October 30, 2006 by zankbennett.

I’ll write more later, just posting pics for now…

Clock tower…above train station.

These donkeys are following me EVERYWHERE

The local vendors and patrons…near HUGE trainstation emporium…H U G E!

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October 29, 2006 by zankbennett.

Copenhagen is maybe somewhat less expensive than the rest of $candinavia. My first night there, I was staying at a “quiet”, clean hostel out of town. I checked in and they gave me a bed in a 12-bed room. That’s twelve, not a typo. So I go to the room and discover this and U-turn to the front desk insisting that there was a mistake. Nope. Nothing left. So, dropped my stuff off in a locker (that I had to pay additionally for) and figured I’d just sleep in the room, but live out of the locker. Happy enough. Went for a quick 30-min run and then out for some town exploration. Wednesday is free-museum day all over town, so the rush was on to get to an exhibit before 8 pm. Made it just in time after being lost for a bit…buses confuse me…along with everything else! So, I had a great time there and went out for a quick drink…at a place with a $6 cover and all-you-could-drink beer for the next 2 hours…wow! Drunks everywhere and smokers…so I had a beer and a half and walked home… The experience that welcomed me upon opening that door to the 12-man room at midnight was absolutely awesome. The smell was incapacitating. Not worth the long description I was thinking of writing; but it was just incredible. So, I figured I would become inured to it and went for my bunk. I was prepared for a little snoring; with my new earbuds I wouldn’t hear anything! Right? About 5 (I counted) of the men were snoring so loudly that I couldn’t handle it. Every time a LOUD song would end I had to endure like two seconds of this chainsawing. But in the end, it was the smell. I figured I’d just breathe out of my mouth and fall asleep. It was actually so bad that I could TASTE it. OK. That makes sense…it’s a bunch of smelly old men…I’m OUT. So at 3 AM and after about 5 minutes of sleep (ha) I headed down to the TV room. After all, at 3 am I’ll have it all to myself. So i get to the TV room with my blanket an pillow and, of course, there’s this like 50 year old man watching porn. They just show it in Denmark after midnight or something. Great. So I’m so irritable and to top it off, I have to deal with the awkwardness of THIS. Zero sleep that night. At 8 am, and with the attitude that I would pay ANYTHING for a single room, I booked something closer to town. Good call. Great (if tiny) place. I emailed Ayo (crazy African donkey-tamer, beluga-lover I’d met earlier this trip in Madrid) in New York. He got right back to me with a friend in Copenhagen…good call, Ayo!! His friend set me up with a great plan for Friday night…party bus!!! I had met a record-store owner during the day so Tim and I met up at the Zoo Bar and made our way on to the Bus! Wow! There were about 100 people on a 45-person bus. There were bottles of champagne, beer and a karaoke machine! By the time I got on the bus, I had made about 10 friends, so I was in good company almost immediately. Pictures… We stopped at several places and got out and saw bands play or had a drink at a bar or all sorts of things I didn’t even know about! Late in the evening there was a karaoke contest for some prizes…I mean, of course I took the win from a cross-dresser! Yep! Laura, by Scissor Sisters…He/It hardly had a chance! Had a great time in Copenhagen. Certainly one of my favorite cities, but not quite the inviting vibe of Rome or Barcelona or Stockholm. Loved it.

on the bus…with my karaoke competitor

Tim, from the music store…on the bus!

Last night in Copenhagen…

….someone bet me I couldn’t clear it…HA HA!!!  This “horse” was about 8 feet long!

One of the bands we stopped to see along the way (bus is in background).  This band was playing on the street.  Singer (!) used a megaphone and played tuba when not screaming.  Wow!

It’s not every day you get to meet two bearded girls!!!  Tim in background…on the bus…it was CROWDED!!

