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Norway quick looks
Aloha!
Sorry, but no pics yet!
Looks like finding a good internet hook-up is a bit harder than expected, and the software here is giving me fits! We`ll see what happens!
9/17/10 - It's 8am in Oslo, Norway, and we're on our way back to Hawaii! Bittersweet, I tell you. Glad to be coming back, but sad to leave, for sure! We've been through so many towns, villages, and cities in the last three weeks that it's all a big whirlwind in my head right now. Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are different countries but similiar in many ways. The grindz are pretty much what we expected - lots of sandwiches, cold cuts, cheeses, pickled herring, salmon, breads, etc. Street foods consisted of a few of the above, plus hotdogs, hamburgers, pizza, and our favorite, which is not even Scandinavian at all - Middle Eastern shawarma! Whether they were Turkish, Lebanese, Jewish, or whatever, they all carried shishkabobs and flatbreads of different varieties that housed grilled lamb, steak, pork, or other meats, along with fresh veggies and different sauces. Delicious! Show you shots later!
What's on my mind right now? Besides sun, sand, and surf, it's chazuke, plate lunch, pho - basically, anything with rice or rice noodles! No, we didn't dare try one of the several sushi restaurants we've seen in the big cities up here!
Gotta go for now! Take care!
9/15/10 (late-afternoon) - Turns out that the Vietnamese spot was not bad at all, but Kumi and I nearly passed-out in astonishment when they said there was no pho available! Whaaa??? A Vietnamese place without pho??? Well, kinda... During lunch, 8 dishes were available in total, and none of them were pho!!! They roll 'em out only after 3pm. No worries. The entire menu was in Swedish and Vietnamese, and our orders of spring roll and summer roll were only guesses! We returned at night and the pho was slightly different from Hawaii, but still very good. Somethig familiar after nearly 3 weeks of Scandinavian food hit us like mom's best at Sunday dinner! More about it later! We're getting free canapes of lobster in dill cream, lamb shishkabob', delicious local beer, Port, and cognac here in the Executive lounge, and later - tapas in the old section of Stockholm! Check you out later!
9/15/10 (morning) - After more than two weeks, we just couldn't take any more bread, cheese, pickled fish, and luncheon meats anymore! We were really looking forward to a hot bowl of pho or ramen, but stopped at a Thai spot for Kumi's favorite, a bowl of tom yum kung, even though we have free food here in the executive lounge at our swank hotel. Bad move. They don't make Thai very authentic here in Stockholm, Sweden, at least at the place we found. This place is similiar to Copenhagen, Denmark except Copenhagen is bigger (largest city in Scandinavia) and the people here in Stockholm move as fast as New York and Tokyo, maybe faster! We found a Vietnamese restaurant that's getting good reviews close by, so we'll check it out later today - let ya know.
9/10/10 - Just left Norway and stayed one night in Goteborg, Sweden - awesome, vibrant, beautiful city! Now for the first time on the trip I have an adequate internet hook-up for a couple of hours while we are on a ferry to Denmark. We're gonna stay at Legoland Resort/theme park overnight, then visit Han's Christian Anderson's town of Odense for a night, then hit Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark for a couple of days. Gonna have to file a more in-depth report when I get back. For some reason, the pictures can't post from here.
Been an amazing trip so far, cruising up North through the spectacular fjords of Norway for several days, then coming back down by train and local bus, which were also gorgeous! It's been a whole lotta country scenes in Norway so far, but the last legs of our trip will largely be in the big cities of Denmark, Sweden, and one last night in Norway's capital, Oslo, before catching four separate flights on our way home! Ever fly for 3 days straight? It's the second time I'm doing it in my life - it's a huge barrier for us Hawaii folks to come out so far, but it's a barrier we shouldn't let stop us! Do what less people are doing, and you'll be richly rewarded! No offense to Vegas, Alaska, the Mainland, Japan, Indo, and places like these, which are one flight away, but if you can, you should definitely try places like India, Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, and other places that take two or three days to travel to. It's sooo different out here! The people, the food, the culture - I love it!
I've taken hundreds of shots so far and lots of video, and I'm chompin' at the bit thinking about posting them, but it's gotta wait till I get back.
Hope things are great back home!
9/4/10 - Arrived on the Hurtigruten cruise ship last night! Internet is super slow! But these fjords are gorgeous!
9/3/10 - Aaaah, the crisp, clean air and natural beauty of Norway! After three days of plane rides and about 3 hours of sleep total (I can't sleep on airplanes!), we're finally getting sleep-adjusted after our second day w/boots on the ground! Can't say much here because we've been moving non-stop, but hopefully I'll have more time on the Hurtigruten, a giant ship that's gonna take us in and out of the world-renowned fjordlands for the next 4 nights and 5 days! Can't wait! Right now, we're headed-out to the fishmarket and historic areas of Bergen soon, but just wanted to pass a quick note along.
All I can say is, the city of Oslo is gorgeous!
