Sweden - Stockholm

Day 175 - Sunday, July 15

We got to Stockholm around mid-afternoon on Sunday, and, after getting settled in, we went to explore a bit. As soon as we left the hotel it started to rain. We'd gotten pretty used to the rain at that point, so we didn't let it slow us down. Mere channelled her inner todler:

From Sweden

We sampled some traditional fried herring from a street vendor, which much like a hot dog, seems to require many potent condiments to mask the underlying less-than-desirable flavor of the fish, thus the heaping amount of onions, dill and mustard.

From Sweden

From Sweden

It was delicious, but only because the toppings were delicious. We then climbed up to the observation deck in the background of the photo above of our street vendor for a nice view of the city:

From Sweden

Day 176 - Monday, July 16

Finally, sunshine! It was beautiful day with clear blue skies and near perfect temps. This was the one full day we had in Stockholm, so we tried to make the most of it. Mere and I seemed to be on the same page in that both of us aren't really museum people, but she managed to convince me to go check out a few in Stockholm. The first was the Noble Prize Museum. Then we fought the crowds to watch the changing of the guard:

From Sweden

And then explored the Old Town area (aka Gamla Stan) for a while. Some photos:

From Sweden

From Sweden

We caught a ferry over to Djurgarden, an island just to the east of the city center. Some photos from the ferry and from walking around Djurgarden.

From Sweden

From Sweden

From Sweden

From Sweden

We then checked out another museum, the Vasa Museum, which was really neat. It's basically a museum about a super expensive ship named Vasa that was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread but tipped over and sank before sailing a mile of its maiden voyage. Hundreds of years later, it was brought up from the bottom and painstakingly pieced back together. The photos don't start to do it justice

From Sweden

From Sweden

Then off to dinner in the Sodermalm area, on the south side of Stockholm. We got some traditional Swedish fare at Pelikan, including our second sampling of swedish meatballs for the day, and I had my first good beer since leaving Australia, Sitting Bulldog IPA, made by these guys. They do a lot of things well in Asia, but good beer is not one of them.

Day 177 - Tuesday, July 17

Our flight to Finland wasn't until mid-afternoon, so we had some time in the morning to do some more exploring of Stockholm. We checked out the area to the east of the city center that's more of a posh area with nice restaurants, retail stores, etc. (as if Stockholm wasn't expensive enough already). It was beautiful all morning in Stockholm, and then just as we got to the central bus/train station to get a shuttle to the airport, it started pouring down rain. Guess we timed that one right. Off to Helsinki.

Norway - Bergen & the Western Fjords

Day 171 - Wednesday, July 11

We had a midday flight from Copenhagen to Bergen, Norway, which is a cute town that acts as a gateway the western fjords of Norway, which having recently seen, I would think has to be among the most beautiful places in the world. Good thing Mere did some research and planning, otherwise I might've made the mistake of only seeing Oslo, on account of the fact that Norway is the most expensive country in the world, so I wasn't planning to explore too much.

Speaking of Norway being expensive, here's a picture of the 32-bed dorm room / basement of the YMCA Bergen that we paid over $30/night to sleep in. Not exactly the Ritz.

From Norway

We were only in Bergen for that afternoon and evening, so we tried to see as much as we could, despite a little bit of rain. After stopping at the fish market for some delicious food, we walked around Bryggen, the oldest part of the city.

From Norway

From Norway

And, of course, we stopped for some delicious pastries. Actually we couldn't afford 2 pastries, so we had to split one. Norway is seriously expensive.

We headed back around 10:00 to do a little more planning for our 3 days of driving through the fjords, and of course, the sun was still up and the sky was still blue:

From Norway

Well the parts not covered by rain clouds were blue. I think when we checked the sunrise and sunset times for the areas in Norway where we were, and sunrise was officially around 4 and sunset around 11, but it never really got totally dark outside. I can't fathom the opposite situation in winter - who wants to live where you only have a few hours of daylight? Nor could I fathom how crazy it is even further north inside the arctic circle where the sun never sets this time of year.

