My first couple of weeks in northern Europe.

NOTE – I will circle back to edit this bad boy when I have some time on the next train, but I wanted to get it up sooner rather than later since I’ve had some people inquiring about how my trip is going. 

Well, getting another post up has taken longer than expected – but that’s only due to the fact that I’ve been meeting absolutely lovely people everywhere I’ve been and haven’t ended up having nearly as much down time to myself as I was anticipating when I first started off. Fortunately I’ve been keeping some fairly detailed notes in my journal every day, so the details are all in there to jog my memory. I’ve kind of accepted at this point that this blog will have to remain VERY rough around the edges until I got home and have the downtime required to dig in and post some more detail stories and resolve the error that’s preventing me from uploading any pictures to here. That’s enough housekeeping items though.

I write this as I’m enjoying the stunning scenery on the 6.5 hour train journey in Norway from Trondheim to Oslo. But my journey into the unknown began on February 15th form St. Pancras international train station (adjacent to King’s Cross) in London. I was scheduled to leave for Brussels at around 9am, but was delayed by a few hours when I arrived to discover that train had been cancelled and I would have to be put on the next one instead. That was no problem at all though, as it afforded my the time needed to go get some breakfast and coffee. I really didn’t linger long on Brussels since I knew I’d be coming back through with some friends from high school later on in March, and I instead took the first train I could heading Rotterdam where I’d (about 18 hours prior while lying in bed) decided to book my first night’s accommodation. The hostel was great and I met some lovely people, but I was still getting my nervous jitters out of the way so I didn’t really get anyone’s personal details or contact information to keep in touch. I enjoyed my afternoon and evening in Rotterdam by walking around aimlessly and exploring. You’ll notice that tends to be a common theme throughout my travels. 

I was starting to feel pretty anxious about my complete and utter lack of a plan beyond knowing I wanted to get to Scandinavia first, so I spend a couple of hours that night figuring out what my next week would entail. I decided I would wake up the following morning and head through Amsterdam and spend the day there, then take the night train headed to Hamburg. I planned and booked a couple nights in Hamburg followed by a couple nights in Copenhagen and then a couple nights in Stockholm.  I was able to get some scattered sleep throughout the journey, but was groggy as all hell when I woke up in Hamburg station around 5am, so I decided to hop on the next train train headed back the way I’d come from so I could ride for another hour and get some more sleep. When I arrived in Bremen I walked around for maybe an hour so so until there was another train going back to Hamburg. By the time I made it back to Hamburg it was probably about 10am so I began my walk to the hostel. I made my way along the water and through a park that sat next to the botanical gardens, which was a pleasant place to stop for a little break and rest my shoulders. Once I checked in at the hostel and dropped my bags off I took a shower and looked up some well reviewed and reasonably priced options for dinner. I was determined to get so schnitzel and a beer. I decided on a place that was called Frau Möller that was back toward the train station, so I went to the nearby train station and took that back to the center. From there is was a short walk until I found the restaurant, which it turned out was pretty packed with people watching the football (no not the American kind) game. I took the only open seat I could find, which was at the bar, and ordered myself a beer while I felt out the food situation and tried to discern who might speak English well. Turns out the gentleman sitting next to me was from Australia and so we got to chatting a bit. He’d order a schnitzel that looked and smelled amazing when it came out, and so I quickly got myself one of my own. After a little while I began chatting with the bartender as well, who impressively guessed my home state on his fourth guess (and his third had been Indiana so needless to say I was pretty impressed). It turned out he had spent a year in Pennsylvania as an exchange student was he was a teenager, so and and I ended up having a nice conversation as the crowd thinned out and he became a little less busy. Basti, the bartender, mentioned that he enjoyed the conversation and the chance to practice english, and I told him I’d likely be back for dinner again tomorrow if he was working. I made my way back to the hostel for a solid sleep. 

