bye for now

I can understand why everyone travels in August: School is out; it is really the hottest month of the summer - at least where I’m from; etc. This is great for hostels and other travel related businesses, but not the unprepared traveller (like myself). I don’t like to plan too far ahead. I like to have my options open just in case I hear of something cool near by. Anyway, this resulted in having to plan to ahead. I struggled to find places to Denmark that had rooms available for a reasonable price, but now I have my entire Denmark trip booked. Sad, I know. At least I know I have places to stay.

I do, however, have an entire month unbooked. I just recently booked my travels to Iceland. I travel there at the beginning of October. I’ve heard stories of Iceland being like no other country in landscape and culture. So naturally I’m very excited to go there. But that is the future and I can only speculate about it.

Currently, I’m in Odense, Denmark. Which is on Funen island. I didn’t want to go here originally, but I ended up here due to the booking problems I mentioned earlier. However, there is nothing wrong with the city. It is quite small and relaxed. Turns out it is the hometown of fairy tale writer H.C. Anderson. Who has written such fairy tales as Thumbelina, The Princess and The Pea, and The Little Mermaid - click here for a full list. I’m here for 3 nights, which is probably too much, but I’m going to attempt a day trip out to a harbour town tomorrow.

It’s been about a week since I left Skye. Leaving the Backpackers was definitely as sad as leaving home. In many ways it was my home. Even though it was basically a live-in job, but it didn’t feel like one. I know I will find myself back there one day.

Now I find myself traveling Sweden. I spent my first few days in Stockholm. Last I was there was January of this year. It was in a very gloomy state at that time. Irregardless of this, it was still a good experience with lots to see. This time around it was even better however. It did rain all but 2 of the 5 nights I was there and, well, pretty much rained at some point every day, but I still had an incredible time.

I seemed to arrive just in time for a big party. August 8, 2008 or 08/08/08. I understand that Stockholms telephone code is 08, so they usually have a party every August 8th. This one obviously even more special given the current year. It was a massive street party with techno music taking place in the city’s main square. I don’t want to sound like a drag and it would have been great had I been in a different frame of mind - read as drunk - but if you’ve seen a bunch of drunks in the street before, you didn’t miss much by not attending this event. It seemed that everyone was enjoying themselves however, but I preferred to get away from the action and have a sneaky pint in a quiet pub away from the action.

The highlight of my time Stockholm this time around had to be visiting an island in the Archipelago. I went to an island called Grinda. Which seemed to most peaceful - and the cheapest to get to - out of all the choices I was given. There were a lot of little trails around the island, some nice viewing points and swimming areas. It was a small island so it only took me about 3 hours to explore with having lunch and drinking a pint. If I found myself back in Stockholm I’d probably check more of the islands and I highly recommend doing this to anyone who happens to find themselves in Stockholm.

Today, I’m in Malmö. Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden after Stockholm and Göteborg. I feel that it is about the right size for me. I don’t like massive cities, they are a bit too overwhelming and far less personable. Mind you larger cities do have their advantages as well. I don’t really know what else to say about it. Malmö is a nice city, given the right weather, you can spend some time on the beach or wander one of the many parks. I’m actually really impressed with the parks here. Anyway, visit Malmö.

Apparently I have a webpage that is online. On said webpage is an online journal. I’m writing in it now. This is something I should be doing regularly. It’s not like things haven’t been happening to me. But I just don’t really think they are worth mentioning. I mean, I could write them, but is anyone really interested to hear the very normal things I have been doing? Well, regardless of that… here is what I’ve been up to.

• Day trip of the Isle of Skye. It was amazing. Saw some great landscape. Check out my pictures on Facebook (click it like you stole it).
• Also, I have hiked around the town just exploring trails and such. See the above link.
• Working 3 to 4 shifts at a pub bartending at a place called Saucy Mary’s. I’ve heard many different versions of the story of the real Saucy Mary (Well like 3 or 4). The gist of it is: Mary had a toll for ships passing through Loch Alsh. If you gave Mary a little bit extra on top of the toll, she would bare her breasts. This type of behavior could be described as being Saucy. Henceforth, she became Saucy Mary.

Well I apparently my post is a little bit more entertaining than originally anticipated.

Well I made it up to Kyleakin. I’m now on the island I plan to spend the next few months. I stopped in Edinburgh for a few days on the way. Stayed at Castle Rock (which was the hostel I lived at last time I was in Scotland). There were actually still quite a few people I knew there still. I also met some new people and had a good time in general. The plan now is to actually get out there and start applying for some jobs. Not that there are a lot of options in this town, as it is very small, but hopefully I will find one soon.

Well here I am back in the UK. Manchester right now to be specific. I decided that since my work visa is still valid, I should use it while I can since you can only get 1 in your life and it is only valid for 2 years.

 Not much interesting has happened yet. You may know, I’ve already been to Manchester and I’ve alrready stayed at the hostel I’m at right now, so nothing new to mention about either of those things. I actually have to head out and organize some things with banking and a mobile phone right now. I just thought I’d post on here to let everyone know to expect some updates here and there. But not too many right now. I will not be traveling a lot right away and rather starting to work as soon as I can.

