Day 100: July 14 - FINLAND - Rovaniemi Accommodation: Hostel Rudolf After the full month I'd spent in Norway, I was finally moving onto the next country. It felt like I'd been in Norway forever. On the same time period with Contiki I visited 10 countries, so to spend that amount of time in one country without staying more than 3 days in one spot was quite remarkable to me. I decided with all the time I'd spent in Norway that I only had a week or less to explore any places of interest in Finland, and if I was going [View Full Entry]

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Day 96: July 10 - Tromsø, Alta Accommodation: Alta River Camping, Alta I found out a couple of weeks earlier that the only way I could get from Tromsø (the most northern established city) to Nordkapp (the furthest north) other than paying several thousand kroners for a ferry was by catching a bus to a halfway town called Alta, staying overnight, and getting a bus to Nordkapp in the morning. This sounded annoying but I had to get to Nordkapp so I had no choice. I’d already seen everything I wanted to in Tromsø the day before so today I just [View Full Entry]

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Day 90: July 4 - Bodø Accommodation: Bodø hostel I arrived around 8am in Bodø and it was somewhat smaller than Trondheim, somewhere between a small town and a city. The train had taken me over the Arctic Circle for the first time and I sure knew it. It was pretty chilly and windy outside, which was a shock as Trondheim wasn't and neither was anywhere else I'd been in Norway so far. My hostel was relatively easy to find. I just had to turn left out of the station and walk 10 minutes down a road and there it was. [View Full Entry]

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Day 84: June 28 - Hellesylt, Geiranger Accommodation: Hellesylt Vandrerhjem (hostel) Back on the road again this morning, I was off on another 45-to-60-minute bus ride, this time to another small town called Hellesylt. I wanted to stay at the town of Geiranger sitting right on the Geiranger fjord, but in my research I couldn't find contact details for a hostel on the internet. My Lonely Planet book mentioned a hostel but I found the issue with owning a book last updated in 2001 as I called the hostel's number and was told it was now a private house and there [View Full Entry]

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Day 78: June 22 - Flåm Flåm Vandrerhjem (hostel) This morning I was taking the train back towards Oslo but getting off at Myrdal to take another train north to the small town of Flåm. My plan was to travel from Oslo all the way north to the top of Norway. I couldn't find any convincing reason to visit anything south of Oslo so I decided to skip it. There was only one morning train and I didn't have to be at the train station until about 10am so this allowed me to take my time in the morning at the [View Full Entry]

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Day 72: June 16 - NORWAY - Oslo Accommodation: Anker Hostel, Oslo I had to wake up early today to catch my train. This time I had decided not to book the night train as I was sick of the substandard conditions on them and I figured I'd get some nice views today. I was certainly right. This was also my first 1st-class train seat so I was excited about that, although for some reason I couldn't get a direct train to Oslo and had to change trains halfway at Gothenburg. Sitting in my seat I was very excited about all [View Full Entry]

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Day 66: June 10 - DENMARK - Copenhagen Accommodation: Danhostel Copenhagen City I was woken up from my slumber, again with no hangover thanks to the well-designed German beer, after the train abruptly stopped and people were getting out. What I didn’t realise is that the train had crossed into Sweden without stopping at Copenhagen. I don’t know why, but I guess that’s just how things run with the trains. So I had to get out just over the Swedish border at Malmo to get a 20-minute train back to Copenhagen. Something I found completely fascinating was that Denmark and Swede [View Full Entry]

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Day 63 - June 7 - GERMANY - Berlin Accommodation: Odyssee Globetrotter Hostel My first night train in Europe and it was quite comfy, although I’ve heard those Germans are pretty efficient. I had to share a bunk bed with 5 other people, although I got on the train about 11pm and it was pretty quiet and a smooth trip so I actually slept pretty well. We came into the Berlin outer suburbs about 8am and I got my gear ready to go. I found out from my hostel website that I only had to go one more train station after [View Full Entry]

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Day 60: June 4 - ENGLAND - London, BELGIUM - Brussels, Brugge Accommodation: Hostel Lybeer, Brugge It was an early morning departure from St Paul’s YHA, 4am to be exact. I found out that the Tube wasn’t running that early to Heathrow so I had to get a bus there, and I had to walk 15 minutes up the road with my heavy bags to Aldwych to catch it and I had to deal with the Saturday night drunks going home. Still, with all those obstacles I managed to do it all, the drunks weren’t as bad as I thought (they [View Full Entry]

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Day 58: June 2 - NETHERLANDS - Amsterdam (Belgium and France in transit), ENGLAND - Dover, London Accommodation: St Paul’s YHA, London I had a bit of a hangover this morning and was still a little bit drunk, most likely thanks to the 10% alcohol Belgian beer I'd had the night before on top of the other 8 beers or so I'd had. I had a shower, went downstairs to have breakfast, and had about 5 minutes to pack everything into my bag which was all over the floor in my little corner. I was too tired to pack properly and [View Full Entry]

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