Norway's Maritime History or Not

I'm watching a Rick Steve's video podcast about Norway's Maritime History, the museums in Bygdoy.  I was in Oslo when I took a Contiki tour back in 2006 and I went to Bygdoy, but I never went to any of the museums there, so as I'm watching this I was thinking - I didn't see that.  As opposed to the joy I get when I watch shows and say "I've been there!"

Where I hung out instead, not too bad!

The reason I didn't go is that I'm not really in Viking History, I'm into all sorts of history, but more modern history topics.  And I like boats and the sea, but when I walked up to the museums and saw how much money they wanted, I decided that this wasn't what I came to see, I wanted to see the beauty of Scandinavia. 

In the end I don't regret my decision, I saw what I wanted to see in Scandinavia - beauty!  Sometimes I think I should have gone to one of these museums, but I don't have a feeling of regret about it.  I think we all need to have goals in our trips, maybe it's seeing the Mona Lisa or the Vatican, or maybe you just want to relax and you can count your success with how many pina colladas you had on the beach.  In the end the only person you need to satisfy with your trip is you, so do what you want to do, even if it means skipping the major sites of a location.

Hammerfest to Rovaniemi

Day 16: Hammerfest to Rovaniemi: We leave the mountains of Norway to travel south through the lakes and forests of Finland. Cross back over the Arctic Circle to Rovaniemi, the traditional home of Santa Claus. (Breakfast and Dinner)
Hotel: Taveco Ky

Breakfast: 6:30 Bags to the bus: 7:15 Bus departs: 7:30

This mornings hot breakfast was chocolate pancakes, since Dion couldn't find any regular milk, only chocolate, they were tasty. Then we started our drive South to Finland, and saw a sign that the temperature was 11° (52° F), not wonder I was always cold. We had a stop at 9:30 at a supermarket, I tried to finish off my Norwegian Kroners since this was our last stop in Norway, but ended up with 50 Nkr left. Then we had another stop at the border to get back our Tax Free monies, I got 100 Nkr back. We entered Finland at 11:48 and had to set our watches ahead another hour. We made two more stops on the way to camp before arriving around 7:00.

When Che handed out the rooming sheet earlier he had neglected to mark which rooms were male and which were female. I had fallen asleep after signing up and am not exactly sure what transpired after, but shortly after I woke up Che came by asking if I minded sharing with Karl. I said ok, Karl is a sweetheart and totally harmless, it was only one night anyway. So my roommates were Karl and Nancy. Karl volunteered to take the pull out bed. After scoping out the campsite (there were 4 co-ed bathrooms - getting ready in the morning would be interesting) and declining an invite to play soccer (I didn't feel the need to embarrass myself or hurt myself like others had done throughout the trip). Instead I waited on line to use the internet until dinner, but ran out of time and lost my place in line to eat dinner.

We had a nice dinner of roast chicken, which made up for our average dinners the last few nights. I then made a made dash to the internet so I could write home. Because there was only one computer here and pretty much everyone wanted to use it we had to limit our time to about 10 minutes each. At least everyone at home would know I was alive and well.

After that I hung out in the bar for a while chatting with everyone and having a few drinks. It was a nice night since we all got to hang out together, some got to play pool and others danced. Nancy and I decided to head back around 1am, and Karl stayed behind. When Karl came in a little after 2am Nancy and I were still awake. Apparently he had waited a while so we would have time to get ready and go to bed before he came back, but found us "giggling" in bed instead. I set my alarm for 6:45 and went to sleep.

Mo I Rana to Ramfjord

Day 13: Mo I Rana to Ramfjord: Today, we cross the Arctic Circle to Narvik, a bustling port completely rebuilt after World War II. Our campsite tonight is situated by the water. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Ramfjord Camping

Breakfast: 6:30 Bags to the bus: 7:15 Bus departs: 7:30

Today's shower was simply lovely without hot water, NOT! Around 8:30 we had a stop at the Arctic Circle (66° 33N), it was cold and rainy, but I got my picture taken with arctic circle markers. When we got back on the bus Che explained to us about the Arctic Circle and how because of the way the earth rotates the Arctic Circle moves a bit every year. At 10:00 we made a stop for groceries, and were again told to stock up, I bought a pre-made sandwich that I would eat on our ferry. I don't know where we were or what we were crossing, but we had a 30 minute ferry ride that we could eat lunch on, much better then on the bus. They had some hot food on the boat, but not enough to feed us all in 30 minutes so it was a good thing we had bought lunch.

