THE END OF A BEGINNING

I have been very much slacking in my last few posts since I have been home. For those of you with Facebook, I have put all of my pictures up on there. I should get the pictures up on my other site for everyone else soon.

I still have a few more blogs coming after this one.

LONDON:
I flew into London the day after they had a snowstorm, and by snow storm I mean they had 4 inches of snow... However, for London this meant that most of the city was shut down. Luckily by the time I flew the flights were back on schedule and a few of the trains we up and running. However, I must also note.. when I say I flew into London I actually mean I flew into an airport almost 2 hours outside London. It is said that London has 5 international airports, but most of them, like the one I flew into, are way outside the city.

My couch surfing host in London was great, he even gave me a cellphone to use while I was in the city. He took me out to a somewhat hidden pub and I got to eat some traditional British food. He also took me to a couchsurfing meeting where a bunch of couchsurfers in London met up at a pub for a few drinks.

On my own I did a walking tour of the city where I took my time to stroll past all of the major sights. Unfortunately I forgot my camera this day and I actually only ended up taking one picture while in London. Many people have a ton of pictures of all the major sights anyway. I skipped out on all of the museums and such. I had seen enough art and cathedrals by this point in my trip. London reminded me a bit of New York City, except they have funny looking police officers who sometimes talk with funny accents.

To make a long story short, due to some stupid and silly airline rules, I had to spend over 24 hours on airplanes or in airports. I had to fly to Dublin, sleep overnight in the airport, fly back to London, and then catch a flight to NY. By the time I got back I was tired and jetlagged, I was probably even a bit smelly, but I was greeted wonderfully to my family which put a huge smile on my face. As great as my whole trip was, I was reminded how truly lucky I am to come home to the wonderful feeling of being surrounded by loved ones.

My trip is now over, however, it is only made more more enthusiastic about traveling. My trip to Israel and Jordan gave me my first taste to backpacking, although I was quite terrible at it. My teaser trip to Central America made me realize that I really do love to travel and made me ready to commit to a long and unplanned trip. This trip was my first experience of traveling alone for an extended period of time without any concrete plans. I loved it. The good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly, it didn't matter it was all great.

A VISIT TO TROMSO PART 2

TWICE A MOUNTAIN CLIMB
Jon, my second host, was the expert on things to do in Tromso. One of these things that he recommended was to climb a mountain. This mountain was not actually on the island of Tromso, but rather across the water on the mainland. After a nice walk across the nicely curved bridge and a pass by the arctic cathedral, I made it to the base of the mountain. There is a cable car that runs up the mountain, but this is only done in the summer months. So I started my way up hiking. Stupidly I didn't realize there was somewhat of a path to follow up and I spent the first hour consuming all my energy as I slowly made my way up the mountain. I slid around on the snow covered mountain, but eventually I found the slightly easier path. After I made my way to the top of the mountain I took a few minutes catching my breath and taking in the amazing views. Then of course I went to grab my camera to take some pictures... but my second stupid move of the day, my battery was dead. So I decided that I would have to climb the mountain again to take some pictures. I slid my way down the mountain. This was actually extremely fun as I made my way down on my ass making a path through the trees. I made it all the way down in no more than 15 minutes. The next day I climbed the mountain again, this time taking the path that was a bit easier. When I made it to the top again (where the cable car goes) and snapped some pictures, I was not satisfied. So I actually climbed an even higher second peak and spent a good time relaxing with pure silence, except for the howling wind blowing snow all around. The best part was that the path I made from the day before with my ass slightly froze overnight. This proved to be quite the fun winding fast slide down the mountain... I should have started to charge people to use my excellently made path ( I do have some videos of this).

DOGSLEDDING
When I arrived in Tromso I learned that I could go dogsledding for 1,200 kroner or around $170 (the exchange rate is 7 kroner for 1 dollar). While this seemed appealing, it also seemed a bit out of my budget for what I wanted to spend. I thought I would think it over and perhaps still decide to do it eventually. Luckily, Jon informed me of a way to go dogsledding for only 500 Kroner or about $70. Less than half price, that was much better! I would go doglsedding the way the locals do it. I called up the company directly, instead of going through the tourist office. Instead of taking their private van to the place I had to hop on the public bus and just tell the bus driver to drop me off at the base of the entrance to the place. I was also informed I would have to forgo the complimentary lunch. This was all more than fine by me and actually ended up working out great... Since I took the public bus, I arrived at the place about an hour before the rest of the people on the private van. Because of this I was the only one who actually got to help out and put together a team. I actually grabbed dogs and attached them to their sleds. After all the teams were put together I got to pick one of the six dog, teams for myself. I think I picked the best team there if I do say so myself. At the front I had my two lovely ladies leading the way. They were smart and energetic. They were pretty twins and two of the only dogs that could be left without a leash. In the middle I had a veteran of the famous Idetarod race. He was a bit older and more experienced. He was the type to use his experience and wisdom to keep the crew together. In the back I had my two strong and silent ones. They didn't seem too bright and were not as sociable as the other dogs. However, they looked like they would pull all day if they had too and I knew they wouldn't let me down. So as I waited for everyone else to arrive I took in the workings of the place. There were around 300 dogs there. The dogs couldn't be more excited to pull the sleds. The ones who weren't picked looked to be quite jealous of those who were getting to go. Whenever one dog started barking, they all slowly joined in until there was a loud chant of 300 plus dogs speaking their minds. There were also a couple of sheep dogs who ran free and took their jobs very seriously. When a couple of the sled dogs acted up and got yelled at by the people, the sheep dogs looked like they took it personally. They ran over to the incident and personally yelled at the dogs who acted up and then proceeded to run around and warn all of the other sleds not to follow the bad example. Eventually we were under way, I was driving my own sled of dogs. I was following other sleds, but I was completely solely in control of my own sled. My team performed amazingly. When the other sleds when up hills the other people had to get off the sleds and help push, when my team when up hills I had to continue to apply the brakes because they were going so fast! It was an incredible exhilarating time. I must admit I did get distracted and my sled did flip once. Although this didn't break my dogs stride and they continued to go and I ran after them, flipped the sled back over, and continued on our way and almost noone even noticed I had flipped. Afterwards we heard some interesting stories about the dogs, I will share a quick one. There was one set of twin dogs, where one of the twins was almost completely blind. However, this never posed a problem because the other twin would always perfectly communicate to the other one and these dogs could easily lead the way. Although, when they tried to put the blind one with any other partner it never worked out and the blind one would always crash. Afterwards, I joined everyone else and was actually given the food along with everyone even though I was not supposed to get it. Additionally I grabbed the private van ride back with everyone even though I wasn't supposed to get that either. So my dogsledding trip worked out amazingly for a great price, I couldn't have been happier!