Contrary to the horrible series of movies with the same name, Bergen wasn’t horrible; even though, it rains about 270 days a year. Bergen is a far more beautiful city than Oslo or Trondheim, so it is a definite stop for anyone.

List thing again:

• Drank a lot of very expensive beer
• Met a bunch of locals a rock bar called Garage
• Had a local show us around and found out where beer isn’t ridiculously expensive. But still expensive anyway because we’re in Norway.
• Checked out the town and sort of saw it through the rain.
• Got some aquavitt.
• Went to the airport for the long journey home.

I had the best weather I’ve had in Norway in Geilo. Perfect for snowboarding. It was sunny, but the weather still sat at about -5 so the snow wasn’t melting. The snow conditions were only decent however, but the best I’ve had so far in Scandinavia.

The resort was a bit interesting. It was separated by the town. They provided a ski bus to travel between them. Included in your lift ticket, of course. The fun park was spread out all over the mountain and was kind of separated in difficulty. They had some interesting rails. All the jumps and rails seemed to be constructed well.

The main reason I went to Geilo was of course to snowboard. My next reason was because it broke up the train ride from Oslo to Bergen. Which is recommended as the most scenic train ride in all of Norway. I have to say it was well worth the cost. Check it out if you are in Norway, but it fills up, so book a week in advance.

Goteborg is quite a nice city and it was quite easy to get around with my handy Swedish guide, Helena. I met Helena in Edinburgh in September and decided I should go visit her since I was going to be near her home. And what a better way to see a city than with someone who has lived there their entire life. Also it happened to be my birthday so it was nice to seem someone I knew previously to my Scandinavian travels.

I’m going to summarize this post again in the same way that Lauren does, because I like stealing people’s ideas. And also it is quick and makes me seem like I’m way too busy exploring the world to have time to post a thorough message.

• Enjoyed free accommidations and prepared meals from my host.
• Went to the Universium. Walked in the rain forest. Checked out some sharks, snakes, and other animals. Did some experiments in the lab. Walked on a tight rope.
• Tried to get in some other museums, but turned out to be closed for winter.
• Checked out the art gallery to find most of it was closed for repairs.
• Shot some pool and drank a few pints.
• Probably did other stuff I can’t remember at this time.

I was in Oslo over a week ago, but I’ve been having laptop troubles so I haven’t been online much. Now that I’ve provided my typical excuse for a late update, I will begin with the normal posting.

Here’s what I did:

• Went to the ski museum/ski jump
• Watched a cross-country ski race
• Checked out Vinglepark
• Visited The Vingle Museum thinking it was for Emanual Vingle. When it is actually for his brother, who designed all the sculptures in Vinglepark. Only the people at the Vingle Museum seemed to be aware of the difference between the two museums.
• Got solicited so much sex from hookers that I thought I was in Amsterdam.
• Walked around the city randomly in the rain
• Watched too many free DVDs at the hostel due to rain.
• Found a good coffee shop and drank copious amounts of coffee.

These are the two places I’ve been s-boarding over the last week or so and I’m going to compare them.  The 1994 Winter Olympics were held in Lillehammer, Norway and Hafjell happens to be the main resort nearest Lillehammer.  On top of that, Åre was a contender as well for the ‘94 Winter Olympics but lost out to Lillehammer.

The best part about Lillehammer is the snow condition.  The snow is far superior to what I was riding in Åre.  I talked to a couple locals about it while I was there and the general response was that the season in Åre doesn’t kick off until February.  I happened to be there in January and a considerable amount of runs and lifts were closed, but given the size of the resort, I hadn’t noticed.  They claim the snow gets better in February.  As well, after telling one of them where I was from, turns out, “No good skiers come from The Rockies.  The snow conditions are always good, so skiers don’t have to worry about riding on shitty snow.  So skiers in Sweden are better because they are forced to ski in worse conditions.”  Well I agreed with him that I’ve never rid on snow that bad at any mountain I’ve been to in Canada.  I’d say that Lillehammer’s snow was on par with some of the resorts in Canada.

Åre was giant resort.  It had 3 peaks.  And it was probably the only resort I’ve been to with a bus service running between the bases of the peaks.  A couple of runs I went on I didn’t end up at the bottom for an hour after I reached the top of the lift.  Speaking of the lifts, they seemed to have a good lay out.  There were several lifts from different parts of the base that went up different heights and linked you with other lifts.  It really worked well for spreading people out on the mountain and not clogging up lifts with long lines.  Hafjell seemed to have a decent lift system as well, but the mountain is just way smaller.  The only complaint I have about both resorts lifts systems are the over use of T-bars.  I don’t mind the T-bar now then, but they really start to hurt after a while.  And considering the distance you’d travel at Åre on a T-bar, you weren’t having a good time riding after a couple times up.

So in the end, I will say Åre was a better resort.  I rode their for two days and for the first day and a half I was still exploring new runs and routes.