Berlin!?!?

That's right, I have left Scandinavia altogether and headed to mainland Europe! It all came fairly quickly and I haven't planned out too well what my itinerary will be, but I have the next three days here to figure it out. Sophie is still in Sweden and will be there until we meet up again at my cousin's in Germany. Sweden was definitely a great time but I decided that while Sophie is visiting with her family I could see some sights that originally weren't on the schedule. I really wanted to see some Eastern European countries but together Sophie and I didn't have time. Now that I'm meandering on my own I will have no problem plotting a course east!

My plan is to stay in Berlin for a few nights, maybe add another night if I feel like I haven't seen everything I want to here, then catch a train down to Vienna. Stay a while, then head to Budapest before going east into Romania. I don't know how long I will be staying each place but I will be sure to keep everyone updated. I know it's important to let people know where I am and what I'm doing while travelling alone so I will update more frequently during the next few weeks.

But so far so good! Although I've only been in Berlin for a short time, the city seems absolutely incredible! It's a big place (3.something million people) but still totally affordable with lots to see and do. Today I'm on the hunt for a cheap haircut which hopefully will go alright considering my total lack of German. I already learned that just because a giant pair of scissors hangs above a store front doesn't mean it's a hair salon (tailoring shop). The friendly, non-English speaking lady and I played a short game of charades and she pointed me across the street to a REAL salon. Once there the very well-dressed hairdresser gave me a dirty look because I obviously couldn't afford his services. (Imagine me as Julia Roberts ala Pretty Woman wandering helplessly down Rodeo Drive). And although I don't speak German I still got the message of what he was saying, turned tail, and walked out.

I needed a break in an internet cafe, but now I'm recharged and ready to try again! I still have a lot of city to see so I can't spend all day wasting my time on the computer. I will keep you posted when I change location or if any major changes come up. Until then!

-Steve

Sometimes it's hard to break away from all that we're doing and sit down on the computer. And once I'm there I usually just want to check my emails and get going again, so it's difficult to motivate myself to post something. But I do want to let everyone know that we are healthy and happy, and I'm thankful for everyone who is thinking of us and keeping tabs on our journey. We are thinking of you, too, though we might not always express that often enough via email, Facebook, or blog form. So thank you family and friends, we are grateful to you all and miss you something fierce.

With all that mushy business out of the way I can get you caught up on what we've been doing since I updated way back yonder in Kjolsdalen. Currently we are staying in Sweden in a place called Strandsgården with (surprise!) more of Sophie's relatives. Everytime we meet one relative, three more pop out of the woodwork. But it's very nice because everyone is amazingly friendly and more than willing to make sure we are well-fed and warm and content. Plus Scandinavians (or at least all the ones we've met) tend to have incredible English, so I don't have to worry about not speaking Swedish or Norwegian. Today we visited a local school (our third) so we could talk to the students about the United States, Minnesota, and the influence of Scandinavia at home. It is impressive to see how well they understand at such a young age and had some really good questions for us too. We've been spending our time here doing other activities such as picking lingonberries in the forest, learning to milk cows, helping out a bit in the restaurant of the b&b that the family owns, and helping the kids with their English (aka teaching them how to say things with a horrible Minnesotan accent). It's all a lot of fun!

Before we were here we spent one night in Trondheim with the American daughter of a friend of a friend or something like that. I wasn't going to ask too many questions when offered a cozy place to stay, and although our time in Trondheim was less than 24 hours we had a lot of fun with her and her Norwegian boyfriend. Scandinavian hospitality rivals that of any I've seen and everyone pulls out all the stops for us, which is far more than we could ever ask for.

Before Trondheim we were in a place in Western Norway called Eiksund staying with not-quite relatives to Sophie, but they treated us like family none-the-less. We took a good number of day-trips seeing the surrounding area, which is made up of a chain of islands. The weather may have been a bit rough, but the scenery was phenomenal regardless. We went up a mountain in Runde which in certain months is home to colonies of birds (including puffins!) but we arrived too late in the year and were greeted instead with the strongest wind I've ever experienced. I could lean into the wind, have it support my weight, and THEN have it push me backwards. It was ridiculous and fun and if it hadn't been for the drops of water hitting my face like tiny hammers I could have played out there all day! I was also given a pair of home-made knit socks by our host, which has proven to be my new favorite posession now that the temperature has dropped and we're experiencing occasional patches of snow.

That is the abridged version of the past few weeks, which I feel doesn't do our trip justice. But there's just no way I can try and explain all the great experiences we've had and all the warm generosity we've been shown in the short time my brain can focus to write a blog (and the equally short time I can attempt to hold your attention). But we will definitely have stories to tell and pictures to show when we come home in December, so I appreciate your patience with our less than consistent updates!

XOXO
Steve

Just wanted to put up some pictures and let people know that I made a facebook album with a lot more. Sorry if you don't have FB, but it's much faster to put them there than here.






This is our little herd of sheep that we brought over the mountain.



Sophie and I went to see a glacier today. Here we are on the way to it, standing in front of a waterfall of melted glacier water!

