Stockholm (second unsolicited compliment on book by the guy at the desk in the hostel), walking around old quarter, eating cookies with sugary center at the bus stop + Went to Stockholm open air museum with houses from the area that were from the 1800s. Rick Steves said this was the best open air museum in Europe! + Ate McDonald’s and watched stunt birds+

Story: Stunt birds in front of Mcdonalds in Stockholm
We couldn’t decide what to eat in Stockholm after the open air museum, so we wandered along the harbor and followed the streams of people and fell upon a very busy square where there was a Turkish music performance. We kept walking but didn’t see anything interesting to eat other than a TGIFridays, but it was very expensive, so we tried to go to a Swedish fast food burger place, which was also quite expensive for the type of food, so we decided to settle on good old McDonald’s across the street. As we sat by the window eating our Big Macs and fries, we noticed that there were a lot of birds that looked like seagulls but were smaller and a lot more agile flying around. One particular one kept flying down by the road and then doing crazy flying maneuvers in the air to avoid the cars coming by. We couldn’t figure out why it kept flying down and putting it self in danger. Amy thought it was lost and didn’t know where to go. Finally, we saw it. The French Fry. It was in the middle of the street, and the bird was trying it’s hardest to grab it!!! Finally, it made a successful charge from the air and grabbed it and flew off. Afterwards, more birds came and there were several of these birds doing stunts in front of our window. Then, the seagulls came. And hit jackpot!! There was an unfinished burger by the trash can! unfortunately, it was too big for any one seagull to take, so a lot of it splattered back onto the ground for other birds to share. But this definitely was not as impressive as the smaller stunt birds that definitely gave us a stunt bird show unlike any other.

Ate a sandwich and drank some smoothies that cost the same if not more than the sandwich + Amy got excited about eating pho from her wiki information on Oslo + Saw a real viking ship. Actually, THREE! Wow! + Saw Oslo national art gallery + Walked to the harbor and examined Nordic mythology art on the outer walls of town hall + Bought thick stringy candy (like twizzlers, but not twisted). Amy really liked this + Tried to look for sunglasses for Amy because she kept complaining about how bright the Norwegian sun is. She liked looking at it, but it got painful after a while + Ate pho at Hai Cafe. We had asked the ticket seller at the Viking Museum for directions to the address we had in our book. Amy was very happy, first real pho in Europe! There were also a lot of babies in the restaurant + Got very confused by their “ring” metro line. It took us about 4 attempts to get on the right train going the right direction. Their ring is more like a loop-di-loop + then night bus to Stockholm

Norway in a Nutshell tour to Oslo: Fjords, Fjords, and more Fjords!
Bergen to Voss by train, Voss to Flam by bus and then boat, then from Flam to Myrdal (sounds like Mordor) by scenic train, then from Myrdal to Oslo by train

Tips for best views:
Sit on the left from Bergen to Voss
Sit on the right on the bus from Voss to the boat

