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Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Another New Travel Blog
If anyone is still following this, 2 things:
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
New Travel Blog
In case anyone is still following this blog, I've got a new one up for my next trip... starts tomorrow... I should get to bed:
http://gregorygoesdownunder.blogspot.com/
http://gregorygoesdownunder.blogspot.com/
Monday, August 31, 2009
Comfy Calgary
I'm back in Calgary now. Got in last night just before 8PM. Apparently reindeer meat is not an allowed import, so my Norwegian souvenirs were confiscated, although I was allowed to stand there and eat as much as I could handle before clearing customs. Reindeer sausage sticks are tasty, but moose is much juicier and I highly recommend it. I assume I should be able to find some more of that back here?
Speaking of which, does anyone know where one can find Yakult in Calgary? It's a drinkable yogurt I first encountered in our unplanned morning in London. The hotel had it for free with breakfast, so I tried it on a whim, fully expecting the name to say it all, but was surprised by a delicious party in my mouth. I kept finding it and (over?)consuming it everywhere in Germany and Austria, but never saw it again once we hit Ukraine.
Anywho, enough about food...
Our last city was Oslo, which was, well, Oslo. Not a whole lot to comment on. It was nice and all, but not exactly a tourist hotspot. We saw City Hall, the Fortress and Harbour, took a ride on the public ferry and went to a museum full of 1100 year old viking ships, artifacts, and skeletons. That part was cool because I was feeling like I hadn't gotten enough viking exposure in Scandanavia yet. All in all though, the last week or so felt like I was already back in Canada. I definitely enjoyed my time in Norway, but both John and I often felt like we could have done pretty much the same things a few hours from home. For much cheaper too. I'd heard Scandanavia was going to be expensive, and Finland and Sweden definitely were, but Norway was downright shocking. $12 for a beer on tap. $22 for a bowl of soup and half-sandwich. $200-$300 a night for pretty basic hotels. Fortunately I had already stopped paying attention to what this trip was costing me or I likely would have broke down crying. Future weekend trips to Banff and Lake Louise are going to seem crazy cheap!
The highlight of the trip home was waking up from a short nap just as we reached the shores of Greenland. I've flown over that a handful of times now, but never in daylight, and it was a sight to behold. With snow and glaciers as far as the eye can see, "Green"land is the whitest thing I've ever seen. When you consider how white I am, that's really saying something :)
Well, that concludes my sojourn. 16 cities, 37 days. It was... perfect.
Thanks for reading along!
Greg
PS. I'm too tired / jet-lagged to think about posting any more pics right now, so I'm not sure when I'll ever get to that. If there are any in particular you want to see, give me a shout and I'll get some up.
Speaking of which, does anyone know where one can find Yakult in Calgary? It's a drinkable yogurt I first encountered in our unplanned morning in London. The hotel had it for free with breakfast, so I tried it on a whim, fully expecting the name to say it all, but was surprised by a delicious party in my mouth. I kept finding it and (over?)consuming it everywhere in Germany and Austria, but never saw it again once we hit Ukraine.
Anywho, enough about food...
Our last city was Oslo, which was, well, Oslo. Not a whole lot to comment on. It was nice and all, but not exactly a tourist hotspot. We saw City Hall, the Fortress and Harbour, took a ride on the public ferry and went to a museum full of 1100 year old viking ships, artifacts, and skeletons. That part was cool because I was feeling like I hadn't gotten enough viking exposure in Scandanavia yet. All in all though, the last week or so felt like I was already back in Canada. I definitely enjoyed my time in Norway, but both John and I often felt like we could have done pretty much the same things a few hours from home. For much cheaper too. I'd heard Scandanavia was going to be expensive, and Finland and Sweden definitely were, but Norway was downright shocking. $12 for a beer on tap. $22 for a bowl of soup and half-sandwich. $200-$300 a night for pretty basic hotels. Fortunately I had already stopped paying attention to what this trip was costing me or I likely would have broke down crying. Future weekend trips to Banff and Lake Louise are going to seem crazy cheap!
The highlight of the trip home was waking up from a short nap just as we reached the shores of Greenland. I've flown over that a handful of times now, but never in daylight, and it was a sight to behold. With snow and glaciers as far as the eye can see, "Green"land is the whitest thing I've ever seen. When you consider how white I am, that's really saying something :)
Well, that concludes my sojourn. 16 cities, 37 days. It was... perfect.
Thanks for reading along!
Greg
PS. I'm too tired / jet-lagged to think about posting any more pics right now, so I'm not sure when I'll ever get to that. If there are any in particular you want to see, give me a shout and I'll get some up.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Norway in a Nutshell
Quick post tonight as I'm fighting a cold and need to get some sleep. Apparently Mount Ulriken isn't finished with me yet...