So, there are free bikes for public use in Copenhagen.  It works like this: they’re locked up at with special locks and in certain places around town.  You put 20 Kr (about $3) into the bike lock and it’s yours to take.  When you re-lock it, you get the 20 Kr back.  These things are all over town.  If you don’t want to lock it up, just leave it anywhere and someone will gladly re-lock it and get your 20 Kr.  So I was sick and tired of having old ladies go wizzing my me on my 30 kg bike, so I stand up and get ready to make granny regret….when the chain broke!  Ha ha!  Good stuff.

Breakfast…just outside of my hotel…

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October 26, 2006 by zankbennett.

Gothenburg hostel was nice.  It was 200 M from a large park with tons of winding, climbing paths and even a ski-jump at the very top.  Spend many hours running there and getting back into better shape racing the locals around the trails.

On my 6th and final day there, went to a skating rink for some skating around in circles…there were only 3 other people on the ice with me at any time.  Perfect!  I was beat after that.  It was raining there most days, but never hard.

I went out to a great Tapas bar a few of the nights in Gothenburg.  They made great sangria with cinnamon and it wasn’t expensive…a rarity on all points for Sweden.  No pictures from/of this bar.

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October 21, 2006 by zankbennett.

Listening to Stars right now…completely recommend them…

From the ridiculously long travel day, I finally end up in Oslo.  The intent, back on Tuesday was to make it to a surfing beach on the middle west coast of Norway.  Hoddevik.  It’s so small that it’s not in any guide books and it’s tough to find a map detailed enough to show it.
So, I took an overnight train (last entry) and it let me out in Otta.  Cool…so the really kind older woman at the tourist info stand set me up with some cardboard and wrote Målø (pronounced like mole, the Mexican chocolate sauce) and i was off to the streets!  Wow.  Hitch hiking.  Twice in two days…and before that I think I was 16 and my car wasn’t working in Rhode Island…So, over an hour later a guy picks me up.  He’s very kind and we go for about two hours (a fourth of the way!) and that’s it.  Drops me off at the foot of a beautifully snow crested glacier and tells me to be careful not to get stuck “out here in the mountains.  It can get real cold at night.”  Stuck?  You mean like what you just did by dropping me off out here midway between two 500 person towns.  Ok.  I’ll keep that in mind.  So I get the sign out again.  Only six hours left.  It’s now 2:30 PM.  It’s getting dark and it’s been cold.  Two hours later I gave up.  Took the bus (the ONLY bus) going the other way…it said Oslo on the marquee, so I thought that sounded good to me.  Ha.

Oslo.  The most expensive city in the world…
So i make my way to the tram…through the sea of disgusting prostitutes and flurry of homeless that is the train station exit.  The hostel is 4 km from town center.  Fine, the tram stop is a 5-min walk…as long as you don’t miss the last one…
So I check into the hostel and make my way up to my (our) room.  The smell is overwhelming.  I mean, how is it I always get this?  It CAN’T be normal!  Right?  Anyway.  It’s midnight, so I prepare myself for the last crowning moment of my nearly 4-day journey getting here from the north; it’s now time to wake up all the poor sleeping travelers in my (our) room.  So, 5 dirty looks later, I’ve managed to make my bed and get in.  Alarm set for 30 minutes before included buffet breakfast ends.

Not the worst place after all.  I mean, the city, not the hostel!  Went out for a walk around town, looking for a cool T-shirt with something in Norwegian written on it…no success.  Heard about a cool pub that was showing some soccer games, and ended meeting a bunch of nice guys and I joined them in yelling at the TV for a few hours…took a couple pictures.  Good times.

Next morning…off to Gothenburg, Sweden…less expensive.
Love it here.  Staying in another hostel near the best streets for exploring the older parts of town and right next to the biggest park in town…been running every day here.  GREAT!!  Wandered up to the top of a hill along a maze of winding paths.  There’s a ski jump there.  The kind you hike up and get one shot before hiking up again.  Similar to what we had in New Hampshire at Dartmouth.  It was the Hanover High School practice jump.  Insane.  Looking at that jump from the top…no thanks!
Gothenburg is young, cool, and with lots going on.  I hear that this is the favorite Scandinavian city among many travelers.  It’s up there, with Stockholm in my opinion.   Off now to try to get tickets to tonight’s hockey game here in town…
Not too many new pictures since northern Norway.  I haven’t met anyone in a few days, so it’s a bit tough…I’m sort of medium shy about taking solo pictures with some big monument/boat/donkey in the background….