Stories:
Little girl on the Norway in a nutshell train to Oslo
When booking the trains for Norway in a Nutshell the day before our journey, the ticket agent informed us that the leg from Myrdal to Oslo was fully booked and we could not reserve a seat. He suggested we take it anyway and see if we can find a seat when we get there. So after seeing beautiful fjords on the train, bus, boat and then the Flam train we wait for the train to Oslo. We see a lot of hard core looking people in cross country ski gear and we wonder where everyone was going. The conductor from the Flam train was also on the platform as we waited and he explained to us that there was a big world famous cross country skiing meet happening somewhere along the train route. Sure enough, when we got on the train, there were cross country skiiers everywhere, sleeping on the floor of the train, filling up the seats, etc. So we walk through the cars, trying to find some place to put our bags and wait for a seat to open up, when we come across a little room with benches, soft stools, a table, and a tv playing a cartoon. Inside was a woman with her daughter. She looked at our confused faces as we wandered into the room and said “There’s no more that way,” pointing to the other side of the room, “This is the end.” “Oh… uh… can we sit here?” asks Amy. “Sure, if there are no children.” So imagine Brian and I wearing our giant backpacks wandering into a little kids room with two big windows on either side looking outside of train and plopping down on a soft stool next to a little girl who’s eyes are glued to the television screen. We sort of settle into our little purple stools and watch Norwegian cartoons with the girl, keeping an eye out for pretty scenery outside of the big windows. It was sort of a sanctuary away from the rowdy, excited cross country skiiers on the rest of the train. Suddenly, the cartoon froze on the screen. The little girl starts muttering something, we can’t tell if she’s speaking English or Norwegian, but we exchange hand signals that translated to “Ah! It’s not working!” “Gosh, I wonder what happened!” “I don’t know!” “Sorry ” The little girl sits there for a while, staring at the frozen tv, and when she leaves, it starts up again. As if by instinct, she turns around and looks at us and we’re frantically waving to her to come back. She comes back and it’s working for maybe another five minutes and then it freezes again. She still sits there, disappointed. Brian feels like we needed to entertain her, so he comes up with the idea of folding origami. He makes a square out of scrap from an unimportant brochure and hands it to Amy. Amy commences to fold a crane with moving wings. The little girl is interested and peeks over, but tries to avoid staring by looking at the TV. Eventually, the little girl’s mom comes back into the room and we strike up conversation with her. Both her son and husband were participating in the ski meet and they were going to meet them at the finish line. She said it takes about 6 hours for them to ski the distance the train could go in half an hour. It would probably take Brian and Amy a week. We tell her that we’re making the little girl a crane, and the mother is very knowledgeable and says “Oh, yes, Origami! That is Japanese!” Amy finishes and hands the crane to the little girl and shows her how to make the wings flap. The little girl is very happy and at her mom’s prompt, she says “Thank you” very clearly and constantly plays with the crane even though the cartoon had started working again. When they leave the room to get off the train, she turned around and said, again, very clearly, “Good bye” with the crane held tightly in her hand. Maybe we inspired her to become an origami master!

Bergen, Interior Design Museum. Saw a lot of chairs and crazy clothing (Who wears that stuff??) Amy really liked the display on chairs throughout the ages. Brian liked the teapots. + Ate Ramen lunch at the hotel Yum! + Catching the tourist Information right before they took away the sign. + Bought easy to make soup (just add water and boil) and ready made food at the supermarket, ate at hostel. + Amy had a nice conversation with a retired Cantonese couple from Australia about things ranging from where they’ve been to how the university system is in Australia and how her sons still live with her because there’s less of a need to go far away to go to a good school, etc. + Sunset by the Harbor, ice cream: Coffee with soft serve ice cream dipped in Chocolate powder.

Amy and I have had some good luck while traveling in Scandinavia. On our first evening in Copenhagen, I looked down and found 10 kroners! That’s like 2 bucks! We were both very happy. However Amy was not to be outdone. The next evening while leaving a traditional Copenhagen restaurant (Chinese restaurant) she found 500 KRONERS! That’s like 100 bucks! … however Scandinavia is very expensive so that really only buys you like a waffle cone. just kidding… maybe five waffle cones.

Then more luck was awaiting us in Bergen, Norway (where we are now!) First off all the tour guides warned you to be ready for rain and clouds as Bergen only gets 60 days of sun every year. I guess we are lucky because we’ve had two beautiful days of Norwegian sun! Also when checking in to our hotel they didn’t have our reservation (that is one unit of bad luck) but they had some open rooms for us if we were willing to change rooms for our second night. And since we had to go through the trouble of moving they gave us a 25% discount! ( two units of good luck! that means we ended up with one unit of good luck)

oh… and Amy wants me to add that she found ramen. I don’t think that is so lucky :/

I’m off to do some traveling now!
ciao!

Found out about last windmill in Amsterdam city proper (we had spotted it on our canal cruise and asked our hotel guy and he really had to think hard to figure out what we were talking about), ran across town and back in one hour just to see it before flight to Bergen. We really did just see it… across a hill. We took a video, though! + Flight to Bergen, walked around harbor + Went to super market (Remi 1000) and bought canned fruit, bread, cookies, mackarel and sardines + Found RAMEN at the supermarket! + Sunset on mountain and Funicular, Mackarel and Sardines with paninis from the airplane for dinner, old lady on the funicular.

