Arvika Sweden Sept 30

Has been a bit of a challenge the last couple of days, we found our Hostel in Arvika fine but have no Wifi which we rely on very heavily for booking rooms in the next town. So we got a cell phone today in order to have data and ability to contact places to stay, last pay phone I went to use did not work either. We are on our way to Växjö tomorrow which is a series of train connections varying from 10min layovers to 30 min, one train requires reservations and we have tried booking online, were on hold for one hour and train station could not help. So we are heading out tomorrow with a possiblity we will be stuck somewhere, so far the trains have been very quiet so we are not too worried, the one we need reservations for is our 30 min layover. Arvika is a great little town and the people here are very nice it's way less stressful to be in a small town then cities. We went for a coffee a few times in the Nordell bakery/cafe which was opened by a Nordell in 1911, no longer owned by Nordells. I don't know for sure if it is the same family, but it is pretty cool, this area or just north of here is where the Nordells  come from, the Varmland region. Living in hostels has been interesting and not a great deal for 5 people, they still work out to $200 a night with sheet rental, but you can get them short notice. The one we stayed at in Oslo was a very large place and not very personal but set up very well. Our room had beds for 6 but we had it to ourselves, paid 60nok a night for bed not being used, we had a kitchenette and a private bathroom. The kitchenette was not stocked so at meal times we put 100nok deposit on a kitchen kit which we took to our room and were able to keep for three hours. The area we stayed in was a great area to walk around lots of shops cafés and restaurants but very expensive, we even managed to find mini golf on Sunday. The hostel in Arvika is very nice and small we talk to the other guests, (not many right now off season) share a meal room, living room, shower facilities and water closet. We have our own room with two bunk beds and a single bed and with sheet rental it was 2400Sek Swedish krone($400) for two nights. We have been in Iceland, Norway and Sweden, so far all use the krone but it is their own and they are all different exchange rates and won't accept from another country.

Nordell name is everywhere here even bread in grocery store!

Kongsvinger

Kongsvinger (roughly translated to kings river where it bends) was a very cool place to visit, and possibly confirmed this is where my 2x great grandparents were born in 1833. Found no official records just eliminated the possiblity they were from an area Kongsvingen which doesn't sound like it existed. Wasn't much open today everything is off season and closed but we managed to find a church "Vinger Kirke" that was built in 1699 and walked around a very old cemetery. Lots of history to this town as well, it was a fortress town that protected the eastern borders of Norway since the 1600's.   Kelsey

"Getting lost is not a waste of time. To travel is to evolve." Pierre Bernard

Wow, have we been evolving! Not that we have been "lost" in the real sense of the word, we have a vague feeling of where we are, as in "we are in Oslo".  It's the "what bus do we take?", "is this our stop?", "no we shouldn't have gotten off here", and the famous "google maps says one kilometre, I thought we could walk here easily" type of lost. Plus the language thing! It's ok here in these big places, they speak English really well, but I feel so unintelligent! I don't know how to use public transport AND I can't speak Norwegian. Ah well, we are doing fine though, after our beautiful train ride and a successful day using the oslo bus system, we have seen quite a bit.
Yesterday we saw the viking ship museum and Edward Munch museum (pronounced monk), saw "the scream" in person, I felt a little conspicuous standing in that dark room with my black clothes on and the guard talking to someone on a little hand set while glancing at me. Turns out he didn't think I was going to steal it (it's been stolen twice) he was calling someone so he could take his break, anyway, it was just sitting there, you can put your nose right up to it! Pretty neat, Munch had a dark side, enjoyed all his sketches and he donated everything from his studio and so there where sketchbooks and palettes, we all enjoyed it. Maybe some of us spent too much time reading, but it wasn't too long of a stop. The viking ships were incredible, I was struck mostly by the fact that one of those huge ships was used for two women. They dragged this ship up on shore, laid out these two women in all the best clothes, on full beds, with food and horses, etc, everything they would need for a journey, and then buried it all! So much work, I really want to know who these women are, they are inconclusive as to that so far. I enjoyed that women seemed to be fairly equal in that society and I have my own opinions on the "rape and pillage" culture the Vikings seem to be attributed with. If you look at who was writing the history books at that time and since then...well I won't get in to it, it's the media, even back then, promoting what was more exciting and who it's going to benefit.
We took the bus back home after our one kilometre, not one kilometre, walk, and after a quick huddle and a look at a map and street signs we found our street! Yay us! We ate dinner out at a Mexican restaurant last night and ended up chatting with a couple from Sweden, our next venture, it was quite serendipitous, we have been kind of exhausted with the little stresses of trying to find our way off the train with our heavy backpacks and to a bus, etc. so we have been tossing around the idea of smaller towns. One place that we happened upon is Kalmar in Sweden. Turns out, the gentleman beside us grew up there! We took it as a sign and will make our way there in the next week. They currently live in Stockholm, which I would also like to see but maybe we can take a day trip from Kalmar. Okay everyone, google map it now so you can see where we will be! Haha!
We are just having some breakfast now and are going to take the bus to the train and the train to Kongsvinger to see what we can see, just a day trip. Thinking of everyone back home, and missing you...yeah you. ;)