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October 16, 2006 by zankbennett.

Finished seeing all I could on the lofoten islands. Time to get back to the port city of Bodø and train-it south.

1. Sunday. Got the rental car back by 2 pm. Check.
2. Got to the ferry dock 2 hours early. Guy told me to but a ticket on boat. Went to nearby café to wait out of the rain. Check.
3. Got to the ferry 15 minutes early. It was pouring rain. 15 min was plenty. Wrong. Ferry was all full, about 10 people before me. Next one, late that night. No good. Next after that, 6:30 am Monday.
4. Get a hotel. Set alarm for 5:45.
5. 6:30 am, make ferry. Seas are HUGE. People are vomiting all over the place. Saw a mom throw up on her daughter, only to have the tyke return the favor minutes later. …for everything else there’s MasterCard.
6. Arrive Bodø, 9:30 am. Plenty of time for 12:30 pm train. Buy ticket at last minute for said train. Technically now I’ve been waiting for almost 24 hours.
7. 12:45, 15 min out of station, realize I forgot phone at train ticket counter.
8. Exit train at first stop. Cross tracks to road, hoist thumb.
9. Car finally stops. 20 min to train station.
10. Retrieve phone. Ask for lecture. Need it, don’t get one. Next train, 8 1/2 hours later.
11. But ticket for said train. Lady who just refused to lecture me, talks me into the train SEAT and not bed for the overnight trip.
12. Wait around all day. Everything to do’s too expensive. Go to library. Check bank accounts. Panic. Send threatening letters to WAMU. Consider doing the same to UBOC. Breathe.
13. Get pizza. Call hostel for Tue night (Mon night will be spent on train) reservation. Determine that the bus from the train stop to the hostel, gets to the hostel at 8 pm. Smile about that.
14. Make train in a panic that I’ve now forgotten something else essential.

Plan is to go surfing on the western coast of Norway. The place I’m going is called Hoddevik. It’s not in any of the travel guides. Not the town, not the village. Sweet!

Will arrive Tuesday night at 8 pm. Started Sun at 1:30. Nearly three complete days. And they’re ALL well over $100.

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October 16, 2006 by zankbennett.

Still north of Arctic Circle…

From Bodø took an amazing boat/ferry/cruise ship to my startingpoint on the islands.. Biggest I’ve ever been on.

 It was an uneventful 6 1/2 hour ride to Svolvær. Once there, checked in to a nice hotel and went out for a beer. There were only three choices for pubs, so I started at the closest place. There was an acoustic trio about to start. They sat on stools and the bass player used midi foot pedals to trigger kick drum and snare sounds. I guess it worked ok. People loved it. Bass, sax and acoustic. The singer had a great voice, but knew only about 85% of the lyrics. For the rest, it was phonetic meatloaf! Just throw in a nasaly adlib and viola, no one’s the wiser. It was hilarious…well, it was for me. I was sitting there enjoying my beer and he’d sing “and here’s to you, Mrs Robin-hun, Jesus onez wah more han you a know”. So, I’m trying to stay seated in my chair, tears streaming down my face. It’s really odd being the only one in a room laughing hysterically!

From there, went to spot #2. Big mistake! Death metal!!! Get this, Guitar/growler, bass, drummer, and SAX! It was one of the oddest things I’ve ever heard…or seen. Combined weight of sax player and guitar player… 450. And the sax player wasn’t an lb over 85! Took a picture. It was quite a site to see.