I slept for a good portion of our trip today, but did wake up at one point and got to see a beautiful waterfall. And at 3:00 I saw my first moose. At 3:45 we stopped in Narvik the "bustling port," you guessed it, not a thing to do. Nothing was open, we were lucky to find a hotel that would let us use the bathroom. After that we took goofy pictures with statues, sometimes you have to make your own fun. But Narvik was an important port to the Germans in WW II, it also appeared in an episode of Lost.

We got to camp at 7:30 and I roomed with Leah D and Kirsteen. Our camp was on another river and lake. I was lucky I had one of the decent cabins, though most of the couples had a REALLY nice cabins.

Before dinner I took a little walk around, got some tokens for the shower (5NKr for 3 minutes) and then hung out with Chris, Jacqui, Kate, Andrew, Lis and Leah B. After dinner I was going to take another night time shower, but somehow ended up playing Uno instead. Probably worked out better since I heard they ran out of hot water in the bathroom - two cold showers in a row would not do. When we quit Uno at midnight I took a shot at it and there was hot water in the bathroom, score! I ended up going to bed with a wet head since there were no plugs in the bathroom and both my roomies were in bed sleeping.

Mo I Rana - Iceberg Right Ahead!

Day 12: Mo I Rana Sightseeing: A chance to visit the Svartisen glacier (Norway's second largest), subject to weather conditions. This afternoon free time to relax by the lake and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Rossvoll Senter

Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:15

This morning we were off to Svartisen Glacier, it seemed we might have gotten a bit lost on the way to the boat, but we got there, which is all that counts. The boat ride took about 20 minutes and then we had to hike on what was pretty much a mountain, almost all plain old rock. The hike wasn't so bad, though it was raining most of the time and a bit slippery. We found a waterfall early on in the hike, which was really nice. After about 45 minutes we got to the sign that says you shouldn't go any further since it's not safe. A couple people went closer to the glacier, but I didn't. I was already worried about getting back down, so I wasn't going any further.

After I got there and took a few pictures it was time to head back. I was a little nervous about climbing down. There were quite a few big steps up that I had to now go down, preferably without falling and hurting myself. I slowly made my way down. Towards the end, where it was just walking I managed to twist my ankle and fall down, but I was fine. I found this whole hiking thing too stressful, trying not to fall is hard work, I'm never going hiking again!

Inject - that was my original opening paragraphs; however, I remember this much differently. The hike up was a workout, but not difficult. But I was very worried about hiking back down, I have a fear of hiking down, it's slippery and I tend to have visions of falling and breaking a leg. Hiking back down I was on the verge of tears at one point because I was so afraid and having trouble navigating the rocky landscape. I would follow the trail of other people but would end up in a spot with a valley that was too steep to climb down and back up and would have to back track to another spot. On top of all that drama in my head I was so slow I was afraid I would be the last one back and the boat would leave without me.

Back to the original post:

We were back at the campsite a little after 1pm for lunch and a rest. I had lunch, washed some clothes and then and went for a walk, it was me, Nancy, Skye and Jacqui. One of the women in the grocery store gave us some general directions to a waterfall. Along the way we found a horse, he wasn't hard to find since you could smell the farm he was on from a mile away. He was a nice horse, he came up to the edge of his roped in area to get petted. We kept walking after that and found a power plant and we thought we could hear a waterfall, but couldn't really find it. We poked around a bit and there it was, it was HUGE and we could climb the rocks near it (since I enjoyed climbing rocks so much). Jacqui and I were a bit nervous at first, but we both made it so we could get some pictures. Then we climbed up through the woodsy area and made our way back to camp. When we got back people were starting to stir again so Nancy, Lis, Jacqui and I played Uno.

We had an early dinner tonight, 6:30. After dinner I went (as did many people) to the grocery store for ice cream, we deserved a treat after all the hiking we did that day, not that we needed an excuse for ice cream, this was a vacation. After that we watched some track and field competition on TV (something you can understand when it's not in English) and made it an early night.

