A year ago my friend Jamie left for germany on a year exchange and I figured what a perfect excuse to visit my second continent. Didn't know who I'd go with or when, but I knew it would happen. It didn't seem too hard, it's just across the water and after university is a great time considering I have no rent/mortgage, cell phone contract or job holding me back. Also, after participating in Mustache March I realized that now is the best time to do outrageous things with my hair since looking somewhat professional is usually required when working full time. So I figured what's more european than wearing a speeder and having a pony-tail? so I bought a speedo and haven't cut my hair since Christmas. I also acquired a Norwegian working visa and took out a loan so that I could afford to stay in europe for a few months and go up to hammerfest (in the arctic circle) but figured even if that didn't work out I could just work on farms, meet some locals and spend minimal amounts of money until the trips end.
So,the way things unfolded I would spend the first 2 weeks with Sarah and her friend Alex, then Jamie would replace Alex for two weeks before Sarah and I ventured North. The only things that were booked in advance were the hotel in Paris and a flight to spain and lisbon in the 3rd week.
(Be warned, in order not to spoil the notes covering less than a 2 month span that will follow, the next little bit may lack some detail.)
so it began, Alex and Sarah joined me a day after I arrived in a strange french speaking land and we enjoyed all that is Paris (including spending lots of money) for the next 4 days. The 3 of us continued to explore the chocolaty options in Brussels, then Berlin where we stayed with Alex's friend for 5 days, flew to Frankfurt where Alex and Jamie swapped and where not much else happened besides planning an escape to a more interesting city. Hopped on a train through the German landscape to Munchen where we saw the Glockenspiel in all its glory, then to my first 2 incredible castles (in fussen) and Stuttgart to catch a flight to Madrid. In Spain we gained a new found gratitude for Air Conditioning and then flew to Portugal where we enjoyed the awesomeness of Lisbon, the first time surfing on the atlantic waves in the south and up to the royal palaces in the North. After stopping by Madrid for a tour of Real Madrid's stadium and some more "tapas", we said our goodbyes to Jamie and headed for Bohemia. We enjoyed the music in Kafka's home and flew to our final destination, Norway. This whole time we had been booking trips and hostels as we went, often waiting till the day of, and spending most of our time in each city searching for cheap bathrooms for the girls to use. However we had been unsuccessful in finding a reasonable place to stay in Norway and ended up signing up for couchsurfing.com hoping to find help. Unfortunately were arriving 3/4 of the of the way through the country's 2 month tourist season and the few affordable accommodations (including couches) seemed to be booked right up.
Unfazed we caught a later flight to Norway and enjoyed the sunset over it's beautiful landscape. We found a coke in the airport for around 32 Norwegian kroners ($6 CAD), which we did not purchase and bussed for 2 hours to Oslo. Late at night we asked at a hostel which was still full and a couple hotels with rooms upwards of $300 CAD before considering the cold weather and settling down to sleep on the floor of the heated bus station at 1:30 am. An hour later we were woken up by the security guard speaking norwegian who quickly converted to good english and asked us not to sleep in the station. So I spent the rest of the short night sitting, reading and thinking while Sarah switched between trying to sleep half lying on a bench next to a homeless man and sitting.
On our first day we were able to find free internet use at the small university of Oslo where we meant to look for an apartment in town and apply to jobs, but spent most of the time looking for a place to sleep that night, and finally found an expensive B&B. Not having any leads for the next night we arranged to sleep in the basement of the B&B that is not normally used. Our second full day we did meet up with a couch surfer who showed us and someone staying with him around the beautiful little city of Oslo and he even managed to pay for our dinner despite our attempts to get even. We talked about Norway, our plan, the numerous languages that he speaks and ended up walking by a huge crowd along the main strip where a cycling race had just finished and Lance Armstrong was up on the screen talking away! Our guide Daniel said although he had someone over he could host us the following night which was great and we figured things we coming together. The next day after visiting the local employment centre and the Canadian embassy we found that finding a job would be very hard, despite the assurance of 2 norwegians before our trip, because although they all speak English, computer systems for hotels, restaurants etc. were in Norwegian. And I'm as good at Norwegian as I am at family baseball (which is not good enough for those who haven't witnessed). Soon after that we were surprised to find that Daniel bailed on us and we were forced to look for another place to sleep that night.
This day made it clear that we would have to activate plan B. Getting desperate to avoid spending our money on pricey accommodations we emailed various people through help exchange (where you work in exchange for food and accommodation) and contacted friends who lived in Denmark in order to arrange an escape route. That night we bargained down for a still expensive hotel and once the $75 CAD was paid we made a couple emails, slept in the comfortable beds and ate their once in a lifetime buffet breakfast in the morning. Every kind of fruit, good cereals, the classic bacon/sausages/potatoes/eggs, different breads with 3 kinds of seasoned Salmon and great cheeses including this great norwegian brown cheese which is made from goats milk and some cow milk. At this point we had heard back from my friend Nico in Denmark who generously said anytime would work and we committed to spending just one more day in Oslo. So after making our way to town from the hotel on the outskirts we took the ferry across the fjord where we walked to the outdoor museum to see the funny houses that some norwegians still live in with the roof-lawns and one of their native stave churches, like no other Catholic church in Europe. Shortly after we made our way back to the sea and I fulfilled my goal of swimming off the coast of Norway with a speeder and pony-tail (I'll be nice and not attach a picture to this note :) . That night we showed up at a booked hostel at 6 PM and luckily managed to get a room since one of the reservations hadn't shown up.
The next morning we found a great spot on the north-south highway and tried to hitchhike for an hour and a half but our only offer was from a man only going an hour down the road. Instead we bussed back to the central station and bought tickets for Copenhagen, Denmark.
3 great days in Copenhagen staying with our saviours Nico and Kristen and 4 days in London passed before we ended up helping out at a hog roast for a british wedding celebration, the beginning of our 3 weeks at Treflach farm in Shropshire, 3 miles from Wales. We now have a place to sleep every night, tasty non-european sized meals to eat without going broke(big mac meal $16 CAD in Norway) and a friendly family to learn british lingo from. It's also my first time working on a farm period, so there's lots to learn, like the difference between hay and straw, the name for a female sheep looks like what you'd say when grossed out and fried-cured bacon is amazingly delicious. After two weeks on the farm, things are going better than I could have hoped for and at this pace I can afford to make this adventure last another 2.5 months.
Plans for the future: visiting Scotland next week, flying south to visit my cousins then flying back to Norway for a farm stay on island in the south. After that we might find something in France where I can practice my french and then 2 final weeks of just travelling. If you want to meet up before the end of the trip, let me know and we'll make something work, otherwise I'll see you all in no time. Shorter notes about my travels will follow :)
Back to the city. It was beautiful, had great food and felt much smaller next to Paris, with drivers who didn't aim for us. Predictably my favourite part was the square (Grand Place) which Victo Hugo called the most beautiful of its kind in europe. We fortunately walked into the large cobblestoned square just before some evening show where the town hall is light up in different colours while music plays and a narrator talks to all of the tourists in...flemish. Grand Place is lined by 4 old buildings, each full of statues, decorative carvings and gold higlights and the main focal point is the town hall's narrow white stone tower that kept us oriented during our stay.
We spent much of our remaining time discovering that the extensive prior knowledge I had of the place, was all true.
Other highlights:
-Tintin: I watched Tintin growing up and always figured it was a french thing. Turns out it's belgian and I payed 22 euro's for the only shirt I'll buy on this trip. I didn't used to but when dealing with a 22 euro shirt, I'll be seperating my white and black laundry.
