"Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown"

Well, I don't know about gorgeous, but we have definitely been knowing the "unknown" feeling! We were smart to travel a bit by bus and train in the bustling city of Oslo without our packs, it made the get out of Oslo trip a lot smoother. We found out a bit more about trains, they are still overwhelming to us when we have our heavy packs on but so far so good! Yesterday we managed  four connections. For me, connections are hard enough in my own language, when looking at a board in another language it is a little more difficult, however the most stressful to me is when they announce your stop in Swedish. Reading is one thing, listening is another! We both kept our cool and realized that worst case scenario was we took later train or a train back to where we took a wrong one! It's a bit frustrating that there are no people operating the smaller stations but the conductors thus far have been very helpful, and friendly. We are really enjoying the trains, the views are incredible and there is a train between every town nearly. I think summertime would be another story, we are mostly on with commuters now, not many other travellers.

Arvika was a great little town, I really liked it a lot! I was really excited about the 'Nordells  konditori' but I was hoping it was run by Nordells. As Kelsey said earlier, it wasn't, but I thought the photo of the original owner had some resemblance, to me, the fact that a lake nearby is where some of Kelsey's relatives (ancestry records) had as their address is not coincidence. The owner came out and talked to us a bit and even he said that the name is not so common. It was really neat. The owner of the cafe was very nice to take the time out to speak with us, the cafe was busy. The reason it was busy, no doubt, is that it was delicious! The best latte I've had this trip and we shared some treats. They bake their own bread and supply it to the local grocery as well. If you are ever in Arvika...

The hostels have been interesting, in Oslo, the Anker was huge and a bit sterile, like a hospital. So it was clean but not very comforting. It also felt like a place where young people (hahaha, now I'm old) go to pick up other young people. I will say that the building was quiet, all he noise was outside between the building and the bar across the street, directly across from our windows. It ended at three am though and it was fine. It was kind of a pain to have to go down the two flights of stairs to pick up a big tub of dishes that had to be used within three hours or lose your deposit! There wasn't even a glass to drink from in our kitchenette, and no oven only a two burner range. Needless to say, we have been eating a lot of bread and peanut butter and Nutella, apples are in season and in every town I have seem them hanging off trees, we've been buying ours though, haven't reached that point yet haha! You also need to rent towels, we brought our own, quick dry, light weight, micro fibre chamois type towels. The towels we have work ok, but after two hostels, when Kelsey and I told the kids we were staying in a hotel next, Amber got very excited and her eyebrows shot up as she exclaimed "Real towels!". The second hostel, vandrarhem sandalen, was smaller. There were two women staying there and a shared kitchen, with a shower room amd water closets (toilets) in several places. I was so excited about an oven that we bought groceries and made a lasagna and a big salad. It was nice and homey. We had some nice visits with the one lady, Carmella, and the other lady spoke less English but was very friendly. We found out that the vandrarhem was becoming a home for refugees soon and so we were some of the last people to stay there.

So now it is October and we are in Växjö, Sweden. We are happy to have "real" towels and breakfast is included and it was a nice spread. As some of you know I was cautioned against consuming gluten right before I left, that has been rather unsuccessful! We have been mostly on the go, and it is very convenient to grab bread and cheese and spreads for on the train or a quick picnic lunch. Anyway, I am feeling fine and enjoying the food in this country very much, I will delve back in to that study when I get back! We are thinking of taking the train tomorrow to visit kalmar and we will maybe just take it easy here for a few days, Växjö looks really interesting and has a lot of immigration info that
would be worth checking out (to the olds in the group haha) Our plan is to be in Denmark for the sixth,  a friend has graciously invited us to stay. It's funny, I went to write December 1st on something the other day and then Kelsey said "tomorrow is Halloween." It feels like we have been away longer than we have, Ross said "does that mean we aren't having fun?". We are having fun, I think we have just seen SO much in such a short period of time that it feels like we must have been away longer. We are enjoying watching our kids interact with each other, enjoying the time playing scrabble or watching the world out a train window. I reflect nearly every day about how quickly they have grown and have a hard time separating myself from them as "mother", I want to tell them what to eat, to go wash their hands and to stay close when we board trains, that sort of thing, and then I realize,( usually when eyes are rolling) that these are young adults, not children. I am incredibly grateful I get this time to just have them to myself (shared with kelsey of course) I hope that they are taking something away from this too.

I can't stress enough how much I miss you all, I keep reminding myself about the immigrants leaning everything behind, not knowing if they will ever see their homeland again, and that makes me chill a bit. That and the song "odds are" by the Barenaked Ladies. XO Wendi