Norway....fjords...nuff said

I am in Norway.....a simple start to this post...but....I like the way that sounds...and I wouldn't have guessed I'd be saying it as of...well...a year ago or so.

After our short stay in Sweden, we hopped on a night train to Oslo. The night train was a 6-bunk.....hot.....loud...smelly mess of a sleeping quarters.....none of us slept much...so...to celebrate (and to keep our trip within one rail-day), we hopped on a 7-hour train this morning (after not sleeping all night on the first train) to get all the way to the western edge of Norway to a town named Bergen....the second largest city in Norway at only like 250K.....small cities here. We were slightly slap-happy by the end of the train ride.....and we didn't eat today until about 3 when we found the market....but...tummies are now full....and all is well. The train ride here is called one of the most beautiful in Europe....deservedly so....would've been better on more sleep...but....lots of mountain landscape with melting snow coming down the mountainside....sweet stuff.

We will be here in Bergen until Tuesday night (another night train....this time...even better...saving some cash by sleeping in a regular train seat). A plus of the not sleeping on trains is that sleeping in our tents on the ground at night is made....a little easier. In our time here....we would like to take a few hikes....visit some of the museums (including a leprosy museum and a Nazi-resistance museum?)....and enjoy some non-train time.

We meet nice folks on about every train......the latest was a guy from California who had lived in Sweden for 12 years...moved over here to teach trumpet and play in an orchestra....he invited us to his place to crash.....but, we had reservations on the night train. Today on the train, we met a couple from Texas that was over for the World Cup and some traveling.....nice folks.

The US plays in the World Cup tonight......we hope to not carry the embarassment of another loss around.....go Yanks (as many call Americans over here).

I appreciate the replies.....keep 'em coming. Let me know what is happening where you're at....if too private for a post...shoot me an e-mail.

Oh...and Dave's blog has pictures and mine doesn't....because he is a big nerd...and lacks the writing skills to go picture-less.....don't tell him I blogged that.

From here.....to Berlin (we will literally travel on train for about 24 hrs. straight).....then saying goodbye to our travelmates Kevin and Cory...and hello to Eastern Europe and cheap prices...we've heard hotels can run around 10-15 dollars in some parts of eastern europe. Unfortunately, our savings will be hurt by the fact we'll have to pay for some extra rail legs.....Eurail isn't good in all of Eastern Europe. But...I'm getting ahead of myself.

Oh...one last crazy thing....we are close to the time of the year here where there is no night. In Sweden...the sun went down around midnight and came up around 4 or so.....it will probably be even shorter now.....odd since a late night in Indiana during the summer is what....9 or so? This is like daylight savings on crack.....