Norway

Flåm to Gudvangen

After flying into Oslo and heading out of the city within a day so we could get to see the tauted Norwegian fjords, we took the famous scenic rail route from Oslo to Flåm. One word and two colors to describe this country: breathtaking, green and blue. The lakes, rivers, fjords, mountains and forests are almost endless. We climbed our way to a high elevation and changed trains at the snow capped settlement of Myrdal to head towards Flåm. From Myrdal, the railway takes a steep 20 km plunge into a gorgeous valley with flat rock walls and huge mountains on either side, decorated with numerous waterfalls and some green pastures in the small valley where Flåm sits on the edge of the Aurlandsfjorden.

On the several hour train ride, we sat across from a lovely couple from Australia, Jill and Roy. We talked about various topics...from advice on vacationing in the Cook Islands to generational differences and approaches to work in business and how technology and globalization are changing the world - perspectives, business and everyday life.

The camping ground in Flåm was quite scenic, but there wasn't much else in the tiny town except the ferry and train stations, a small market and some tourist shops. We did take a nice walk up the valley along the river to see the old Flåm church built in the 1600's. After one night, we headed out on the ferry ride to another small fjord town called Gudvagen and took in remarkable views of the interlinking fjords and more than 100 waterfalls - if we counted correctly.

Voss

After taking yet another scenic bus ride up a steep mountain out of Gudvagen, we settled in a town called Voss for a couple days. This town is known as the adventure sports capital of Norway - sky diving, base jumping, para gliding, white water rafting, etc. - and we only just missed their annual adventure sports festival by 4 days. The day we arrived, the sun was shining and a ton of people were out swimming in the lake, walking around, para sailing, sitting at cafes...this little town had a great summer vibe and we decided we liked it very much. The camping was right next to the lake and the local swimming pool, so sounds of merriment were all around.

We took a really neat hike into a gorge not far from where we camped on the first evening of our stay and the next day took the tram up to the top of the mountain and hiked our way down over the course of several hours. Eric had a humorous encounter with some local sheep - those of you who know of his goat encounter on his first visit to Wyoming will find this not too unusual...sheep and goats alike seem drawn to him...ha ha. We also managed to get in a nice healthy couple/travel companion argument on our way down the mountain - which allowed us to blow off some steam and stress from the first couple weeks of traveling together 24/7. We've had a number of disputes in the last few weeks actually, but are finding that as the days go on, we are settling more and more into a nice travel groove and it's becoming easier to make the constant decisions like where to sleep, what to eat, where to go and what to do.

Oyvind's Place
Our most memorable experiences from Norway were in Stavanger, where we stayed with our CouchSurfing host Oyvind (http://www.couchsurfing.com). He lives not far out of the city on an organic farm of sorts in a large white house that only he occupies. While he is now quite settled into his life of gardening, raising hens and working as a bicycle courier, his earlier travels have inspired him to host many a guest - his hospitality is excellent and everyone is welcome. On the evening we arrived, a group of travelers from Belarus were staying for the night. We had quite a lively breakfast conversation with them the next morning...sharing scrambled eggs, good bread and introducing them to peanut butter. We talked about the history of their country (they are a very proud people) and their growing economy in the last several years after enduring a lot of poverty in the 90's. They told us many young people go to the US and Europe for periods to work and make better money, but also to travel and take in some of the Western thinking. According to Natalia, the ability to broaden their world view to include Western perspectives combined with their very strong work ethic and deep rooted tradition and culture is what will help their country and their people grow and become more successful.

