Travel Declarations!

I apologize for not posting more often on Friday's.  I started a little venture with a friend and it's taking up a lot of my free time, combined with not having much to review or recommend.

But I am here today to declare new vacation commitment/plan/idea.  For my 30th Birthday I spent a month in Scandinavia and Russia.  For my post dental work trip I'm currently planning on doing Australia for 3-4 weeks late next year.  When I retire from my job in 7 years I want to travel around the world.  That leaves me with, what to do for my 40th Birthday????  Well it's in 4 years and on my bucket list is to go to the Olympics so for my 40th Birthday I'm going to the Olympics in Rio!!!!!  And with 4 years to plan I have no excuses for not planning appropriately.

Keuruu to Helsinki

Day 18: Keuruu to Helsinki: We continue southwards to Helsinki, Finland's capital. Our sightseeing tour takes in the Olympic Stadium, the massive underground church and Sibelius Park, a memorial to Finland's greatest composer in the 'White City of the North'. (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Satakuntatalo Summerhotel
Breakfast: 8:00 Bags to the bus: 8:45 Bus departs: 9:00

I got up a little before my alarm today so I got a jump on getting ready. The bathrooms were cool at this campsite. Each stall in the bathroom had a toilet, sink and shower which made it a bit easier to get ready. On the bus I played Crazy 8's with Nancy, Karl, Cathy and Jacqui. We had one quick break, when they realized we were lost, and got into Helsinki a little after 1. After we got lost Dion and Che decided we should play Coach Olympics, since I was in the front of the bus and everything had to go to the back of the d? But apparently the other side of the bus had pretty much given up, I guess I didn't have to rbus I didn't do much. Until they wanted an ipod with Eye of the Tiger paused. OMG, that's me! So everything in my backpack went flying (poor Nancy was trying to keep my stuff organized), I finally found it then couldn't find the song, I guess I was a little overly excited. I was rushing like crazy because who wouldn't have Eye of the Tiger on their ipoush so much. We won the point and the game! Yea for cheesy music! On the bus we also did comment things about the tour and Che and Dion thanked us for a nice tour. Dion also told us that he had been lying to us, it was actually his first tour as a Super Cook, how cute. Well the other thing that happened is that my watch stopped, not a very useful watch now, why is everything breaking?

When we got into town we stopped for pictures at the Lutheran Church and at Sibelius Park. Then I had lunch with Kate, Andrew, Kieran, and Marie. We walked over the the Rock Church (Temppeliaukio Church), a church built into a really big rock. After that we walked over to Olympic Stadium from the 1952 Helsinki games, apparently Kate likes seeing the Olympic sites, I'm not the only one. I heard later on that you can go up the towery thing, but we didn't really have time for that anyway. On the way back we saw the statue to Paavo Nurmi, an Olympic runner/medalist. I was going to try and get my watch fixed before our 5:15 pick up, but in the end we ran out of time.

A couple people almost missed the bus to the Hostel. When we got there I got in the elevator with my bag, I knew where my room was, but I left Nancy to get the key, I just hadn't told her. So Dion let me store my bag in his room while I tried to find Nancy. By the time I got back downstairs Nancy had already gotten the key. But in the meantime I met a couple people from the Russian part of the tour and said a quick hello. On my way back up to the room the floors were all screwy, room 410 would be on the 6th floor, crazy. Eventually I found my room. There was a doorway that led to a set of rooms, about 6 rooms, which were all filled with people from tour. It also had two toilets, but only 1 shower - that would be interesting. Nancy was in our room and we had a balcony, with a view of construction, Yippy!

We had quite a while to get ready so I decided to find a place to get my watch fixed, since I didn't know how possible that would be in Russia. The front desk sent me a couple blocks away, I got a little lost on the way, but eventually found a mall. One of the first stores was a watch store and I waited a while to get helped. The girl said it would take 10 minutes, I went for a drink in the meantime. When I got back the girl was helping someone else. I left her alone for a few minutes but it started getting late so I had to interrupted her, either way I needed the watch back so I could get back in time for our Russia meeting. She quickly finished and only charged me half the price since it took so long.

I got back to the hostel with 10 minutes to spare before our Russia meeting with Maggy. I quickly changed and fixed myself up for our dinner and night out then went down to the meeting. Maggy introduced herself and Ash (the driver) and gave us a little basic info before taking the Russia group to dinner. She advised us to have a good time tonight, but not too make it too big of a night since tomorrow would be a long day getting into Russia. We still had a few minutes before going to dinner so I went back upstairs to properly get ready. Some people were very dressed up and I felt like I should do myself up a bit more.