Trondheim to Mo I Rana via Hell

Day 11: Trondheim to Mo I Rana: We journey to 'Hell' today, before taking in more of Norway's stunning beauty as we travel past spectacular scenery to Mo I Rana for two nights. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Rossvoll Senter

Breakfast: 7:00 Bags to the bus: 7:45 Bus departs: 8:00

This mornings breakfast was a little lacking, just cereal and toast, Dion made a much better breakfast. But breakfast was quite interesting, with all the rumors about who hooked up last night and who left some girls apt at 4am, got lost walking back and only got back to the hostel around 6am.

On the way to Mo I Rana we made our stop in "Hell," it's not far from Trondheim, and it's basically a train station with signs saying, "Hell." This is what happens when there is an area that people go through, but doesn't actually have anything going on, they create a tourist trap. I took pictures and sent some postcards.

Our next stop was at 10:20 and our stop had a McDonalds. Normally this wouldn't excite me, but we hadn't seen a McDonalds in a while, or any other fast food place I had heard of. We had 45 minutes, I had some McDonalds fries and then found out we were supposed to be getting groceries for lunch, which was later confirmed by Che. Apparently he forgot to mention this when we were on the bus.

At 1:20 we stopped for a picnic lunch on a river, the facilities at this stop consisted of a "long drop" toilet. I decided that I should go, and learned that using one once in your life was sufficient, check! On the bus we decided to play Uno, it was Lis, Jilly, Tom, Michael and I. Due to being on a bus it was hard to arrange ourselves. Michael ended up in the back stairway. It was going well till we made a sharp turn and I almost fell onto Michael. When we had our last service stop Che told us it was the last grocery store for 2 days and to stock up.

We got to our campsite just before 6pm and right next to camp was a little grocery store (apparently this was a new campsite or something, which was why Che didn't know it was there). But this was the best campsite we would stay in, we had TV's, kitchenettes and bathrooms, all inside our cabins! Too bad the TV only had one channel, and it wasn't in English. I shared with Nancy, Lis, and Jilly again. I took a walk over to the grocery store and bought some hot chocolate, since we hadn't had proper hot chocolate (we had some cocoa powder, but it didn't taste right without milk and we didn't always have milk available). After that I played Uno with Nancy, Jilly, Lis, Tom and Michael until it was time for dinner. Two days before Che told us that our Glacier hike optional was cancelled due to the fact that the lake we take a boat on was still frozen. But tonight he found out that the lake was open today for the first boats and we would be able to go in the morning. We weren't going to have a picnic lunch since they didn't have time to get the lunches together, so we would only pay for the cost of the boat. I was excited to see the glacier, but sad that I actually had to get up in the morning. There's no rest for the weary on a Contiki Tour.

After dinner I wanted to hang out by the bonfire, but it was too cold, even with the fire. Instead I played Uno with Nancy, Jilly, Lis, Kate and Andrew in our cabin. I decided it was as good an opportunity for a Smirnoff Ice as any, 1 down, 3 to go. For some reason I took one of my rare evening showers tonight before bed.

Andalses to Trondheim

Day 10: Andalsnes to Trondheim: On to Trondheim, the former capital of Norway, an ancient town where much of the original wooden architecture still remains. See the Kristiansten Fortress and perhaps enjoy a chance to go for pizza and ten-pin bowling. (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Trondheim Vandrerhjem Rosenborg

Breakfast: 7:15, Bags to the bus: 8:00, Bus departs: 8:30

I woke up at 6am and was very happy to hear that the water was back on, I was not happy when I realized I had brought the wrong bag to the bathroom with me and I didn't have my toiletries. So back I went to the cabin for the second day in a row.

Whenever we would eat at camp we did it standing up, unless there happened to be seating at the campsite, which was hit or miss, and then we had to wash our dishes, which left my hands frozen for a couple hours, which was getting worse the farther north we went, but luckily we were staying in a hostel tonight and wouldn't be eating at camp.

