Scandinavia so far

Actually, the first moment the train pulled across the border I knew that Finland was a much different place than Russia. First of all the infrastructure is modern and European-looking as opposed to the dilapidated soviet road and rail works. Secondly, the customs guy was nice, although still thorough like a border guard should be. Thirdly the architecture was no longer dominated by concrete apartment buildings and small Russian cottages. Any of the houses we passed could have been in rural Canada. In fact, I felt like I was rolling through snow covered fields in New Brunswick or Ontario.

Helsinki also gave me a distinct Canadian feel. It particularly reminded me of Halifax, with careful drivers and short walking times across the city centre. Over the few days I was there, I enjoyed wandering around the streets just soaking up the big city/small town feel that I enjoyed so much when I went to Dalhousie.

I had no huge goals in Helsinki. In fact, I hardly knew what there was to do there before I arrived. The second day, I took a ferry out to a set of islands that make up a sea fortress. I nearly froze my toes off, but it was refreshing walk around and look across the frozen harbour, watching ships pass through the small lanes where the ice was broken. I felt that the ramparts and bridges would make a good setting for a Bond movie as the villains lair.





Life is pretty exciting. I can read again (no more Chinese and Cyrillic alphabet). I know what to buy in the grocery store. I can actually find anything I want in the grocery store.

The hostel I stayed at was very central with only a 5 min walk to the train station and ferry terminals. It was located in an old set of apartments and had original ceramic fireplaces that would have kept the place nice and toasty in the old days. My roommates were a Parisian named Eric and a another French guy that may have also been Algerian named Kamel. Eric was heading north to go skiing and it was hard to say what Kamel was doing. He had left his Russian girlfriend back in Moscow-- I assume his visa ran out-- and was traveling with a suitcase which was half filled with a huge ghetto blaster that he used to play an eclectic mix of pop music, mostly from North Africa. I looked at his huge stereo and he commented "isn't it great?" He lugged the thing to the kitchen when he was spending some time there, and I wouldn't be surprised if he took it into the shower.

We were all getting along quite well in our dorm room until religion came up. It all started with us discussing why Kamel chooses not to live in France. He is turned off by either racism or the secularism France is know for. Kamel then went on to declare how we are all sons of Adam and all must submit to Allah. I wasn't arguing at any point, predicting a fruitless debate, but Eric couldn't hold back. He hinted that religion might be a little bit useless. The fireworks were starting to fly although things remained outwardly civil. I silently escaped to the Kitchen before things got crazy. As I read on the train a few weeks ago, Mohamed believed that all rightly guided religions-- Christianity, Judaism, etc.--worship the same God. As a Christian I was safe. But according to Islam, being atheist is nothing short of being an infidel and I didn't think Eric's points would be well received. Returning a few minutes later, however, the discussion had ended and everyone seemed happy.

As I mentioned earlier, I was happy to find things I could easily use in the Grocery store. I bought cantelope, cereal, pizza, stir fry and goulash ingredients, kiwi juice and a few other wonderful things. At the end of my 2.5 days in Helsinki, I had eaten out once and fed myself completely from 24 Euros worth of groceries.

I went clubbing my last night (Saturday), and met two cool locals, Harri and Jenni. They were arguing over whether my shirt had Hebrew on it or not, which led to Jenni coming over and asking me. She as wrong about the Hebrew as my shirt had some Japanese gibberish on it. I ended up joining them and drinking and dancing the night away. The first question they asked was "why Finland?", which I had no good answer except that it was on my way to Western Europe from Russia. It turned out they they would both rather be in other countries and couldn't imagine someone voluntarily going to Finland (just as I can't imagine why people would backpack in Nova Scotia... but they do it. There's a Lonely Planet for the Maritimes).

Harri and Jenni's story started when they met and become friends a few years before in the local International High School .They both spent almost all their lives living abroad, practically spoke English as their first language and only recently moved to Finland. In effect, they were foreigners in their parents' native country.

Jenni had lived in Thailand, Brazil, the Czech Republic and Israel else while Harri had been born in Thailand and spent his first 12 or 14 years there. He lived there so long that he could have gotten a Thai passport and had dual citizenship.

The night came to a close, and I didn't get to bed until the early morning. I said goodbye to my new friends, jotted down contact info, and headed to the ferry terminal. I had had three choices of what direction to travel in. I could go north and visit Santa Clause, where he lives somewhere around the arctic circle (I'm not joking there is a Santa Clause village and you can meet him year round), I could go to Tallinn in Estonia and then Stockholm Sweden or straight to Stockholm. I chose the last option firstly because my rail pass wouldn't cover the boat to Estonia but would cover the boat to Sweden, but mostly because I am so tired of Winter. I honestly want to get out of Scandinavia as soon as possible. In fact, the last and only thing I want to see up north are the Fjords in Norway.



I made it here today in a small town of Alesund on the west coast of Norway. After the ferry ride from Helsinki, I decided to shotgun through Sweden to Oslo. I almost got stranded in a Swedish town with direct trains to Oslo only on weekends. It seems I didn't read the schedule carefully enough. A little rerouting and I was back on track.

I spent the night in Oslo, did laundry, got up early and headed here. The only problem when I got here was that there is a soccer tournament in town and the only hostel is full. I am now waiting for a midnight ferry to take me south to Bergen. I'll get there tomorrow afternoon and visit about 10 fjordland ports during he daylight hours. I am hoping for good weather and spectacular scenery.