Brugge, Belgium and Home
Note: At last we are almost home and the update is nearly complete.
Brugge, Belgium is not at all what you would expect of the hometown of Dr. Evil. Once a great thriving port specialising in lace and other textiles, it has now morphed into an extremely beautiful town. The reason the city is no longer a major textile city is because it's main river silted up and boats could no longer travel there. The city went into decline and today is the tourist but also working city it is today. I say working city because a number of Old Towns in Europe seem to be mostly for the tourists and relics of glory days past. Some, including Brugge feel as if there is still a working city with a real residential population. Basically a city like you and I know but with beautiful old architecture that is used and not just full of museums and trinket shop.We ate plenty of pommes frittes, moules and waffles, not to mention the Belgian beer. Sadly we could not stay long as it was Saturday and the next day we had to drive to Dunkerque, France for the ferry home.Arriving back in London after four weeks on the road, we had forgotten how much stuff we had left undone in our new flat. But all and all I don't think either of us would have missed out on spending four weeks on the road seeing northern Europe. Next we just have to see southern Europe.
Luxembourg, in a jiffy
Luxembourg is a fantastic small city and country set in ravines and rolling hills. It has picturesque castles set on hills that look like they are out of a fairy tale. A definite place to visit....but that's all I have to say about it.
Smart Car, here we come
On our way to Luxembourg we stopped off in northeastern France to visit the Smart car factory. Even though we showed up unannounced we were let on to a tour group from Switzerland and got to see the interior of the factory where they make the Smart For Two. The factory tour was very intersting where we learned different facts about the Smart car and the technical advances of the factory. but no fact was more entertaining then the one about Michael Jackson.Michael was on a European tour when he was passing through the area. One can see the Smart factory from the expresway but the tell tale sign is a tall glass tower that holds about 16 Smart cars in two stacks. The tower is all in glass and is highlighted by the different colours of the car. This was originally a publicity stunt and a marketing ploy when Smart first started out. Michael Jackson, had his tour bus driver pull over at the public relations and tour building and he walked in and wanted to buy the tower. The Smart car people misunderstood what he meant and thought he wanted to buy a Smart car. He said no, and pointed that he wanted the whole glass tower, the cars and all to be shipped to his Neverneverland ranch in California. Unfortunately for Michael it never ended up as a display for him at his ranch....some people, sheesh!
Vienna and onwards
Note: Getting near the end now....almost done with the update.
Vienna is only 40 kilometers, more or less from Bratislava so it is very easy to get there. Beause we started to run out of time for the trip by this point we only stayed two nights in Vienna. The city is vast and too difficult to try and see everything. So we saw as much as we could on the bicycles we rented from out Hotel, the Hotel Pratestern.I can't remember too much about Vienna now but will mention the bits I can and that happened to be what I enjoyed most. On this trip that cuisines and the food you can find are all delicious but they are also very similar. Around the Baltic you get a lot of herring, in the eastern european countries a lot of meats and cold cuts. it gets a bit boring. We tried to spice it up a bit by occasionally going to different places but tried to stay true. By the time we got to Vienna we needed something different to eat.We lucked out by just choosing the first place we saw, Tacos Lopez on the Pratestern. In Europe, good Mexican restaurant are few and far between, if they even exist. Tacos Lopez is a traditional taqueria type of restaurant that is amongst the best places I have ever had Mexican food. It is not like the bad Tex-mex you often get at so called Mexican restaurants in Europe. This place was tops. Go there!We very quickly drove through Germany as we were trying to make good time, as you might imagine on the autobahns. This was exciting because we could push the smart car to its speed limited 95mph but also to get passed by cars going much faster.We stopped in Baden Baden for the night where we had some tradional schnitzel at the Lowenbrau restaurant which serve beer by the liter and a half. It was all very tasty after a whole day on the road. Baden Baden itself is a posh spa town that was recently well known by the WAG's during the recent World Cup. Though we didn't see much of the town itself, I think I would like to go back and spend some time there.
