I am in Honningsvag in the northern part of Norway, about 40km south of North Cape, which is considered to be the northernmost point in continental Europe. It is 3am and it is still light out. We went to North Cape to see the sun at midnight and it was prety amazing, at midnight it was as bright as if it was midday! In the summer, this part of the world has about 55 continuous days of sunlight which is great until you realize that in the winter it’s about the same number of days of continuous darkness. Nature is such a crazy wonderful thing…
Category Archives: Travel
Crazy day…
So let’s see how the saga with the phones ended, shall we? Last you read, I left my phones on the overnight train from Bergen to Oslo, proving once again, I am so NOT a morning person. I had to skip my morning train to Stockholm in order to wait for the crew to check the train, which was not at the main station, it was at the cleaning station, and then had to wait for the phones to come to the main station. I ended up catching the afternoon train 4 hours later. It wasn’t all bad cause I managed to ship some stuff home in order to lighten my load. I shipped about 6kg of stuff! Ironically, my bags don’t really feel lighter…
So, I’m feeling pretty good, I got my phones back and I shipped stuff home and I caught the train with no problems. But now, get this, the train broke down not even half way through the trip! So I ended up on a bus with a bunch of other people to go to Karlstad where we were supposed to catch the later train to Stockholm. Instead of getting into Stockholm at 7:30pm, it would be 10pm. However, the train that we were supposed to catch in the first place that would get us there at 7:30pm was an hour late! So here I am, on the train that I thought I missed but didn’t and will arrive in Stockholm at 9pm. Whew! Confused yet?
The cool thing about Swedish trains (at least the X2000 trains) is that they have WIFI on board! As a first class passenger, it’s included so hence my ability to post this while on the train to Stockholm. This is what I’ve been waiting for, WIFI on trains. 🙂
Anyways, it is now 8pm here and I’ve been ‘travelling’ since 11pm last night. All part of the fun. 🙂 Here’s hoping that my bad days and crazy days are done and I can move on…
Bad day continues
Apparently, the bad day hasn’t quite finished yet. This morning after arriving on the overnight train from Bergen to Oslo, I left my phones on the train. Let’s just say it’s a good thing that I realized my phones were missing before I got on the Stockholm train and that there are more than 1 train to Stockholm a day so I can catch the next one while I wait for the phones to come back to the station from the cleaning station. This just reinforces the fact that I need to get myself organized and ship stuff home and consolidate my ‘stuff’ so that I don’t have that much to carry. By this weekend, I should have less stuff. Wish me luck!
Backlog of photos
So it’s June 6 and I’ve reached my limit for this month for photos upload (already) and I’ve only uploaded up to April 16! This means that I have a two-month backlog of photos. Geez, this means that you will be seeing photos of places two months after I’ve there! Aiya! Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to speed the process up. So unless anyone has any suggestions, you gotta be patient and check back every month. 🙂 Maybe I’ll just take less photos……
Bad Day!
This is where Daniel Powter’s Bad Day should be playing…
Cause you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don’t lie
You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
Well, I had my first REAL bad day yesterday. The handle on my suitcase is breaking, guess that’s what happens when you buy a cheapy suitcase! I’ve decided to spend the money, buy a GOOD quality suitcase and ship some stuff home to lessen the load. It is amazing how much stuff I am carrying and it has gotten to the point that I am starting to get frustrated with it. So, when I get to Stockholm, I am doing some spring cleaning and buying a suitcase. I am waiting until Stockholm because I am in Oslo right now and it definitely deserves its reputation of being the most expensive country in the Scandanavia if not Europe!
But don’t worry, I am slowly feeling better. Give me a day or so and I’ll won’t be a grumpy puss. =)
Cell phones!
Ok, so I found out that it’s free (or cheaper) for me to received txt on that european number (0049 15 209 978 197), but it’s cheaper for me to txt people in other countries from my canadian cell! So if you txt me on my european # and get a txt back from my canadian cell, that’s why! 🙂
Mini Update
Recap of the countries I’ve been to: New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, Singapore, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia and Germany.
List of countries I’m going to in the next 5 months: Denmark, Iceland (if I can get a cheap ticket), Norway, Sweden, and the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Poland, Austria, Czech Republc, Slovkia, maybe Ukraine, Spain, England, Scotland, Ireland,France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Lux., Italy, Russia, Mongolia and China.
