Currently in Glasgow - as we weren't able to go to Loch Ness we stayed with Rory in Edinburgh (pronounced, for some reason, "E-din-bur") for four nights before coming here (watching 7 of the 10 episodes season four of their equivalent of 24, 'Spooks'), where we're spending two nights with his parents and younger brother.

I loved Edinburgh. Smaller than Albany, it has retained more of it's old charm than any other city I've been to. It felt like it was an old castle town that simply aged into the modern world - the buildings looked old but grand, the castle dominated the views, cobblestone streets were the rule rather than the exception. Dulet tones of bagpipes floated everywhere, and anytime you were near the center of town you could hear it in the background. The Royal Mile was full of shops and museums, including the famous black cathedral that looked like it could have come right out of a fantasy epic dark lord's kingdom. Visited a fascinating museum - the camera obscura - and saw the earliest form of camera ever invented in action, giving us a full 360 view of edinburgh. Also had tons of amazing opitical tricks and illusions, including incredible kalediescopes of light and color.

It was also cheap, and small enough to walk everywhere, which helped a lot. Also interesting was the way the city just stops - from Rory's flat we could we the cliff and the end of the city, and it was nothing but nature from there to the next town over. Few cities have such defined borders.

Glasglow we aren't going to see much of, just the science museum with Rory's mom and his brother, Gaberiel. Gabe is 11, and a great kid who loves to talk about just about everything. Over dinner he asked us all about America (does America have money? does America have ice cream?), after dinner we played monopoly, his favorite game, for a few hours. Interesting the different strategies - the Americans there bought everything they could, while the Scots only bought highly expensive properties in small quantities. Gaberiel has tourette's syndrome, but it doesn't show too much - he's a completely normal kid.

We're heading into the city soon, after Sean gets up, and then we're back here for one more night. Tomorrow we fly to Dublin at 10:45am our time (5:45am yours), arrving an hour later. After a five hour layover there (giving me a chance to read Stardust - Jason, go watch the trailer for the movie, it looks like the next Princess Bride) we leave for JFK at around 5:30, and arrive two hours - or is it seven hours - later, at 7:30 EST. Sean's mom is meeting us there, and we'll be back in Loudonville by about 11. Home by 12 tomorrow, then Tuesday I pack for a short trip to New Hampshire. Don't know how much traveling I'll do the rest of the year - touring European cities has made me realize I know almost nothing about American cities, so I plan on visiting Boston and NYC a few times in the few months.

Disappointingly, I don't think we can do Loch Ness - there aren't any free rooms available there, so we're going to stay here for an extra night.

First city I've missed that I really wanted to go to, but there's not much we can do about it.

Going to Stirling in a few hours, seeing the castle and the battlefield at Bannockburn, where William Wallace defeated the British.

In Edinburgh now, will be for another day or two. Haven't seen too much of the city yet, but walked around the city university with Sean's friend last night. Going to explore more today, and see the old castle up on the hill. Tomorrow I think we're visiting Stirling; but don't know for sure.

Spent a day in Manchester, which I enjoyed. Fascinating city... if London is the UK's metropolis, Manchester is the city of urban life and culture. I doubt many cities have such dedication and pride associated with it. 20 years ago the city was all but dead, and now it's alive, vibrant and fun. Cheap, too. We saw Harry Potter 3D on the iMax screen at the Printworks - an old converted printing shop that is now an upscale mall - and visited the Urbis museum, a modern glass building that showcases urban life and art. Most interesting was their Play exhibit, which showcased various urban trends - from parkour to flash mobbing, street musicians to guerilla gardening.

Right now I'm just really, really tired. Traveling with someone else is far more exhausting than traveling alone, and last nine weeks are catching up to me. I'm sleeping longer and doing less each day; and just don't have the energy or desire to see or do much of anything. Fly home in 5 days - have two more in Edinbourgh, a day in Loch Ness and one in Glasglow.

