You want to kiss my egg mon?

We thought it would a long day of driving with small insignificant stops along the way. We were almost right. After driving for a long time we stopped at one of the old churches in Norway, the Ringebu Stave Church. Apparently it used to be customary to build wooden churches without any nails. Our tour leader promised us this church was one of the few left in the country and we wouldn't see a single iron nail.

As usual our tour leader only had half the facts. The church had totally been renovated to add a foyer for tourist reasons and there were heaps of nails! Despite my skepticism upon seeing this however I must admit that the main body of the church was made amzingly out of starves and was rather impressive.


However, even more exciting things were to come. Prepped by a half-hour stop in Lillehammer, host of the 1994 Winter Olympics, we were offered the chance to go bob-sledding. We didn;t have to be asked twice! After putting on our helmets, support belt and jamacian accents.we were good to go.

In winter (when there is ice on the track) bob sleds can finish the track we were on in just 50seconds. As it was, we experienced 3 g-forces and speeds of 120kms p/hr. Kate went first and before Megan had even reached the bottom of the track Kate had already volunteered us both for a second go. Only a quarter of the group went twice. People marvelled at our courage and thrill-seeking behaviour.

After a second attempt to keep our heads from banging side to side and front to back we were quite happy to get lunch and head back to the bus. It was an exhilerating ride!

As we continued to travel north, we ended the day at Andalnes, We explored the campsite and dipped our toes in the river, all in sight of snow-covered mountains.

Munching on Mussels

We have spoken often of the "must see list" in each of the countries we have ventured to so far. In Oslo however, there wasn't much of a list. So we started the day without any direction. Where we would end up was anyones guess. Many people did try to guess. We couldn't tell anyone what we were going to do. We simply didn't know.

We started off with the rest of the tour group at Vigeland sculpture park.Like the good and respectful tourists we are, most of us used this an opportunity for another set of interactive photos, posing with the mostly nude statues and risking life and limb for a funny snapshot. We also used and abused the life of the youngest and smallest member of our group who was often hoisted into the air renacting the female sculptures in provocative positions against his will.


And when in Norway... well we had to find a way to do something Viking related. The Viking Ship museum provided the opportunity to see how the ancestors of the friendly Norwegian people were once, well, what were they like? You learn about how information can be biased to portray the view that the source wants to present. The Viking Ship museum was prime example as to how truth can be portrayed differently by omission of details. The museum consisted of 3 Viking ships recovered from the 8th Century AD with heaps of information regarding the boat building expertise of the Vikings and how they used to send off the dead. Nothing at all eluded to the fact that Vikings may not have been very friendly to small surrounding neighbours.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the streets of Olso, checking out the local clothes shops and supermarkets. Not only was there a shop called 'Boys of Europe' (where we were disapointed to discover that they sold clothes, not men) but in the supermarkets there was even a slicer where you could slice your own bread! Needless to say we took photos of both.

Our meandering eventually took us to the King of Norway's palace where we witnessed another changing of the guards (almost as exciting as the bread slicer) and Megan taught Kate the pretzel dance. (sidenote: how on earth could Kate not know the pretzel?)

Impressed with how much of the city we had already seen, and absolutely certain that we did not want to go on a canal cruise around the city we had just walked we decided that we had to visit the museum housing the work donated to Oslo by their most famous, world recognised artist, Edward Munch. The museum was a far walk from the city centre and there was every possibility that being a Monday it might even be closed. However, we set out on our mission and after walking in the wrong direction for a good 15 minutes (a tour that we shall call 'the highways of Oslo') arrived at our destination. Being such talented artist connisseurs ourselves we brisked through the musum pointing out possible pictures that might look good in our houses of the future and knowing very little about the conceptual framework of each work. And then we got to the end of the exhibition and realised we hadn't even seen the Scream or Madonna - we did know they were his 2 most famous artworks... the sign told us so.

We did back track and found the paintings and we were impressed. So impressed we took photos and then spent ages in the gift store laughing at spoof books filled with "Scream" themed comical pictures.