Day 172 - Thursday, July 12

I can't tell you how excited I was to drive a car again after going 6 months without. Sure, I'd rented motorbikes occasionally which provided freedom to explore (which was definitely part of the appeal of a car), but it was so nice to have an actual car, if only for a few days. Of course, because I had left my driver's license in Denmark, all my hopes and dreams were almost crushed. But luckily, I had a copy of it, which was good enough for the Avis guy. And then we got upgraded for free to a diesel VW Golf (stickshift), which has a reputation as a pretty fun car to drive, and as one of the most fuel efficient non-hybrids around, which was good considering how much driving we were doing and how expensive gas was (~$9 per gallon). A picture of our little car from later in the trip:

From Norway

Apparently Mere wasn't quite prepared for me wanting to stop every 10 or 20 minutes to take pictures, and our drive from Bergen to Solvorn ended up taking about 7 hours, about twice as long as she had expected. Oops. So after making her suffer through all my stopping and picture taking, it's only fair that I force some of those on you now:

From Norway

From Norway

From Norway

From Norway

It seems animals like to roam the sides of the roads and act like they own the place:

From Norway

We frequently found ourselves driving through the clouds and surrounded by patches of snow as we went up and over the tops of mountains:

From Norway

From Norway

Ferries are a way of life for anyone that drives around the fjords, as many of the larger fjords have no bridges that cross them or any easy way around them:

From Norway

It was a bit chilly on the ferry, so I went to the car to get my fleece (a fake North Face I had bought in Vietnam for about $20 to replace my fleece I had left at security checkpoint in Australia.) When I couldn't find it in the car anywhere, I figured I probably left it at the hostel in Bergen. Yes, I really lost something else. How do I keep doing this? So, yeah, for the coldest area during all of my travels, I was without any sort of jacket. I also had apparently left my ski cap (aka beanie) with my fleece because that was missing too. Awesome.

When we got to Eplet Bed and Apple, a really cute hostel/B&B in Solvorn, it was already about 6:00 and we were a little sad because it seemed like there was a lot to see and do around the area, and we were only there for a night and leaving early in the morning. So we decided to take advantage of the crazy hours of daylight, and decided to start a several-hour hike a little after 7. We ended up not getting back to the car until after 10pm. On the way up Mere made some friends:

From Norway

More photos from the hike:

From Norway

From Norway

Mere staring off the cliff at the summit, probably wondering if suicide might be preferable to putting up with me stopping the car every 20 minutes to take pictures for another 2-days.

From Norway

From Norway

Day 173 - Friday, July 13

We were up before 6 because we needed to get to a noon ferry that was several hours away. It was pretty cloudy and rainy during our drive that morning, and we had a pretty tight schedule, but I didn't let that stop me from making frequent stops for pictures, including this glacier:

From Norway

From Norway

From Norway

We managed to make it to Geiranger, gateway to the Geiranger fjord, just in time to look around a bit before our noon ferry. The view of Geiranger as we finally got below the clouds and descended down the mountain:

From Norway

The Geiranger fjord is considered one of the most beautiful in all of Norway. Unfortunately, the grey skies and low cloud line weren't helping matters, not unlike my trip to Milford Sound, but it was still a gorgeous ferry ride through the fjord, lined with numerous amazing waterfalls that the pictures just don't do justice to. Some photos from the ferry:

From Norway

Note the kayakers at the foot of the falls, which provide some perspective as to how massive the falls are.

From Norway

From Norway

From Norway

The ferry dropped us off in Valdall, which Mere had added as a stop of the trip primarily because some have claimed that they have the world's best strawberries. We found a farm where some old drunk men were selling fresh picked strawberries and sampled a few.

From Norway

It's hard to compare all the strawberries I've had during the 30 years I've been alive, but I think it's safe to say they were the best I've ever had. From there we drove north and up through more cloud cover, along a stretch of road that even with the clouds had amazing scenery, which was nearly impossible to capture in photos, but here are a few that don't just look like a bunch of clouds.

From Norway

From Norway

I can only imagine how beautiful it would be on a sunny day. Luckily, I don't have to rely just on my imagination, because Google is always there to provide help:

From Norway

Then we headed west through more amazing scenery from Andalsnes to Alesund, a town on the coast, and stopped for the night at what we think was a boarding school that had been converted to a hotel/b&b in the summer. Photos of Alesund:

From Norway

From Norway

From Norway

Day 174 - Saturday, July 14

After a very long day the previous day, we slept in and then made our way back towards Bergen in a leisurely manner. After 2 days in the fjords, I managed to curb my picture-taking a little bit, but not too much. Pictures from day 3's drive:

From Norway

From Norway

From Norway

From Norway

From Norway

That night we stayed in another converted school in a small town called Manger, which is on the outskirts of Bergen. There we took advantage of the complimentary grill and charcoal, and extended daylight hours to do some grilling.

From Norway

Day 175 - Sunday, July 15

Sunday, we had a late morning flight to Stockholm, so after waking up we headed for the airport, with a quick stop at the Bergen YMCA to pick up my fleece and ski cap. Luckily my credit card and driver's license were waiting for me at the airport, so I was almost feeling whole again by the time we got on the plane to Stockholm.

As always, lots more pictures in the picasa album. Also, I should disclose that about half the pictures in the blog and a handful in the album are Mere's. Thanks for the photos!