I've noticed that I've lost a few more things in the past few weeks. I think I've lost two of my five shirts - not quite sure how I managed to lose them. One I can't remember having since Interlaken, the other I'm sure I had in Stratford two days ago. Also lost my plastic bags, although I may have used them all by now, not sure.

Spent the last three days trying to find a book or two by this author I like. His books, in English, were all over Europe - I bought one of his in Stockholm, another in Milan - but I can't find them at all now that I'm in England, his English-speaking home country.

Not sure how much news of Britain makes it back stateside, but it's been something of a disaster zone out here. After a wet, drenched summer well over six inches of rain flooded the west and southern parts of the country, flooding towns, streets, houses, covering bridges, closing roads. Sean and I are fine, although exhausted - we missed out on Stonehenge due to the weather, and the two and a half hour bus ride to Stratford turned into a nine hour nightmere that got us halfway. We spent the night in an evac/emergency ref shelter at the local hall in Cheltenham, arriving at three in the morning. Left there at 12, and managed to climb into Stratford around 1:15, walking the two miles to the hostel by 2. Another two miles back for lunch (delicious) and the new harry potter book (still reading), then two more miles back, Sean's sleeping and I'm delaying so I can sleep through the night.

It's been just crazy here. Spending the night in an evac shelter is one of the strangest experiences this trip, as was nine hours on a bus. (15 hours that day, covering roughly 50 miles...). We had to count little blessings - we got no sleep the night before due to a rather loud snorer in the room, so we were tired and groggy for the bus ride, and didn't really care to do much. We were IN the bus, not walking or driving ourselves. We had a great place to stay (out best hostel yet, at least until the mansion that we are in now); with some great people who was fun to get to know. The bus driver was incredibly nice, and, best of all, the infant in the back of the bus didn't cry once until one thirty in the morning, that that was just for two minutes. Despite several backtracks to various towns we ended up with a place to stay with warm drinks and lots of food; unlike thousands who were stranded on the major M4, M1 and M5 highways between London, Bristol and Birmingham. There is more that seems to be working out - this town is a great place to relax and recover from our trip.

I'm not sure just how I can say just how much water they have everywhere here. We saw cars driving with water up the the bumper, drove through intersections where asphalt wasn't visible. People have reported walking through water up to their waist, and one local town lost a bridge and had water up to five feet in some places. Just looking up in the sky and one or two medical helicopters are visible, and firetrucks and rescue boat sirens are constantly heard. The UK has never been hit with a flood this bad, and we were stuck traveling in it. Going to rest two nights here, then to ManU, then north to Scotland - trying to cut down on the travel time, both for our own sanity and the cost.

Try to look around for some pictures of the flooding... it's truly incredible how much water we're dealing with here.

Sean is making me mention that for the LOTR show we had front row seats, instead of top-of-the-balcony-back-row seats, simply because we went to the theater box office instead of ordering online. Day seats are great things - same price, infinitely better view.

Spamalot was as hilarious as I expected it to be. Definitely want to see it again, as I'm sure I will.

Had a fun morning, as we realized that we had to check out today from the Olympia instead of tomorrow as we planned, so we packed quickly and called about a dozen hostels in six cities before finding one free tonight. Took a bus to bristol, then a bus to here - Glastonbury, home of, well, strange people who we don't think are quite right in the head. We did walk up to Glastonbury Tor - literally, Glastonbury Hill - where, supposedly, King Arthur sleeps, waiting to awake when Brittania needs his rule again. Mostly it was just pretty and windy - but we could see for miles.

Then tried to find a place to spend friday and saturday nights - very, very difficult to do. We wanted to do Oxford, but the only place free was Stratford on Avon; so after Stonehenge and travel tomorrow I guess we're learning about Shakespear Saturday. After that Manchester, home of the famous ManU, then on to York. After that we're not quiet sure until Edinbourgh...

We met Julian Beever today...

...he was creating a new 3D artwork when my friend and I walked by. Location was across the Thames from Tate Modern over the millennium bridge, and then about a block down.

It's a drawing of this random guy falling off of Big Ben and holding onto one of the clock's hands. If you see it, I saw him draw the person.

