaller ones don’t do so well in the snow.
Thursday morning we got up early and hit the ground running. First stop was the Nobel Peace Prize Museum, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I won’t go into a ton of details about it, but I learned A LOT about Fridtjof Nansen, who, as it turns out, is pretty badass. For more info see the ever-so-scholarly Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fridtjof_Nansen. I even learned a lot about Alfred Nobel, who invented, ironically, smokeless gunpowder to help soldiers see on the battlefield. Also, fun fact: he invented dynamite! I literally could have spent all day there, but eventually it was time to move on. Oslo in one day takes a lot of dedication.
Next stop was the Contemporary Art Museum. Not much to say about that… everything was pretty angsty in the kind of omg-nobody-understands-me way. Still glad we went though.
Last museum of the day was the Edvard Munch museum. Well first a munch at the Café Munch (bahaha) and then the museum. Who knew he painted so many other things besides The Scream. Turns out, the museum owns like 1200 paintings or something like that. Not all of them were out, obviously, but there were plenty. Seeing The Scream in person was pretty cool. I had never really focused on the sky before, but it really stands out in person. They were restoring a bunch of his paintings too and the studio had a glass wall to look in, which was really cool to see. They have so much super fancy equipment in there!
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the city, first in some random residential neighborhood just outside the city center and then the shopping district. Then, in the evening we went to see the opera Peter Grimes, which was fortunately in English. The actual theater is designed to look like a glacier, and the architect pulled it off really well. For the sake of time I will refer you, once again, to the soon-to-be facebook album. I hadn’t been to an opera since I was old enough to sit through it without fidgeting—ok. I fidgeted a little in the middle of this one too, but it was very subtle and the thing was over 3 hours! If you’re going to see opera though, that is definitely the way to do it. The theater was huge and paneled in gorgeous wood. the performers sang beautifully (not that I’m a great judge), and the plot was much more complex than I expected it to be.
After that we had a late dinner at a really cute café with a view of the Akershus Fortress. The only reason I bring this up is that my mother, mistaking a different restaurant for the one we were trying to find, tried to convince me to eat in a dark, hole-in-the-wall bar with a skull and crossbones flag covering the window of the door. I will be more than happy to explain this in more detail to anyone who asks:-)
So now onto the second leg of the trip—Amsterdam and biking through Friesland. The airlines lost our luggage, but we’re optimistic that they will find it and get it to us sometime tomorrow. Otherwise, all I have to bike in are my flip flops, so that should be interesting. For now, I’ll leave you with the only Norwegian words I can remember (most words I had no idea how to even begin trying to pronounce).
Utgang- Exit
Ingang- Entrance
Airport- Flyplass
Train- Tog
Gate- Street (it’s pronounced gata, though we didn’t figure that out until Thursday)
Fiske- Fish
Kylling- Chicken
This has been a great week, but Oslo was definitely my favorite part. Everywhere we’d been earlier in the week was absolutely beautiful, but things moved a little bit too slowly for my style of travel. We spent most of Wednesday on trains, going across the country to Oslo. Actually, yesterday one of the wooden tunnels in Middle Of Nowhere, Norway caught on fire and basically incinerated a train (all passengers and crew were evacuated) so the line is down indefinitely- a bit of good timing on our part.
When we got into Oslo it was evening, so we decided to walk to a big park nearby that was designed by a super famous Norwegian sculptor named Gustav Vigeland. The main attraction (at least for tourists) of the large park is a long pathway flanked by life size bronze sculptures of people, with a large sculpture fountain at the end. It was incredibly impressive (see soon to come facebook album for some pix). One thing that I noticed was that almost everybody who owns dogs in Norway seems to own GIANT ones. I guess the smaller ones don’t do so well in the snow.
Thursday morning we got up early and hit the ground running. First stop was the Nobel Peace Prize Museum, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I won’t go into a ton of details about it, but I learned A LOT about Fridtjof Nansen, who, as it turns out, is pretty badass. For more info see the ever-so-scholarly Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fridtjof_Nansen. I even learned a lot about Alfred Nobel, who invented, ironically, smokeless gunpowder to help soldiers see on the battlefield. Also, fun fact: he invented dynamite! I literally could have spent all day there, but eventually it was time to move on. Oslo in one day takes a lot of dedication.
Next stop was the Contemporary Art Museum. Not much to say about that… everything was pretty angsty in the kind of omg-nobody-understands-me way. Still glad we went though.