We've spent the last 2 days doing the "Norway in a Nutshell" tours through the Norwegian Fjords. I probably would have been content sitting in a concrete bunker as long as I was dry and warm. I'm actually relishing that experience as a fond memory already, but it has definitely taught me to appreciate such basic comforts, and there have been moments since then when I've cracked a smile just realizing how comfortable I am right then. If you are warm and dry while reading this, take a moment to experience some gratitude for it. It's such a huge privilege, one that I'm sure millions in the world don't always count on.
Ok, back to Norway. The Norwegian Fjords are world famous for the natural beauty. I just learned that National Geographic has them listed at the top of the travel destinations, ahead of the pyramids, Great Wall, and Grand Canyon. Our first day was a bus ride to Norheimsund, 2 boat rides on the Hardinger Fjord, and another buss ride to Voss for an overnight stop. The scenery was very nice, don't get me wrong, but I was left somewhat underwhelmed. John and I just chalked it up to being from the Canadian Rockies and conceded that this would be incredible for people who didn't live near something like this.
That changed on day 2 when we went on to Sognefjord and I had my socks knocked off. We started off with a bus ride to Gudvangen. The scenery was very nice, nice enough to keep me up despite being tired. But then we hit the valley, marked by a sign saying 18% grade! To put that in perspective, anything around 9% usually has runaway ramps in Canada. It was 2 bus lengths forward, 180 degree turn, rinse and repeat, the whole way down. And the views were absolutely stunning. I don't know how else to describe it. By the time we got to the valley floor, I was literally speechless and just sat there in silent amazement for several minutes.
I could try to describe it more or post some pictures, but you know it wouldn't do it justice. I will eventually, but for now, about the best picture I can give is that it was like a combination of the Rockies and the rainy sides of the Hawai Islands.
We are in Oslo now for our last full day. 5 weeks has gone by fast.
We've spent the last 2 days doing the "Norway in a Nutshell" tours through the Norwegian Fjords. I probably would have been content sitting in a concrete bunker as long as I was dry and warm. I'm actually relishing that experience as a fond memory already, but it has definitely taught me to appreciate such basic comforts, and there have been moments since then when I've cracked a smile just realizing how comfortable I am right then. If you are warm and dry while reading this, take a moment to experience some gratitude for it. It's such a huge privilege, one that I'm sure millions in the world don't always count on.
Ok, back to Norway. The Norwegian Fjords are world famous for the natural beauty. I just learned that National Geographic has them listed at the top of the travel destinations, ahead of the pyramids, Great Wall, and Grand Canyon. Our first day was a bus ride to Norheimsund, 2 boat rides on the Hardinger Fjord, and another buss ride to Voss for an overnight stop. The scenery was very nice, don't get me wrong, but I was left somewhat underwhelmed. John and I just chalked it up to being from the Canadian Rockies and conceded that this would be incredible for people who didn't live near something like this.
That changed on day 2 when we went on to Sognefjord and I had my socks knocked off. We started off with a bus ride to Gudvangen. The scenery was very nice, nice enough to keep me up despite being tired. But then we hit the valley, marked by a sign saying 18% grade! To put that in perspective, anything around 9% usually has runaway ramps in Canada. It was 2 bus lengths forward, 180 degree turn, rinse and repeat, the whole way down. And the views were absolutely stunning. I don't know how else to describe it. By the time we got to the valley floor, I was literally speechless and just sat there in silent amazement for several minutes.
I could try to describe it more or post some pictures, but you know it wouldn't do it justice. I will eventually, but for now, about the best picture I can give is that it was like a combination of the Rockies and the rainy sides of the Hawai Islands.
We are in Oslo now for our last full day. 5 weeks has gone by fast.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Bad day in Bergen
My phone is dead, but I'm alive. After today, I'll take that trade. Let me back up and recount our time here in Bergen:
- we arrived via plane yesterday about noon, found our hotel, and headed for the Fish Market. I can now add whale to the list of strange meats I've eaten on this trip. Mmmmm... whale burger.
- went walking around just to experience Bergen. This is a beautiful coastal mountain town, and just hanging out is the thing to do here. Also took in a 600 year old leprosy hospital turned museum... apparently Norway was the hot bed for leprosy in Europe, and had problems with it all the way up to the 20th century. Ended with a walk through the local fortress turned park.
- slept in this morning, then headed out about 10 to climb a mountain. Decided to take the funicular up Floyen and hike around at the top instead. Once there, we realized you could actually hike to Ulriken, the highest of the 7 mountains backing the city of Bergen. Estimated hike time, 5-6 hours. So off we headed, equiped with rain jackets, some food and about a liter of water each. It was overcast and cool, so that seemed like enough, and would have been, if not for our adventure that was about to unfold...