He's quite funny in person, and has a very sarcastic sense of humor to deal with all the annoying people who walk by. Perhaps the funniest was an old lady who came by and asked him "Are you influenced at all by Dali?" To which he replied: "No, Dali was a pretentious bastard."

She then made some fuss over him, finally asking "Well, what does your drawing mean?" Voice dripping with sarcasm, he simply said "It means if you are falling off of Big Ben, hang on."

She walked away, muttering to herself.

For those of you who don't know who Beever is, you may recognize his work:
















Sean and I had fun yesterday, walking around and visiting a few museums. Hit the Tate Modern, which had a kinda cool exhibit about modern cities and their growth. One showcase we really liked was three video screens in a room with a guy running along different sidewalks with a drumstick hitting different things and recording the sounds... the combination of the three videos was cool. Mostly we just walked around making fun of pointless modern designs.

Then went to Coventy Gardens and watched several street performers for a few hours, all of varying skills. Some were amazing - trick juggling while balancing on a non-taunt rope; others were just plain funny. Most amusing were the balloon animal 'helicopter' which looked just like a poodle - given to a disappointed kid. When everyone complained to him he responded "What? Haven't you ever been to the Tate?"

Another guy juggled five balls at once - two normal ones and three stuck together as one. This guy was part of a duo and they were excellent... incredible at entertaining the crowd, making jokes up as they went. Whenever they saw someone taking pictures they'd stop what they were doing and immediately pose themselves in ridiculous positions. Perhaps the craziest thing they did, which I'm sure they made up on the spot, was drag a lady out to pose with them, deciding that they weren't good looking enough, pulling out a man from the crowd to pose with her, then deciding that something was still missing, and then stealing a stroller from the crowd to throw in front of the man and the woman for the picture. We're going back to watch more later tonight.

Then saw the Lord of the Rings musical. Not knowing what to expect I had an open mind, and I loved it. It was really cool how they set everything up, and they really did manage to capture the story and make a good show out of it. Some of the songs weren't up to par - it might have been better as a play, as for the most part the spoken scenes were the best. However, they had Galadriel in the role of a background singer for much of the show, she'd be floating in the air singing out in elvish or English, and she had a beautiful voice even if we couldn't always understand her.

The highlight, musically, was the song Sam, Frodo and Gollum sang one night while resting. Speaking of Gollum, he was definitely the best actor I've seen on stage. Seen many musicals, but he was the first actor in a musical I've seen get a standing ovation for exiting the stage without singing a note. He did things with his body that I didn't know was possible - he was almost as good, if not better than, the movie's gollum at capturing the insanity and duality between Smeagol and Gollum. The most fun scenes were the epic ones, however, when the music was loud, the lights were flashing and stage sets complex and fascinating. Weathertop, the Balrog, the orc fights - all were super cool.

I also liked how they set the story up. To tell the story properly as a musical they had to cut a lot out and change a lot, but it worked very well. For instance, they combined Gondor and Rohan into The Land of Men, and had Boromir's father be the one under Saruman's spell that Aragorn frees. The story still had much of the same power and joy, but fit perfectly into a three hour musical.

Tonight we're going to see Spamalot, which will be completely different and just as fun.

Met Sean without a problem Monday morning. We went back to the hotel, and then visited the (free) natural history museum and the (free) science museum. Sean went back to sleep, and I wandered slowly over to Chinatown where Queen's Theatre is.

Was distracted by Harrod's on the way - my new favorite store. They have everything there. The place is simply huge, and as an avid window shopper there was a ton for me to see. Especially nice were the models of Dubai mansions for sale, the crystal, glass, and silver rooms and the collection of high quality poker and chess sets.

Then walked around chinatown, and got my tickets. Had some money problems, but they all worked out in the end. Found a cheap dinner, and went and sat down for Les Mis.

which was, of course, incredible. Every note (except for Javert's) was perfect - and, in some cases, better than the other shows I've seen or heard. They had added a fair number of short scenes or moments that worked perfectly, and the stage work was masterful - always great to watch. Every actor or actress (except Javert) did an amazing job, especially Valjean. The highlight of the night was not One Day More but Bring Him Home, a testament to just how powerful his voice was. I think we applauded twice as long for that song as any other. He wasn't alone, though... everyone (except Javert) did superb. Gavroche and Eponine were perfect, and Marius and Enroljas sang a stunning Red and Black.