All this art had made us quite hungry and we walked back looking for a place to eat dinner. We passed kebab shops, pizza resturants, 'Asian cuisine' resturants but we were both after the authentic Scandinavian experience - seafood - so we kept walking. And walking. Occasionally we would sit down to look at our map. Then we would keep walking. After almost giving in to our urge for a kebab we eventually found what we were looking for. Our Oslo experience was capped off by a meal of salmon (Megan) and mussels (Kate) sitting outside with views of an old Norgwegian fortress and watching the sun travel slowly across the sky.

After waiting for a bus home we were tired after our 12 hour sightseeing day but decided it was time to bite the bullet and do some laundry. Way too traumatic an experience to fathom doing again. Romanians, Irish 12 yr-old whores and drunk New Zealanders.Several hours later (and with some clean but feral smelling clothes) we needed a drink.

Say Ossloooo!

To swim or not to swim.

It was time to leave Sweden and head to our fourth country on our epic adventure. Norway! A country of trolls, vikings and beautiful scenery. After a long journey (and a lot of snacks) we arrived at our campsite just outside of Oslo ready for anything.

Remember how cold its been? Remember all the layers even though the sun is shining brightly in the sky for more hours of the day than you would ever ask for? Despite this, there was a lake and local children swimming.And then an idea swam into my mind. After a day of sitting on a bus eating chocolate lollies and ice cream I decided it was time to get active. So I got into my swimmers ready to dive in after dinner.

But just as dinner was wrapping up a sign from God was revealed. We were called for wash up duty. It was 8pm and getting colder and windier. Everyone believed the dream would have to be abandoned. They believed that I would give up.

So I didn't. Dinner was washed and I had inspired everyone to hike down to the lake and watch me fulfil my dreams. I had made the swim sound like such a great idea that 2 guys even built up the courage to come in with me. With everyone watching on like I was an animal to be in awe of at the zoo I was the first to hit the water.

Ok, so in hindsight it was cold. But it was amazing, and in the captial city of Norway, one of the northern most countries of the world I went swimming. Yay!!

Megan.

Monkey Business (Stockholm)

There are some fantastic opportunities that arise when you spend three whole nights in one campsite.No, not the chance to do laundry (I know that's what you were thinking mum) but rather, the wonderful opportunity to not wake up at 6am. After a late breakfast at 9am we casually headed towards the train station with a goal in mind: the Stockholm tourist information centre.

After a chat with some friends from our tour group and a mindless wander of the wall of pamplets we dicovered that we wanted to explore the Archipelago Islands, and that the cruise left in 10mins from a port a 15minute walk away.

So we ran!

A mad dash to the port dodging pedestrians, street lights and, most scarily, bicycles (we have learnt to stay far far away from bike lanes) ended with us actually bolting past the boat. But don't worry, we realised only 200m later and made it aboard. And after all that the cruise debarked 9minutes late.

The archipelago islands of Sweden are 40 000 small islands outside the city of Stockholm. We sailed past large islands, as well as smaller ones used mostly for residential and industrial purposes and even some that were unoccupied, finally to arrive at Vaxholm an hour and a half later.

Although Vaxoholm is mostly famous for its fortress, we decided to give it a miss and instead we explored the island and wandered the tiny lanes and gravel roads, going past houses made of wood (apparently so they could easily be destroyed in times of war).

We felt very Swedish by treating ourselves to a frika - roughly translated to mean a catchup over coffee and cake- and icecream on the dock which we shared our with an inquisitive duck.

This would prove to be the first of many animal encounters for the day. After sailing back to Stockholm we ventured over to Skansen Park. The only the way to describe Skansen would be as a 'Sweden through the Ages' - think a cross between Skippy wildlife park and an Old Sydney town. Over 100 years ago a Swedish guy decided that the best way to preserve Scandinavian history would be to bring it all to one place - literally. Thus an actual 14th century schoolhouse stands right beside a windmill from 16th century.

The main purpose of our visit however (really the only purpose) was to track down the fabled Maypole on the Mid Summer festival day that it was and dance merrily around it, all for the sake of a few pictures. On our search we were distracted by the promise of an aquarium. You suppose this to mean marine life right? Well there were fish... next to the lemurs and baboons. 200 photos later (ok the pygmy marmosets really needed to be documented on film) we left the species-confused zoo to continue to search for the maypole.

