Oslo

We were randomly walking through Oslo last night when Mark's mouth got rather pasty. He horked a good sized loogie and spit it on the grass of the building next to us. It was then that I looked up and saw a bust of Alfred Nobel.



"Dude," I said, "you just spit on the Nobel Peace Prize!"

Things you learn in Norway...

The homemade meatball subs didnt quite go as planned.

I will be lucky if I dont have the runs tomorrow.

Pictures

The hostel we're staying at in Sundsvall has a Mac in the common room which is free to use, so I decided to brave iPhoto (in Swedish no less!) to bring these pictures to you...


Mark, meet Stockholm - Stockholm, Mark.



I took this shot under a bridge in Stockholm...I love it!



This helpful sign was posted all around Stockholm. Mark and I felt it belonged in the "Oh, no shit!' category...



This is a lake near beautiful Sundsvall...



And this is beautiful Sundsvall!

That's all for now...we're taking the train to Trondheim tomorrow, staying there for a few days and then down to Oslo.

Sundsvall

Spending a couple days and nights in Sundsvall, Sweden. We have yet to decide whether to head further north to the arctic circle, or across to Trondheim and then back down to Lillehamer, Oslo, Gothenburg, etc.

My impression of Sweden so far is, well, it's a lot like Canada....in all the good ways! Clean, woodsy, nice people. It's a little expensive, but I could get used to it here...might have to visit again in the winter.

In other news, it's nice to be on holiday...we went for a walk along one of the rivers in Stockholm this morning and it hit me that I was actually on vacation. No cappucinos, no medium popcorns, just Stockholm and sunshine. Excellent. I really could get used to it here....

Arrived safely!

Mark and I found each other and arrived safely in Stockholm!

The women here are all tall, blonde and gorgeous!

Life is good.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Well, it's finally here...tomorrow night I fly out of Luton and into Stockholm. I spent most of today packing up the remainder of my stuff and storing it up in the attic.

It didn't really hit me until Sunday afternoon, when I finished my last shift at the coffee shop. I'm finally done all of that. Wow. The long term future is still a little bit scary, but I try to assuage that with a healthy dose of denial. And hey, it seems to be working....I'm spending the next 3 weeks backpacking through Scandinavia! Then I'm going home for 6 weeks! I'll worry about what happens after that once I start getting closer to the date.

I wish I could leave you with some thoughtful, profound words, but frankly I got nothing. I'll update next from a different country :)

It started as a joke...

So I posted a comment on Julia's photo blog that I'd have to learn Portuguese in order to read what she had written. Originally, it was a throwaway comment, but we played it up a little bit and the more I thought about it, the more it didn't seem like such a bad idea! Now, some may think that I should be working on one of the scandinavian languages since I will be headed there soon, but honestly I'm only going to be in each place for a little while, and they aren't widely spoken outside of scandinavia. Portuguese, on the other hand, has a significant presence on almost every continent in the world (according to Wikipedia). It is apparently one of the top 6 most widely spoken languages! Now others may say that I should perfect my french before moving on to a new language, however I think that my french is about as good as it's going to get without living in an environment where I'm speaking it every day. I'm sure that the same will be said about my portuguese eventually...surely I'm not going to be fluent unless I immerse myself in it, however there is a certain amount that can be learned from books and CDs. Hence my purchase of this package:

Things to look forward to...

As I was telling Julia at the Phoenix today (who, might I add, is the coolest brazilian I know!) as I was on my way to work this morning I came up with a list of things I'm looking forward to when I come home. Now don't get me wrong - there's lots about Oxford that I love and that I will miss, however I've been here for 7 months and I'm only going to be home for 6 weeks. So here is an unnumbered list, in no particular order of things I am looking forward to:

• hugging friends/family members
• canoeing on the Big East River
• sitting in a muskoka chair, drinking a bottle of Alexander Keith's or Rickard's Red in front of a campfire
• visiting OPC
  
• waking up at 6am, driving for 20 minutes still half-asleep behind the wheel, making it to the highway, pulling over and stopping for a Tim Horton's coffee and donut before continuing on a road trip
• meeting Ryan's fiancee (yeah, he's freakin engaged!!)
  
• being able to say 'pants' without other people giggling
• driving over the Burlington skyway at 3am on my way to sneak back into my room in St. Catharines
• i'm sure there's lots more, that's all i've thought of so far....
• oh! Using pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters instead of pennies, tuppence, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p's
• 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper
  

Feeling Very European

I went over to Alberto's place (or at least the place he's housesitting) for supper last night and he made me pasta in a four cheese sauce. Absolutely delicious! I never eat that well! It went quite well with the bottle of Chianti that I brought along. Afterward we watched 21 Grams which I hadn't actually seen yet but have been meaning to see for some time. It was quite powerful!

This morning I woke up and took it slow. I've been finalizing my travelling plans. I can't believe it's only 2 weeks away! My last shift at the coffee shop is scheduled for Sunday Aug. 14th. On the 17th, Mark and I fly out of London Luton at 6:30pm and land somewhere in the vicinity of Stockholm around 9:45pm local time. From then, we have until Sept. 6 to explore & make it to Amsterdam where Mark will be flying back to Toronto. I opted not to leave Amsterdam until the morning of Sept. 8 (mostly due to the cost of flights) when I will land in Birmingham just after 10am. THEN, 2 days later, I will be leaving Birmingham EARLY in the morning (check in opens at 6:15am) and flying to Toronto! I will be returning to Birmingham on Oct. 22 at 11 o'clock in the morning. Now, this is where life becomes scary since, at the moment, I have no idea where I will be living or working. However, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it...in the mean time, I have Scandinavia to explore and friends/family to see back in Canada!

As I understand it, a few of my local friends are going on adventures of their own around the same time. Rich is flying to Australasia (including his home country of New Zealand) for several weeks and then spending a week in Norway once he returns. Alberto is also off to only God knows where...

It will be interesting to see people again come Autumn!