As you may have picked up on, Javert was disappointing. I have yet to hear a Javert who can capture the role perfectly - many pick up on parts of his character, but fail during others. In this case the final song, during his suicide, was great but others, such as Stars, were disappointing. Only other problem I had was the ensemble was on the small side, and so songs like Do You Hear the People Sing? were lacking about 10 extra voices that would have made it sound far stronger. Still, small complaints for an amazing, amazing, show.

Sean and I are about to go get lunch, then buy tickets for Lord of the Rings (for tonight) and Spamalot (for tomorrow), the two shows I could convince him we should see. After that we're going to visit the (free) London Museum and the (free) Tate Art Gallery, before coming back to Drury lane to see LOTR at 7:30.

...I come home in less than two weeks. It seems so soon.

Have the time (and the english keyboard) to make a decent update for now.

I loved Paris, to start. The city is a wonderful place to walk around in - beautiful buildings, fun statues, great atomsphere. The first night there I walked up the the quite new area La Defense, where they have built an incredibly modern business and entertainment center. Picture the region between the capital and the museum in Albany, only about 10 times bigger and more impressive. First time I ever saw escalators outside, for one. It was the first time I really felt like I was in an important city, as European cities, as a rule, don't build very tall buildings. The Corning Tower was taller than almost any I'd seen until Paris. Anyway, I watched a beautiful sunset from the new huge Arch they have, then took the metro back to my hostel.

Next day I went to the Louvre, and was there at 9:05. Good timing, as it only took me 5 minutes to go through security and get my tickets. Helped that I brought nothing - not even a camera. Didn't think they'd let us take pictures there, but they were far more lax about it than anywhere else. While in Rome or Athens all you hear staff shouting is ''NO FLASH! NO POSING!!'' every 30 seconds, here they didn't care. Anyway, spent about six hours in the Louvre, most of it speed walking through everything. The place is huge - 3 corridors, each a kilometer long, with five stories. It would take days to see everything properly. And yes, I saw the Mona Lisa.

After that I went back to La Defense, and watched Harry Potter and explored a french mall. Amazing how similar it is to American ones... it felt just like Crossgates, minus the signs saying 'NO ONE UNDER 16 AFTER 9:00'

Next day I met my Parisan friend and guide, Chris, at noon; after I walked to the arc and under the eiffel tower. Chris and I visited bookstores (I got yet another Neil Gaiman novel) and had lunch and then went to the science museum. It was rather boring, but the 3D film was great as ever. Best parts were the full size MC Escheresque rooms; the light and optical allusion exhibition and the sciencefiction monsters room. (two movie posters next to each other: 'I married a monster from outspace', 'I married a communist'. three earth animals with similarities to aliens: bug-eyed jellyfish, stick lobster, kitten)

Chris and I then went back to his car and moved it to free parking, then walked another several KM back to the tower. We were planning on going up but it costs too much - 11€. Turns out that it was also the French equivalent of the 4th of July that night, as the next day was Bastille Day and they have their fireworks the 13th. If we didn't have so much to do we would have stayed, but I had a train to catch the next day and he had to drive home. Also, he says that the french get very... boisterious on the 13th, and suggested I get to my hostel. From the sounds as I fell asleep, it was probably a good idea.

The 14th was a travel and relax day; after getting to London I walked down the Thames towards my hostel (which I only knew was east of the tower). Got sidetracked by a hilarious comedy duo The Maniax outside of the national theater, then a few hours later walked the remaining 5 km to the hostel. Found it eventually, had a good dinner and read myself to sleep.

Today I took the metro from the hostel to the city, found our hotel, walked through Hyde Park. Then met another friend, and we took a tour bus around the city for a few hours and then walked through Regent Park, after visiting 221b Baker Street.