On our way to Trondheim we stopped at the same souvenir shop we stopped at on our way to Andalsnes, here we were also able to exchange money. I got rid of my Swedish Kroner and had a pastry. On the bus we actually had some good music and some of us played "who wants to be a millionaire." At 1:30 we got stopped at a checkpoint, but Andy passed and we were quickly on our way.

At 2:00 we were dropped of in Trondheim at Nidarosdomen Cathedral. I went with Renae, Nancy, AJ and Cara sightseeing. First we went to the mall in search of lunch, but didn't find anything we wanted and ended up at a grocery store where I got a muffin. We found the Royal Palace, which is made of wood. Unfortunately it didn't open for visitors till the following day so we could only look at it from the outside.

After that we did some shopping walked to the water, and over the Gamble Bybro Bridge. We considered going to the fortress, but decided we didn't have time, so we did some more shopping. We ran into Lis and Jilly after that and Nancy and I decided to go off with them for the last bit of time we had in Trondheim, so we could get pictures of the Cathedral.

After that we were picked up at 5:00 and were taken to our hostel, I was rooming with Lis, Jilly, and Nancy tonight. Rooming with people from tour made the hostel experience less hostel like and more agreeable to me. We got our stuff ready, and ourselves ready for the pizza and ten pin bowling optional. We had no idea how the night would end up, but it was an interesting night....
We had dinner at Dolly Dimples, which was ok pizza. Even though it was all you can eat pizza you were limited to what pizza was delivered to your table or another table you could get a slice from. At 9:00 it was time to go to bowling, I played with Nancy, Caroline, Kellie and Ted. I got a 104, which made me happy since my goal was to break 100. Bowling was fun, as it always is with friends, but we decided against a second game since it was so expensive. Only one game was being included was kinda cheesy. Instead we went to the Downtown Bar, for a drink or two...

We were pretty much the only ones at the bar until 11:30, which was around when I was thinking it was getting to be time to go. But a piano player started and people started coming to the bar so I stayed. Tom told us he had never heard the song Piano Man by Billy Joel, nor Billy Joel or several other famous songs that I thought everyone had heard, he was going to need some culture! Or at least be forced to listen to some of the classics (wow, Billy Joel is now a classic!) Anyway, people started dancing, and they were pretty good. The women were dressed quite skimpily, and I'm told they were quite forward. That might explain why several of the guys picked up at this bar, which gave the rest of us some entertainment. But nothing was quite as interesting as the 2 businessmen with a very attractive woman, either they liked to share her or she was a prostitute they were splitting. She would dance (ok, they were practically having sex on the dance floor) with one guy, then she would be making out and give a lap dance to the other guy. Then she would leave with one of them, then come back, more dancing, leave again, come back again. They kept us entertained for quite some time. In the middle of all this I swear one of the women around the piano flashed the piano player, though I'm not sure it was his lucky night.

At 1:45 I decided to leave with Chris, Jacqui, Andrew, and Lis since I was getting tired and we had to walk and I wanted to do that with a group since I didn't have a clue where we were. It was bright out the whole walk, which was a bit weird, and we sorda got lost. Not so much lost as I just don't think we took the shortest way back. There was a lot of fighting over which way we should go, eventually we asked a couple people wandering around, they pointed us in the right direction, but we still ended up asking a taxi shortly after that. We would have taken the taxi, but it was 80 NKr to start, didn't fit all of us and we were apparently almost there, we just had to walk up hill. We fought some more about which way to go and if we were going the right way. But eventually we saw the hostel in the distance... It only took us 20 minutes to get there.
When we got back to the hostel there were people hanging around in the hallway talking (not very quietly, I might add), and the hallway by the mens bathroom still smelled like urine. This wasn't the nicest hostel, and the internet was VERY expensive, it was one of the few times we would stay at a place and not have half the tour online to check email. I guess since it's the only hostel in the city, they don't have to worry about competition or having high standards. I finally got to bed at 2:20. I missed the conclusion of some of the guys hooking up, but I would hear the gossip in the morning....

In all, Trondheim was a cute little city (3rd largest in Norway) and although it seemed a bit sleepy, apparently it's hopping at night.