The next morning I took things a little slowly as I figured out my plan for the day and took the time to get some more days’ accommodation booked. Hostel options up in the north of Scandinavia were much more limited and pricey, so I ended up going with an Airbnb option that I found in the city Kiruna, which was up in the arctic circle and would afford me a chance at glimpsing the northern lights. I booked an overnight train from Stockholm to there, as well as three nights at the hostel in the hopes that one of them would prove clear enough, and the northern lights active enough, for me to see something (I’ll save you the suspense – that didn’t pan out). I also booked the train from there overnight to Trondheim in Norway, plus tow nights in an Airbnb in Trondheim. However, after getting that booking taken care of I decided to to the train back to the central area and walk along the waterfront and soak in the scenery and people watching. I was able to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the river before starting to make my way back by Frau Möller’s for dinner and a visit with my new friend Basti. My timing couldn’t have been better, as he’d just finished up his shift and ordered some food. We took the table out front of the restaurant and I got the chance to meet a couple of the regulars (one of whom was Sasha who’s apparently a pretty well known make-up artist there and also spoke English since his parents were from the UK). We all had a wonderful evening talking about traveling, life, and swapping some stories. After Basti and Sasha had to leave I made my way inside to get some dinner of my own and ended up chatting with another gentleman at the bar while I ate. After finishing my schnitzel (with a different sauce this time). I made my way back to the hostel so I could get a good night’s sleep and catch my morning train to Copenhagen. 

That train journey included a transfer in a town called Fredericia, which was scheduled for around 20 minutes. As we pulled into the station I decided that it looked like a lovely little place, and upon checking and finding that the trains from there to Copenhagen ran every hour I decided I would leave the station and go wander around. I enjoyed a lovely walk through the park they’d created to preserve the old earthen fortifications and artillery from back during their war against Prussia, and then continued on through the town center and walked along the water. I ended up spending a few hours there, and on my way back to the train station stopped by the grocery store to pick up some food for cheap. I arrived in Copenhagen shortly after dark, and after checking in at the hostel and dropping my bags off I wandered off to explore the surrounding area and ended up finding a fantastic little ramen shop. The girl taking order looked at my like I was certifiably insane when I told her that I would just eat outside (it was fairly damp from the rain earlier and couldn’t have been more than 45 degrees), but it was super crowded inside and I didn’t see any open seats and my glasses were fogging up and I was frankly feeling very socially anxious for some reason. Anyway, the ramen was delicious and I scarfed that down like I’d never eaten before. After I brought my bowl in side I went back to the hostel to get a shower and turn in for the night. They offered a breakfast buffet for a reasonable price if you committed the night before, so I decided to take advantage of that as well. The next morning I woke up, enjoyed my breakfast, and then left the hostel to go exploring. I planned to take a big lap around the perimeter of the main part of the city and at the recommendation of a few people I’d met in London make my way out toward the Freetown of Christiania. During my walk there I managed to naturally come across the couple of other touristy things I’d wanted to make sure I saw before coming in from the back entrance to Christiana. For those of you who (like me) haven’t heard of it before. It’s essentially a little self contained town within Copenhagen that started back in the 70’s when a bunch of hippies took over an old, abandoned military barracks and the surrounding earthen fortifications, which had since grown over with woods. I spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around there and the surrounding parks before heading back toward the hostel once it started to get dark. After stopping at the grocery store and getting back to the hostel and discovering I’d walked nearly 16 miles that day, I enjoyed a couple of nice video calls catching up with my mother and grandmother before hopping in the shower. After that I went to the common area in order to pay for the next morning’s breakfast and decided I would also enjoy a beer while I caught up one messaging back some other friends. While doing so, I was invited over by a few of the people at the next table over and we became fast friends. Ilhaan, Asho, and Georgia, two sisters from Finland and a girl who teaches English from the UK, respectively. They were all lovely people and we enjoyed a wonderful conversation and game of pool before turning in for bed. We all met up again at breakfast the next morning, and I decided I would take the train a little later than I’d planned headed to Stockholm so that I could try and go on part of the walking tour that was offered, which Georgia was also going to do. We left the hostel at 10 headed for the city center with the tour guide (my new train time was 11:30ish) but by the time we got there and the tour guide gather people form the other hostels I had to leave for the station anyway.