Slovakia
Note: Yes
Of all the places that I was most surprised by I would have to say Slovakia was the most unexpected bonus of the trip and Bratislava its main city. This is another place, along with Krakow, that you should get to before it loses its charm. The city is very picturesque, very walkable and a bit off-beat. It's strange because Prague rightfully deserves its praise but Bratislava, and Slovakia should not be as overlooked as it has been.We stayed in the Hotel Kiev which used to be the westerner hotel in Bratislava. each major Eastern Bloc city had a western style hotel that was strictly for westerners. I suppose this was a two-fold purpose. One to keep an eye on the westerners as potential spies and also to show them how great life and things were under a Communist regime.The hotel Kiev, though falling into a bit of disrepair and becoming a giant advertisement, was decent enough. It showed the old Communist opulence and the building's interior, I found, quite interesting. Though the funniest thing about the place is that you have to pay extra for a room with a tv. We thought this would be a good idea but were sorely disappointed when all we got was a 13 inch tv sat on the floor in the corner. However, this was more than made up by the outstanding breakfast available as part of the room rate. It was top notch.
Poland: TO Krakow 2
Note: Still updating
Krakow is a beautiful city that is the opposite of Warsaw. Krakow was fortunate not to have been razed to the ground by the retreating Nazis. Apparently the Nazi general in charge had a great affection for the city and refused an order to dynamite the city. Unlike the general in Warsaw who had every building dynamited which explains why much of the city has brutal Communist architecture and the avenues are so long and straight. If you ever go to the old town in Warsaw keep in mind that it was completely rebuilt following World War II from remaining drawings and paintings of the city. Everything there is more or less from 1952 when reconstruction happened.Unlike Warsaw, Krakow is almost all completely original and very European. I hadn't been there since I was 9 years old and rediscover why Poles call it their most beautiful city and their cultural capital as well. Krakow was the capital of Poland before it was moved to Warsaw.To do this we rented bikes once more but with a twist. We took a bike tour from a Canadian of Polish descent who decided to start a bike tour company in Krakow during the spring, summer and autumn months. I would highly recommend the tour and the company is called Cruising Krakow. We saw all the sites, from the dragon, to the castle, to Oscar Schindler's factory. Well worth the time and little money that it cost. We got a real sense of why a lot of tour books have started to call Krakow the new Prague. Go before it gets ruined by drunk Stag and Hen nights from Britain.Also on the outskirts of the city is the deep salt mines of Wieliczka. Definitely worth a day trip.
Poland: to Krakow
Note: Yes, I am still updating.
On our way down to Krakow we stopped off in Oswiecim which is a Polish village outside Krakow better known by the German name given to it, Auschwitz. Don't really want to say too much about the place. Auschwitz, the original camp, is a place to visit and get all the info you could ever want on what happened under the Nazis during World War II. The buildings, the displays will give you all you need. But for sheer depressingness and understanding of what it must have been like for concentration camp detainees, you need to go a little further away to Auschwitz-Birkenau which is the camp that was built when the original became too small. Auschwitz-Birkenau is what you imagine a camp to look like. Row after row of blocks where the prisoners spent their time. The size of the camp is big and from the gate tower you can see how far these buildings stretch. In the middle is where the train tracks are and where the trains would pull in to leave the prisoners. As the day was coming to an end and the sun was going down the air turned chilly quickly which then made mist collect in the gulleys next to the tracks. Looking at this with the backdrop of the gate and watchtowers was very moving.
Poland: On to Warsaw
Note: Still catching up on the northern European trip from last summer.
We finally got to Poland and the roads just turned crap with one-lane roads being the mainstay. Very disappointing that POland can't get its act together and invest in the road infrastructure. We entered Poland north of Bialystok which is in north eastern Poland and we drove to Augustynka a small hamlet further south. This is where Veronika's mother's family comes from and where they use to have a home and land. There isn't much there of the hamlet as it is so small and nothing of the house where they had their house. Only a couple trees that marked the entrance gates to the path that went to the house. Under Communism, private land could and was confiscated from landowners and redistributed to farmers. This is what happened with their family land. The family could go through the courts and claim the land back but at present their is no desire to do so. Like I said the roads weren't good so it took a lot longer than we wished to get to Warsaw. We spent about four days just hanging out with family as it gets tiring being in the smart car, no matter how smartly they designed it.