Last museum of the day was the Edvard Munch museum. Well first a munch at the Café Munch (bahaha) and then the museum. Who knew he painted so many other things besides The Scream. Turns out, the museum owns like 1200 paintings or something like that. Not all of them were out, obviously, but there were plenty. Seeing The Scream in person was pretty cool. I had never really focused on the sky before, but it really stands out in person. They were restoring a bunch of his paintings too and the studio had a glass wall to look in, which was really cool to see. They have so much super fancy equipment in there!
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the city, first in some random residential neighborhood just outside the city center and then the shopping district. Then, in the evening we went to see the opera Peter Grimes, which was fortunately in English. The actual theater is designed to look like a glacier, and the architect pulled it off really well. For the sake of time I will refer you, once again, to the soon-to-be facebook album. I hadn’t been to an opera since I was old enough to sit through it without fidgeting—ok. I fidgeted a little in the middle of this one too, but it was very subtle and the thing was over 3 hours! If you’re going to see opera though, that is definitely the way to do it. The theater was huge and paneled in gorgeous wood. the performers sang beautifully (not that I’m a great judge), and the plot was much more complex than I expected it to be.
After that we had a late dinner at a really cute café with a view of the Akershus Fortress. The only reason I bring this up is that my mother, mistaking a different restaurant for the one we were trying to find, tried to convince me to eat in a dark, hole-in-the-wall bar with a skull and crossbones flag covering the window of the door. I will be more than happy to explain this in more detail to anyone who asks:-)
So now onto the second leg of the trip—Amsterdam and biking through Friesland. The airlines lost our luggage, but we’re optimistic that they will find it and get it to us sometime tomorrow. Otherwise, all I have to bike in are my flip flops, so that should be interesting. For now, I’ll leave you with the only Norwegian words I can remember (most words I had no idea how to even begin trying to pronounce).
Utgang- Exit
Ingang- Entrance
Airport- Flyplass
Train- Tog
Gate- Street (it’s pronounced gata, though we didn’t figure that out until Thursday)
Fiske- Fish
Kylling- Chicken
Back on the road
Sorry everyone! Forgot to post this when I wrote it and just realized. Should have been posted on Wednesday:
Monday morning, mom and I left Tromso for Bergen, with a layover in Oslo. We were sitting in the Oslo airport, both slightly annoyed that we were wasting most of our day in transit, when who should show up at our gate but CYNDI LAUPER. Seriously! After Google imaging her picture to double check, I spent about 20 minutes deciding whether I should go talk to her. Finally I did, and she looked just about as surprised that there was an American on her plane who recognized her, as I was to see her. We had a short conversation—I told her to break a leg on her concert, she asked what I was doing, told me that mom and I were cute, and then autographed by Norway guide book. Totally worth the layover.
We got into Bergen that evening, just in time to wander around the old part of town and have dinner. The architecture was gorgeous, but we couldn’t go into most of the buildings because it was still the Monday holiday—the holiday was Pentecost, by the way. That was a big disappointment but I guess it just means I’ll have to go back there someday:-)
I ended up ordering reindeer patties for dinner that night which, honestly, made me seriously consider going back to being a vegetarian again. It actually tasted pretty good, especially with the cloudberry (who knew that was even a thing!) jelly they brought to put on top, but the consistency was… not really my thing. I’m not sure whether it was just how reindeer is, or it was a low quality piece of meat, but I sincerely hope I never eat anything like that again. I’m thinking the jerky is may be different though, so I’m still planning on eating that. Speaking of which, not that sharing the jerky is a competition, but if it was, Michelle Evans and Emily Rosenzweig would be winning and Alex Miller would be losing. Oops. So off topic! Anyways…
Tuesday morning we woke up early and hopped on a train along the water, which took us to a bus through a canyon, which took us to a boat through some fjoyds, which dropped us off in the endearing, yet touristy, town of Flam. The fjord tour was absolutely incredible. We passed a few old towns, which were fun to see, but the real draw, of course, was the fjord rock walls rising up on either side of us. They are all REALLY tall. Some are even high enough that people base jump off of them. As soon as they mentioned it, mom turned to me and said something like “I know I don’t have veto power in your life, but I still want to veto you ever doing that.” Oh well…
But back to the canyon walls. This is a very interesting time of year because the bottoms of the mountains are covered in greenery while the tops still have snow. The melting snow (maybe along with other sources. I haven’t done research.) creates streams down the mountainside, but since the mountain sides are so steep (more like a series of cliffs) there are waterfalls everywhere. I’ve probably taken about 1000 pictures of them trying to get one that actually captures anything even close to how cool they are.