New Cell Number in Europe
I got a european cell phone, call or text me anytime! 🙂
0049 15 209 978 197.
Little note
There is just over a week left in May and I am preparing to go off on my own after almost a full 2 months with tour groups. I have met some cool people on the tours but I am glad to be on my own for a while. I can feel myself becoming more and more anti-social as I spend more and more time in the confined space of a tour bus. See this is why I decided not to do all tours as well as not all on my own cause I know I will want to be around people. 🙂
Now, I’ve added some folders in preparation for June when I can add more pics. I think I should be able to finish uploading all the Egypt pics and start on some Greece. At this rate, it looks like I’m going to be a month behind in photos as I am taking more pics than I expected.
I’ve decided that I am going to try to take some time each night to do a little blurb about my day cause I am starting to find that I’m forgetting things or I’m mixing things up the more countries I visited. So this may mean that you guys will get more regular updates on this blog! (One can hope!)
Alright, I’m going to go and check on my laundry and finish packing, for tomorrow I leave Ljubljana for Munich.
Ciao!
The last three months in a nutshell…
In a nutshell, over that last three months, I’ve traveled from the North Island to the South Island in New Zealand, spent a rainy week in Fiji, did a whirlwind 5 city tour of Australia, went to Singapore and chilled, did a 2-week GAP tour of Egypt, a 1-week land & 1-week cruise of Greece and Turkey with Cosmos Tours, and now I am currently on a 2-week Cosmos tour of the Balkans: Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. I am in Bucharest and going onto Brasov tomorrow.
New Zealand was fantastic, and reminded me so much of Canada. I spent more time than I expected there but it was worth it. I did many activities such as sky diving, ice climbing and sand boarding. I am actually planning on going back in December to finish the bottom part of the South Island and go bungee jumping. I met so many cool people in New Zealand, and that definitely made my experience that much better.
Fiji was unexpected as it rained the entire week I was there, but the good news is that I went scuba diving three times! It was awesome and I am definitely getting my PADI certification. Plus there were some totally fun people that I met on the islands and on the Wana Taki boat who helped made the rain-filled days nicer.
Australia was more of a city tour than anything as I basically visited the private clubs in Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. I am planning on going back in November and traveling down the East coast and go surfing and scuba diving. Australia was definitely different from New Zealand, and the environment is much harsher and more extreme. I’m looking forward to going back and do some exploring, especially the contrast of the Great Barrier Reef and the Outbacks. I didn’t meet as many people in Australia as I did in New Zealand as I was doing the business thing, but the ones I did met were très cool.
Good old Singapore. I always love going back to see my lovely grandmother and all my relatives plus can’t forget the delicious cuisine. I spent a quick 3 days there just to recharge and see everyone, plus I managed to fit in 3 different potential clubs. I’ve made Singapore a kind of a base where I repacked and reevaluated what to bring, since I will be going back at least twice more.
Egypt was the first country where I experienced culture shock. I thought I was used to different cultures, after living in Singapore and Vancouver, both are pretty multicultural cities, but Egypt threw me for a loop. First of all, it was more Middle Eastern than I had expected. I didn’t realize that Egypt is more closely linked to the Middle East now than to Africa. Secondly, the Egyptian culture has pretty much been wiped out over the years by all the conquering nations, so the "Egyptian" culture I was expecting is no longer that evident. The two weeks I spent in Egypt was very educational and eye-opening. I definitely wasn’t as relaxed or happy-go-lucky as I was in New Zealand or Australia. But even though I did not have as much fun, it was still fun. I was glad that our GAP tour group was small, only 7 people and we all got along relatively well, which was crucial in a tour group. More details about Egypt on the next write up.
And now where am I? Well, I’m in the middle of 3 straight Cosmos tours of Eastern Europe. I just finished Greece and Turkey, now I’m doing Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania with a stopover in Serbia. I’m off to Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia next week. Let me just say that Eastern Europe is so cool and fun and definitely becoming more westernized (whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is up for debate). So stay tuned for the next write up, hopefully it’ll be sooner than three months! J
Lots of hugs!
xoxoxo