Woke up this morning and rented a car. That’s supposed to be the only way to see the islands/fjords/beaches here, and that’s absolutely true. It’s not worth explaining the sights here, so I’ll just post pictures and mention a few…

Among the many newly built imposters, I saw many original 1850’s fishing villages. The fish is mostly cod here. Saw massive fjords. Quiet inlets and vast white-sand beaches. Sheep wandering the roads.
Went 100 miles in 6 hours. Took an hour of video and more pictures than I care to admit.

These two were taken where the Nusfjord opens to the Atlantic Ocean.

Finally arrived in Å. The hostel/hotel there is run by the owner. He explained to me that out of the some 150-odd rooms at his disposal, I was the lone occupant. So, I got upgraded to the “Salterier”, the one that was previously used to hang all the dried, salted fish. Well, on thing I’m sure of from fishing a ton when I was a kid and working on fishing boats: there’s not much one can do about getting rid of the smell of fish. I’ll leave it at that.
The place is amazing…half on land and the front half on stilts over the ocean. There are lots of open lounge rooms with sofas and chairs…have it all to myself. Great place for relaxing and playing guitar.

Nap. Now I’m at the only pub for miles, waiting for “Kick Off” to kick off (!). 3 guitars and the rest is canned. I think it’s going to be a Jovi, Leppard, Ratt kind of night. Perfect.

Tomorrow…return car back where I got it and ferry back to mainland, then train to near Oslo? Who knows?!

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October 13, 2006 by zankbennett.

Posting links to the pictures here at the top…

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October 11, 2006 by zankbennett.

I’m in the train. It’s 9 pm, Wed, 11 Oct 06

So I heard about these really cool areas of northern Sweden and Norway. Cool, right? There’s this 20-some-odd hour long train ride…you leave Stockholm at 5 pm and arrive at like 2 pm the next day. No problem, right? It’s one of those standard six-person rooms. That’s no worse than I’ve stayed in before on this trip.

So I get in the car and there’s a couple of people here as well. Come to find out there are five of us total: a couple in their mid 30’s and a mom with her son. The latter two speak very little English, but I suspect nothing.

So I’m talking with the Swedish couple. They’re not bf/gf, and are traveling to Norway to paint houses (lots of the red paint there comes from cod livers or cow blood, btw). The guy and I start talking and I hook up my portable speaker to the girl’s iPod so we have some tunes, he breaks out some OJ, then brandishes this monsterous bottle of vodka and offers some. I think, sounds great. So we’re talking and listening to music and drinking a little bit. Just another run of the mill traveling moment with some good people. Right? Come, very quickly, to find out that he’s a fighter. A street fighter. Apparently, that’s someone who goes out looking for fights to get into. I guess in the streets or a bar or wherever. It’s about then that I notice scars covering about every square cm of his uncovered body. Perfect, I’ve finally met my complete polar opposite. He tells me that he and a bunch of friends went to Carnival in Brazil, just looking for fights, but were disappointed by what they found. The’d heard how rough the place can be, but apparently, it didn’t live up. Ok, so that’s the Norwegian guy, in a nutshell.

We finish the one drink and he pours himself another. We haven’t made a dent in the reservoir of rubbing alcohol called vodka, and he’s already talking about how he’s getting ready to finish the Finish spirits before sleep.

By that time, the other two are in the car as well. Turns out they’re from Iraq. I’m thinking that’s ok…at first.

Well, I’m not Anderson Cooper, but I did see the BBC news from last night about how 4 out of 5 Iraqis think we’re doing more harm than good in Iraq and how attacks against the US in Iraq are supposed to double by next year.

Anyway, the now drunk street fighter is talking to them,

-so, where are you two from
>iraq
-did you know that he’s [pointing at me] from the USA?
>where?!
-yeah, he’s American. We all going to be ok in this car together?
>huh? [she understands but speaks poor english and is incredulous]
-he’s [still pointing, but shaking his hand a bit now] from america. Isn’t that funny?
> [nothing. She and I look at each other, then I at her son. He never moves his gaze off the floor]

Then street fighter looks at me as though there’s no one else in the room and warns me not to sleep and tells how he always sleeps with one eye open. Then he starts summarizing a movie in which there is a similar situation on a train where it culminates in a blood bath.

