I was having my mods (i.e. first year exams for mathematicians!) AND my laptop broke down, but I managed to plan for this trip from itinerary to logistics. I was very proud of myself :)
This is a trip with a lot of funny stories from both G and me. Read on!
Written on 5 Apr 2011 based on short notes.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Prologue
I don't know why we set off on a Thursday. Really, I don't know. Or I should say I don't remember. Maybe we were moving our stuff into storage..? Probably, cos I remember we were camping at a senior's place, and packing our backpacks until quite late before setting G's alarm clock for 4.00 am.
I kind of gave a start at 5.15 am or so and shook G up. Our flight was at 6.45 am, and we MUST catch the 5.30 am coach to the airport!!
Well, we did but we almost didn't. I was slow even with my lighter backpack, and G ran to catch the coach and waited for me to catch up *.*
We checked in at 6.30 am, and this being pre-911, they let us through. PHEW!
From then on, I think we used my pager as the "official" alarm clock.
29 Jun - Copenhagen
My notes said we went to Nyhavn and the palace. I only remember the mermaid statue - it was disappointingly small.. Nonetheless, I must take a picture with this princess!
We took a day trip to a chocolate factory. I love chocolate! (Thought not so much these days..) On the way back, we got lazy and so we decided to hitchhike! G wrote our destination on a piece of paper and stood by the road. But we didn't have any luck. So I tried the age-old method.. Not sticking out my leg - the thumb! And voila, a car stopped quite immediately that we were taken by surprise! The driver couldn't really understand English but he knew where we were heading for, so off we went! So exciting :p
The hostels in France and Italy (my previous trip) we stayed in were more like one-star hotels. Scandinavian hostels are real hostels. We were required to use bedsheets so we brought our own (else we had to buy). But then I realised that we still needed blankets and they were rug-like and USED BY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE! So I wrapped myself in my bedsheet and covered myself with the blanket! G had a good laugh..
Another thing about these hostels was the shower. I think it was in Copenhagen where there was no place to hang our towels inside the shower cubicle. I can't remember even if there was a shower curtain for each cubicle! Thank goodness there were separate showers for men and women!
2 Jul - Gothenburg
Crossed into Sweden this day. I think it was here that we saw lots of plastic bags in the harbour, but after a while, they just looked too uniform. They were all puffed up and showed only the seamless rounded part. Jellyfish?
But the most fun thing about this segment was looking for our hostel, MS Seaside. So we had the address, and from the map (and the name), we knew it was by the harbour. So we walked along the harbour until we were sure we had gone past it without realising it. So we retraced our steps. But we found nothing! There was hardly any building! When we'd ascertained that we were at the right spot, I wondered if it was what couldn't possibly be... But it was! Our hostel was the big ship docked at the harbour! It was an interesting experience.
It was summer in the Nordics, so the sun set really late. I think we took this at nine plus, after we'd showered - we were actually in shorts but you couldn't tell hoho!
4 Jul - Oslo
Next was Oslo. I remember a busker that attracted a lot of people. Before he began his act, he said something along the lines of Oslo being an expensive city to live in, and if we were not paying, we shouldn't be watching. Woah.
It wasn't an easy act, involving oil and a huge balloon. We watched and we contributed what poor students could.
We were up in some building when we took this shot.
5 Jul - Bygdøy
I think this was the main reason for going to Oslo - we took a day trip to an open-air museum of sorts at Bygdøy, which showed how Norwegians used to live many years ago. I remember a stave church, a summer school for children to "live" in old Norway, and baking and eating yummy lefse, a Norwegian potato pancake! I tried to make it later but somehow it didn't turn out right *.*
But most of all, I remember our lunch.
Scandinavia was and still is an expensive country. So we saved by buying bread and spread from supermarkets for lunch. So for lunch that day, we were looking at canned tuna for spread. We wanted this particular can but it needed a can opener.
G: Oh, I have a can opener!
So we bought the can. And lunch time arrived! So did the can opener. Which was just a blade of a pocket knife. Suffice to say it was a very long lunch, mostly spent on the preparation *.*
6 Jul - Flåm
My notes say only "5-hr cruise along Sognerfjord, passing by Nordfjord", but we probably took a train to Myrdal, hopped on a scenic train ride to Flåm and took a cruise, to get to Bergen or somewhere near!
The Flåm Railway stopped somewhere in nowhere for a while, and we alighted to view the Kjosfoss waterfall. We heard someone singing but thought it was piped music until we saw our pictures: if you look carefully, there's someone really far away in the middle of the photo! We took a few shots and the person also appeared in later pictures!
(But come to think of it, she was so far away and the waterfall must have been so noisy that it was probably piped to us!)
We reached our hostel in Bergen in the evening. And they had free waffles on Thursdays! Yay!