Vilnius/WIlno
Note: Still catching up on the old postings from the trip.
We left Palanga in the morning so that we could make good time to Vilnius about three hours away. The drive went well and we got to Wilno quickly. I say Wilno because at one time Lithuania and Poland were one country and Wilno was the Polish name for Vilnius. As a result of a marriage between a Polish princess and the Lithuanian king the Jagiellonian dynasty arose in the 15th century. Eventually Poland became the dominating partner in this relationship and the area that was ruled stretched from present day Poland, west to parts of Bohemia, south to Hungary, and east to present day Lithuania, Byellorussia and Ukraine. All in all quite sizable. After that the country crumbled and got partitioned by the Prussians, Russians and Austro-Hungarians by the 18th century.Vilnius was the other capital and was a part of Poland when World War I ended and Poland reemerged as a country. So there are a lot of historical ties with ethnic Poles making a small minority in Lithuania. Interestingly during those centuries the language never melded into one and we found it easier to speak English then bother with the Polish. While we were in Vilnius there was a joint military parade with both Lithuanian and Polish troops performing.Vilnius is set in a small river valley which makes it very picturesque. Having limited time we rented bicycles once more and cycled around the city taking in the old town and a district called Uzupio. Uzupio is a small district that for some reason was historically neglected by the Cmmunist and has fallen into disrepair. Like cities around the world this is usually ripe for artists/fringe society to move in and make it their own. This is what has happened in Uzupio and it has certainly come into its own, literally as well because they are a breakaway republic...at least in their own minds.Another noteworthy item about Vilnius is the fact that Vilnius was known as the Jerusalem of the north. It had a large and thriving Jewish community that has now dwindled to a few hundred according to an older gentleman we met at the old synagogue. There are spots in the old town where you can see old signs written in Hebrew on even older buildings and streets named as such.The last thing I want to say about Vilnius is that there is a life-size bust of Frank Zappa, who I guess was of Lithuanian ancestry and that Lithuania is cheap so you should go ASAP!
Lithuania (At Last) and get me Audi here!
Note - The subject matter of this post occurred back in August and September of 2006 during our around northern Europe trip. I have only gotten around to finishing the blog for this now.
We left Riga, Latvia and drove to Lithuania where we were going to spend the night in Palanga. Palanga is a nice Baltic seaside resort frequented by Lithuanians on vacation. We had never heard of it until we met our builder, Valdas, who renovated our new flat. He's Lithuanian and from Palanga, Lithuania. It just so happened that at the time that we would be going through Lithuania he would be on vacation visiting family. He invited us down.Not to harp on about the roads on this trip but the roads were by and large in good shape and the expressways were excellent. You come to appreciate the speed that you can go on the expressways when you get stuck on a one lane stretch of road behind a grain tractor because they haven't yet upgraded the roads. But by and large the driving was good.On the other hand, the drivers are not so great. There is generally a lot of bad driving in Eastern Europe, where Poland is probably the worst (it's okay, im Polish so I can say that). This is because the roads are so bad in Poland and the drivers are maniacs. However Lithuania doesn't come too far behind.As we entered Lithuania we got stuck behind a lorry but couldn't pass because the smart car doesn't have great pick up speed and there were cars coming from the other direction. Simply did not want to risk it. This situation did not stop a number of Audi 80's from passing all the cars behind us and including us to try to pass the lorry. At first there was just the one, and then another until four Audi 80's were trying to pass one another and the lorry. Compared to the lorry they all looked like flies flying around a piece of crap. Every couple seconds one Audi would swing out to see if it could pass another and then wither pass or quickly jump back into the correct lane before it was involved in a head on collision. This went on for a few minutes until the road widened into a multi-lane highway.Talking about Audi's, and anyother VW product, it seems that Lithuania is where they go to die. The cars are highly regarded for their engine durability and are highly prized. You will see loads of them around. Due to Lithuania being a relatively poor country they are usually older models from the early 1990's with some being fairly new. These cars are imported from Germany once they get to the point that the Germans don't wish to buy them on the used car market. It was funny seeing all these Audi's and VW's because it has almost become a stereotype of Lithuanians in my mind now. It made me think back to our builder who drives, back in London an Audi A6, as well as the electrician and the plumber who drives a VW Passat....all Lithuanians.Anyway, we met Valdas in Palanga where he showed us around the town, took us to a Lithuanian restaurant where we saw a Ukrainian pop band, singing in Russian. The weather was nice and warm so we rented bikes and explored a bit more. All in all it was a good evening and a very nice seaside town.