The trail is well marked and could even be driven on for the first 2KM. Past the last kiosk, it gradually got more and more rugged, and signs got further and further apart. At one point, we realized how far back we were going to traverse to get across a valley before even starting towards Ulriken, and weren't sure which trail to take even, so the thought of turning back was creeping into our minds. After comparing notes and maps with a couple other hikers in the same cunundrum, we eventually figured it out and were on our way again.
At lunch the clouds finally broke and we had our first bit of sunshine, were about half way there, and feeling like all was right with the world. The trail was getting even more fun and required a bit of hands on scrambling to gain the ridge, which is something that those who know me know I enjoy muchly. From there, the trail pretty much disappeared, but the way was marked out with cairns. Big ones. Every 20 yards or so. As far as the eye could see. I even tried to take a few pictures of the line of them all along the ridge because I'd never seen anything quite like that.
As we starting closing in on the highest cairn which marked the home stretch to the Ulriken cable car, less than an hour away and clearly visible, some clouds started rolling in. It looked like it was raining at the cable car, but we thought with a little luck it would blow past us through the valley. 5 minutes later I was sure that cloud would, but the one coming in beside it was clearly coming straight for us. At first, this was quite neat, because you could see mists of cloud swirling around you as it got thicker and thicker. We were literally hiking through a cloud. But in a couple minutes it started getting even thicker. I lost site of Ulriken. Then the ridges around us. Then the cairns. 20 feet of visibility in any given direction. Then 10. Then the rain started.
We kept going the general direction we figured, and kept passing cairns every so often. But after a couple minutes it seemed like it had been an awfully long time since we'd seen one, and the trail was absolutely non-existent. I didn't figure that should be the case this close to one of the trail heads, so I double backed to find the cairn and see if I could spot the trail. Found the cairn. Did not find the trail. It seemed like it should have gone off just to the right, but all I could see was what seemed to be a straight drop off an awfully steep ridge. So I ran back to where John was waiting and we took our best guess that if we continued along what we thought was the ridge we had been following the whole time, we'd eventually get out of this mess.
Another 10 minutes and by now the wind was howling, the rain bigger and colder, and still no indication of a trail. It felt like the ridge was turning away from where we wanted to be, but we couldn't tell for sure. It is absolutely amazing how easily you can get disoriented when you can only see 10 feet in any direction, and we didn't figure we could even find our way back to the last cairn at this point. So we decided to hunker down and hope this passed over quickly, and managed to find a large rock that provided at least a little temporary shelter, except when the wind gusts shifted direction and blew rain straight in the side. I should clarify that we were traversing across the plateau of a mountain, and the only things up there were rock, grass, lakes, and marsh. We had no where to go and were thoroughly soaked after another 10 minutes.
Fortunately, the cloud cover (but not the rain and wind) let up for less than a minute, and we got a good 40 yard view in every direction, which was just long enough for John to spot a cabin about that far away. As the clouds blew in again, we headed straight for it and got on the downwind side just as the visibility disappeared again. Tried the door. Locked. But at least now we had some protection from the wind, and, well, we were as wet as we could get anyway.
I did some quick scouting to find windows around the other side, but again, they were locked. So we stood there. We began wondering whether we'd be able to see the lights from the cable car and restaurant once it got dark, but soon realized that was wishful thinking and that we were going to be standing there until this passed. Every minute or so a gust would come in sideways and soak and chill us all over again. We tried dumping water out of our shoes, but they were so soaked it was useless. It felt like I was standing in a puddle. A very cold one at that. I said I was waiting till 5 (it was 4 then, the storm had blown in about 3), then I was breaking a window and getting inside if I had to. By 4:15 we were starting to shiver and it showed no signs of letting up, and it started dawning on us how serious a situation this might be, so we gave up the wait and turned to a life of crime.
It's a strange feeling trying to break a window to get into someone's house. It's even stranger when the third and final pane simply won't break even after both of us tried, so we headed back to the somewhat sheltered side, but the stint on the exposed side had proven to be fatal. We were shivering uncontrollably at this point and had to get in. I've never been more determined to break something in my life as I ran back to the front, and 2 swings later we were through. Managed to fumble around and unlatch it, clear enough glass, then John boosted me up and in I went, only to find you needed a key to unlock the door even from the inside. Poor John had to climb in through the window unaided, but at that point, instinct and adreline were kicking in so it didn't seem to be a problem.
