| Well, here is I sit in the Central Station barber shop of the small town of Haarlem just outside of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The elderly barber just two feet in front of me is meticulously trimming the hair of what is obviously both a local and a regular. There is one more in front of me so I
thought why not begin perhaps my final entry for this portion of my trip. Tomorrow, I enter a whole other world in that of Budapest.
Perhaps it is best to begin this entry with my departure from Stryn several days ago now. I woke up well past my intended 6 am goal, perhaps it was nearer to 8. Even though, as I pulled out of the farm with a destination of Andalsnes set for the day, the town seemed still asleep. The drive for the day would be a short one, compared to those in the past several days. I would stop at a glacier national park where the largest glacier on the continent is located, and then go straight to Asbjorns, my new found friend in this remote part of the world, to say the least. The musuem and park was quite interesting, and a nice way to spend a few hours out of the rain. Once I left, I began what was perhaps one of the more beautiful drives so far off my trip. I had to journey across a large range of moutains to arrive in a valley with spectacular views. At one point, I was quite amused to find at least two hundred mountain goats blocking the road. I got out to take their picture, and they were quite obliged to cooperate. Soon, I noticed they were chewing on various parts of my clothes and equipment. Then, I noticed one going at my car's mirror. That had to stop I yelled at him.
I arrived in Andalsness to find a very, very small one-horse town if you will. Locating Asbjorn's hotel was quite simple, as were the
accommodations. Asbjorn couldn't of been a nicer host, putting me in a nice room right away. Once settled in, we had a short visit where I showed him my photos of my travels. I also used this time to check up on my email on his outdated, yet functional computer system. We had discussed in our emails of various itineraries for my visit, but having reached the
decision to leave the next morning for Olso and Copenhagen our options seemed limited. So, rather than go and do anything
extravagant, we decided to spend the day relaxing. We walked up a mountain to get a nice view of the town below. In doing so, I noticed a hotel which was prominently placed and very elegant looking. I asked Asbjorn if we could stop on our way down. Once down there, I opened my laptop for the manager and was immediately hired to do some panoramas for the hotel. Upon final negotiation, I settled for 750 Kronen and a nice dinner that night. Reindeer ended up being on the menu and I got much more than I had bargained for. It had to have been one of the better meals I have had in a long, long time. Back at the hotel, Asbjorn took me downstairs to find a huge collection of all types of exotic birds he collects. They were everywhere and it was very dusty and noisy to say the least. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry and getting ready for dinner.
As I said, dinner was incredible. Asbjorn showed up near the end of my dinner, (I should of invited him to join me for dinner) to have a drink in the pub downstairs. Once down there, he and I had drink and laugh after drink in laugh. We stumbled back to the hotel near two in the morning and said goodnight to one another, Asbjorn promising to wake me up in the morning at six. We'll see I thought as I crawled up to room 207.
I left the next morning at about 8 and I intended to drive as far south as possible. I had heard that I could reach Copenhagen but it would be a long drive. The roads were fairly empty, as I passed one waterfall and moose warning sign after the other on the small two lane mountain highway. There was enough traffic though that I'd get caught behind an occasional truck or camper for what seemed like miles. On the map, I saw that I would pass through Lilliehammer
(forgive the misspelling) where I would just stop long enough to see the Olympic Village and have a Big Mac. I arrived in Oslo that afternoon at about 3, right on the six hour prediction I had gotten from Osjbron. Even though I didn't like Oslo very much, I would inquire in the center about a ferry to Copenhagen. It turned out to be way too much and I figured I'd drive. I left there almost as soon as I had arrived, weaving in and out of the various highway exchanges. The next city I would stop in would be in Sweden, that of Goetenberg just north of Copenhagen.
PS . The haircut was awesome... |