Seeing Double
At first we thought it was an isolated incident... but sightseeing in all the various cities we started to recognize it as an often recurring phenomenon... Tourist couples dressed exactly the same, we've named it the Twin phenomenon. Some people are a bit subtle with their Twinness, e.g both wearing jeans, sneakers and a red t-shirt but the t-shirts being slightly different. Others are full blown Twins, where both are wearing the exact same clothes in the same unisex style and same colors. We haven't yet figured out why this phenomenon occurs. Is it a way to show the world that they belong together, or a way to feel safe that in a foreign place there will be at least one other person looking like you? Or is it simply a case of having the same taste in clothes, or packing the most comfortable and versatile items in the closet which then happen to be very similar? Or maybe it is simply something that creeps up on you and one day you walk around some old town taking pictures of each other posing in front of different churches, and you suddenly realize that you are dressed exactly the same. Whatever the reasons there are plenty of couples out there touristing as Twins, and we might be following their lead as one day we walked out the door of our hostel and realized we were both wearing beige shorts and black jackets...
The Need to Eat and Going Local
As keen and more or less adventurous eaters we decided to try as many local specialties as we could on this trip, to really get a sense of the food culture in each country that we visit.
But what do you do when the local specialty happens to be blood sausage or you don't want to eat herring for breakfast a second day in a row? Is it awful to long for more familiar and tried things?
So far we have managed to try some new and interesting dishes, and we have tried to go to local restaurants rather than fancy looking ones. When you are sitting in the old town of some place surrounded by tourists it can be questionable if you are really going local, and what you are eating might be a fancy version of what people actually eat.
I have to admit though that on a few occasions we have gone more international rather than local...
In Norway we went for pizza (if Nick got his way we would be on a pizza tasting trip around Europe, but I put up a good fight), and I guess even on that occasion there was a local twist. The pizzas were on a very thin base and we got served a 'pizza salad' before the meal which is a very Scandinavian thing, it's like coleslaw but in a vinaigrette dressing.
In both Tallinn and Warsaw we've been for sushi. I guess you could try and argue that the fish might be local....
In Vilnius we felt like eating steak and ended up in Zoe's American Bar and Grill. That was very international, the chef turned out to be Swedish and the steaks were definitely European in size.
We are now in Warsaw staying with Nick's aunt and also visiting my aunt and uncle. You can't really eat more local than we are doing now, we get spoiled with some great food, and plenty of it as is the local custom. It's also great to eat those 'exotic' home cooked dishes that I've been longing for.
So bar from a few glitches (and avoiding the blood sausages) I guess you could say we are going local all the way.
The Baltic States...
of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania seem as if they would be very similar. They are very close to each other, share a common history and were all part of the USSR.
Upon arrival in each of these countries I immediately thought of their similarities to Poland. Each had its run down streets and entire neighborhoods of reinforced concrete panel apartment blocks. However you could also get the sense that each is moving and growing quickly to try and catch up with the rest of the European Union.
Veronika and I first took the ferry from Helsinki to Talinn on Thursday morning. It's a three hour ferry ride across this bit of the Baltic to Talinn on the bigger ferries or one and a half hours by jet ferry. On a budget, we took the slower and cheaper option.
Due to its close proximity to Finland their are a lot of ferries between the two cities bringing a lot of Finnish tourists. Since it is so much cheaper in Estonia there are a lot of them. In general there are a lot of tourists in Talinn as the old town is very picturesque and the harbor is very nearby.