My train journey to Stockholm took the better part of the day, and by the time I arrived that night there wasn’t much open so I pretty much checked in, showered, and went to sleep for the night. I had once again committed to the discount for pre-paying breakfast, and ordered the Acai Bowl recommended to me by the receptionist. Think very cold fruit smoothie with some fresh fruit and granola added. It was fucking stellar. I swore for effect there but I still don’t think that does it justice. Anyway, after breakfast I walked up north past the university to where the Natural History museum was, and spent a few hours there checking out all the exhibits. Among other things, they had one dedicated entirely to climate change, one to the human journey, and another to arctic animals which contained some stunning whale skeletons. Needless to say I was like a kid in a candy store soaking it all in. After that I headed to the opposite side of town toward the water, where the Vasa Museum (recommended to me in my brief time with the tour guide in Copenhagen) was located, but the admission fee was around 15 euros and it was less than an hour until closing so I decided to come back in the morning instead in order to make the most of it. I made my way back to the hostel where I had the pizza/beer special for dinner, which was so good I decided to order it a second time shortly after finishing the first, and then had a lovely call catching up with a few of my old co-workers before they went to happy hour and I got some sleep. The next morning I decided to spice it up (pun intended) and go with the juevos rancheros for breakfast instead to he Acai Bowl. It was also pretty delicious, but didn’t hold a candle to the juevos rancheros from the Ranch House in Scottsdale. After breakfast I made my way to the Vasa Museum where I spent a few hours in awe of the ship. The Vasa was an ship designed (poorly) and built back in the 1600’s, which sank during it’s inaugural voyage after it was hit with a moderate gust of wind and tipped, which caused it to rapidly take in water through the gun ports which had been open so they could show off and fire the 64 guns aboard. Anyway – the ship sank and it took them until the 1960’s to be able to have the technology/resources to recover it. They then decided to build a museum for it since it’s the oldest preserved ship in the world (and still 98% original!). After that I went to the Vikinsaliv Museum, which was also cool but kind of anti-climatic after coming off of the astounding Vasa Museum. After leaving the Vikingsaliv museum and “channeling my inner cupcake” – aka keeping my arms and legs inside the cart – during the “ride” they had, I made my way back to the train station in order to catch my overnight train to Kiruna.

That 15 hour train ride was pretty brutal at points, but in the end I arrived in Kiruna shortly after 9am and found a little place called Annis Grill (best way I could describe it would be a brazier DQ without the ice cream) where I got a sandwich for breakfast while I waited for it to be late enough so that I could check into my airbnb and drop my bad off. While dropping off my bag I met Mic from Switzerland, who was sharing the room with me. We got along great right off the bat, and after he left for a walk I went to the grocery store and got some food for the next few days. There was a couple other rooms at the hostel, both of which had people staying in them. There was two girls from Germany and another guy from Argentina. Mic, Lucas (the guy from Argentina, and I all went out for a walk that night in an attempt to see if we could catch the northern lights, but had no luck on that front (although we got some decent star gazing and some entertaining conversation instead so I wouldn’t consider it a loss). After we got back was when we met the two German girls in the kitchen and all of us had a nice talk, and I was lucky enough to get the proper Mate experience since Lucas was generous enough to offer and share what he had with him. Everyone but me was leaving in the morning, so we said out goodbyes and exchanged contact info that night so we could all keep in touch. The next day I walked around town to explore a bit and decided to try the Thai restaurant that Mic had recommended for lunch. It was fantastic. After lunch and a bit more wandering around I got some other groceries that I needed and made my way back to where I was staying. I was sitting in the common area when I heard a familiar voice coming from the room (where I was the only one staying at this point). I went in and opened the door to find that Mic had returned! He’d encountered some train delays and rather than going forward with that he decided he would just return and stay in Kiruna another night or two. 

The following morning he was planning to take the bus to the Ice Hotel, which was only like 30 minutes away by bus. Despite being way over my budget, I impulsively decided that I shouldn’t be a wet blanket and I told him I’d tag along if he didn’t mind. He seemed excited at my change of heart (at least that’s what I tell myself) and we went to catch the 10am bus. After waiting at the stop for about 30 minutes and seeing multiple other buses come through, he decided to double check the time table and realized he’d looked at the weekend times by mistake. Turns out the bus was at 9, but lucky for us there was another one coming through at 1pm. We decided to take the chance to go enjoy some Swedish Fika (essentially coffee and pastry) at a place appropriately called “Fika” while we waited for our bus. The return bus would take us back at 6pm, so we had a little of 4 hours to experience the Ice Hotel. I’d already seen so many breathtakingly beautiful things during my journey up until this point, but the Ice Hotel has to be one of of the most unique things I’ve ever had the chance to experience. We walked through all the rooms we were allowed to before stopping by the Ice Bar for a few cocktails. After taking the bus back to Kiruna we decided to stop at the Thai restaurant for dinner before heading back to where we were staying. While we were sitting around the kitchen that evening he gave me to scoop on what to do while I was in Switzerland later in my trip, and I also I went ahead with booking one night in Oslo for after my time Trondheim and then figured out I could get some trains that would take me overnight from there into Prague, where I booked two nights in a hostel and then followed that up with booking 3 nights at an Airbnb in Budapest.

