Bergen

Scandinavia is expensive. Europe is expensive, but Scandinavia is really expensive. We are talking 10 dollars for a hamburger at burger king. It's insane. Every meal we eat, scrounging for the cheapest of what we can get away with is about ten dollars. We changed trains in Malmo, Sweden, and took another train to Trollhatten, a tiny town which prides itself on its old river locks and mentions a Saab museum as the premier tourist attraction. We were stuck here for 4 hours waiting for a train to Oslo. The weather is lovely, cool, sunny days. Oslo is small, and the part we saw, dissapointingly like all other european cities, except a bit smaller. We stayed one night at a hostel with some potentional. This is the farthest north we had been. It doesnt get dark here, just a dusky blue sky past 11 pm. The sun sets at 10:30, which is a little odd. We got up at 8 and caught a train to Flam, never seeing the city in its waking hours.

So much for Flam.

Now we are in Bergen, which is larger, but a much nicer city by the sea. It feels much smaller than it actually is. Nice fish market right by the wharf, old wooden buildings, and mist floating in the pine forest in the surounding hills. Today we took the funnicular up to seee the town from the top, and hiked back down to save the 3 dollar fare. Nice woods, one can easily see the vikings of old coming back from a hunting or looting expedition. It gets more rain here than seatttle, which makes a lot of ferns and moss. Saw a maritime musem (free for students!) and stumbled on a Stave Church, made completely out of wood, almost by accident, even though we were looking for for it. Signage and ease of use is definately lacking in this town as far as the busses are concerned. The outside of the church was cool though, made back in teh times when the vikings became Christianized. Back in town, we had dinner at the fish market, our "nice "dinner was fried fish and chips from a stand, about 12 dollars, and no drink. To be fair, its was a nice whole fillet, and it was the best fried cod I've ever had. Trying to figure out what to do tomrrow before we catch another night train to Oslo so we can meet Chase's dad in Stockholm. Sea Kyaking is sadly out, due to the difficulty of getting there and the expense, plus the price of the ferries, not covered by the railpasses. Be nice to see a coastal town though, a small fishing village.
We shall see.
Fjords not as severely rugged as I thought, maybe see more tomorrow. Time for bed.