After many photos and a quick walk together to the old viking farm nearby, we waved our friends from Belarus farewell and then turned our attention to preparing to depart on a little camping excursion with Oyvind and his friend Ragnhild for the mid-summer night. We set off at about 4:30 on bikes we borrowed from Oyvind and met Ragnhild to go to the lake shore and pick up two canoes. We paddled leisurely out to a little island about a half hour from shore and set up a nice little camp. Our dinner was quite the undertaking...Oyvind had provided a whole frozen hen (no feathers included :) and Ragnhild and I set about trying to figure out how to butcher the thing so we could get enough bits to cook in the Uncle Ben's Tikka Masala sauce Eric and I had bought. In the end, we succeeded and had a very nice meal...though the meat was a bit chewey as Oyvind had warned about these types of hens. We spent the rest of the evening exploring our little island and had many conversation about Norwegian culture, world politics, religion, relationships and family and views about the future. Ragnhild and I hit it off quite well and I don't think we hardly stopped talking the entire time we were together! :)

After rowing back early the next afternoon, Ragnhild took Eric and I to the local pool and sauna. She and Oyvind had told us the night before that the sauna was quite the social setting in Stavanger and so it was fun to go and listen to the talk of everyone crammed in this little hot room with sweat pouring down. We even got a chance to contribute to the dialogue when people realized we were American and began speaking in us in English about our world travels - what to be aware of and some bits of advice and insight for our trip. We finished off our day at Ragnhild's place with a wonderful stir fry meal, eating out on her sunny patio near the town center and finishing off our meal with excellent Brazilian coffee and brownies. When we finally biked back to Oyvind's place, we were delighted to find more international guests from Taiwan, Mexico and Latvia. I don't know if I've ever met anyone so welcoming of others into their home as Oyvind.

Our last day in Stavanger (we stayed 4 nights total because we felt so at home here), we took a ferry and bus to the trail head for Preikestolen (known in English as Pulpit Rock) and hiked 2 hours up the very rocky mountain to get to the famous cliff outlook over fjords and mountains. This spot is particularly known for base jumping and attracts quite a lot of tourists. The hike certainly takes your breath away at times, but the effort is well worth the view!

We departed on Tuesday morning, taking with us homemade honey compliments of our host, and were a bit sad to go because we had so enjoyed the company of Oyvind, his friends and many guests. We originally set off to the Norwegian South Coast for the beaches, but since it was pouring rain that day, decided to continue on all the way to Sweden...more on our adventures here to come soon.

Iceland

After a red eye flight on Wednesday night, we arrived to Reykjavik, Iceland at 7AM on June 14...a bit travel weary and jet lagged. Since we couldn't check into our hostel until 2PM, we wandered the city, found a coffee shop and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, which still cost us almost $20 for a breakfast of chai tea lattes, a small bagel sandwich and a yogurt. Let's just say that Iceland is expensive - to put it mildly. That doesn't however take away from the beauty of this country, which we were soon to find.

Our first day in Iceland was mostly a travel recovery day, with a little bit of city sight seeing. There are only 300,000 people in Iceland, so the city isn't too overwhelming. For our time here, we decided the best use of our small budget would be to rent a car for a couple days and get out to see the natural beauty of the island. So, on Friday morning we picked up our little Yaris rental car and headed South East to the Skaftafell National Park that has the biggest glacier in Iceland. Pretty much every tourist that rents a car in Iceland has a Yaris, and we decided it might be appropriate to start calling tourists Yarists (including ourselves).

The landscape of this country is varied and quite amazing. We drove through lava fields and black sand deserts, rolling green hills and mountains, dramatic coastlines with cliff sides and unusual rock formations, rocky fields covered in whitish moss (that I personally thought looked like dead sheep piled on top of one another), and more. Sometimes you feel like you are on the moon, other times like you are in Ireland or in the Western plains of the USA. It was quite an interesting drive and we stopped often to take in the numerous crashing waterfalls, rocky and sandy beaches and look out points.

Our first night of camping was at the national park - in the rain. Luckily the rain cleared up not too long after we arrived, though it remained overcast until we left. We cooked in a covered BBQ area on a coal thingy we had bought at the gas station. Our pasta was a bit al dente, but edible, and we met some nice fellow campers from Germany, the Netherlands and the USA as we cooked. When we finally settled into our little two-man tent, we got out our travel backgammon set and went about figuring out how to play the game in a tiny little tent - we each won once. :)

The next morning, we got up and made PB&J sandwiches before setting off on a 4-hour hike in the park up towards a part of the glacier. I was initially reluctant considering the overcast weather and the good chance of rain, but with some coaxing from Eric, we were on our way. And we were both SO glad we decided to go because this hike has been one of the highlights of our trip so far. We started uphill through some brush and trees, passing along a waterfall and a nice stream. Once we got over the top, we began climbing down into a canyon of black rock and sand and through which a glacial river runs. On the far side of the canyon, you can walk right up to one part of the glacier. We had lunch by the river looking at a waterfall and eventually walked around the mountain we had climbed at the beginning and came back to our camp site.