Last night we stayed in a really cute hotel in Flam that reminds me of a less fancy version of the Carolina Inn at Pinehurst. Everybody here is so nice! I’m getting very spoiled and have no interest in ever dealing with customer service in the US again.
Now I’m on another train and haven't seen anything but snow, ice, and rocks for about 2 hours. Mom and I decided that we were a little bit too ambitious about how much ground we could cover in a week, and as a result aren’t spending enough time anywhere to fully explore it. At least with all of the transit we’ve gotten to see a lot of the countryside. Now, on to Oslo!!
Monday morning, mom and I left Tromso for Bergen, with a layover in Oslo. We were sitting in the Oslo airport, both slightly annoyed that we were wasting most of our day in transit, when who should show up at our gate but CYNDI LAUPER. Seriously! After Google imaging her picture to double check, I spent about 20 minutes deciding whether I should go talk to her. Finally I did, and she looked just about as surprised that there was an American on her plane who recognized her, as I was to see her. We had a short conversation—I told her to break a leg on her concert, she asked what I was doing, told me that mom and I were cute, and then autographed by Norway guide book. Totally worth the layover.
We got into Bergen that evening, just in time to wander around the old part of town and have dinner. The architecture was gorgeous, but we couldn’t go into most of the buildings because it was still the Monday holiday—the holiday was Pentecost, by the way. That was a big disappointment but I guess it just means I’ll have to go back there someday:-)
I ended up ordering reindeer patties for dinner that night which, honestly, made me seriously consider going back to being a vegetarian again. It actually tasted pretty good, especially with the cloudberry (who knew that was even a thing!) jelly they brought to put on top, but the consistency was… not really my thing. I’m not sure whether it was just how reindeer is, or it was a low quality piece of meat, but I sincerely hope I never eat anything like that again. I’m thinking the jerky is may be different though, so I’m still planning on eating that. Speaking of which, not that sharing the jerky is a competition, but if it was, Michelle Evans and Emily Rosenzweig would be winning and Alex Miller would be losing. Oops. So off topic! Anyways…
Tuesday morning we woke up early and hopped on a train along the water, which took us to a bus through a canyon, which took us to a boat through some fjoyds, which dropped us off in the endearing, yet touristy, town of Flam. The fjord tour was absolutely incredible. We passed a few old towns, which were fun to see, but the real draw, of course, was the fjord rock walls rising up on either side of us. They are all REALLY tall. Some are even high enough that people base jump off of them. As soon as they mentioned it, mom turned to me and said something like “I know I don’t have veto power in your life, but I still want to veto you ever doing that.” Oh well…
But back to the canyon walls. This is a very interesting time of year because the bottoms of the mountains are covered in greenery while the tops still have snow. The melting snow (maybe along with other sources. I haven’t done research.) creates streams down the mountainside, but since the mountain sides are so steep (more like a series of cliffs) there are waterfalls everywhere. I’ve probably taken about 1000 pictures of them trying to get one that actually captures anything even close to how cool they are.
Last night we stayed in a really cute hotel in Flam that reminds me of a less fancy version of the Carolina Inn at Pinehurst. Everybody here is so nice! I’m getting very spoiled and have no interest in ever dealing with customer service in the US again.
Now I’m on another train and haven't seen anything but snow, ice, and rocks for about 2 hours. Mom and I decided that we were a little bit too ambitious about how much ground we could cover in a week, and as a result aren’t spending enough time anywhere to fully explore it. At least with all of the transit we’ve gotten to see a lot of the countryside. Now, on to Oslo!!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
And on to Norway!
I left Winston-Salem with mom at 1pm on June 9. Then, 5 flights, 1 missed connection, 1 semi-overnight hotel, 4 meals (including a breakfast of salsa and a meatball, which I “accidentally” napped through), a pack of No Jet Lag (Homeopathic? Yes. Works? Yes. Judging myself a little bit for my wholehearted faith in it? Absolutely.), and 39 hours later we arrived in Tromso, Norway: The Paris of the North. While that slogan is just a bit of an overstatement (I think “The Asheville of the North” is maybe a bit more accurate), it did not stop me from seriously considering buying a $32 T-shirt with the title.