We stripped down and quickly found whatever dry towels, blankets and clothes we could, then stuff the open window with a couple pillows and settled in to figure out what to do next. Still shivering, we found a few candles and lit them to get some light and heat... not enough to dry out, but it at least got the feeling back in my fingers eventually. John managed to pick up a signal on his iphone occassionally and sent some text messages to friends and family back home trying to describe the situation and where we were, but at this point, we knew we were here until this cleared up. Every 10 minutes or so, the cloud cover would lift enough that we could see there was a lake outside, and eventually what we thought looked like a cairn in the distance, but it never lasted long enough to even warrant a try. We figured if this didn't let up by 8, it would be too late to get to the cable car before it shut down at 9, and that meant we were staying put for the night. I was pretty sure the weather forecast called for rain tomorrow, so for all we knew, it might be even longer. We had enough food to sit tight for a day, but no water, so thoughts of making a rain catch started entering in to my head.
We also used the time to figure out options for the rest of our trip on the assumption we were going to miss out 7:30AM bus in the morning, as well as crafting a very apologetic note to the owner of the cabin, complete with contact information and promises to pay for the damage. But at 6, the rain stopped, and gradually the clouds lifted until we finally figured this was as good a chance as we were going to get, and started getting ready to go. I can't tell you how cold that was putting those wet clothes back on. Worse than the beach in Helsinki. I was shivering again before we even started climbing out the window.
But when we got out, the sun had actually broken through a bit and we could see a cairn in the distance, and after setting off a brisk pace, we started to warm up and even began laughing at the predicament we had endured... thinking it was over. Ha!
A glance over the shoulder said no to that, and even after running it caught up to us and we were right back in it. We had about 30 feet of visibility this time, but had lost site of the restaurant and cairns again, so we were back to following what we thought was the ridge, and far enough along that we couldn't find our way back to the cabin if we needed. It was either get to the cable car, or find another cabin to break into it. There were several of those up there, but this trip was getting expensive enough without doing that again, so we kept pushing forward. It wasn't nearly as bad this time... the wind wasn't as fierce, and the visibility, though bad enough to get lost easily, was good enough that there wasn't the risk of stepping straight off a cliff before you knew it. And we could hear the cable cars by now. Except we couldn't tell where the sound was coming from because it bounced off rocks all around us. If anything, it was just frustrating to know we were that close, but still completely unsure of where to go.
Eventually the cloud cover lifted again though, and while it kept raining, we could at least see the radio tower we were heading for, and our spirits lifted from being able to see our destination. We were moving pretty quick, except for the odd stop for John to reply to a text message and let people know that we were OK now and to not send for help anymore. We were even sloshing straight through marshes because it was shorter than going around and we couldn't possibly get wetter or muddier anyway.
Things looked good until we hit a cliff. Man that was frustrating. We'd gone from knowing we were close but not being able to find our destination, to knowing where it was, but being unable to get to it. I was ready to scream. I think my language may finally have started getting colorful at this point too. Oops.
Long story short, we slowly and carefully worked our way down the cliff, fully convinced that one of us was going to slip and crack a skull open because that was just the way the day was going. To our surprise though, we managed to make it through with no more events. We walked into the kiosk looking and feeling like wet dogs, bought our tickets and headed down that mountain... at which point the sky's opened up and it was the sunniest it's been in 2 days. Go figure. Incidentally, Bergen was nice before, but it was stunning when the sun was shinning. Probably happens too rarely for me to want to move here though. John swears he's never even coming back :)
We managed to find a bus at the bottom and bought more tickets with our sopping wet norwegian crowns, and asked the bus driver to show us where the police station was on the way in so we could go turn ourselves in. Weren't really sure how that was going to go, and John starting the story with "we need to report a break and enter" probably didn't help :) But from what I'd heard of Scandanavian prisons, I figured at worst case this might turn out to be an upgrade on our hotel room anyway.
The police officer didn't seem to know what exactly to do with us, but he took our information and filled out a report, and then asked when we were leaving. "So, it's Voss tomorrow eh?" he said. We looked at each other, sure the next statement was going to be that we couldn't leave town until this was cleared up which was really going to screw up our plans. Instead we got:
"Have a pleasant trip."
I love Scandanavians man. I have never met a nicer, happier bunch of people. And I thought that for days before this. High taxes and all, they are doing something right here. Everything seems so clean, and all the people seem so well taken care of, healthy, and friendly. Of course, I haven't met the guy who's window I smashed today yet either... he might not be so much so now.
On to Voss tomorrow. I do hope for a pleasant trip. More pics enroute assuming my phone will power back on once it dries out.
- we arrived via plane yesterday about noon, found our hotel, and headed for the Fish Market. I can now add whale to the list of strange meats I've eaten on this trip. Mmmmm... whale burger.