Walked the 5 km back to the hotel, checked in, and am very glad to have 5 nights here. Nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, it's going to be great to have this place for our time here. Beds are comfortable, room is perfect, bathroom is a blessing after the rooms I've had at hostels. Dr Kelly, thank you.

I meet Sean tomorrow morning. I figure we'll come back to the hotel, walk around the city some, and then he's going to crash at night and I ordered a ticket to Les Miserables. I'm kinda excited. Only 35£, which is about $70, and it's actually a decent seat. Sean and I are going to see the Lord of the Rings stage performance some night, and depending on how things work out I might end up seeing something else - possible Othello at the Globe, or another musical. We'll see how the next few days go, we've got a lot of time in London - almost twice as long as I've spent anywhere since Athens.

I come home in two weeks - is everyone ready to hear me talk of nothing except Europe for another few months?

...I'm trying to decide if I can justify spending over $70 to see either Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera or The Lion King while in London. All would be the second time I've seen it... or I could see Wicked, or something different.

...Or I could go see Les Mis, again.

Had a near disaster on the French subway on the ay back from 7 hours in the Louvre today... very sudden, unexpected break between stations, cracked my jaw against one of the metal poles in the middle to hold on to. Hurt for about an hour, but feels fine now. I think the shock was the worst part. However, I think it may have knocked the two front teeth on the bottom slightly out of places - I can't see any difference, but it feels slightly strange there.
...fortunately I'm visiting an oral surgan as soon as I return anyway, so I can have it looked at then.

Paris is wonderful. Am enjoying the sunsets and the delicious French Italian restaurants. Am not enjoying French keyboards/

I'm in Paris now. Don't think I will update here until I am in London, as about a half dozen keys are in the wrong places on French keyboards; including 'a', 'm', 'y' and '.'.

Makes typing take far too long to updqte here... especially the a being out of place:

Switzerland would be far, far nicer if it wasn't so cloudy and rainy outside.

That said, while most people have been around when it's pitch dark outside, few people can say they were around in pitch light. Walking through/in the rainclouds around Mürrén today I could see about as far as my waist - visibility was about three feet. Needless to say, I didn't make it to the top of Slichthorn like Bond did, as I wasn't going to spend 89 CFR to see nothing. Still, I made it one mile above sealevel... just not two.

Would love to come back here with more time, more money, better planning. There's so much to see in do in this region (Jungfrou - The Top of Europe), and I only have time to visit one tourist attraction and walk around some old villages. Two weeks here would be enough to briefly see everything - one day isn't enough.

Visited the Tummelbach (I think) waterfall... it's a glacier drain that flows through a mountain, and you actually get to climb through passageways inside the mountain to look at it. Supposedly it's the only thing of its type, anywhere. It was very loud and very wet.

Outside has been similar, minus the loud. Switzerland a mile up is quiet, with no cars able to make it this high. Ran out of breath in the three kilometer hike I limited myself to (too far for my ankle, which had been better)... air is much thinner up here.

Still, would love to come back in the future... rent a chalet for two weeks, visit Jungfrou and Slichthorn and see the famous play of William Tell, kyack in the lake and do some white water rafting. Would also love to try the much more expensive canyoning, and possibly paragliding... they have pretty much every outdoor sport imaginable here. They also have the highest minigolf course in the world, which i would have done if it wasn't raining.

Now I need to go see if the other bookstore in town has anything in English before heading to the supermarket for my dinner, and I'm going to go back to the hostel and eat and crash from exhaustion. Bern & Geneva tomorrow, Paris the day after.

Ended up in Switzerland, not Vienna. Made it to Vienna, and found out that every hotel and hostel was book solid for three days. Walked around for several hours, saw the river, visited the museum I wanted to...

Now I'm in Switzerland, in Interlaken, the hub of major alpine excursions in the country. I don't plan on doing much hiking, but there are cable cars up to the tops of the mountains that I'll use to visit them. Don't know how long I'll be here - definitely the next two days, but I might end up heading to France if money is running low. It's expensive here, and I misplaced 90 francs (about 75 dollars) this morning due to exhaustion from not getting enough sleep.