It’s getting a little weird in here, and street fighter is drinking like it’s Finish water, not 50-proof toilet cleaner. No problem, right? He’ll just pass out and leave everyone in the trauma-soup he’s whipped up; so thick we could have spooned it right out of the air.

Not just yet. He keeps drinking and elbowing me, asking me if I remember the movie he’s drunkly describing and telling how bad it is and it hits me….his breath. Not too bad at first, but after about 20 minutes I’ve got a migraine worthy of a Phineas Gage style frontal lobotomy.

Every time he elbows me, I think about him telling me that sky diving and bungee jumping just aren’t enough challenge; nothing like the rush of fighting someone who has the ability at each juncture to change the outcome of the event.

So I’m thinking back to psych 101. AHA! Ignore him and the undesired behavior will go away most quickly. So I start writing this entry in my phone…and wouldn’t you know, he starts talking to his female friend again and but for the occasional “USA” and “Iraq”, I have no idea what they’re talking about. Then he crawls up to his top bunk (I thought for sure he was going to fall the full 9 feet and crush both my outstretched legs) and proceded to be quiet… Until…

So my guitar case, stowed on the top shelf, only saw a dribble. The bunk he was on got a few silver dollar sized puddles. But the real zone of destruction, that was the train hallway. He powered out at least four, 3-foot diameter vodka-OJ stomach-acid puddles before reaching the bathroom. I mean he was bouncing off the walls the whole stretch, trying to walk straight, vomit and not vomit all at the same time. Of course, I raced out behind him with my camera….seeing just the perfect cherry atop the blog-entry sundae. I’ll post it soon. Ah, the look on the old guy’s face as he peered out his cabin thinking he’d find a baby elephant just escaped from the circus car we surely have in tow…

Great.
I go back to the first-class car and tell the lady in charge what’s happened. They booted him off the train…now I’m writing from another cabin…but the oddest part…

When asking for a new room, I told the lady (3 times before she understood) that I didn’t feel comfortable riding with the man and his mother from Iraq. Not because they were from Iraq, as much as for the big deal our friend with the empty stomach had made of it. I told the lady that I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in the same room because our countries are at war with each other.. Boy did I feel small. That was elucidating for me. We’re at war. I don’t think the impact of the war is realized by the majority of us, or at least I certainly never realized it in this capacity or to this extent. The man wouldn’t look me in the eyes. Not once in four hours. I can’t blame him.

My thumbs are numb from typing. Hopefully my next entry will be about some stupid snow-covered mountain that I think is so sick, or about how I bit my tongue again or about how Finland has the best falafel or…. or something.

I’m in the train. It’s 10:47 pm, Wed, 11 Oct 06

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October 6, 2006 by zankbennett.

An amazing place.  At the entry to the island is the Nordic Museum (in pic) and the Vasa Museum with a preserved pirate ship that was built too narrow and sunk at first lanuch.  It sat under water for 300 years until it was salvaged, refurbished and put back together.

Running along the paths.  Amazing.  Green, brisk temps.

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October 5, 2006 by zankbennett.

I had to mop my own floor in the place I stayed in last night.  I won’t comment on this right now. 

It’s cold here in Stockholm.  Like not icy cold, but just nippy or something.  If it were windy and/or raining, it would be ridiculously cold.  So today was spent exploring the city center and all it has to offer.  Here are a few pictures taken at sunset…note the new sweater!

Got a great guide book and am looking forward to going far north in as soon as a few days.   The arctic circle isn’t too far away and it seems like the place to be.  Some great views to see and exploring/hiking to be done.   Maybe a stopover at the famous Ice Hotel!  I think they start building/sculpting it in October.