We spent our second night of camping next to Geyser...after which supposedly all geysers in the world are named. We are not entirely sure if the word came from Iceland, but they at least claim it did. After a short excursion to a huge, pounding waterfall called Gulfoss, we came back to our campsite and made a make-shift BBQ using rocks on the grass to cook a dinner of scrambled eggs, toast and baked beans (we are quite glad we bought camp cookware!). We then wandered across the road to sit in a mineral hot tub - now this was luxury in our opinion. We crawled into our sleeping bags nice and warm that night.

Our final day in Iceland was spent back in Reykjavik. Lucky for us, it was their independence day so it was a very exciting day to be in the city. Our hostel, albeit slightly expensive by backpacker standards, was right downtown and was a great jumping off point to explore the festivities. Right when we arrived at the hostel, a local band came marching around the corner followed by tons of people to the town square. We followed them and listened to some of the speeches, but eventually we gave up since we couldn't understand a word. Three big stages were set up around the city and they had a bunch of different bands play. There was also a parade of old cars, a carnival for the kids during the day, many concession stands manned by the equivalent of girl and boy scouts that were selling hot dogs, cotton candy and other sweets.

Our favorite part of the day was sitting outside of a local pub people watching. After about 7PM, it was masses of teenagers all wearing the same basic outfit (despite the chilly weather of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit) - short mini-skirt with boots for the girls with way too much make-up, and tight "Euro" jeans for the boys with some funky hairdos. We felt like we were back in junior high cruising the mall! I guess some things are universal - like adolescence.

At one point of our evening, a local man called Johan joined us at our table while he smoked a cigarette. He is about 70 years old and an Icelandic seaman from the North, just come in off his boat for a couple week break. He has traveled around the world and even worked for an American company in Africa for a time. He eventually made his way back to Iceland because of his pride for the country and the long summer days (it never really gets dark here - it's bright even at 3AM and is quite confusing to a foreigner who is camping!). Johan told us about some of the Icelandic traditions and elaborated on their superstitions of elves and spirits. We went inside the pub to meet his wife, and as you can tell from the photo, she was not quite as friendly as old Johan.

Our next destination is Norway, where we are currently. More about our adventures here to come...stay tuned! Also, be sure to check out all our posted photos so far by clicking on the photo link on the right side of this page.

New York

It is said that New York has a certain vibe about it...something we discovered for ourselves when visiting our friend Randi (aka: Aviva). We arrived to New York late on Monday evening, June 11. We had just endured a painful bus ride from Philly with a bus driver who was constantly on his cell phone or text messaging during the trip. We overheard him talking on his cell phone with his girlfriend - yelling actually - and asking her if they were just friends, friends with "benefits" (he didn't exactly say it that nicely), or if they were a "thing." It didn't help of course that the typical 2 hour ride turned into 4 hours as a result of an earlier accident involving 2 trucks and a car that caught on fire. Let's just say, we were relieved to get off the bus.

After a short taxi ride with an Egyptian taxi driver (who spends an alternating 4 months in Egypt and 2 months in the US, and who told us our new married life will be much easier if I do as my husband says - yeah right :), we arrived at Randi's place on 2nd and 2nd in Manhattan's East Village. She's got a very cool, artsy apartment that she shares with an artist and another girl and for New York has a large room for a great deal. We were famished, so we went immediately to her favorite local Italian joint just down the street. It is true that New York is the city that never sleeps, and in fact, we even found we liked it better at night (in the summer) - everyone is out eating at restaurants and cafes, drinking, walking, laughing...it actually gave a very warm, friendly and relaxing summer feel.