Norge er fantastisk

Kjølsdalen

Another hello from Norway! This time from Kjølsdalen (I hope I got that right). We said goodbye to Mette, Roy, and the kids last week and boarded a bus that took us all the way west across Norway to where we are now. We had a great time in Jaren and hopefully I will get some pictures up later. We had the opportunity to speak at the school about America and Minnesota and answered some questions from the kids. One of my favorites was the question asking what different colors we have for our tractors; which I answered using what little tractor knowledge I have...
We also got to watch Silje, Stina, and Kent get school photos taken and enjoyed hearing Silje's marching band play. It was an excellent time and we are very greatful to everyone we met and the great hospitality we were shown. (And perhaps we will be fortunate enough to see them all again before we leave Scandinavia)
The bus to Kjølsdalen took us through some of the most amazing countryside I have ever seen and it was like paging through a National Geographic as we went over, around, and UNDER the mountains! I was humming the Jurassic Park theme as we passed through a particularly steep valley, surrounded by waterfalls and forests.

We are now staying with more of Sophie's family in the place where her great-great-grandfather was born. It may very well be the most beautiful valley in Norway and we have been shown an amazing time and have done such incredible things. Everytime I look outside I am blown away by the scenery, and we are more or less IN a fjord (which I briefly fished in). We also had the best day of the trip so far (in my opinion anyway) when we went up in the mountains with Jostein to help him find his sheep. We found and returned home with 17 of his 90 sheep which I think is pretty good for first time shepherds. I'm pretty sure I could stay here forever; fishing and farming and sheep-herding. It's absolutely unbelievable! On top of that we are being very well taken care of everywhere we go (with Jostein and Johanne and with Sophie's other relatives we visit) and we are eating anything and everything put in front of us. It's all so fresh and tasty and the next time you see me I will most likely have a gut...

Norge!

Hello once again and sorry for taking so long to update. Sophie and I are currently in Jaren, Norway staying with her relatives who are all extremely generous and fantastic and taking very good care of us. Unfortunately I haven't taken too many photos yet, but I made sure to capture this moment:

Yup, that's a big ol' tasty plate of lefse. And I made sure to eat a LOT of it. In fact, I've been eating a lot of everything and they've been giving us as much Norwegian food as we can handle. It's fantastisk!

I'm also going to attempt to track down where our family came from with the help of Sophie's relative Mette who is an expert at that sort of thing.

I'll be sure to take more photos from our stay here and put them up later, but at the moment you'll have to settle for some pics from earlier in the trip...

This blurry picture is the Cavern in Liverpool, England. It's where the Beatles got their start and played their first shows. It's more or less a replica of what it once was, and now houses acoustic guitar players doing bad covers of Beatles' songs. But I guess it's the thought that counts...

We also managed to snag some surprisingly warm and sunny weather in Edinburgh, Scotland which was perfect for our hike up Arthur's Seat (the hill behind Sophie). It was amazingly windy at the top and provided great views of both the city and the ocean.

Edinburgh also has a cute story of Greyfriar's Bobby, which this statue commemorates. Apparently when his owner died this little scamp watched over the grave for 14 more years until his own death. Awww....

We'll be in Norway for a while longer visiting Sophie's relatives so perhaps by the time I'll leave I'll actually be able to say something in Norwegian... We'll see.

---------EDIT---------

Sophie put up some pictures on her blog, so if you want to see what else we've been up to, go here: http://www.sophiaineuropa.blogspot.com/

The last post briefly mentioned Dublin, which we have long since left. Sophie and I are currently enjoying ourselves in Edinburgh, Scotland. We had a short stay in Liverpool to soak up some Beatles history along the way. Now, I only have 5 minutes and 3 seconds to finish this before my internet time runs out, so here's the abridged version of each place.

Dublin: Easy to get around on foot and lots to see. Free tour with some crazy history about Ireland; made even cooler being where it all went down. We met lots of great people in our fantastic hostel and enjoyed some of the local nightlife and traditional music.

Liverpool: Very short stay but worth it for the Beatles museum and other random free things available.

Edinburgh: Another hostel stay since neither of us have a connection here but it's worth it because the city is beautiful and the sites are amazing. Took another free walking tour which ran 4 hours before seeing some museums and such. Needless to say we are both pretty exhausted so we're relaxing now before heading out to find some local music.

Ok, that's the rundown, I have 41 seconds left so I need to jet.

BYE!!

Dublin!

Hello again, all!

Sophie and I have officially left the beautiful country of Wales, and after an early morning of travel have made our way to Dublin, Ireland! We'll be here a handful of days before heading back and up through England to Scotland. It's going to be a hectic bit of travelling before we fly out to Oslo on the 11th, but from there we'll be staying with friends and family of Sophie so things will be a bit less chaotic.

But for those who have been waiting, I finally managed to get a handful of pictures online!

That is our fantastic host on the left, Anwen in her Welsh village of Dinas Mawddwy!

She took us on a soggy yet satisfying hike around a local mountain. Maybe it was a hill. We never quite figured it out. Either way it was great fun, even if our shoes still haven't dried... Plus, we hiked past a lake with sheep hanging out on the beach. Priceless!

At the end of our stay in Wales, Anwen moved to her new apartment in the coastal town of Aberystwyth where we spent our final night before taking the ferry to Ireland. At the top of this ridiculously windy hill was a frisbee golf course- perhaps not the best location?

We also had time to visit my friend Ffion- here she is serenading us in her tea room. How posh!

Sophie and I had loads of fun in Wales and have to extend a big ol' 'thank you' to Anwen and Ffion, their families, and their friends for showing us a fantastic time! Diolch!