While we never managed to track down the maypole, we did manage to stumble upon the Scandinavian wildlife section. You mean there was more? Yay! Wolverines and reindeer were cute, and we were so so excited by the elk (moose) but the real highlight was the european bison. We are easily amused.

So while we never managed to find the Maypole (we searched for ages however we only found folk dancing) the day was a complete sucess. Oh, and one more photo...

Is it cold enough yet?

Stockholm is beautiful! Just imagine the sun is shining bright, buildings are clean and painted in pastel colours along the sparkling lakes that surround each of the 40 islands of Stockholm. What do you see yourself wearing on such a picturesque day? Bet its not 4 layers with a beanie and gloves...

Well we said Swedwen was beautiful, not perfect.


Our first attraction was the City Hall. This is where the Nobel Prize awards are held every December in the presence of royalty and VIPs. The many rooms were dressed with gold mosaics, huge hanging taperstries centuries old and red brick (even though its called the Blue hall). And of course the blonde Swedish tour guide in her wreath of flowers - it is Midsummer Day Eve - wasn't an eyesore in this grand building.

A short while later we were standing outside one of the Royal Palaces for the changing of the guards.
Forty-five minutes later the marching band finally wound up the ceremonial extravaganza, driving the crowd of tourists into a pushing, snap-happy frenzy. Luckily both of us can hold our own against old spanish ladies, but it was a narrow escape.

Probably the most amazing sight was the Warboat, the Vasa. It was resurrected after 333years of sitting at the bottom of Stockholms harbour. We thought that the Vikings would have taught the Swedes a thing or two about boat making throughout history. This boat however was the largest and grandest ever made in its time - but like the Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage. In fact, the Vasa didn't even out last the ceremony held in its honour. It sank before ever making it out to sea - after a grand total of 1031 metres.

The end of our first day in Stockholm finished in the Absolut ice bar. The cold summer's day (about 15 degrees max) just wasn't enough for us, apparently. Luckily the cups made of ice, the ice tables and chairs, and the ice sculptures managed to distract us from the minus 5 temperatures inside the bar. The vodka might have helped as well :)

Everything we didn't do in Denmark...

If you are like us, then when you think of Denmark, you think of Lego - or Legoland, to be exact. An entire city constructed out of lego with rides and statues. A wonderful fantasy dream-land where the streets are paved with lego. What trip to Scandinava could be complete without a trip to Legoland?

Unfortunately it wasn't to be. We thought long and hard (and asked for expert advice from 'Foggy', our tour-driver) before deciding that we would have to reluctantly pass on a four-hour pilgrimage from Copenhagen, involving various forms of public transport, in order to actually see the city that the locals call Kobenhavn.


Lets start by saying that Copenhagen, home of Hans Christian Andersen, Copenhagen ice cream and most importantly Carlsberg beer ("probably the best beer in the world") is an amalgamation of all things European. Bikes, fashionable locals, canals, cathedrals, not one but two palaces, a brewery, gardens, massive scale architechture, clock towers and oh yeah, hippy communes. Or maybe that one is uniquely Copenhagen...

Christiania, a short bike ride from town and on the separate island of Christianhaven is called the 'freetown' for a reason. Our introduction to this area was a terrifying experience in which our tour leader freaked the group out by advising that we leave all our possessions on the bus away from the wandering fingers of the gypsy people and layabouts of this tiny commune. She then proceeded to herd us like cattle in one entrance and straight out another. Needless to say we were fascinated by the brightly painted walls, markets, and starnge and wonderful smells and were determined to find our way back to this lawless world. After commandeering two of the most tourist looking bikes ever imaginable and being advised by locals that we had taken them 'out of bounds' we explored deeper into this amazing community of people. We avoided the dodgy-looking food (and the even dodgier-looking people selling their 'cups' of suspicious plant-based material) before venturing up a winding path - the only place where taking pictures was not forbidden.



Other note-worthy events of the day included visiting the must-see statue of The Little Mermaid. This masterpiece has sat upon its rock to be photographed by truckloads of tourists everyday for 97years. It lived up to the hype created in the Scandiavian lonely planet guide as probaby the most over-rated of all tourist 'must-dos' in Europe.