At 7:45 we walked to dinner, we were eating (as was the other group that had gone a half hour before us) at Armadillo. I sat with Cara, AJ and Renae. Since this was our last night with the Scandi only group we took lots of pictures at dinner. After dinner we all met at some bar down the block. Later on I heard that the bar next to ours had an ice bar in it, a couple people had gone to it, but I didn't bother since I had been to the one in Stockholm. When we first got there I talked to some of the Russia tour people and had last minute bonding with the Scandi people. It was an interesting evening. Che had quite a bit to drink and Tania had an accident. She fell out of an elevator onto the floor, went unconscious and cut her head and was bleeding. It's a good thing Karl was with her (I'll leave that to your own imaginations), she had to go to the emergency room and get 10 stitches in her head. Later on I saw the pictures of her in the ambulance and she didn't look too upset.

I left the bar at 1:20 with Lis, Jilly, Kate and Andrew since the rest of the group was going to a club and I wasn't interest in that. Poor Kate's shoes were hurting her feet so much that Andrew had to carry her part way back. We ran into some others on the way, including Kevin who tried to get a ride on Andrew's back - only to get spun around, which he didn't seem to enjoy, but the rest of us did. When I got back I tried to call home one last time before going to Russia where my phone rates would be much higher, but I just got the answering machine.

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.

Oslo

Day 7: Oslo Sightseeing: A whole day to enjoy the many sights. A chance to visit the Kontiki Museum with its amazing raft and see the Gustav Vigeland sculptures in Frogner Park. (Breakfast included)


Hotel: Vivbratan

Breakfast: 8:15 Bus departs: 9:00


I was up at 7am this morning and took a free shower, yea! But since nothing is truly free, every time you pushed the button for the shower it would last about 30 seconds, so you had to keep pushing it. After a few minutes you could kinda tell when it was about to go out and could keep a pretty steady stream going. The adventures in travel!

At 9am we were off to Holmenkollen, home of the biggest ski jump in the world. And I have to say, it was pretty damn big! You would have to be nuts to jump off that thing! When we first got there everyone was taking pictures of it and then we finally got to go inside, they have a ski museum there, showing skis over the years, and Holmenkollen over the years and Olympic stuff from the 1952 Oslo games, I was in heaven. Then I went up to the top, you take an elevator about half way (on the picture you'll notice a post holding the ski jump up, that post had the elevator in it), but you had to climb (141 steps) the rest of the way to the top. Again I have noticed that the Stairmaster does not translate to stairs, what good is a stairmaster if it doesn't help with stairs? While I was waiting to go to the top they had ski jumping skis on the wall, wow, they are really wide! I guess it makes sense since you use them to fly, but they were still wider then I thought they would be, and generally just really big. But the wait in line and the 141 stairs were all worth it once you got to see the view down! It was beautiful! After a little Contiki photo session I went back down so I could do some shopping for Olympic paraphernalia. Sadly there wasn't any Olympic stuff for me to buy. Then I wanted to go on the ski jump simulator, but I didn't have time for that, and the ATM. Money won out. But money did not come out of the ATM machine; for some reason it didn't like my ATM card, or Kevin's for that matter. All I had was 50 NKr from when I bought a ticket to the simulator with my credit card and then returned the ticket (got cash back) because I was afraid I would run out of time and miss the bus. Renae ran into her parents at Holmenkollen, they were on a cruise that was in Oslo today, I guess it really is a small world. She met up with them later to get clothes from them.

Our next stop on the bus was Frogner Park. I must admit I wasn't terribly excited about this, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or go where the Tour Manager takes you. We arrived at 11:45 and were walked through a cemetery to the Park (I don't make the news, I just report it). In the park we saw lots of statues, mostly of naked people in strange poses. We of course saw the whining baby, reminds me of a temper tantrum. It was one of the smallest statues in the park, but probably the most famous (it was the only one I had heard of), I was surprised how small it is. If Che hadn't shown us where it was I probably wouldn't have found it.


