After Amsterdam it was 3 short trips up north mostly due to cost. Copenhagen Denmark, Stockholm Sweden and Oslo Norway (home of the Fjords). It was much colder up north which was expected, though it had been cool since leaving Italy (where did my summer go?). These 3 countries were also not on the Euro and had their own currency. It was funny because here things were priced like "62kr" for a cup of coffee. It was mind boggling to see, but I knew it translated to like 3 or 4 US dollars. The biggest kick I got was when we were in Oslo Norway at a TGI Fridays (don't give me grief for that! I was hungry and didn't want to spend hours looking for something to eat! haha). The burgers on the menu were 159! haha. The bill for Alan and I ended up being like 495! Of course it wasn't $500, but it was still a bit pricey- about $80 total. I'd make jokes about how I could never a-fjord to live in Oslo. haha. All three cities were beautiful and the people were kind and friendly. I just wish their prices were more like 1.99 rather than 199. haha.
To save time and money, we utilized the night trains. We took the night train up to Copenhagen from Amsterdam and spent the day wandering around the streets. Then we took the night train up to Stockholm and stayed for a day to rest and to tour the city, then it was back on the train for a trip over to Oslo to see the famous Fjords. We didn't take the overnight, so we got in late afternoon and rushed to catch a boat over to the Viking Boat Museum. How awsome to see old Viking vessels and try to imagine how horrible it must have been for them to sail with no real comfort on the boats. No wonder they pillaged! haha. The next day we took the train over to Flam, Norway to where the Sognefjord Fjord is. The scenery on the way to Flam was spectacular, yet almost lunar in a way. The hillsides and mountains gave way to valleys (not as deep as Switzerland) with lakes of water. The ground wasn't grassy either, but rather rocky terrain. Sparse houses and shacks dotted the area making you wonder how they live in such a desolate area and yet moreso- how do they survive in the winter with snow? You would think that the snow would cover them up completely! Like in Switzerland, the views were hampered by falling clouds, but as before, it added to the beauty and mystery of the surrounding area. We caught a train in Flam that decended down to the bottom of the mountain, passing waterfalls and beautiful canyon views, to where we caught a boat that cruised along the Fjord. The water was still and dark- I figured that's probably what the Lockness would look like. We moved through the valley of the mountains slowly watching the beauty unfold before us. I liked the fact that there wasn't a mess of other tourist boats passing, like on the Rhine river. It was just us and the Fjord. At the end of the almost 2 hour ride, we passed a smaller section of the Fjord- it was only 12 meters wide and 25 meters deep (that should be like 30 something wide and 80 something deep, right?), yet there was a big cruise ship beyond that small section. I know that the Fjord connects with the Atlantic Ocean, but how'd that thing squeeze in? haha. At the end of the cruise, we hopped a bus that took us to the closest train station, Myrdal, for the long ride back to Oslo. The next day we left to go south to catch up with the night train to Berlin. I had read that it was to be a 2 part journey from the city of Malmo (near the Swedish border) via Ferry for 3 hours and then train for the remainder to Berlin, but when we got our tickets, all we had was train reservations in a sleeper car. As we boarded the train in Malmo, we met a nice Indian woman from Gotenburg, Sweden named Indrani. She was funny and immediately we became friends. She was traveling alone to meet up with a friend in Prague, leaving her husband and child behind for the weekend. We chatted a bit, telling her our stories of traveling, as the rest of the cabin filled up and we all hunkered down for a good-night's sleep. Then came something amazing! The train stopped! haha. Yea, that's kind of amazing in itself- if you've ever slept on a train, it's really good when it stops because it is quiet and not squeaky. But this stop wasn't a usual train stop- it seemed to last a while and from the loud speakers from outside, it seemed like we were at a freight yard or something. Then suddenly the train lurched forward as if it hit something (not hard, but like they were adding on another car). This got our attention more, so we looked out the window to see that our train was being loaded onto a ferry boat!! I've seen cars on a boat, but a train?! Sure enough the passage to Berlin was train and ferry together. We were allowed off the car and Alan and I left to go up on deck to look around. It was dark outside with only the lights shining from the shore of the city and the stars in the sky. The water was calm too- nothing like the ferry ride from Ireland to France. We walked around exploring for a while before returning below deck to the train for sleep. After about 3 hours I was woken up by the train being unloaded from the boat and then we were on our way to Berlin. A really cool experience! As we arrived to Berlin, we said our good-byes to Indrani and went to find our hostel.