Talinn is/was the home of Skype and there has been much hype around Talinn as a very modern IT city. It is supposed to have one of the most up to date IT infrastructures in Europe but I didn't get the sense of this. It was difficult to find internet cafes which you would think would be everywhere.
The Old Town truly looked like a movie set as everything was perfectly restored even if it seemed void of people. We spent half a day there and we left quickly the next morning as the hostel we stayed at was pretty bad.
We hit the road and drove to Riga, Latvia. Of the three countries, Riga is the biggest city and is a major port. It is very cosmopolitan and has beautiful neighborhoods and streets once you get into the center of town (Like most cities in former communist countries, the suburbs can be pretty grim).
Because of the previous bad night, we decided to stay in the Riga Bed and Breakfast which was slightly more upscale in Riga. It did not disappoint while not hammering our wallets too hard. We were able to eat breakfast across the street at a little bakery as part of staying the night.
Though we only spent half a day in Riga we saw the entirety of the Old Town and some very nice Art Nouveau neighborhoods. On this trip thus far the Riga Old Town is the best that I have seen. It is all very nicely restored and full of activity. One gets the sense that the Old Town is not just a tourist centre but a place that is also lived in.
We were there Friday, September 1st which happened to be the first day of school. Every student was out and about and parties seemed to be happening everywhere you went. We stayed out late listening to music at the centra square. The whole evening was very enjoyable.
The next day, Saturday, we took off to Lithuania. I'll continue next time.
Oh Lordi, Lordi Finland!
We're actually now in Poland but am trying to catch up with the other countries. The countries come fast and furious once you get out of Scandinavia and it is difficult to keep up.
As anyone who watched this year's Eurovision song contest knows, Finland won this year's competition. Also for those who know, Finland does not normally do well in the competition and on top of that, the group that won is unlike any other in the competiton's history.
Lordi is a hard rock group where all members are dressed completely like demons. Their song, 'Hard Rock....Hellelujah!' the outfits and the stage show was completely different from all the other entries. In a shocking vote, the people of Europe voted Lordi contest winners. Not even, the block partisan voting of the Balkan countries could stop Lordi and Finland being victorious. So with this in mind you can understand that I wasn't expecting Finland to be anything like the band representing Finland.
Truthfully Finland wasn't like the band. There were no demons or fireworks upon arrival in Turku, Finland. Simply a nice little port city on the western coast of Finland that at one time served as capital of what was then owned by the imperialist Swedes. It has a castle that was built by the Swedes to house the governor of the Finn land and it is a good place ot visit. Of course the castle is today open to public viewing and is used as a meeting and exhibition center.
While wandering through the castle we entered a room that was being used as an exhibition space celebrating different moments in Finnish history. In this room, first display case on the right, was a display celebrating Lordi winning the Eurovision song contest. For any fan of the band this would be an experience as it had the costume of the lead singer, photos, guitars and other memoribilia.
For a country that is probably as misunderstood and unknown as Finland, the Lordi victory is probably a welcome boost. Funnily enough it is also truly representative of Finns and youth culture.
On the rest of our way through Finland to Helsinki it became pretty clear that Finns appreciate their hard rock. Everywhere, young adults were dressed in hard rock style; from full on goths to long haired metal heads. The sense that I got was that this wasn't some type of passing phase of fashion but something solidified within Finnish culture.
The guys wearing Metallica or Iron Maiden t-shirts weren't wearing them ironically but with full sincerity. The women with full arm tattoes got them tattoed and not painted on. The people of Finland don't just wear hard rock....they live it!
Maybe it has something to do with the weather being so cold for most of the year and that the amount of sunlight is very little in winter, or that the food is mostly made up of meat and potatoes or the Baltic sea is so cold even on the hottest day.
Regardless, I found Finland to be the most hard-rocking country on this trip and one that was the biggest surprise.