Andalsnes (Geringer Fjord)

Day 9: Andalsnes Sightseeing: Don't leave your camera behind as today we follow the 'Trolls Road' past the Stigfoss Falls and up the mountain for fabulous views of the glacial valley below. Why not join us on an optional fjord cruise, past some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world, it's an experience you'll never forget. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Trollstigen Camping & Gjestegard

Breakfast: 7:15 Bus departs: 8:00

I got up at 6am and when I got to the shower I realized I didn't have my towel, so I had to walk back to my cabin for my towel, which was REALLY annoying. and was of course one of the place with the longest walk to the showers. We had to pay for showers again, 15 Nkr for 5 minutes and since I had mastered the 5 minute shower I did what I had to do in plenty of time. Today we would have a substitute driver since it was Andy's day off, by the time we were out of the campsite we knew we were lucky to have Andy as a driver, because this other guy wasn't so hot. But today was one of the big excursions, one of the reasons you come to Norway - to see a Fjord.

We tool the Trollstigen (Troll's Path) which has a 1:12 gradient up the mountain, don't really know what that means, but you had to snake up the road with hairpin turns. It's an amazing road, pretty much one really wide lane up a mountain. On the way up we had great views of waterfalls and on top there was snow. When we got to the other side we took a ferry from Eidsdal to Linge, which also had amazing views. We arrived at the Geiranger Fjord at 10:45. We had some time to do some shopping for lunch and for Souvenirs before meeting at 11:15 for an 11:30 cruise. It's amazing how much you could get done in 30 minutes, I got lunch and souvenirs.

The fjord was beautiful, like being in a valley surrounded by mountains, with beautiful water. We saw the 7 sisters (7 waterfalls from one place) and some face in a rock (which I didn't see because I didn't hear them announce it). The Fjord was magnificent and an absolute highlight. the clear water, the mountains around it - all that nature has to offer in one place. Ok, maybe not all, but I couldn't have thought of another thing I needed either. This is the type of place that makes you wonder if there is anything more beautiful out there. The pictures only portray part of the beauty. The cruise was over at 1:15 and we had another half hour for shopping.

On our ride back some people took naps, but we had some photo stops, including one in the snow to keep us entertained. Of course there was a snowball fight and Nancy and Jilly made angels in the snow. When we stopped an Insight Tours bus also stopped, a couple people seemed excited to see a Contiki bus, ahhhh, the Contiki reputation followed us to Norway. On the way we met up with Hollywood, the photographer for our group picture, which we took in the rain.

We got back to camp at 4:15 and I wrote some postcards and had a hot chocolate while most people slept until dinner time. Although I got to bed fairly early, 10:30, we were up talking for a while, apparently there was no water at the campsite, I prayed it would be fixed by morning.

Oslo to Andalsnes

Day 8: Oslo to Andalsnes: On to Lillehammer, host town for the 1994 Winter Olympics, and perhaps a chance to try the bobsled run? We then follow a picturesque route past lakes, waterfalls and mountains to our beautifully situated campsite. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Tollstigen Camping & Gjestegard

Breakfast: 7:15 Bags to the bus: 8:00 Bus departs: 8:30

I got up a few minutes before my alarm today, and when I got to the shower there was a line, I knew there was a reason I got up extra early. After breakfast a couple of us were talking near the Top Deck tent and noticed that they had a toaster. WHAT? We do NOT have a toaster! I mentioned it to Dion who was equally disgusted with Contiki. But I guess when you have 14 people a toaster is easier to manage. Today I sat with Ted on the bus and got to wear my Bobsledding t-shirt since today we were going on the optional I had dreamed about in statistics class - Bobsledding in Lillehammer!!!!!!!!! But we had some things to do first, like stop for gas and the bathroom. Then we were off to Lillehammer.

We got our first view of Lillehammer when we made a quick photo stop across from Lillehammer on the Mjsoa Lake. Our first stop in Lillehammer was the Olympic ski jump, I of course spent the 10 NKr to go up to the top, and then I spent another 160 NKr on souvenirs. Finally, Olympic souvenirs! When we started to pull out of the parking lot we saw Nancy running after the bus, she almost missed it, but we did wait for her, but she said she was prepared to hitch a ride into town. After the ski jump we went into the town, and you could see why this was one of the best Olympics. It's a quaint little town, reminded me a bit of Innsbruck, only smaller, but it had that quaint small town Europe feel to it. We had a hour for lunch and to take a look around. I grabbed some lunch at the local supermarket and took a look around, bought a few more little things then sat in the park eating my lunch till it was time to leave.