- went walking around just to experience Bergen. This is a beautiful coastal mountain town, and just hanging out is the thing to do here. Also took in a 600 year old leprosy hospital turned museum... apparently Norway was the hot bed for leprosy in Europe, and had problems with it all the way up to the 20th century. Ended with a walk through the local fortress turned park.
- slept in this morning, then headed out about 10 to climb a mountain. Decided to take the funicular up Floyen and hike around at the top instead. Once there, we realized you could actually hike to Ulriken, the highest of the 7 mountains backing the city of Bergen. Estimated hike time, 5-6 hours. So off we headed, equiped with rain jackets, some food and about a liter of water each. It was overcast and cool, so that seemed like enough, and would have been, if not for our adventure that was about to unfold...
The trail is well marked and could even be driven on for the first 2KM. Past the last kiosk, it gradually got more and more rugged, and signs got further and further apart. At one point, we realized how far back we were going to traverse to get across a valley before even starting towards Ulriken, and weren't sure which trail to take even, so the thought of turning back was creeping into our minds. After comparing notes and maps with a couple other hikers in the same cunundrum, we eventually figured it out and were on our way again.
At lunch the clouds finally broke and we had our first bit of sunshine, were about half way there, and feeling like all was right with the world. The trail was getting even more fun and required a bit of hands on scrambling to gain the ridge, which is something that those who know me know I enjoy muchly. From there, the trail pretty much disappeared, but the way was marked out with cairns. Big ones. Every 20 yards or so. As far as the eye could see. I even tried to take a few pictures of the line of them all along the ridge because I'd never seen anything quite like that.
As we starting closing in on the highest cairn which marked the home stretch to the Ulriken cable car, less than an hour away and clearly visible, some clouds started rolling in. It looked like it was raining at the cable car, but we thought with a little luck it would blow past us through the valley. 5 minutes later I was sure that cloud would, but the one coming in beside it was clearly coming straight for us. At first, this was quite neat, because you could see mists of cloud swirling around you as it got thicker and thicker. We were literally hiking through a cloud. But in a couple minutes it started getting even thicker. I lost site of Ulriken. Then the ridges around us. Then the cairns. 20 feet of visibility in any given direction. Then 10. Then the rain started.
We kept going the general direction we figured, and kept passing cairns every so often. But after a couple minutes it seemed like it had been an awfully long time since we'd seen one, and the trail was absolutely non-existent. I didn't figure that should be the case this close to one of the trail heads, so I double backed to find the cairn and see if I could spot the trail. Found the cairn. Did not find the trail. It seemed like it should have gone off just to the right, but all I could see was what seemed to be a straight drop off an awfully steep ridge. So I ran back to where John was waiting and we took our best guess that if we continued along what we thought was the ridge we had been following the whole time, we'd eventually get out of this mess.
Another 10 minutes and by now the wind was howling, the rain bigger and colder, and still no indication of a trail. It felt like the ridge was turning away from where we wanted to be, but we couldn't tell for sure. It is absolutely amazing how easily you can get disoriented when you can only see 10 feet in any direction, and we didn't figure we could even find our way back to the last cairn at this point. So we decided to hunker down and hope this passed over quickly, and managed to find a large rock that provided at least a little temporary shelter, except when the wind gusts shifted direction and blew rain straight in the side. I should clarify that we were traversing across the plateau of a mountain, and the only things up there were rock, grass, lakes, and marsh. We had no where to go and were thoroughly soaked after another 10 minutes.
Fortunately, the cloud cover (but not the rain and wind) let up for less than a minute, and we got a good 40 yard view in every direction, which was just long enough for John to spot a cabin about that far away. As the clouds blew in again, we headed straight for it and got on the downwind side just as the visibility disappeared again. Tried the door. Locked. But at least now we had some protection from the wind, and, well, we were as wet as we could get anyway.
I did some quick scouting to find windows around the other side, but again, they were locked. So we stood there. We began wondering whether we'd be able to see the lights from the cable car and restaurant once it got dark, but soon realized that was wishful thinking and that we were going to be standing there until this passed. Every minute or so a gust would come in sideways and soak and chill us all over again. We tried dumping water out of our shoes, but they were so soaked it was useless. It felt like I was standing in a puddle. A very cold one at that. I said I was waiting till 5 (it was 4 then, the storm had blown in about 3), then I was breaking a window and getting inside if I had to. By 4:15 we were starting to shiver and it showed no signs of letting up, and it started dawning on us how serious a situation this might be, so we gave up the wait and turned to a life of crime.