The hostel was huge. The main room had tens of bunk beds, and they were three-tier bunk beds! And the shower was fun, again. We had to press a button for five minutes of hot water. But of course, five minutes weren't enough! But the button was OUTSIDE the shower cubicle on the door frame, facing the common corridor AND some buttons were on the hinge side! So we had to choose shower cubicles carefully..
7 Jul - Bergen
We were at the Torget fish market one day and chatted with a Chinese girl from Shanghai. I think we bought some smoked WHALE meat from her. It sounded bad, like evil bad, but we gotta try! Verdict? Salty fish. Could have been any fish.
There was a carnival and everyone seemed pretty happy. We couldn't understand a word but I was happy enough to suddenly grab a passing witch from the line for a shot!
8 Jul - Mt Foyer
It was the day we got lost. Decided to take a little hike up Mt Foyer. It was a lovely day so we just followed a map and walked. I recall a little lake or pond in the middle of the mountain, where we rested and I sang a little :p We even met a troll! But we couldn't find our way down... But it was still early so we kept walking until we saw an old couple and we followed them out :p
It was also the day we discovered Baker Brun! That was the yummiest hot chocolate I'd ever had! And memory and impression are such powerful things that I think I'll never have such good hot chocolate ever again!
9 Jul - Geiranger
We set for for Geiranger, probably on a cruise cos this photo was taken in the fjord - the Seven Sisters.
Then we found ourselves in a cottage like hostel with only two other guests, where hot water cost 5 kronas or something for seven minutes. I was cheapo enough to wash my hair with cold water in the wash basin before showering with hot water. G fed the machine twice. Ah, don't we love budget travelling...
10 Jul - the great hike
We started early. We took a bus to Dalsnibba for the views, but I think this was taken somewhere along the way up:
On the way down, we alighted halfway for a little hike. Along the way, we came across a little stream - an angmoh drank from it but I don't remember if we did.. After a long walk, we found this waterfall and walked behind it!
We were quite tanned by then.
Then we walked downhill for a long time to get to our little hostel. Almost broke our knees.
We were sweaty but I don't remember if we had time to shower before we dashed off for the longest transit yet - we would be crossing into Finland by land, i.e. going very very north.. I remember we took a train to Trondheim in the middle of Norway and caught another train all the way to the northern part of the same country. I think we spent at least two hours waiting in another train station along the way in the middle of the night! Finally, we boarded a bus near the border, and crossed into Finland!
By the time we reached Rovaniemi, it was already the evening of the next day. So, one night without proper accommodation and sanitary facilities. Two purposes here: Santa Claus (in summer!) and the Arctic circle.
But it was evening and the Santa Claus village was already closed :( But I think we saw a few reindeer. No they didn't fly!
So we just got our passport stamped with the arctic circle stamp! :)
And got a certificate of crossing!
[ I scanned this in cos G lost her certificate along the way :( ]
And then it was an overnight train down south..
13 Jul - Helsinki
And we were in Helsinki!
By then, we had survived two nights of no proper accommodation and sanitation. We rested. And we had reindeer and rabbit for dinner *.*
The next day, we took a trip to Savonlinna Castle - I still remember how it looked like, not just because I have the photo here! :)
That evening, we boarded an overnight cruise bound for Sweden. We didn't get a cabin but we got dinner! It was where I was first introduced to smoked salmon AND I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT! That kind of led to my later romance with sashimi... Anyway, we ate so much that I couldn't move and G couldn't sit down. While she walked around, I was motionless in the passenger lounge, looking like the third backpack.
15 Jul - Stockholm
I like Stockholm. We visited the Swedish Parliament House and Gamla Stan which was the old town where we found a really tiny statue of a boy and a super narrow street whose walls I could reach with both hands close to me.
We took a day trip to Gamla Uppsala - not sure why we found burial mounds interesting enough to take that trip but it wasn't half bad.
Another day trip was to Skansen - we wanted to see wolves! But wolves in captivity are just not the same, sighs..
And a note about the Swedish people. They are generally nice. We were on a train one day and taking the time to take stock of our spending. Somehow, G lost her wallet on that train. The train had left our destination station by the time we realised it but we sought help from the station people, and when the next train came by, the conductor had her wallet! The cash was all gone of course but everything else remained intact. Treated it as reward for returning the wallet, I guess.
Epilogue
Despite all our mishaps from almost missing the flight to opening a can with a blade and even getting lost, it was a super fun trip - we just laughed a lot all the time, even when we were tired or lost. Maybe some 苦中作乐 but it was the mark of a good trip!
Oh, let me add in one more anecdote just for laughs. I don't remember where we were but G decided to get some milk from a minimart. We took some time deciphering the words but eventually we found her skimmed milk, i.e. red bottle cap. Before the cashier rang the till, she said this, "Are you sure? This is tasteless. Like water." We exploded haha!