In the morning Mic left again and I enjoyed by breakfast before meeting another one of the new guests Joost, who was coincidentally from Rotterdam and had also been an auditor before he decided that job wasn’t for him. He and I had nice conversation before I left for the train station around noon. My train out of Kiruna ended up being delayed by a couple hours, which meant that I would miss my next transfer from Boden to Sunsvall and have to catch the later train instead, which meant that (assuming no delays on that second train leaving Boden) I’d have 3 minutes to get my 5am train from Sundvsall to Storlein. In any case, I was along for the ride and ready for whatever twists this part of the adventure would bring, and was pleased to discover from the train guy on my way to Boden that because of our missed connection there (we’d now be laid over around 3 hours in Boden instead of 20 minutes) they had arranged a free meal at a restaurant near the station. All I had to do was go there and show them my ticket. Seemed easy enough. A little while later, I heard over the speaker, which was pretty quiet in my opinion, a bunch of Swedish words and then “next stop Boden”. I was surprised that we were getting there earlier than I’d expected by a significant margin, but I was pretty discombobulated from the delays and such, and also excited at the prospect of a free, hot meal, so when the train started to slow down and come to a stop a few minutes later, I cinched my bags up tight and hopped off the train. My first thought was, “boy it’s weird no once else, literally, is getting off here”, which was followed by the thought, “boy I was expecting a bigger town than this” as I stepped of the train onto the platform. As I got a bit closer to the station building about 10 seconds later, the train began to pull away and I made out the sign which read”MURJEK”… Oh fuck, I thought. I quickly turned and train running after the train while waving my arms like a crazy person. Unlike what happens sometimes when you see people pull that shit in movies, the train didn’t stop. I looked around again, a full 360… not a soul in sight. Fuuuuuuck! I thought again, only this time it came out audibly too. I tried not to begin panicking at the most immediate thought I had “there goes my free, hot meal…” and then then following thought of how I was definitely screwed and going to have to sleep here. Mercifully my lucky streak continued, and I discovered there was another train coming through about an hour that I could try to get on, although it was a different rail line to technically my ticket was worthless and the train in Sweden required reservations even with my pass. But that was my only chance, so I hung out alone at the station waiting to see what would happen when the train came through in an hour – hoping I’d at least be able to buy a ticket from the train person on board if nothing else. In the end the Kindly man on the train, Juan, told me my ticket was not good for that rail company and I’d have to buy a new one. I got the feeling his English was only slightly better than my Swedish, and I think I must have been still been a little misty eyed from the tears of joy that came upon realizing that I wasn’t going to be stranded in Murjek for the night. I took a shot and showed him my pass, asking if I would get any sort of discount, and to my surprise he just kind fo shrugged and wrote in that train journey on my pass and didn’t charge me a thing. I was obviously thrilled and thanked him like 5 times as I took my seat. As if it couldn’t get any better, he followed up about 10 seconds later and offered my a free coffee. I could have kissed that man, but I felt like that probably wouldn’t have come across like the thank you I intended, so instead I spent the rest of the 1 hour train ride to Boden practicing how to say a full “thank you very much for your help, sir” in Swedish so I could throw that his way when I got off. He smiled, gave me a thumbs up, and said “you’re welcome”. That interaction single handedly made my night. In the end I still had two hours once I arrived in Boden, and someone smoking a cigarette outside the station was generous enough to look up the restaurant I was trying to find for my free meal since I had to cell service or wifi. It was only about a 5 minute walk from the station, and it was included two courses – garlic bread and then a sort of beef tips in sauce with a big basket of fries. Plus a non-alcholic drink my choice. I went with Fanta. As I sat there feasting with a giant smile on my face and feeling like all was right in the world, I could have cried tears of joy (if I’m being honest it was one of MANY times on this trip I’ve felt that way and had to actively stop myself from doing so in public since I don’t wanna weird people out or anything (more than I already do with my shitty beard/mustache combo)). After finishing my meal I decided I would enjoy a beer before heading back to the station and catching my train to 7ish hour train to Sundsvall.