Scenery on train amazing bergen to oslo

Nothing like a 7:00 am hike with packs to the train to get the blood pumping, we made it to Oslo no problems. (except for stumbling around the train station in Oslo dazed and confused, getting into two cabs getting dropped off at two different buildings but eventually finding each other again at right building!) We realized once we arrived and got to our room this is it, we have no more reservations made until December. we are getting better at arriving in strange places making our way around finding groceries and making plans. We will be in Anker apartments, a hostel in Oslo, for four nights and then we are thinking possibly Arvika Sweden, home of the Nordell cafe. We spent a couple hours yesterday and today as a group researching things to do and places to see and we have a few ideas to work with.

Sept 24

In a nutshell did tourist stuff, went on a fjord tour drank some spring water collected by a pretty lady rode a tram to the top of a hill behind Bergen walked down. Spent the afternoon getting ready to move again 7 hour train ride to Oslo tomorrow it is suppose to be one of the most scenic railways in Europe.

"Never go on trips with anyone you do not love." Ernst Hemingway
Kelsey has been on the ball with the posts for this blog, I've been lagging but since I had a mokka this afternoon I'm feeling a little bit of energy tonight to post one myself. Kelsey has been so sweet and sentimental with his posts that I feel a little bit of guilt typing this, but since this blog was meant to not only inform everyone back home of what we are up to but also maybe help someone out there plan their own trip, I thought I better get a bit personal. I love these people, a lot, as much as you can love actually. I think they are all the best people that ever there was, but I'm also a bit of an introvert I'm learning AND I miss my girlfriends. When one travels like this it isn't exactly a holiday. There is still laundry, still dishes to do and still meals to prepare, only you need to FIND the food in a strange place, in another language! Sometimes everyone is hungry and angry (hangry) and all I want to do is go to my room, except I'm on the street, in a strange place and I'm afraid of leaving them there. Also, I've experienced that the places we have been staying in are small, not much place to run to, and NO BATHTUBS! (My friends get me on this one) So while Kelsey plays scrabble with his kids I've been going to read...or sometimes I just lay on the bed and stare at the ceiling. Anyway, it's different, it's like moving to a new place every few days. I'm grateful for this opportunity, do not get me wrong, it's amazing and I'm loving it but it's overwhelming at this stage being together, this close, continuously.
Everything is working out though, as Kelsey said a while back "we make a good team" he is constantly worried about where we are going to stay and how to stretch the budget to last, and maybe we should get a European cell phone (communication with hostels etc has been difficult) and I'm wondering why I didn't bring more pencil crayons. I'm kidding, but I'm sure that's what he thinks sometimes! No, I'm worrying about the same things as him as well as about a million other things, from terrorists to tripping over the weird little stair on the tile downstairs in this sweet little doll house we are in, seriously I've done it three times, what if I break something? See? Worrying. Mostly though, for a person who is of a mostly anxious nature I think I'm doing ok, I think we are well fed, and our clothes are clean. I think between the two of us we will make it to our destination alright. For the record, I don't do all the dishes, or cook all the meals alone, we've been pretty much teaming up on that as well, but it's kind of my second nature to do those things. Anyway, consider carefully who you travel with, you won't all be as lucky as me, I've got the best travel partners.

Walking around Bergen

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryggen it is amazing how much history there is here the link takes you to information on Bryygen which is and old section of Bergen. We spent an hour today talking the volunteer of the Bryygen tourist info centre, he works there for three days a week for free in the winter because it is typically closed right now. This section is a wooden town and has been destroyed by fire several times over a thousand years, each time there was a fire they pushed the rubble into the port and built on top of the destroyed buildings. The one thing I read and I hope I didn't get these numbers wrong but they believe the shoreline has moved out 120m and is possibly built up on 10m of destroyed buildings. The organic material does not decompose because of the salt water in the ground, there have been a couple cases that affected the ground water which increased the decomposing process and the buildings sank. The area is very protected now from any below grade construction, and any restoration of buildings has to done with the same tools and materials they were originally built with.  Kelsey

This is a huge task and involves engineering and very extensive construction to save the buildings. A few pictures below to show this area

Arrived safe in Norway

arrived safe in Bergen just after lunch found our house we rented and wandered around town a little, beautiful city!

View from kitchen

Downtown

Our house

Our street