Gap Year

I'm waiting, yet again, at the train station and I remembered a couple of things I meant to tell you. The Norway in a Nutshell tour started at 06:35 so I was at the station at about 05:45 because I was pretty paranoid I was going to miss it! Anyway so I saw my train's platform had been announced so it being so warm I thought I would just go and wait there rather than by all the shops and so on. So I head down the pretty much deserted gangway and the first thing I see is these insanely fancily dressed conductors all stood by the train but hey I'd been up since about 04:00 so my brain was just like ggnnnhhh...whatever. Then this man comes up to me and goes 'era norsk?' or whatever it is they all keep saying to me. 'No...' 'well, you have to go back inside, we're about to shoot for a movie down here' ! What??? Whyever didn't they shut the doors I wonder? I was not properly awake so I would totally just have got on that train in the middle of the shoot lol! Anyway, pretty eventfull day! The other thing, quickly because I've got a train to catch: guess where I stayed in Bergen? It's fun to stay at the... well, it made me laugh anyway lol!

That was a long last blog, wasn't it? Are you ready for another? Ok well Gothenburg: Gothenburg was a pretty nice city with I must say some very good museums -and I've been in a lot in the past couple of months so you know I mean it! I seem to be developing quite a taste for modern art especially photography (now I bet you never thought you'd hear me say that!) so I enjoyed that and the Museum of World Culture was surely one of the coolest museums I've been in in a while. Check out the webpage, see if it seems as cool to you: http://www.varldskulturmuseet.se/smvk/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=126&l=en_US I particularly liked "83 ways to change the world" I also first experienced how much nature there is to be found in Scandinavian cities -I kept turning corners and coming across mini mountains! Anyway, made a few new friends in Gothenburg then onwards to Oslo. At Oslo, my sense of direction decided to take a little holiday of it's own so although my hostel shouldn't have been hard to find, it took me nearly 5 times longer than the actual walk itself :-( but hey, anyway. Umm...I enjoyed Oslo although the prices made me seriously consider giving up eating! They were even expensive compared to England, people and that is saying something! Not much else to say for Oslo really. Wandered around a bit! Kept getting talked to by gorgeous guys in what I presume was some form of Norwegian which I must say was not unpleasant lol! Oh. I went to the Norwegian Folkmuseum which basically they had transported old buildings from all over Norway and put them here in an outdoor mini village with the staff dressed up in traditional costumes and traditional dancing. Anyway, quite a nice day out in suburban Oslo though you wouldn't believe it. Cities don't get very big this far north. Then: Norway in a Nutshell. This was a bit of a splurge but it was well worth it. It included train Oslo- Myrdal, the Flam railway to yes you guessed it, Flam. A fjord cruise to Gudvangen, a bus to Voss -including the steepest road in Norway, and a train to Bergen. Now all that may not mean that much to you but these routes are, as my guidebook says, some of the most scenic in the world. They have to be seen to be believed. (If you go here: http://www.fjord-tours.com/video.asp?tur=nin there are some of the views) A very very packed day but so beautiful. I would recommend it to anyone. Overnight in Bergen -which seems quite a friendly city but smallish (only 235000, a midget lol! No, it seems smaller than it actually is but I'm getting used to big cities. Good for when I go to Birmingham, perhaps?) which was good fun and then this afternoon the whole of the Oslo-Bergen railway -all seven hours worth and on to Stockholm tomorrow. Oh and who would believe it could be hot in Oslo? Boiling compared to recent weeks. And this midnight sun thing is really throwing me off! I keep waking up a 3 in the morning thinking I've overslept!