It's a strange feeling trying to break a window to get into someone's house. It's even stranger when the third and final pane simply won't break even after both of us tried, so we headed back to the somewhat sheltered side, but the stint on the exposed side had proven to be fatal. We were shivering uncontrollably at this point and had to get in. I've never been more determined to break something in my life as I ran back to the front, and 2 swings later we were through. Managed to fumble around and unlatch it, clear enough glass, then John boosted me up and in I went, only to find you needed a key to unlock the door even from the inside. Poor John had to climb in through the window unaided, but at that point, instinct and adreline were kicking in so it didn't seem to be a problem.
We stripped down and quickly found whatever dry towels, blankets and clothes we could, then stuff the open window with a couple pillows and settled in to figure out what to do next. Still shivering, we found a few candles and lit them to get some light and heat... not enough to dry out, but it at least got the feeling back in my fingers eventually. John managed to pick up a signal on his iphone occassionally and sent some text messages to friends and family back home trying to describe the situation and where we were, but at this point, we knew we were here until this cleared up. Every 10 minutes or so, the cloud cover would lift enough that we could see there was a lake outside, and eventually what we thought looked like a cairn in the distance, but it never lasted long enough to even warrant a try. We figured if this didn't let up by 8, it would be too late to get to the cable car before it shut down at 9, and that meant we were staying put for the night. I was pretty sure the weather forecast called for rain tomorrow, so for all we knew, it might be even longer. We had enough food to sit tight for a day, but no water, so thoughts of making a rain catch started entering in to my head.
We also used the time to figure out options for the rest of our trip on the assumption we were going to miss out 7:30AM bus in the morning, as well as crafting a very apologetic note to the owner of the cabin, complete with contact information and promises to pay for the damage. But at 6, the rain stopped, and gradually the clouds lifted until we finally figured this was as good a chance as we were going to get, and started getting ready to go. I can't tell you how cold that was putting those wet clothes back on. Worse than the beach in Helsinki. I was shivering again before we even started climbing out the window.
But when we got out, the sun had actually broken through a bit and we could see a cairn in the distance, and after setting off a brisk pace, we started to warm up and even began laughing at the predicament we had endured... thinking it was over. Ha!
A glance over the shoulder said no to that, and even after running it caught up to us and we were right back in it. We had about 30 feet of visibility this time, but had lost site of the restaurant and cairns again, so we were back to following what we thought was the ridge, and far enough along that we couldn't find our way back to the cabin if we needed. It was either get to the cable car, or find another cabin to break into it. There were several of those up there, but this trip was getting expensive enough without doing that again, so we kept pushing forward. It wasn't nearly as bad this time... the wind wasn't as fierce, and the visibility, though bad enough to get lost easily, was good enough that there wasn't the risk of stepping straight off a cliff before you knew it. And we could hear the cable cars by now. Except we couldn't tell where the sound was coming from because it bounced off rocks all around us. If anything, it was just frustrating to know we were that close, but still completely unsure of where to go.
Eventually the cloud cover lifted again though, and while it kept raining, we could at least see the radio tower we were heading for, and our spirits lifted from being able to see our destination. We were moving pretty quick, except for the odd stop for John to reply to a text message and let people know that we were OK now and to not send for help anymore. We were even sloshing straight through marshes because it was shorter than going around and we couldn't possibly get wetter or muddier anyway.
Things looked good until we hit a cliff. Man that was frustrating. We'd gone from knowing we were close but not being able to find our destination, to knowing where it was, but being unable to get to it. I was ready to scream. I think my language may finally have started getting colorful at this point too. Oops.
Long story short, we slowly and carefully worked our way down the cliff, fully convinced that one of us was going to slip and crack a skull open because that was just the way the day was going. To our surprise though, we managed to make it through with no more events. We walked into the kiosk looking and feeling like wet dogs, bought our tickets and headed down that mountain... at which point the sky's opened up and it was the sunniest it's been in 2 days. Go figure. Incidentally, Bergen was nice before, but it was stunning when the sun was shinning. Probably happens too rarely for me to want to move here though. John swears he's never even coming back :)
We managed to find a bus at the bottom and bought more tickets with our sopping wet norwegian crowns, and asked the bus driver to show us where the police station was on the way in so we could go turn ourselves in. Weren't really sure how that was going to go, and John starting the story with "we need to report a break and enter" probably didn't help :) But from what I'd heard of Scandanavian prisons, I figured at worst case this might turn out to be an upgrade on our hotel room anyway.
The police officer didn't seem to know what exactly to do with us, but he took our information and filled out a report, and then asked when we were leaving. "So, it's Voss tomorrow eh?" he said. We looked at each other, sure the next statement was going to be that we couldn't leave town until this was cleared up which was really going to screw up our plans. Instead we got:
"Have a pleasant trip."
