Well, here I sit in Oslo Norway on a very sunny and warm late spring day. I didn’t particularly plan this part of my summer travels, and I find each day presenting both its challenges and rewards. I’m actually sitting in my car of all places as I type this, the clock nearing 7 in the evening. All around me are other people like myself, camping here for as little as a night or some for several. I was fortunate to have located this campground just south-east of the “Sentrum�E or center, of Oslo is located. The ferry arrived from Denmark last evening about this time, and as things would have it, they couldn’t of worked out any better for me. People speaking English are not very common, but they do their best and are more than helpful I find. I had thought I’d just drive off the ship onto the dock and then find my way to a nice country road headed out of town and pitch my tent. It turned out when I asked for a camping ground, I kept hearing the same thing come out of peoples�Emouths but I couldn’t understand them at all. “Ekeberg�Eis what it turned to be, and here I sit. Just above the city centre is this campground costing nearly 20 dollars a nights with a little store, hot showers, and beautiful lawns. I pitched my tent just after arriving and then took a shower minus a towel I should have packed. Afterward, with the sun still fairly high in the sky even near 10 at night, I debated on what I should do. I wanted to go into “Oslo�Eon a Saturday night and see what it was like, but I thought better and ended the night channel surfing the airwaves for anything English while I smoked a cigar and had a wee bit too much of some Scotch from the ship’s duty free shop.

I must have been both one of the last to go to sleep last night here, and the first to have woken. All was quiet when I woke up this morning to find it to be only near 6. I wasn’t one to lie in bed, so I got up and attempted my first meal of oatmeal/brown sugar using the little stove I bought before I left. It is supposed to be one of those fancy smancy types that the real-outdoorsman buys. Well, it worked just fine and after tidying up, I decided to take the car into a very empty Oslo Norway. I must say that I for some reason had expected glitter and glamour as I had always envisioned this place to be nothing less, but reality quickly set in. As I drove the empty streets, all the ailments of a larger city were apparent. I saw plenty of trash strewn about as well as homeless people gathered in various doorways and street corners. Unlike back in the states, these stores would be closed on a Sunday afternoon and only cafes and small convenience stores would be open. I parked by the harbour and walked a bit but then decided to not push my luck and attempt to make it back to the campground. Once there, I just slept in the sun for a couple of hours. I did that a lot it seemed today. Later I’d catch a bus back to the center and would intermittently walk and sunbathe. And all of that brings me to where I am now, writing this entry.
I’m not much of the mindset to be writing right now, but I realize I may not be able to do it much more over the next week. It was quite a turn of events over the past week since leaving Amanda in Scotland. Other than spending time with her and the month or so I will spend in Budapest, I haven’t planned this part of my travels. Once I left Amanda’s last week, I only had reserved a car from Amsterdam for two weeks for my trip up to where I am now. I picked it up from Hertz for about $300 dollars with 3,500 free kms. for my trip. I scheduled to pick it up in a couple of days from my arrival so I could rest some for my journey and make some finalized planning such as how was I going to get to Budapest by the 15th and how was I going to drive from Amsterdam to as far north as a town/village called Andalsnes in Norway. When I went to Holland, I caught a train to the town of Haarlem where I found the absolutely best B&B for $20 dollars per night. Also, while in Haarlem, I contacted the local office of the Hungarian Airline called Malev at Schipol (skip �Ehull) airport. They said I’d have to come in with a Credit Card or cash to get my ticket before I left for Norway. So, when I left that Wed. morning I’d have to stop at the Airport where I was supposed to be picking up a rental car anyway and get my tickets. On my way out of Haarlem I was in no rush get moving that morning and I stopped at a lovely caf�Eand met an American woman who had come back to Haarlem and married her high school sweetie. She was anxious for my company, so I agreed to have a cappuccino with her. It turned out her husband and her just built a home on the coast of Portugal and in the home they have an apt. she offered me to stay. She says botanist from around the world come to this spot for its flora. Anyway, the chat was good with her but I moved on to the airport. Lugging my luggage all over, I went from one part of the airport to another to get my ticket for Budapest. I then came to find that my car pick up was at a location outside of Amsterdam near the prison. To get there, I’d have to go to central station, and then catch a metro to that part of town. Fortunately, the metro dropped me off right near my car pick-up.