Helsinki is a cool city with architecture that is impressive and a sense of design that is well known. We took a tour of Helsinki and saw the main sites. Most impressive was a church on a hill. It wasn't so much on a hill as in it. A competition was held to build a new church in Helsinki and the winning entry was a design that blasted a hole into the hill through solid rock. then reconstructed the hill on top of the church. The interior is very minimalist and flooded with natural light. It's different from any church I have been to.
I guess this takes me back to my point that Finland rocks in many ways. Definitely worth a visit.
Sverige...
historically has been very different than the Sweden of today. On this trip I have learned and been reminded that the friendly blonde tanned people of the north have in fact been savages in the past. Of course their is the Viking period when, though they were not known as Swedes, they inhabited that part of the world. Then beginning in the medieval period Swedes, as a country, began to expand west into Norway, a little bit south into Denmark and then east into Finland. Norway and Denmark are considered Scandinavian and share a similar background and language. Though there is variation in the language it is by and large the same and someone speaking Swedish can understand someone speaking Norwegian and so on. But there are differences. The bid oddity is Finland as the language there is completely different but more on that in another post. So Norway is mountainous and full of fjords whereas Sweden is much more flat and full of forests and fields. The driving through Sweden was quick and easy and the 500 or so kilometers went really quick. Also the sun came out and welcomed Veronika to her homeland. Other differences noted was that meatballs in Norway are call kottkaker and in Sweden kottbullar. As anyone who has a Swedish meatball, probably on a trip to Ikea, the exterior is brown due to it being fried and the interior is a greyish brown. They are also small and about the size of a marble. In Norway the meatball is much larger and more of a oval. Additionally, the meat is brown all the way through. I found this odd but so far cannot explain the difference as it certainly seemed the meatball was fried. Anyway. Stockholm was very nice and sunny as we took in the sites. We saw the canals, Wasa warship, Gamlastan, Swedish Architecture Museum and the others. It was a good two days in Stockholm. Having been to southern Sweden exclusively before it was odd to see a big Swedish city. Previously I had thought Sweden to be one big suburb but Stockholm is definitely a city and a very pleasant one at that. It also helped that we could stay with Veronika's aunt and uncle who were very accommodating and excited to see us. On the 27th of August in the evening we caught the ferry from Stockholm to Turku, Finland. The ferries are nice and relaxing. This one was about 11 hours long so we took the overnight arriving bright and early in Turku. The Finnish language is certainly unique and I found it impossible to understand. Something I forgot about Europe is the Roma gypsies. There was a load on the ferry and they dress just like they probably have for centuries. It was odd and scary and reminded me of the time when I was little and scared of gypsies. I remember being little and visiting Poland with my parents and my friends their pointed out the gypsies and for some strange reason I remember being scared. Anyway on the dance floor in the ferry nightclub they can certainly dance and Veronika and I enjoyed watching them cut a rug. Turku and Helsinki in the next entry.
The Need to Eat
We have now made it to Tallin in Estonia, eating along the way, as one has to. It's funny how it works, when home in London eating out is a special treat, something special every once in a while to be savored. Now we are eating out everyday and it is a necessity rather than an indulgence. It's amazing how much time, I at least, spend thinking about the next meal. As Nick can attest I get very grumpy if food is not found the moment I get hungry. There have been a few hairy moments looking for something suitable to eat...
Since leaving London we have had some very good and not so great meals. We have tried to savor the local cuisines which have included Norwegian meatballs (Nick noted that they are significantly different from the Swedish ones), herring (which doesn't vary much in taste), smoked reindeer meet (a Norwegian specialty popular with the tourists) and different types of cakes.
What has varied most in the different countries is the price you have to pay to fill your belly, in Finland some cakes and coffee in a fancy cafe cost us 10 pounds. The same type of cakes and coffee in Estonia cost 2.50 pounds.
What hasn't varied at all is the breakfast buffets that have been waiting for us in the mornings at the youth hostels we have been staying in Norway and Finland, and the breakfasts we ate in Sweden. They all consist of bread, cheese, sandwich meat, muesli and "filmjolk" a sour milk. As a Swede this is something I'm used to and quite enjoy getting back to my breakfasting roots, but as an American used to waffles and eggs Nick is dreaming of other flavors. We will see what awaits tomorrow morning in the Estonian youth hostel, unfortunately I doubt that it will be a variation on the theme.