I love Scandanavians man. I have never met a nicer, happier bunch of people. And I thought that for days before this. High taxes and all, they are doing something right here. Everything seems so clean, and all the people seem so well taken care of, healthy, and friendly. Of course, I haven't met the guy who's window I smashed today yet either... he might not be so much so now.
On to Voss tomorrow. I do hope for a pleasant trip. More pics enroute assuming my phone will power back on once it dries out.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Finland Fotos
Trying to catch up, so I'll cover off Finland now too, but that'll probably be it for tonight. Doing this with a combination of a smart phone and a hotel lobby foreign keyboard is a slow and painful process :) We're planning on climbing some mountains tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep. John's already got a 3 hour head start on me for that, and it's only 10:30. Apparently that Contiki trip really wore him out :)
First up, the fortress we spent almost a full day at. Again, a very small sample, but this gives you an idea of how pertty it was. It's on the UNESCO world heritage list for being the largest and best preserved example of European naval military bases.
John standing at attention as we watched a very large contingent of Finnish Forces go marching buy unexpectedly. It always creeps me out when I see kids 10 years younger than me carrying semi-automatic weaponry.
The 'beach'. This is John, Aussie-Ben and his sister in law in the water. If you could see their faces, you'd have a good idea of how cold the water is. I think Peta and I were standing on the sand again, having already given up due to the frigidity, but a few moments later, John and I were back in, stupidly swimming all the way out to that dock in back ground. John bit the bullet and went first, and almost froze up half-way and stopped swimming because his lungs stopped taking in air. Thankfully his survival instinct kicked in and he got going again. I'm not entirely sure what we would have done if he hadn't. In hindsight, probably not the smartest thing we've done on this trip, and I've been feeling like I'm fighting a cold since. Instead of learning a lesson though, I just followed suit, but at least now realized you had to go fast and not stop no matter what. I felt like I was moving pretty quick, and even Ben commented afterward that he had never seen someone swim on top of the water before.
One of the most famous churches in Helsinki, and perhaps the only one of this entire trip who's interior I can still recognize when looking at photos. The Church Of The Rock is built out of an old rock quarry, and that roof top is something like 1500 meters of copper strip. A modern service was just getting underway, so it was a little awkward doing the touristy thing, but it also felt a little bit like home, at least in comparison to the Catholic and Orthodox proceedings I've seen thus far. I even knew the song they were singing in English. Scandanavia was apparently pretty big on the Reformation bandwagon, and something like 90% of the population are Lutheran, although most aren't practising.
A quick shot of the archipelego (sp?) outside Helsinki as we set sail in our overnight cruise for Stockholm.
Another picture, taken moments later. I have no idea how the color turned out like this, but had to share it.
One final shot of some silver head shot of some famous composer who's music apparently helped create the Finnish sense of nationalism which eventually helped lead to it's independance after being tossed back and forth between the Swedes and the Russians like a ping-pong ball. I didn't catch his name, it was difficult to hear much of what was being said like this.
First up, the fortress we spent almost a full day at. Again, a very small sample, but this gives you an idea of how pertty it was. It's on the UNESCO world heritage list for being the largest and best preserved example of European naval military bases.
John standing at attention as we watched a very large contingent of Finnish Forces go marching buy unexpectedly. It always creeps me out when I see kids 10 years younger than me carrying semi-automatic weaponry.
The 'beach'. This is John, Aussie-Ben and his sister in law in the water. If you could see their faces, you'd have a good idea of how cold the water is. I think Peta and I were standing on the sand again, having already given up due to the frigidity, but a few moments later, John and I were back in, stupidly swimming all the way out to that dock in back ground. John bit the bullet and went first, and almost froze up half-way and stopped swimming because his lungs stopped taking in air. Thankfully his survival instinct kicked in and he got going again. I'm not entirely sure what we would have done if he hadn't. In hindsight, probably not the smartest thing we've done on this trip, and I've been feeling like I'm fighting a cold since. Instead of learning a lesson though, I just followed suit, but at least now realized you had to go fast and not stop no matter what. I felt like I was moving pretty quick, and even Ben commented afterward that he had never seen someone swim on top of the water before.
One of the most famous churches in Helsinki, and perhaps the only one of this entire trip who's interior I can still recognize when looking at photos. The Church Of The Rock is built out of an old rock quarry, and that roof top is something like 1500 meters of copper strip. A modern service was just getting underway, so it was a little awkward doing the touristy thing, but it also felt a little bit like home, at least in comparison to the Catholic and Orthodox proceedings I've seen thus far. I even knew the song they were singing in English. Scandanavia was apparently pretty big on the Reformation bandwagon, and something like 90% of the population are Lutheran, although most aren't practising.