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm). The car I have is more than adequate. A little five-speed with air-conditioning it could use some more space but it will suffice. Within 30 minutes of arriving at Hertz, I was on the road headed north to the village of Makkum where my friends Auke and Teatske-Ann have a farm. In fact, Auke is the third generation to grow up on the farm only to take it over. 60 years he has been there. The drive was fantastic. Holland is such a lovely country to drive in. As I’m sure you know, it is very flat but the scenery is so nice, often with farm after farm. When I arrived in Makkum, I went to the village first to pick up some beer for Auke and I, and some flowers for Teatske-Ann. I was fortunate to have seen the library and as I am becoming accustomed to, looked inside to find the internet. I had forgotten to email Hungary with my arrival confirmations and had a chance to do so before finding my way to Aukes. Once there, I found Teatske-Anne in the back of the farm house with her 2 year old granddaughter who she and Auke were watching for two weeks. “This is a very busy time for Auke, as the weather is warm�EI was told. On a farm in Holland I have come to learn, it is the farm that dictates what needs to be done and when. The weather having been nice for several days, required Auke to begin bailing his hayfields for the winter months feed. Having spent all day cutting and arranging the cuttings in neatly laid out rows, workers were to arrive with a machine they would take from farm to farm bailing the hay. Once completed, Auke would have 91 bails toward a season total of near 500 hundred to feed his herd over the winter months. With Auke in the field, Teatske-Ann had to round up the cows for feeding. They’d be lined up each morning their food when Auke feeds them, but in the evening they are less anxious to be fed having been grazing all day long. So, out to the field the I went with her and her granddaughter. I shortly found myself carrying the little one, thus relieving Teatske-Ann the weight of the little girl. All through the fields we walked, all the while shooing the cows toward the barn. Auke would then milk them near six before working until 10 or even 11 at night. Without going into too much more detail, I spent my time while visiting Auke and Teatske-Ann mostly hanging out by my self in the nearby town of Harlingen. It was a great chance to get caught up with my email and other tasks as the booking of a ferry from Denmark to Norway. After talking with Auke, we figured that would be my best bet. I needed to go through Hamburg to see my friend Robert, but from there I was open to chances to go to Norway by Denmak. I found such an arrangement out of Hirstlaus on the tip of Denmark at 10 in the morning on Saturday arriving in Oslo that night at half past six. This meant I’d have to forgo my night with Robert as I’d be driving the six hour drive Friday night to the little town in Denmark. The last thing I’d want to be doing was driving that distance in the early morning only to catch a ferry by ten.