Check this thing out!
http://www.icehotel.com/

Found out about a 10k run race this Sunday….might be fun…

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October 4, 2006 by zankbennett.

Wow. This place is like that one time, when I went with a girl, also her first time, to IKEA, and we got lost, because it’s really hard to find the way out of IKEA the first time you go there. There’s like that laminate flooring that I put in my last house…pretty much everywhere. I keep expecting the people in the red shirts to jump out of nowhere and hand me the little golf-pencil and a shopping list pad so I can mark down the furniture that I want and pick it up near the exit.
The next thing I notice is that the currency is really different. There’s like 7 of theirs to 1 of ours. Not 10 or 5 or 2 or something easier…and whatever you want, well, sorry, you can’t afford it! It was cheaper to use my USA cell phone than to use a pay phone for a local #. So, obviously, I’m on the bus ($13) to town rather than the express train($30).
And if I understood correctly, the hotel room I blindly reserved costs a measly $70 and doesn’t come with sheets. But all is not lost; if I clean it myself there’s like some sort of refund I qualify for. What I want to know is who the hell is this person? I mean, am I going to get the white-glove test on the underside of the bed frame? I mean, isn’t the whole reason for paying so you don’t have to mop the floors? Do I get my own spray bottle of Lysol? What about those nifty little wipe-rags the maids always use? I bet some of those could come in handy.

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October 4, 2006 by zankbennett.

After a week in San Diego and LA for the wedding, it was off to Munich and Göttingen for the last night of Oktoberfest and Andre’s wedding reception.

Andre and Z.  Then, Aly with the greeeeeeen dress, giving dance lessons…!

Arrived in Munich a bit after noon on Monday, the last day of Oktoberfest. Called Judi, the girl I met in Barcelona, and arranged to meet later.
Went to the festival with Andre in liederhosen, his wife in the typical German wonen’s equivalent, Martin and his girlfriend. This thing is huge! So much bigger than I remember it from 11 years ago when last I was there. There are rides and games as far as the eye can see and food and beer tents and people wearing the craziest outfits. Too many men in leather shorts for me, but that’s cool….

We met another of Andre’s friends at one of the giant tents and managed to lie or bribe or something I couldn’t understand to get our way into the tent. The place was packed and apparently you can’t just walk in without knowing someone, especially on the last night.

When attacked by gaping-mouthed Oktoberfesters in white, use middle finger under arm pit to effectively remove the threat!  Who the!?  What the!!?

Once inside, we found a place to stand and spent about 30 minutes trying to talk one of the beer maids, read Hulk Hogans, to give us a few beers…and it was on! An hour later and we’re singing traditional Bavarian drinking songs and carrying on with the rest of the idiots in typical fashion. It’s amazing how all the words just come back like I sing them every night before bed. Or something like that.

After standing there eating 2-foot round pretzels and getting hip-checked in all directions 85 times as Helga and her beer-maid cohorts made their fly-by’s, growling and carrying 15 beers in each hand, we left the tent to meet up with Judi, Astrid and their friends at another tent.
We were too late for the last round and so stayed until they kicked is out…around 11 pm. Judi kindly let me stay at her house, just a short walk from the festival so a bunch of us went there and stayed up half the night talking, taking ridiculous pictures and carrying on.

 
Waffles with cream and cherries…a Bavarian treat.  Notice the drool…LOL.

Judi the German, me.

 
Astrid, in true form!

The next day, it was off to an old castle in Göttingen for the German version of the wedding reception with family from Andre’s mom’s and dad’s side. We ate and drank for about 5 hours in the dungeon of this castle.

Now it’s off to Stockholm, the place it seemed I would never reach. I have made five changes to my original plan and ticket to go there on the 23rd of September directly from Barcelona. Now, finally, it’s off to the cold. No jacket. No umbrella. One long-sleeve shirt with any warmth whatsoever. It’s time to get some local clothing for the cold weather. Maybe I’ll actually look like I fit in…for a HUGE change!

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