My health is decreasing a little... I get tired more easily than I did at the start of the trip, and I don't sleep as well, and as of yesterday my throat started to act up from the copious amounts of cigarette smoke in the train and in Vienna. Swiss air should cure that quickly.

Money is also being spent a little fast than I would hope - have to spend less over the next thee weeks. Paris and London should make that difficult.

I think tomorrow I'm going to visit the alpine resort that James Bond visited in In Her Majesty's Service, which will be kinda cool.

Need to go now, need to get some food before crashing for the day.

I´m running out of time to see everything I want to see. Going to have to completely cut Germany out of my trip, and I only have time for three or four more cities before arriving in London in nine days.

Well, the first really bad thing to happen on my trip happened about two hours ago. Was walking out of Legoland after 7 hours there (more on that later) to the bus that would take me back to the nearest town with a train station when I stepped on what I thought was a concrete sidewalk. Turned out to be sand - a heavy, dense sand - and I twisted or sprained my ankle as I turned on it, not expected the depression. Hurts a ton to walk on it, and kinda ruins my plan for the next few days (hike in the Black Forest, walk around castles).

Thinking I'll do Vienna for a day or two, then take some trains through Switzerland to see it, then visit some town in southern france before finishing out in Paris. We'll see how things work out.

Legoland made me feel like such a kid again. Everything they did there was amazing - I loved Miniland, where they recreated hundreds of villages and buildings using millions of lego bricks. My favorite was their recreation of Bergen, Norway, where I spent a day - they had the fish market where I had my hvalburger, and even had the hostel I stayed at. What amazed me was how animated they made everything - trains, boats, cars and people moved around, dragons blew smoke, pirates and scottish bagpipers played music... by far the coolest was the working lock system, though. It'll never cease to amaze me what they do with those bricks. Entire cities - Bergen, Copenhagen, Amsterdam; famous buildings - castles, capital buildings, the statue of liberty - they had pretty much everything.

Also loved the 4D cinema, which had the best 3D movies I've ever seen. Those things have come a long way from when I first saw them years ago. Hopefully it isn't too long before they start become widespread enough for a major movie release - I'd love to see some action flick done on the curved screen.

At JJ's request I took pictures of 'everything' - about 250 - so you have something to look forward too, kid.

Anyway, tonight is interesting 'cause I have no idea where I'm going. I was too late for the train to Hamburg, which is the train hub of this part of the continent, so I just started getting on trains that would take me closer to Vienna. Currently I've done Vejle -> Fredrisburg and Fredrisburg -> Kolding, and have a train from here to Dussledorf, Germany, in an hour. Who knows if I'll get another train from there tonight.

I need my ankle to get better, soon, or else I'll be seeing very little of vienna over the next few days.

For the first time yet my rail guide failed me - left me in a city where it said there would be a train, but there wasn't one. I'm now in Goteborg, Sweden, and there isn't a train to Copenhagen for 7 hours.

Fortunately, Goteborg is the one city in Scandinavia where I actually know someone - an old friend who I had already met in Malmö earlier on my trip. I called him up, and now I'm at his flat for the night. In any other city in Europe I would be sleeping at a train station (too late to get a hostel); here we can stay up and watch a movie or two. Rather nice how things work out...

What is funny, though, is that because I'm here it's the one night so far on my trip that I could call home; as I'm in a place late enough that wouldn't charge a ton of money. However, it's also the one day of the year back home where everyone is out for the night.

I laughed at how things have worked out tonight, at least.

Don't have long, as I have a train to catch in 25 minutes. In Oslo, leaving for Gotenburg, Sweden, in route to Denmark.

Bergen was nice. Spent a day there, walked around, climbed a mountain, had whale and elk and reindeer at the fish market throughout the day. All were excellent, especially whale.