I left the farm at 6 on Friday hoping to arrive in Hamburg by 10. I was right on time as I pulled into Hamburg I thought, but I had to find the home of Robert. This would prove to be quite a challenge as I didn’t have a map nor did I speak German. I had some directions from Robert, but they only helped me get in the general vicinity. I must of stopped nearly half a dozen times before I finally had a guy pull a map out of his car and I was but one street away from Robert’s apartment, or flat as they seem to call it everywhere in Europe. Robert wasn’t home at the moment I arrived, so I engaged a lovely shop keeper and her daughter in a conversation. The mother barely spoke English, but we were able to communicate by her daughter’s ability to communicate with me. Her mom had visited San Francisco a year or two ago and the twinkle in her eyes told me how much she loved it. Anyway, Robert showed up in his convertible Mercedes and after checking my email, he was going to use the limited time we had together to show me Hamburg. I had thought I’d sleep on his pull out bed that evening, but as my schedule would have it, I’d be driving up to a small port city of Denmark that evening, just across from Norway. So around town Robert and I went in his car. As we drove, it was apparent how proud Robert was of Hamburg, several times pointing out one of its greatest assets, it trees. Almost every street is tree lined and very, very nice. Having been destroyed in WWII from the allied bombing, almost every building was built right after the war. About an hour into our outing, Robert went to turn into a park near a lake when we were hit by an motorist trying to get around us. It would be too hard to explain but it turned out to be the other persons fault though at first I thought it might have been Roberts fault. The police came and sided with Robert.
Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm). It was about 5 in the evening when I said goodbye to Robert, confirming the possibility I’d return on my way back to Amsterdam. That night was spent driving the highway up to a small village on the coast of Denmark called Hirsthaus or something like that. I had paid 83 euros for passage to Oslo the next morning at 10, a trip that would take nearly 8 hours. The drive was quite challenging as the speed limit in Denmark is a mere 100 km/hr. When I was only 40 km from my destination, it was near 11 at night. I found a semi-empty roadside rest area and after having a cigar and a nightcap of scotch, I did my best to get comfortable and sleep in the car, setting the alarm for 6:30 the next morning. I woke up right on time and within an hour I was at the dock of the town I was to depart from in an hour or so. I grabbed a bite to eat in the village and had what is the sorriest excuse for a cup of cappuccino I had ever tasted. After waiting nearly 10 minutes in this little dinner for a it, she came out to give me some little Dixie cup with what amount to crap inside. Had I not already paid her, I’d of not given her one Kronin. That’s the currency there and here in Norway. Everything I buy I need to divide by 7 to get an estimate as to how much it would cost. A big Mac, fries, and coke yesterday cost me 64 Kronins �Edo the math�E

I must be very fortunate in that both last year and this year I have sailed the north sea and have had nothing but ideal weather. Once I had secured my car in the bottom of the ferry, I proceeded to the very top deck of the ship where I would spend the majority of the 8 hours, just laying in the sun. There was not much else to do really. I did spend some time in the duty free shop as well as working on a web site project. Once the ship arrived in Oslo, I drove around as I did in Hamburg the previous day and eventually found myself to the Ekeberg campground. I have brought my tent with me several times during my travels but had never used it until this stop believe it or not. It only took minutes to set it up and once done, it provided me with all the shelter I’d need. I paid 350 Kronins for two nights, rather pricey for camping but considering where I was and what I needed, it served the purpose.

 I left the campground this morning at near 8 and traveled all day on two lane highways that winded up and down one side of a mountain or another, arriving here at nearly 2 in the afternoon. I’m in a very small town called Dalen which is south-east of Oslo. I had arranged for this accommodation several months ago and I must tell you it is quite lovely. Having 38 rooms, the hotel walls are adorned with various pictures of kings and queens who have stayed here in the hundred plus years it has been in operation. Just across the lawn from where my room opens up to is a very pretty lake bordered on each side by very high mountains. The best thing one can do here is to relax, and that is just what I am doing. It is near 4:15 in the afternoon and dinner will be served at 7 in the large dining hall just across from where my room is on the first floor. I’ve requested reindeer as I have heard it is quite tasty. I find the staff here are quite friendly as well. In fact, most of the people I have met are friendly in Norway.

It is my plan to leave here early in the morning tomorrow and arrive near Bergen by mid-day. It is a 5 to 6 hour drive from here and I’m sure it will be on small two lane roads like today’s travels. I’ll spend one to two nights there before traveling even further north to the town of Styrn where I will be hosted on farm. Friday I shall then travel even further north still to the town of Andalses or something spelled similarly. I intend to begin my trip back to Amsterdam and then on to Budapest this Sunday. I am allowing for three days to get back as my car will be due that wed. Should anyone be following along with this journal I hope it makes for somewhat of an interesting read. I find my own benefit from these journal entries are is what really motivates me to continue writing them.