By 1:00 we were off to the Bobsled. My team would be Lis, Jilly, and Nancy - "4 Non-Aussies." We were the 3rd sled to go, I sat in the front, behind the professional driver. A bunch of the guys pushed us off as everyone cheered for us, the noise was deafening! Then we picked up speed and turned to the left, the right, my head bopping back and forth, eventually hitting the sides of the sled because of the force. It was a rush, and I got a great view since I only had the drivers head in front of me. Then cheering once again as we went up hill and came to a stop. Our time was 65:72. We didn't beat any Olympic records, but we came in 3rd for our group. After we finished we had plenty of time to take photos of the other sleds coming down. I even went into the circle at the bottom on the inside of the track where they had a stone monument thing with the winners of the Olympic Bobsled and Luge competitions. There was some delay because they had a problem with the machine that moves the sleds off the truck (they are driven back to the top of the track), so we didn't finish until 3:00, which meant we had to eat lunch on the bus. On the way to our campsite we stopped at some Troll Shop that was supposed to have good prices (apparently it depended on what you bought, some people found good prices there, while others found things cheaper elsewhere). From there we had great views as we drove through the mountains to our campsite, aside from beautiful mountains there were also waterfalls everywhere, Norway is beautiful.

Finally we got to our campsite at 7:30, it was nestled in a valley surrounded by the mountains, quite possibly the nicest setting of all our campsites. At this site I was rooming with Leah, Caroline and Renae. We found out quickly that they had washers and dryers, we decided to mix our stuff together so that we could all get some stuff done and so that we could save a bit of money since it wasn't cheap. Apparently we weren't as quick as we thought and were next in line for one of the washers. Dinner was at 9pm and was a little skimpy this evening. Apparently this caused a bit of an uproar for some people, and in fairness we do have quite a few big guys on the tour, so while there was always enough to fill me up, I'm sure others left dinner hungry. I think someone said something to Dion, and we never had a problem again.

I ended up spending the rest of the night in the laundry room chatting with Leah, Renae and Karl. While there we found out the the dryer sucked and ended up having to hang all our stuff in the room, later on I found out that after 3 or 4 hours you stuff would be dry, isn't that handy! I got to bed around 12:30, but because we were talking, I didn't get to sleep till at least 1am.

Back From Hawaii

I've now returned from Hawaii and am reimersing myself in everyday life, I'd rather be in Hawaii. I plan to do more posts on my trip and talk about the rest of my stops, and Norwegian Cruise Line. I thought though I would give an overall impression of Hawaii. I don't know if words can fully express the beauty of Hawaii, and part of the problem is that the beauty is in so many different forms - from beaches to mountains to cliffs to plants and trees.

When I was in Norway on the drive to Gerainger Fjord there was this gorgeous lake, beyond words. I was looking at it in awe when my Tour Manager came up to me and we were discussing how lovely it was there, and he made an ignorant comment about how there was nothing as beautiful in the US as was this, keep in mind he had never been to the US. I've been to some beautiful places in the US - Yosemite and the Grand Canyon come to mind, but I know there are several more that I still need to visit. I'm not sure that any one place that I've been to is as picturesque as this little lake was, or Gerainger Fjord for that matter. But for the concentration of land that Hawaii is and the vast types of landscapes, I think Hawaii would be the most beautiful place I've been. In particular, it was Kauai that won my heart.

Hawaii though wasn't as relaxed as I thought it might be. Perhaps my expectations were too high with the "hang loose" and surfer representation that we get from TV and movies. Or maybe it was because I only had a little time in each place and was trying to make the most of my time, without killing myself. Or maybe being on a cruise with other overworked, overstressed people separated us from the Hawaiian culture too much.

One Night in Trondheim

On my tour through Scandinavia we had a 1 day and night stop in Trondheim, the 3rd largest city in Norway, and a quaint one at that. The day was nice, but the night was quite interesting...