A quick shot of the archipelego (sp?) outside Helsinki as we set sail in our overnight cruise for Stockholm.
Another picture, taken moments later. I have no idea how the color turned out like this, but had to share it.
One final shot of some silver head shot of some famous composer who's music apparently helped create the Finnish sense of nationalism which eventually helped lead to it's independance after being tossed back and forth between the Swedes and the Russians like a ping-pong ball. I didn't catch his name, it was difficult to hear much of what was being said like this.
Swedish Scenery
Finally, some pictures, eh? Sorry for the delay... here we go...
A few pics of Stockholm. Very green, full of rivers, lakes, and canals, and Gamla Stan in particular was very scenic if you like old European streets and plazas. I don't know if you can see it but the picture of the plaza includes a picture of someone holding up a postcard of the same plaza. That's about as creative as I get :)
A couple of tourist attractions... one is the roof of the parliament in the Old Town Hall. It's built to resemble an upside down viking ship to remind the people of their heritage (viking heritage is so much cooler than farmers and fur traders, don't you think?). The other is the changing of the guards. First time I've seen one with horses and a full military band.
Next few are from Skansen, the big open air museum I mentioned before. This is a very small sample of a very large place... for Calgarian's, think several heritage parks put together. Here is the first, honest-to-goodness reindeer I've ever seen in real life.
They even look tasty.
Next up was the Grey Owl's, which I assumed would be the most boring of the animal exhibits, but you could actually walk inside this one (unlike the bears... they are such sticklers for safety here), and we just happened to hit it at feeding time. The lady was putting dead mice right on the railing beside us and that owl was not the least bit shy. It was huge (the head is probably the same size as mine to put the picture in perspective). Not sure if you can make it out, but in one pic, he's mid-bite on a mouse, in the other, one of the smaller owls is in mid-flight away from us, having just snagged another mouse right out of the zookeepers hand. Too cool.
A sample of an old farmstead where all the buildings have been moved here and restored from elsewhere in Sweden (and some Norway). This type of exhibit actually makes up the majority of the museum (along with a sample of a complete old town site), but I can't post too many of these. The buildings ranged from 150 - 700 years old and included write ups of how they farmed and lived. Again, very cool.
This is an otherwise blah picture, but I took it because of the kid at the bottom. Check out his head. I hope the color shows up... he's so blond, he's almost white. You see a lot of that here, and it's one of the things I'm can't help but look at every time. A few, like this guy, are so light-haired that at first glance you would swear his eye-brows are glowing. Welcome to the land of the blondes...
A few pics of Stockholm. Very green, full of rivers, lakes, and canals, and Gamla Stan in particular was very scenic if you like old European streets and plazas. I don't know if you can see it but the picture of the plaza includes a picture of someone holding up a postcard of the same plaza. That's about as creative as I get :)
A couple of tourist attractions... one is the roof of the parliament in the Old Town Hall. It's built to resemble an upside down viking ship to remind the people of their heritage (viking heritage is so much cooler than farmers and fur traders, don't you think?). The other is the changing of the guards. First time I've seen one with horses and a full military band.
Next few are from Skansen, the big open air museum I mentioned before. This is a very small sample of a very large place... for Calgarian's, think several heritage parks put together. Here is the first, honest-to-goodness reindeer I've ever seen in real life.
They even look tasty.
Next up was the Grey Owl's, which I assumed would be the most boring of the animal exhibits, but you could actually walk inside this one (unlike the bears... they are such sticklers for safety here), and we just happened to hit it at feeding time. The lady was putting dead mice right on the railing beside us and that owl was not the least bit shy. It was huge (the head is probably the same size as mine to put the picture in perspective). Not sure if you can make it out, but in one pic, he's mid-bite on a mouse, in the other, one of the smaller owls is in mid-flight away from us, having just snagged another mouse right out of the zookeepers hand. Too cool.
A sample of an old farmstead where all the buildings have been moved here and restored from elsewhere in Sweden (and some Norway). This type of exhibit actually makes up the majority of the museum (along with a sample of a complete old town site), but I can't post too many of these. The buildings ranged from 150 - 700 years old and included write ups of how they farmed and lived. Again, very cool.
This is an otherwise blah picture, but I took it because of the kid at the bottom. Check out his head. I hope the color shows up... he's so blond, he's almost white. You see a lot of that here, and it's one of the things I'm can't help but look at every time. A few, like this guy, are so light-haired that at first glance you would swear his eye-brows are glowing. Welcome to the land of the blondes...
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