Then came to Oslo yesterday, walked around some in the rain yesterday and visited museums all day today. Most interesting was was the Kon-Tiki museum, about the famous explorer Thor H-something. Replicas of his many ships, exhibits about his travels - cool to see after reading the book. Also interesting was the Nobel Peace Museum, which was far better than the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm. Don't think I've ever seen a museum as hi-tech as this one. later I might have a video of a book they had there.

Norway has been great, although very expensive. By far more costly than anywhere else I've been. Taken to eating bread and fruit for lunch/breakfast, and dinner is whatever I can find for under 100 kroners (about 16 dollars...). Everything here costs far more than the mainland, and even more than back home. Haven't eaten as much as I should, but that should changed as I had back to the continent and their cheaper prices and larger servings.

Each of the past two nights I've roomed with people from East Germany, both of whom remember before the wall came down. About 30 years old for each, I think, and it's been interesting to listen to them. Both are capitalists, and prefer the way things are now, but also say that things were better there back before uninifcation.
Also talked alot in Bergen with a girl from Norway who spent time in England two older Englishmen, and French girl who spoke about every language imaginable. Then an elderly couple and a father and his a and adult son on the train ride to Oslo, then a Amsterdam native and one of the Germans in the hostel last night here. Always fun to have such cross-cultural conversations that last most of the night.

Denmark tomorrow. Visit Copenhagen, maybe, and will possibly hit Legoland 'cause I'm bored and tired of history museums. Then to Munich, to visit some castles. Then to Vienna for a few days, and Switzerland for a few, then to Paris for the rest of my time before I head to London on the 15th.

The train ride last night was... not good.

The ticketeer saw fit to give me a seat:

In a middle of three seats
Facing backwards
In the front of the cabin, meaning the chair doesn't recline
In the cabin furthest back, next to the room with all the barking dogs
Next to a guy who didn't get on until 1:30, who had to get by and fully woke me up the only time I was even close to sleeping
Across from a kid who couldn't stop moving and kicking me all night

add to this the ungodly hour - a 23:05 to 6:43 ride - and it made for one bad night

In Oslo now, will be in Bergen tonight & maybe tomorrow. Saved a day getting down here, so I might stay longer or move on to a country that isn't so expensive.

Another thing that amazes me about Norway is how they build their train lines. In other countries they kinda follow the terrain, but mostly just build the trains as straight as possible. Tunnels go straight through a mountain, bridges cross over lakes, etc. In Norway they have virtually no land to work with, especially around the mountains, and they use their tunnels to connect different parts of passable land. It's not uncommon to have a steep uphill or downhill, or a right or left curve, all while underground.

I know I've talked on alot about how beautiful Norway is, but no country has a right to look this amazing. It has everything - tall mountains, deep lakes, forested hills, long, winding waterfalls, lush forests, small fishing hamlets, brilliant sunsets (when it sets), modern cities... I can't really describe how great it is, and I'm usually pretty good a turning a phrase or three. Wait for some pictures, I guess.

One thing that has amazed me is how layered the country is. As any learned artists could tell you, the most beautiful masterpieces were done by painting one colored layered over the previous one. It's insanely difficult to do right - Da Vinci did it for Mona Lisa, among others. Computer graphic design works on the same principle. Norway is similar... rather than just seeing a lake or a mountain, there is a lake then a hill then a few taller hills then a tall mountain off to one side and a smaller one to the other, behind which is a huge, snow-covered mountain, and all around are layers of colored clouds. The hills and mountains also have layers - so steep each line of trees is noticably taller than the previous one, like a soccer pose.

The Adirondaks are similar, I guess, but not on this scale. Spent all day yesterday (six hours bus, six hours train) traveling from Narvik to Trondheim, over a thousand miles, and it wasn't until I neared Trondheim that the terrian changed even a little (less mountains).

strange: the formal greeting in Scandanavia is 'Hey!'. Makes me think everyone knows me or recognizes me.

Calvin & Hobbes is called 'Tommy & Tigren'

Getting a little tired of seeing so many museums... should find a spot to sit and rest and hike some, but have no time if I'm going to see every city I want to see.

Pictures soon? maybe.