Story:
Grandma on the Bergen funicular, Grandma pat
On the way down from the mountain after sunset in Bergen, we took the 9:00 funicular down. We start noticing that there is a stream of elderly people who are coming down from the restaurant into the funicular. At first, we comfortably fit into the funicular, but as we waited some more, there were so many elderly people that we gave up our seat and had to stand against the side of the car. Some couldn’t fit and had to wait for the next one in half an hour. While standing and waiting for the funicular to start, an elderly lady who was sitting close by starts talking to Amy in Norwegian and gestures towards the seats that used to be ours. Amy interprets it as “Thanks for giving up the seat, that was very nice of you.” and Amy nods and smiles and waves “No problem!” The lady then gives Amy a Grandma Pat. You know, the firm, yet commanding pat + squeeze of approval? When the funicular starts moving, Amy is facing away from the pole when the lady gets her attention and starts saying more and gesturing what Amy interpreted as “Turn around and hold on to the pole!” which Amy did, and the lady continued speaking and gesturing a swaying motion, which Amy interpreted as “Yeah, that’s right. You need to hold on! The car will sway back and forth and you could fall!” Again, Amy smiles and nods and tries to thank her for her advice. Finally, when we reached the bottom, there was such a rush of people that we didn’t get a chance to get one last look at her and thank her for her kind caring. Amy is pretty bummed about this. Fortunately, Amy had stolen a picture of her while waiting for the funicular to start

Ate a croissant from a bakery our hotel dude suggested. + Tried to take walking tour, missed it. It cost too much anyway + Tried to eat at a smorresbord (a Scandinavian sandwich) but the place was too expensive for 2/3 of a sandwich. + Tried to visit Tivoli, their old amusement park, but it was not opening for another two days. + Grabbed some food and ate it while waiting for a canal tour. + Canal tour with a bunch of loud High schoolers + National Museum which holds a lot of old Scandinavian artifacts. + Tried to find a windmill, but failed. (apparently they took the wings off this one so it just looked like a house…) + Went to train station to get cash from money exchange. They don’t all ow you to buy money so we use an ATM. Amy’s ATM card is eaten by the hungry machine. We use jajah to call Bank of America. Amy went crazy talking to the computer and failed three time to get a human on the phone. Brian helped her out. Hint: if you want a human operator just claim your card was stolen. + Went into a “cheap” hotel Chinese restaurant. It was pretty pricey ($15 per person) + Amy makes a friend with the Cantonese Waitress (she’s been in Copenhagen for 15 years and thinks that it’s pretty boring there, not much Chinese population. The cook’s mom is from the Toy San area! They took over the restaurant, which has been around for 50 some odd years. Amy is in awe that she spoke English, Danish, Cantonese, probably Mandarin as well) + Regretting how much Copenhagen is costing we leave the restaurant, when Amy finds 500 kroners on the ground. +

Terminology:
Kroner – and expletive used for when something goes wrong or is really expensive. Amy and I made this one up.

Missed breakfast because our bus for Copenhagen was leaving too early. + Slept on bus to Copenhagen. The bus did get on a ferry though which gave us a chance to eat and experience Scandinavian prices. Amy fell asleep leaning on a table while Brian was stuck watching TV. It wasn’t normal TV though it was a 5 minute loop of commercials: Paris Hilton Can-Can perfume, Ferry Tax-Free shop with alcohol emphasis, Christina Augilera perfume, Tax free shop commercial #2 focusing on candy, and finally Gucci perfume. It was driving him mad. + More sleep on the bus. + Arrival to Copenhagen and our hotel, “Chicken’s Private Pension”. It was some guys large old house that he rented rooms out in. It was pretty nice, and had lots of art work on the walls, sometimes very bizarre art work. + We followed Rick Steves’ walking tour. + Found a Pizza/Chinese all you can eat buffet. Brian ate 4 plates of food, and only stopped because we was worried why he was not getting full and didn’t want to explode. + Got ice cream at the “best ice-cream” place in Copenhagen. The ice creamw as nothing special but the cone was very fresh! + Walked back to hotel.

Story: Brian’s hunger hallucinations
We were both super duper hungry by dinner time in Copenhagen because we hadn’t eaten very much all day. While walking down a busy shopping street Brian excitedly exclaimed, “oooo! oh… I thought it was a bagel, but it was just a sock.” He was referring to shoe store that we had just passed.