Actually, back up… The flight to Tromso was one of the most beautiful trips I’ve ever taken. We flew in early in the morning, and for at least an hour before we got there, the entire view was nothing but snow covered mountains, separated by lakes, all covered by morning fog drifting in off the ocean. My face was literally pressed up against the window the entire time. It made missing our flight the night before 100% worth it to get to fly in in the morning. Actually, I’m writing this as we fly back south to Bergen and I think it’s going to take me the entire flight because I keep getting distracted every time I can see through the clouds. But back to Tromso…
Tromso is located in the arctic circle, and boasts a lot of “northernmosts in the world,” such as botantical garden, brewery, glassblowing factory, and Burger King. It is also the Land of the Midnight Sun, meaning that the sun never sets. Ever. At midnight the sun is well above the horizon and it looks like it is around 5pm. I get the general idea of how this is possible, but not nearly well enough to explain it here. If anybody finds a good explanation online, let me know. In the winter, the opposite happens and it is dark all the time, making Tromso one of the best places in the world to see the northern lights. Oh well, I guess this isn’t my last time here. Bummer;-)
The first thing we did after we left the hotel was go explore the small center of town, where they happened to be having a Thai festival. There was Thai food and actually a fair number of Thai people, though we never found an explanation for the festival in English. Pretty much every Norwegian can speak English, but there were very few signs around the town in English. What we gathered was that, while Tromso is pretty cool, most tourists really use it as a sort of base camp for full day long nature activities (sea kayaking, glacier hiking, etc), which, since we were only there for 48 hours, we did not have the time to do.
After getting our bearings, we decided to take a bus to the cable car—one of Tromso’s few tourist specific activities—to the top of a mountain overlooking the city and bay. The view really was breathtaking. Any way I can think of to describe it here would be super cheesy, so I will refer you to my facebook album… We spent a few hours up there just wandering around the mountain and trying to avoid falling through snow (mental note- sneakers are not acceptable footwear for hiking in the arctic) before going back to our hotel for a nap. Jetlag is NO FUN.
We really lucked out weather wise actually, which is especially good for mom and I, who have both been known to break out our heavy winter coats well freezing temperatures are in the remotely foreseeable future. So even though there was snow, we got away with light jackets. Of course, most of the people in Tromso were in shorts and tees, and we even saw people sunbathing next to patches of snow.
Yesterday, in the morning we went to the town’s few museums and learned about arctic environments. Then, in the afternoon we went to the botanical garden, which, as one would expect in the arctic, was not very extensive (though it was a beautiful garden). After wandering around for a while we found a place on the grass and spent the afternoon reading, with mountains rising around us in every direction. Not so adventurous, but a perfect afternoon.
Overall, the town was very quiet since we were there on Sunday and a holiday Monday. People here clearly like their vacation and pretty much all of the businesses were closed, including some of the restaurants. The restaurants we did end up in were always pretty empty. The last night we ended up in a restaurant and were literally the only people there. The waitress told us it was because everyone was at home grilling. The night before when we asked our waitress what the holiday was, she responded “I don’t know. Nobody knows. It’s a national hoooooliday.” We got most of information about the town from waitresses, actually…
Ok, this is getting long so I need to end. Speaking of food though, as anyone who has ever traveled with me knows, I consider no adventure complete without gaining extensive knowledge of local cuisine. Months ago I began declaring that I was going to to an eating tour of Norway. Food here is unbelievably expensive (a coke for $4 and not a single restaurant offering dinner for under $20) so I didn’t do a lot of snacking, but the food we ate was delicious. Lots of fish, which is not my favorite. True to my Jewish roots though, I’ve had about my whole years worth of lox already. A lot of restaurants serve whale (which I thought was illegal, but I guess is not here), elk, and reindeer. While I didn’t try any of these in the restaurants, I did buy a pack of reindeer jerky to bring back to the US and share with whoever is around when I open it (note: bribery will be received favorably).
That’s all for now. Sorry this was so ramble-y. Will try to do more frequent and concise posts from here on out. Hade!