And so as we eat our way across Europe, we will hopefully have more good meals than bad ones, but I for one will soon start dreaming of savoring an exotic home cooked meal.
The trip thus Far (Norway).....
has been good. It's Been a week now and it has flown by but at the same time felt like a long time away from our home in London. On Friday the 20th of August we drove up to Newcastle to take the ferry over to Bergen, Norway. All of our stuff fit into the rear and a little behind the passenger seat. All in all perfect for the trip. Only now we realised that even though we paired down to what we thought were the basics, we both still packed too much clothing!
The drive up to Newcastle was good as it was Sunday and the roads were largely empty. The Smart car is speed limited in our version to just short of 90 mph and I tested this several times on the way up. No matter how hard you press it won't go any faster. Believe me, I tried it.
The ferry was largely uneventful but restful following all the work we did in the few days prior to leaving for the trip. Leaving work, moving house and finishing up all the renovation works to the new place, really took it's toll.
Norway is absolutely beautiful. It is a country full of mountains, fjords, rivers, and glaciers. Bergen is a beautiful city surrounded by seven mountains and seven fjords as the guidebooks say. We stayed in a hostel up in the high hills which eventually became Ulriken mountain. We climbed to the top and could see several directions to the city of Bergen and to other mountains and fjords around.
Originally the plan was to drive to the Arctic Circle through Norway. We quickly discovered that due to all the mountains and fjords there was no direct route up to the Circle and that for the same reason, speeds of 60 kmh could rarely be passed. So instead we decided to go east to Oslo, Norway's capital.
Oslo was nice and we went to the Kon Tiki museum and the Viking Ship museum. Norwegians are extremely proud of two things, their country and their history of exploration. Like most Scandinavian cities it is very clean and similar to what I have seen of Swedish cities.
The thing I will always remember about the trip to Oslo though will be the drive. Words cannot describe and the pictures that we took probably will not do the places we saw justice. The fjords are just fantastic! However the driving along all those mountain passes that sweep down to the fjords only to switchback to a mountain road are fantastic to drive even in the Smart which isn't really designed for country roads. It held its own and was a fun drive. It would be a pleasure to come back to Norway for the scenery once more but I would bring a car better suited to get the most out of the driving experience.
Lastly about Norway is that it is really, really expensive there. I could not believe the prices. London is expensive but Norway beats it by 25-50% on everything. So if you are going to Norway, pack up on travel food at your local Tesco and then go. Your wallet will thank you.
Oh how time flies
We have now been on the road for over a week, although it feels more like several weeks. I guess time flies when you are having fun... The idea was to post every couple of days to keep everyone updated, but we've been too busy doing stuff (which I guess is a good thing) and internet cafes in Norway (which was the first stop on our adventure) are hideously expensive.
So what have we been up to? well...
We've been on two ferries, one from Newcastle to Bergen Norway and one from Stockholm Sweden to Turku Finland. The ferries being an adventure all to themselves, filled with colorful characters and accompanied by equally colorful drinks.
We've seen some stunning scenery in the shape of several fjords, reached by dangerously curvy roads, and even a glacier.
There have also been some nice cities along the way, the first being Bergen a small yet perfectly formed clean and mountainous place. We then went to Oslo, where it rained and so most of our time was spent in museums, learning some interesting facts about vikingships and Kon-Tiki. Stockholm was our next stop where we enjoyed being real tourists on a hop-on-hop-off bus.
We are now in Turku, the first place where neither of us can speak nor understand any of the language. Very strange to have to ask people to translate signs and menus, but interesting nonetheless.
As we head East internet and all other things will get cheaper, leaving us with more food and accommodation choices and also more opportunities to keep you updated.
First Blogging
We recently discovered this new invention called the internet! Apparently you are able to communicate over vast distances via a computer. As we are soon departing on a Smart Adventure around the Baltic Sea, please stay tuned to this page for updates.