After Frogner Park we went into Oslo. We were dropped off at Acker Brygge at 12:30 for our free day. The first thing I hoped to do was get my camera looked at, but since I didn't get my own map of the city I decided that I was better off going around with a group and seeing the city, I probably wouldn't have bothered getting my camera fixed, especially since it worked on automatic. So off I went with Marie, Kieran, Ashley, Chris, Jacqui, Kevin and Patrick. But first we needed lunch. Chris and I ended up at Burger King while everyone else ended up at a little deli type place. After our quick bite we were off to the National Museum. We tried a couple ATM's, but with no success, well Kevin and Patrick got money, it was just me who couldn't get it. Apparently, my bank was refusing to give me my money. I didn't understand why, I told them I was going away and hadn't had any trouble using my ATM card anywhere else or my credit card either. Of course it was a Sunday so I couldn't even call. But I trekked on, eventually I would get money, either that or I was going to owe someone a lot of money. So after eating and not getting money we went to the National Museum, which is free. So are you wondering what is in the National Museum in Oslo that is interesting to see? Well, The Scream, The Madonna, and Da Vinci's Self Portrait. I must admit that other then that I wasn't all that into the museum, but it was small enough that you could look around the whole place in an hour or so.

After the National Museum I wanted to see the Resistance Museum; however, there was a conflict. At 3:00 there was a bus going to the area of Oslo that has the Kon-tiki, Fram and Viking museums. Although that all sounded nice, I wasn't really into that stuff, and much preferred to go to the Resistance Museum. So Marie gave me her map and I grabbed another map from the museum and decided to venture off on my own to the Resistance Museum, setting a 5:00 meeting time with Marie so that I could catch up with the group later for dinner. Off I went, on my own. I found the Jewel of the Sea, one of Royal Caribbean's ships, on the way. Across from the ship was the Akerhus Castle which I found out is where the Resistance Museum was. When you walk in there is a handy sign that tells you where you are and where everything was. I studied it for a minute and went into the grounds. Once in I realized I was going to have trouble finding this museum and that I didn't have much time to make a final decision about going to the Kon-tiki Museum. So I looked around a little more, didn't find it and headed back to the 3:00 meeting place. In retrospect this was probably a good decision. Later in the day I found out that Tom had moved the sticker that tells you where you are on the map at Akershus Castle, confusing many tourists, and possibly me, and could be the reason I didn't find the Resistance Museum. Ultimately I ended up going back to meet the group.


When we got to the museums, I decided that they still didn't really interest me, especially if I had to pay to get in. So I took a little walk with Chris and Jacqui and sat on the water for a little bit chatting, it was probably the nicest day so far on the trip, it wasn't raining and it was almost warm out. From where we were sitting we had a nice view of Oslo and the harbor, which was really pretty. We decided to head back toward the ferry and ran into Lis and Jilly, we all took a 4:05 ferry back to Acker Bregger for 20 NKr. The hope was to find an open souvenir shop, but it was 4:30 on a Sunday in Oslo and we couldn't. We ended up just walking around town a bit and I was eventually able to get money out of an ATM. I think my problem was that I was trying to take too much money out at once and was going over my daily limit, all these different currencies were annoying to keep track of.

Eventually we found a little internet cafe with a pub next door, Lis, Jilly and I all checked our email while Chris and Jacqui had a drink next door. While I was gone Rob, Leah B, Stefan, and Tom had showen up. Lis and Jilly split off after a bit since they had decided to go to the movies, they were seeing X-Men, which was playing in English. The rest of us decided to go to an Indian restaurant, we expected the walk to be 10 minutes in the wrong direction. Along the way we ran into Danny, Samar, Karl, Skye, and some other people on bikes. They biked around Oslo and apparently had a wonderful time. When 20 minutes went by and we were only halfway there Chris, Jacqui and I decided to head back and grab something along the way. We eventually ended up in some little whole in the wall type of place having burgers. When we were walking back after dinner we ran into Lis and Jilly coming out of the movies. We were back at the bus at 8:40 (almost everyone was early since there isn't much to do in Oslo at 8:00 on a Sunday), and as we pulled out it started to rain. When we got back to the campsite at 10 the Top Deck tour was in and having a bonfire. I went inside and hung out with Nancy, Donna, Sara and Stephanie for a bit. I found out that I could only transfer around 256 photos onto my ipod before the battery died, too bad my memory card holds twice as many photos.


I liked Oslo, it wasn't an exciting city, but it was quant for how big it was, though I still wouldn't consider it to be one of my favorite cities, like Rome.