After boarding that train (which I no longer had a seat reserved on since it wasn’t my original booking) I tried to find a train person to make sure I didn’t accidentally take someone else’s seat and cause a domino effect style mess for them. My thoughtfulness paid off because after being re-directed by a couple people to find “the woman with the list”, she asked if I was okay with a second class seat (which had been the class I originally booked) or if I would like a compartment. I chuckled and told her that a second class seat would be fine, but if I was able to have a compartment without any additional fee I would be very grateful since it had been such a long day and I had a feeling I’d be missing the 5am train leaving Sundsvall. She smiled and told me to head to the front most car and take place 22, and that her colleague would direct me once I got up there and told him she’d sent me with those instructions… We he showed my to my compartment, I thought I’d died and went to heaven. I had the entire thing to myself, and it had a couch that pulled out into a bed type thing, plus a sink and a mirror and it’s own AC system. I took my shoes off, brushed my teeth, opened the window to get some air blow, and washed my face. After shifting some stuff around in my bags I set an alarm to make sure I’d be up and ready to run to the 5am train leaving Sundsvall… I woke up groggy, but simply grateful that I’d managed to sleep in a horizontal position instead of in a chair. One of the train people (a new one I hadn’t interacted with yet) tried to make sure we made it to the other platform in time for the connection, but that train had been pulling out right as we pulled in (it was a different rail line at the point so they must not talk with one another). I’d already looked ahead and knew that missing that meant I wouldn’t be able to catch another train heading that direction until 2pm, so I had 9 hours to burn in Sundsvall now, which I was determined to make the most of. I got myself a giant coffee to supplement my 4 or so hours of sleep and hung out at the station (which was one of the few I’ve experience that had wifi) for a bit to catch up with some people from home and wait for the sun to start coming up before walking toward the water and central area in town to see what I would find. After getting a crepe at the McDonalds (nothing else was open yet and I was starving and needed a bathroom) I went to the local museum to check that out for a couple of hours; there was some really neat exhibits there ranging from modern art to viking burial mound artifacts. After seeing all there was to see at the museum, I still had a couple hours left before my train so I walked around, found a park bench, and at some of my remaining groceries for lunch. The train ride itself was quite pretty, and I arrived in Trondheim that night at about 8pm to a snow storm that quickly escalated. It was heavy snow since Trondheim is along the coast, and I had some trouble figuring out how to buy a tram ticket so I decided I’d walk it after all (this was my original plan for when I was going to arrive at 11am, but the host advised against it because it was about 4 miles from the station to the house and involved some pretty significant uphill walking. I was pretty famished from the lack of any hot food since my free meal (not counting the lone crepe form McDonalds, which I didn’t), so I decided to pop into a convenience store shortly after leaving the station see what fuel I could find to get me through the next 4 miles. My eyes lit up and I decided to channel my inner Kennedy when I saw a sign with a bunch of “berliners” that were 2 for 10 – essentially like 50 cents each. Who doesn’t love a couple of jelly donuts for dinner? I bought 4 but decided eating them all immediately could backfire and I mercy mustered the self control to save the 2 of them for breakfast the next day. My walk took about an hour and a half and I was utterly soaked by the end of it. I will say though, it was a stunningly beautiful walk through the snow. 

When I arrived at the Airbnb around 10pm, I was greeted at the door by the host, Deepak. He was incredibly welcoming and I immediately felt like I was being greeted by an old friend. During the tour of the house (which in total had 7 people living there who all seemed to be in various levels of schooling from bachelor’s to PhD programs) I kept getting the absolutely mouthwatering smell of Indian food cooking. To my surprise and delight – when we walked through the kitchen he told me he’d just finished making some soup and told me I was welcome to have a bowl if I would like. Once we finished with the tour and I put my bag down I happily took him up on that offer (this was another one of the many time I had to stop the tears of joy form flowing fully). I chatted with everyone for a bit that night before taking a shower and crashing hard in bed. The next morning I had planned to go for a nice walk around the top of the ridge that the house was on, but ended up having a nice long video chat with my mom instead (after an already lazy and slow morning), so by the time that all wrapped up I simply walked to the store down the street, got some veggies, and went back to relax and prepare some food in an oven for the first time since I’d been in London. I made an entire 9×13 full of potatoes, carrots, and broccoli, and ended up eating the entire thing. I bonded with virtually everyone in the house over Game of Thrones and the state us politics in the US, among other things. Anyway, we all enjoyed the rest of the evening, and someone played the piano for a while when the wifi temporarily went out, so I got to listen to some live music too. The dynamic in the house reminded me very much of the house my friends all shared on Michigan while in college, so this was the most at home I’d felt since leaving my close friend in London. I woke up the next day – aka the morning of the day I’m writing this – and made some breakfast and talked with Deepak and some of his housemates about the sustainability programs at the university some of them attend. It’s definitely something I’ll be looking at for the future, even if only for a semester or two as an exchange, since it’s tuition free there. I left around 12:30 to walk by said university on my way to the train station, and then caught the train I sit on now. Not sure when the next time I’ll get this updated will be – and since I don’t have wifi I likely won’t be able to post this until I get to the hostel in Oslo later, but that’s all for now. Coincidentally my computer only has 2% batter left anyway… I couldn’t have planned that I tried.