On Tuesday morning, we got up and went down the block to great little breakfast place that felt very New York - everyone knows everyone, it was a little hot and sweaty, but had incredible omelets. We then made our way on the subway to Grand Central Station, up 5th Avenue and to Central Park. We were amazed how serene the park felt in comparison to the street...still not like being in the middle of nowhere, but certainly quieter with some birds chirping and ducks swimming, people strolling and fountains spouting.

After lunch at the boathouse cafe, we started on our way again...only to be caught off guard by a torrential (and that is NOT an exaggeration) down pour. We had two umbrellas between the three of us, and let's just say after about 5 minutes, those didn't do much good - especially for me in a white skirt (note to self: time to buy a BLACK skirt). The whole situation was actually quite humorous and by the time we did make it back to the subway, we had some major drying off to do. Due to the lovely summer weather, we shifted our evening plans and decided to do a traditional New York dinner at the pizza place across the street. You just can't be in New York and not experience true NYC pizza - which we thought was fabulous.

On Wednesday morning, Randi had to go back to work at her super cool new job at ?What If!, so Eric and I were left to explore the West Village on our own. We found the West Village to be a bit more quaint and quiet than our East Village hang out, which is a bit more artsy and trendy. We did stop off at the cupcake shop Randi recommended for a delicious chocolate cupcake with lots of frosting. We only had until 3PM before we had to start our trek to the airport, which turned out to be an adventure in itself.

We boarded the subway to go to 4th Ave and a gentleman (actually more of a swinger) asked us where we were from. (Can't imagine why considering our huge, over sized backpacks). We told him California, at which point he came and sat next to us and started a 15-minute soliloquy on drugs, sex, rock and roll and his hatred and close school ties to the Bush family. After explaining to us how the world, and our country in particular, is controlled by consumerism and branding, we asked him what he did for a living. Ironically enough...he's in advertising and is waiting either another 10 or 15 years to retire depending on how rich he wants to be when he moves to Florida for "dope and babes!"

We just arrived in Oslo from Iceland, and will share our experiences and photos from there (and post photos from NY) when we find cheaper internet. Hasta Luego!

Philadelphia

After an enchilada dinner on our last evening with friends and family, we put on our backpacks, posed for pictures in front of the white pickett fence , said our goodbyes, gave hugs and got in the car with Jeff and Anne (Eric's dad and sister) to drive to the airport. Ryan and Al, two friends, met us at the airport for a final farefell and we checked in and walked towards the security check.

We were both in slight shock...not fully being able to believe that the day had finally arrived -- the day we had been dreaming and talking about for several years. We couldn't believe we were/are actually doing this, and still can't fully phathom the length of a travel year, or what it could possibly hold for us. Our canvas is blank -- wide open -- and ready to be slowly filled in as each new day arises.

After a 6 hour flight to Philadelphia, we arrived tired and weary at 5:20AM. Our bags were not in such a hurry -- no one at the Philly airport seemed to be in a hurry, or even to know what was going on for that matter. After 3o minutes, the baggage carosel finally started moving and we were relieved that ours did pop out. Our friend Kim picked us up and drove us to his house, where we proceeded to take a much needed nap in the hot humidly -- quite a change from the dry climate of the West Coast.

We've spent our first couple days enjoying the company of our friends Kim and Meegan touring around the local hotspots...we ate the famous Philly cheese steaks for lunch at Pat's AND Geno's steak places, shopped (or browsed - no buying allowed due to bag weight and size :), imagined what the city was like in its industrial prime, met a nice chef on break from a local restaurant feeding carp in a back canal who gave us a tutorial on the fish's eating habits and saw turtles basking in the sun. That's the best part about this kind of travel -- random conversations with those you encounter, no major tourist agenda, just along for the ride to take it all in, relax, enjoy and learn. During day 2, we visited all the tourist sites including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and the LOVE statue. Our evenings have been spent going out to Sushi and having a BBQ at Kim and Meegan's place with tiki torches, good music and great food. Not a bad way to start the first leg of our journey!

Shortly, we will be boarding a bus to New York, where we will meet our friend Randi for 2-days of New York site seeing.

We have already started uploading photos from the trip, which you can view by clicking on the photo icon on the right side of the page or here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eric.cherniss/Philidelphia.