Actually, back up… The flight to Tromso was one of the most beautiful trips I’ve ever taken. We flew in early in the morning, and for at least an hour before we got there, the entire view was nothing but snow covered mountains, separated by lakes, all covered by morning fog drifting in off the ocean. My face was literally pressed up against the window the entire time. It made missing our flight the night before 100% worth it to get to fly in in the morning. Actually, I’m writing this as we fly back south to Bergen and I think it’s going to take me the entire flight because I keep getting distracted every time I can see through the clouds. But back to Tromso…
Tromso is located in the arctic circle, and boasts a lot of “northernmosts in the world,” such as botantical garden, brewery, glassblowing factory, and Burger King. It is also the Land of the Midnight Sun, meaning that the sun never sets. Ever. At midnight the sun is well above the horizon and it looks like it is around 5pm. I get the general idea of how this is possible, but not nearly well enough to explain it here. If anybody finds a good explanation online, let me know. In the winter, the opposite happens and it is dark all the time, making Tromso one of the best places in the world to see the northern lights. Oh well, I guess this isn’t my last time here. Bummer;-)
The first thing we did after we left the hotel was go explore the small center of town, where they happened to be having a Thai festival. There was Thai food and actually a fair number of Thai people, though we never found an explanation for the festival in English. Pretty much every Norwegian can speak English, but there were very few signs around the town in English. What we gathered was that, while Tromso is pretty cool, most tourists really use it as a sort of base camp for full day long nature activities (sea kayaking, glacier hiking, etc), which, since we were only there for 48 hours, we did not have the time to do.
After getting our bearings, we decided to take a bus to the cable car—one of Tromso’s few tourist specific activities—to the top of a mountain overlooking the city and bay. The view really was breathtaking. Any way I can think of to describe it here would be super cheesy, so I will refer you to my facebook album… We spent a few hours up there just wandering around the mountain and trying to avoid falling through snow (mental note- sneakers are not acceptable footwear for hiking in the arctic) before going back to our hotel for a nap. Jetlag is NO FUN.
We really lucked out weather wise actually, which is especially good for mom and I, who have both been known to break out our heavy winter coats well freezing temperatures are in the remotely foreseeable future. So even though there was snow, we got away with light jackets. Of course, most of the people in Tromso were in shorts and tees, and we even saw people sunbathing next to patches of snow.
Yesterday, in the morning we went to the town’s few museums and learned about arctic environments. Then, in the afternoon we went to the botanical garden, which, as one would expect in the arctic, was not very extensive (though it was a beautiful garden). After wandering around for a while we found a place on the grass and spent the afternoon reading, with mountains rising around us in every direction. Not so adventurous, but a perfect afternoon.
Overall, the town was very quiet since we were there on Sunday and a holiday Monday. People here clearly like their vacation and pretty much all of the businesses were closed, including some of the restaurants. The restaurants we did end up in were always pretty empty. The last night we ended up in a restaurant and were literally the only people there. The waitress told us it was because everyone was at home grilling. The night before when we asked our waitress what the holiday was, she responded “I don’t know. Nobody knows. It’s a national hoooooliday.” We got most of information about the town from waitresses, actually…
Ok, this is getting long so I need to end. Speaking of food though, as anyone who has ever traveled with me knows, I consider no adventure complete without gaining extensive knowledge of local cuisine. Months ago I began declaring that I was going to to an eating tour of Norway. Food here is unbelievably expensive (a coke for $4 and not a single restaurant offering dinner for under $20) so I didn’t do a lot of snacking, but the food we ate was delicious. Lots of fish, which is not my favorite. True to my Jewish roots though, I’ve had about my whole years worth of lox already. A lot of restaurants serve whale (which I thought was illegal, but I guess is not here), elk, and reindeer. While I didn’t try any of these in the restaurants, I did buy a pack of reindeer jerky to bring back to the US and share with whoever is around when I open it (note: bribery will be received favorably).
That’s all for now. Sorry this was so ramble-y. Will try to do more frequent and concise posts from here on out. Hade!
Monday, June 13, 2011
And now for something completely different
I'm not a big fan of this whole blog thing. However, a few weeks ago I went back and read my Uganda blog for the first time since I got back. Turns out there were so many things in there I had completely forgotten about and am really glad I now remember.
I never got around to ending my Uganda blog once I got back to the states-- the gist of the ending would have been something like "that was crazy but I'm so glad I went." So instead of ending it, I'm just going to turn it into my travel blog.
Heeeeere goes....
I never got around to ending my Uganda blog once I got back to the states-- the gist of the ending would have been something like "that was crazy but I'm so glad I went." So instead of ending it, I'm just going to turn it into my travel blog.
Heeeeere goes....
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