We arrived at a bar at 10pm and it was dead, people didn't start showing up until 11:30 - 12:00. I'm used to bars starting late, but there was no one at this bar, except us until 11:30, that was the first sign that this was going to be an interesting evening. I had even considered leaving since it was so slow. There was a piano player who started around midnight and the locals danced, it was nice. But there was also 2 business men who were accompanied by a girl in pink who had to be a prostitute. She would dance with one guy, practically having sex on the dance floor. Then she would go to the other guy who was sitting at the bar and pretty much give him a lap dance, and he was enjoying it. This went on for a while, then she would leave for a few minutes with one guy and come back, then leave again. It provided us with a lot of entertainment. Once they left we concentrated on some other people in the crowd. Like the girl who flashed the piano player. Later on in the night some of the guys from the tour tried to meet some of the locals. 3 of the guys did get to know the locals a little better... Tom, an 18 year old, met an older woman. She said she was 30, he said he was 25 - she had to have been in her mid 30's. But they had a good night and Tom didn't get home until 6am. We sang Mrs. Robinson to him, but the humor was lost on him since he doesn't know the movie The Graduate.

It was an interesting night, and I can't help but wonder if we happened to have picked the right bar, or if this is part of the affect of having the sun up all the time. The vibe was more of a casual local bar, not the type where you brought a prostitute and flashed people. I can't imagine in the dead of winter when there is no sun out that the locals are just starting to hit the town at midnight, and really hitting the town. The sun really does disorient you as to what time of day it is, and makes you want to stay up a little later and live a little more.

Choosing Scandinavia and Russia

When I tell people that I have traveled to Scandinavia and Russia they often ask, why? Here's my journey...

After doing a 2 week tour of Europe with Contiki I had picked my next trip - Eastern Road - Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Vienna, Warsaw. It was a 2 week trip that I had heard good things about. The problem was that I "fell" into some extra time off of work and wanted to take advantage. I wanted to go away for 3 or 4 weeks and on a whim looked through the Contiki brochure. Did I want to do the Eastern Road tour and another tour, or just do some independent travel before and after? Then I noticed this 33 day tour of Scandinavia and Russia, it piqued my interest. I started looking up some info on Scandinavia and after seeing some pictures realized it was beautiful there, I mean really beautiful - beyond anything I could imagine. Russia was easy since I've always had an interest in WWII and the Cold War. My next issue was dealing with the fact that this would be a "budget" tour - we would be staying in cabins instead of hotels. I did some more research and found out that in Russia we would be staying in hotels and that the cabins were pretty decent. I bit the bullet and in January I booked my trip for May. A couple cabins are a small price to pay for seeing a fjord (whatever that was), a glacier and the midnight sun.

I loved Scandinavia, it was a beautiful place. I was actually sick my whole time there and ended up sleeping on the bus a fair amount. I would often wake up and look out the window and see a waterfall, or a lake or a beautiful mountain view. Almost all of our campsites were in great locations, often on a lake or nestled in the mountains. I'm not a terribly outdoorsy person, but being in a place like this made me one.

On our drive to Nordkapp from Hammerfest to see the midnight sun we kept seeing reindeer, I kept trying to take pictures. They wouldn't stop long enough for me to get a picture, but that was a gift. It was fun to watch them in their natural habitat (there isn't much of a population this far north). The little ones would follow their mother around and the medium sized ones seemed to be playing with each other. Who needs Animal Planet when you have this? Then there was the one at one of our breaks on the drive. It was a lone reigndeer, a young looking one. He was just standing there and I jumped off to get a picture of him. One of the guys from the tour walked up to him to feed him something and the reigndeer ate it and hung around. The story differs depending on who you ask at this point. My story: The reigndeer turned to me, flared his nostrels and charged me, I ran away barely surviving the incident. Apparently the video shows that the reigndeer started to walk towards me and I panicked and ran away. Hey, where I come from animals aren't friendly! Everyone then tried to feed or pet the reigndeer, it was funny to watch because I think he started getting freaked out by them. But the sweetest thing was that when the bus pulled away the reigndeer started to follow the bus and was at a full run.

I'll leave Russia and more tales from Scandinavia for another day.