Benedicto:

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets’ towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkey’s howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches where storms come and go as lightening clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you---beyond that next turning of the canyon walls. ---Edward Abbey (thanks Trudy Hall)

Monday, August 1, 2011

Norway: Rough Starts are Now a Tradition


July 31
Today was much about taking care of business and waiting and wandering around.  We finally found out where to go for tomorrow’s airport bus, and took the commuter train quite a bit south of town to “Tom Tit’s Experiment” theme park dealing with science—mostly physics. www.tomtit.se/english/ Kids were pressurizing water bottles and setting them off up a zip line; Les and I competed for who had the most relaxed mind and who could cycle so that the most electricity was generated, we saw ourselves in color by how hot we were, played with light and bubbles, slid down a sled that went through the 4 stories of the place, saw kids lifted up by their own pressure down like a yoyo; and looked at other physical phenomena in playful ways.  John Evans would LOVE it!  They also have all kinds of buttons and gadgets and no directions, so you can just play with the stuff to see what happens.  Curiosity is so strong; what happens in school that drives that instinct underground?  We were tired after the 45 minute commute and stopped at the grocery for deli salads and stuff for breakfast before going to our cave.

bus driver nice hair


Aug 1
We rushed around and caught the 7AM airport bus.  We weren’t sure which airport, or which terminal, but we got the right ones and were early for our flight.  We immediately caught the airport bus to Bergen and with only a couple of false starts found our hostel.  As usual, when we get to each new country, there’s a snafu.  Apparently, they emailed and cancelled our reservations because we didn’t specify if we wanted male or female dorms.  Well, they gave us directions to two other places and let us keep our bags there.  The first hostel was closed for cleaning.  We went back to use the Internet but we couldn’t book for tonight because it was too short notice.  Les found a nearby hostel that was nearly $90, so we decided to walk down to the YMCA hostel.  Fantastic!   


Got a room for 4 and we’re bunking with a newly married couple from New Zealand who have been backpacking and camping around Scotland.  This was their first bed.   I think we may have gotten the last two beds of the place.  We did some laundry, ate (fish soup—there’s a nice fish market right here!), and bought a tour for the fiords for Wednesday.  I bought a beer to share and we drank it on the upper deck outside by our room. Tomorrow we walk around exploring.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Sue! Your travels are definitely keeping you flexible in terms of planning for sure. Ahem particularly Russia. So, Indonesia is really really friendly and wonderful. I'm so far loving my stay in Banda Aceh. Even here there is no violence towards Americans. Fear ye not and come on over!

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