apparantly I do have time to blog seeing as I'm stuck in the train station in Malmo as although the trains to Gothenburg were SUPPOSSED to be every hour, the next one I can get on isn't until 15:08 and even that is without a guaranteed seat. Namely, it's entirely possible I could be standing for THREE HOURS! And so I thought I would book my train to Oslo while I'm here but apparantly part of the line is down so I have to get a bus (aaaarrrrgggghhh, I dread getting buses because you never know where you are and might miss the stop... oh no :-( ) and change to a train later on. *sigh* typical, huh? Anyway so things that have been going down... well I think I forgot to tell you all about these scrumptious fillo pastry twists covered in poppy and sesame seeds that I had for breakfast everyday in Denmark because it wasn't included and they were just so good! And I'm still losing weight would you believe? Travelling is miraculous! Anyway, lol I had a pretty good time in Malmö, it's quite a cool city. Umm...cool ethnic market, Sweden's tallest building the Turning Torso which was quite cool but my feet didn't appreciate the treck all the way out to the industrial part of the city to see it but nevermind, Sweden's oldest Renaissnce castle and some other stuff besides. Hostel was really amusing - had it's own sauna, a guitar to play if you wanted to serenade the other guests and amusingly a basket of knitting to help you relax. That seemed to have been quite popular actually and it resulted in a mass that might have been part way towards beeing a very large sock but with a handle and some bobbles etc. lmao. Apparantly knitting is something Swedish people like to do I guess! Bonded with a couple of Italian girls in my dorm over being so tired then woken up at 0:30 by a woman who came in and turned all the lights on and started rummaging around! Thank god for ear plugs and filthy looks lol! Anyway, next day onto Ystad. When I got to the tourist office I first asked about going to Ales Stenar the next day -seeing as the bus only goes each way twice a day- and then asked for directions to my hostel as I couldn't see it on the map. "Ah" she goes. "That's because it's not actually in the town." WHAT???" OMG no wonder it had space!!! Thankfully 'twas only about a kilometre and a half though let me tell you that's no joke with all my stuff but anyway it was pretty, walking along these foot paths right beside the sea with all the birds nesting there - a few little cygnets amongst them. And then when I got there about 14:00 and the reception was closed with no where to leave my stuff until 16:00, I'm not going to lie to you I just went and sat on the beach and pretended like it wasn't freezing with my strawberry and white magnum (which I've only just discovered but are wonderful! mmm...). Anyway, next day got up insanely early so as to be sure I didn't miss the first bus to Kaseberga and when I arrived there I saw that I had been foolish wondering which Kaseberga stop to get off at. If I tell you that Kaseberga's population is 150, will you get what I mean? Anyway I set off up the hill to find Ales Stenar and was thinking how nice it was on this little path high up surrounded by fields and then I realised that to get to Ales Stenar I was actually going to have to walk through a field. Indeed, I made friends with a couple of curious cows and actually from the cow pats up there I imagine the animals are allowed to wander pretty much as they please throught this ancient monument. Ales Stenar when I got there was cool -a bit like Stonehenge but in the shape of a ship and directly overlooking the sea. I stayed enjoying the peace and quiet and did a little yoga (well, why not?) until 10:30 or so when the tourists began to arrive and then wandered down to go and have a look around the village. Well, I kid you not, I walked the entire length of every single road in Kaseberga, wandered down to the harbour and sat watching the fishermen for a bit and I kid you not I was still done by 12:00 and had to hang around for another hour for the bus by which time I was like "get me out of here!" even though it was very cute so I definitely know I'm still a city girl! As such can you imagine how excited I am to be going to Gothenburg which is, I believe, Sweden's second largest city? Then onto Oslo and Bergen before back across to Stockholm and then Finland.

sorry,Ive got a train to catch and Im not sure Ill have time to blog until after my interlude in Norway but just tolet you know, Im ok

I forgot to mention that in my hostel in Odense there was an ice cream parlor and as there were so few people the lady behind the counter asked if I'd like to do a taste test. Well what would you have me do? Dissapoint her??? In the end I settled on a scoop of this basil sorbet which sounds incredibly odd but was actually very refreshing and good, probably enhanced by the fact that she said most of the ingredients for the ice cream were grown locally and some even in the hostel gardens! So ANYWAY...next day I went to Helsingor aka Elsinore which was pretty good though I must admit Rosenburg in Copenhagen was better with the crown jewels but anyway...! Um, the casemates (beneath the castle) were probably not for the afraid of dark or claustrophobic as they only lit every fourth room or so and there was a quite horrific modern art exhibit in the torture chamber -a perfect place to take your children for hallowe'en though! Also an interesting story with the statue of a viking that in time of need will come awake and save Denmark. (You know a bit like those King Arthur stories) Anyway, it was quite nice to see another town in Denmark particularly as this was right on the Baltic and so beautiful if very very windy. I hadn't anticipated I was oing to the seaside! Little fishing shacks and so on. Actually that said, if you couldn't feel the temperature even though it sounds crazy Denmark looks sort of like the Italian countryside did. Lots of green and beautiful blue skies as a backdrop to yellow and red houses with terracotta rooves. Lovely. And I'm sure you now all think I'm crazy but nevermind!

I got the train to Malmo Sweden today and so I'm off to explore a new country. There is a saying: "Haur du sitt Malmo, haur du sitt varden" which apparantly means if you've seen Malmo, you've seen the world so we shall see!