We stalked an English speaking tour guide on our way back to the town centre. We probably remained unnoticed. Along the way we saw both palaces, which 'probably' are the most beautiful in Denmark. We didn't find our way inside or manage to see the changing of the guards. We found the picturesque houses and boats lining the canals of Port Nyhavn and after experiencing the free, ridiculously designed National Museum -which 'probably' had a Viking exhibition - we braved paying for admittance to the Hans Christian Andersen museum.


By this point we decided to give up on a cultural museum filled day and set out to find the Carlsberg brewery. 'Probably' the largest most exciting brewery in Europe. Don't doubt our committment to this mission. After several wrong turns in the S station we did eventually find the brewery. Finding the visitors centre however was just as hard and when we finally pinpointed where we were and where we should have been we realised the centre was closed anyway. It 'probably' would have been a great place to experience.


On our quest to find Kate a warm jacket for the Scandiavian 'summer' (13 degrees Celcius) we experienced the funky student Latin Quarter with its op-shops and boutiques. And of course, what day could be complete in Copenhagen without icecream? Served with whipped cream and jam it gave us enough energy to ride our bikes over to Tivoli - a 160 year old amusment park in the centre of city.

Here we amused ourselves with taking pictures and by spending the last of our Danish Kroner. Unfortuately all we could afford was the carousel and the kiddie-rollercoaster. It probably wasn't as fun as Legoland, but the ilumination show over the Tivoli lake was a fitting end in a city of fairytales.

How we ticked currywursts off the list

Germans are strange. In a 'lets put a statue of a little boy peeing in our front yard' kind of way. At least it was a memorable landmark on our walk from the station to the concentration camp, and was the only thing that kept us from getting lost on the way back ("no we turn left at the giant strawberry, then left at the peeing boy...")

The concentration camp was a lot of things - educational, moving and definately worth the trip. Its difficult to write about without sounding either trite or flippant however it is something that neither of us will forget.

What we can share however is that Day 1 of the tour - the first meeting - went fine... we assume. Unfortunatlely we underestimated the time required to travel from the outskirts of outer-Berlin to the hostel at which we were meeting. Its ok mum, I sure we didn't miss anything. Kate and I were reprimmanded by way of a personal meeting with the tour guide after dinner, by which time a "tray" of beer (as our english-confused tour leader roughly translated to us) - buy 10 get 12- was already under our belts. We went to bed fairly tired from such a long day and very little sleep and with the best of intentions to be on time tomorrow.

'Oops', we said as we walked into the hostel lobby to find it empty. Our tour had left without us, but after a very very brisk walk we managed to catch them at the bus. Not the best of starts to the next 22 days as we have already become 'those people' - the ones that get lost, and keep everyone waiting. Time to be on our best behaviour! After a quick stop at a different section of the Berlin Wall, (we kept a close eye on the bus) we managed to get out first picture together!

We left the tour group after the Berlin drive-by and decided to do something cultural and visit a muesum. We cheated a little bit by going to the DDR museum -a fully interactive exhibition of life in the DDR. After riding Soviet tricycles and checking out the dioramas of people defying goverment policies by swiiming and playing beach volleyball nude at public beaches, we decided life is east Berlin looked fairly entertaining, if you were willing to cause some anarchy and rebel by wearing - shock horror - Levi jeans,

But now the best part of the day was to come. The part we had looked forward to from our first few moments in the city that is Berlin and the final tick on our check list of "must do's in Berlin". We hired bikes for the express purpose of visiting a well-recommeded currywurst stand.
Awesome :).
Ok so we actually rode around the city for quite awhile - ,almost 3 hours. We rode past all the main sites; through the Tier gardens, around the Reichstag building, through residental streets and funky shopping districts. Probably breaking quite a few road rules in process, but following the example of the locals who have no fear on the roads. In fact, we experienced more road rage from other bike riders than from the cars themselves. No Toto, we're not in Sydney anymore.

Then we ate our currywursts and our time in Berlin was complete. Well almost...

Another pub crawl was to be attempted. Yes, this time we managed not to be lead astray by family members and made it through to the final night club of the outing. We tried a few more of the almost 5,000 different German beirs with the company of our new friends on our last night before saying goodbye to Berlin and boarding the bus for Copenhagen!

Ich Bin Berlin!

We write this on Baby Malackai whilst sitting on the train on the way to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Not quite how the Jews travelled I suspect...

So far we have spent 2 nights and the whole day inbetween exloring the awesomely fantastic and possibly too artsy for its own good city of Berlin. The first night we walked the streets around our hostel to sniff out the general vibe of the place and although we were very impressed we were also very cold and tired, which took us back to our beds and into a deep sleep very quickly. My intial observation: It's daylight till 9pm!!

Our hostel - the site of a converted former brewery - is in East Berlin. Think concrete. But we have fallen in love with the walking men symbols. Unique to the DDR sector, both the red and the green men wear very jaunty hats and make the whole experience of crossing the road seem almost fun. Imagine our delight yesterday when we found a souvenier shop entirely devoted to these symbols, including - but by no means limited to, teeshirts, cookie cutters and pasta.






As much as we both enjoy crossing the road, we have also been doing some touristy stuff as well. We did a walking tour yesterday (the best kind: it was free) and ticked off the high priority tourist sites: Checkpoint Charlie, the remains of the Berlin Wall,


the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial for the Murdered Jews (yes, thats the official name) and most importantly, the car park - which famously is not a memorial on the site of Hitlers buried bunker, where he bit down on a cyanide capsule and then shot himself in the head - just to be on the safe side.

There were many others sites but we were slightly brain dead after the 3 and a half hour walking tour with the exceptionally perky Brazilian tour guide Caro, so we had a nap on museum island before checking out the markets.



Finally, in a city of three and a half million people you would think the chances of running into a relative pretty slim, right? After a dinner of kokos-curry nudeln (noodles) and nudeln chickenballs we hit up a random bar down the road. Where we stumbled upon Kate's cousin Anita, who has been living in Berlin the last year or so. Completely by accident, and seriously lucky (seeing as Kate had lost the piece of paper with her address and phone number on it) one drink at the bar down the road turned into a 5am finish, culminating, in a german 'disco' with a group of new friends wearing fake teeth, suspenders and nerdish glasses.

It was a seriously educational night we swear! Who would have known that you can buy bier at the corner store for 1euro and just walk into any bar with said drink? Or go to a nightclub with a gun in your bag and just leave it in the cloak room so you can pick it up again at the end of the night? Conclusion... Berlin is phenomenal :)
　

The 'confiscated items' box

The 30 hour travel-a-thon

We left Sydney airport full of such hopes and dreams. So quickly were we broken and drilled back to reality.

It started as expected. The flight to Bangkok was 9 hours, however we were blessed with the fortunate of a half empty flight where we could spread out and watch such trashy films as Marley and Me and Bride Wars. Thats where things started to slide downhill.

1am: Bangkok airport, 10hour stopover.

The less said about this unfortunate period the better. All the good sleeping spots were already taken and our choices were either the bottom of a concrete palmtree or the floor. We decided to keep walking.... and walking... and walking. After mistakenly trying to walk through the x-ray machine we discovered the transit hotel. Our 4 hour stay was proudly sponsored, by Mr and Mrs Newman courtesy of their previous Bangkok stay and the baht they brought home. Yes, we paid by the hour. No, we are not ashamed.

We wittled away the next few hours with breakfast, books and sudoku. When they announced boarding time we were overjoyed and skipped down the terminal. Or we would have if we werent so damn tired. Only to find a completley full plane, no individual screens and no headsets to even watch the inflight movies. Damn.

Somehow 5 hours passed. We tried to bootscoot down the isles, until Megan tripped over onto some poor unsuspecting soul just trying to sleep. We played 'what airline food is that' with our lunch. We are still trying to work out what the piece of sponge 'dessert' was trying to be.

This amusing game was soon followed by an amazing discovery. An adapter for aeroplane headsets allowing us to use our own earphones on the plane. We really did dance and celebrate this time (in our seats of course). And very very (very) kind words were spoken of a Blake Mitford who owes this mysterious wonderous device.

Using a second adaptor we both managed to watch the following 2 movies... taxi... and Australia. Whilst not the 2 most exciting movies of all time the second half of the eleven hour trip went by very smoothly. Despite wanting to kill Jimmy Fallon with every murder tool available to me on the plane.

Suffice to say by the time we landed we were seriously excited by the prospect of solid land, and of being in Berlin! One last note: three words you never like to hear the pilot say, 'turbulance over Afghanistan'.