Northern Lights
When I originally booked my ticket to Tromso, the thing I most looked forward to was the northern lights. I figured I had like 10 nights, I would see the damn lights. Well I did see them, but barely. In fact so little so, that my camera couldn't even pick up the faint light that I saw. But it was funny because soon after I got there I found myself interested in the lights, but not obsessing over seeing them. I became much more interested in the people I was staying with, climbing the mountain, and dogsledding. While it would have been quite nice to see a magnificent display of the lights, that didn't happen. Its just the way things worked out and I have no regrets at all. I loved everything about my trip to Tromso and I appreciate everything I did get to do, especially the things I had no prior knowledge about.

Hello and Goodbye

This will probably be the last time I have internet access before I return home on Saturday. I have a long couple of days ahead involving one overnight in an aiport. I am a bit behind in blogs and I will be sure to catch up on them when I return home and I have more time. Thanks as always for all of the comments and emails! I hope you all will continue to read as I post the rest of my blogs in due time. Goodbye Europe!

A VISIT TO TROMSØ: PART ONE

For good reason, I have been slacking with my blog. I have been quite busy during my 10 night 11 day stay here in Tromsø. Also, I have quite a bit to say, even when cutting some stuff out. So now the day in which I will be leaving on a flight to London, I have found some time to write. It is a lot so I am going to break it up into two separate posts. Also I found it much easier for myself and hopefully for you guys to break it up into sections.

TWICE A SUNRISE
I flew out of the Oslo airport on an early morning flight through a snowstorm. As we gained height and left the Oslo airport I was able to see a beautiful sunrise through some breakage in the clouds. The flight was mostly uneventful until I was close to my destination of Tromsø, when I noticed that the sun began to set and eventually disappear from sight. I landed in what is still considered the morning hours of around 10am. Later on that same day I would get to see the sun rise and set again. Therefore, being due to my new northerly location in the arctic circle, I was able to see the sun rise and set twice in a day!

PARIS OF THE NORTH
According to my European travel guide, The Rough Guide to Europe on a Budget, Tromsø has been called the Paris of the North. While it is a beautiful city surrounded by even more beautiful scenery, I see no resemblance to Paris. Unless of course simply stating something is like Paris is stating that it is incredibly beautiful, because then my answer would absolutely be yes. As my plane approached Tromsø, I noticed the scenery to be an immense empty landscape. The snow covered hilly ground went as far as the eye could see without any sign of life. It looked quite desolate to be honest. Tromsø is much different from this last description. Located about 300km inside of the Arctic Circle, it is the 9th largest city in Norway, with an oh so large population of a little over 50,000 people. Tromsø is actually an island surrounded by mountains on the mainland and other islands on the other side. From Tromsø I get a beautiful view of the mainland. I think it can best be described by how it looks at night. If looking at the mainland you immediately notice the large snow covered mountains hovering so very close. Beneath these mountains lies a narrow strip of land with well lit houses providing ample viewing light for the mountains behind them. In between the mainland and myself is a river like stretch of water with a beautifully curved bridge connecting the two pieces of land. The cool looking arctic water reflects the light of the houses from across the way to add the finishing touch on a wonderful view. Its one of those things that my point and shoot camera was not able to fully capture. The other beautiful thing about Tromsø is the relatively mild weather, due to its location near the ocean and the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. While it is cold here, it is not as bitter as other areas would be on a similar latitude of around 69 degrees north. In fact the weather has been very similar to Long Island weather during this time of the year.

THE NORTHERNMOST...
The running joke in Tromsø is that you can take almost anything in the city and say its the northernmost whatever it is the world. Some real life examples of this is that Tromsø has the northernmost university in the world, Tromsø university, planetarium, and many other local sites. However the most interesting for me was that it is the location of the northernmost brewery in the world. The Mack brewery is located on a small piece land on the island with Tromsø. And yes, I did try the beer several times.

ON THE ISLAND
During my stay on Tromsø I was lucky enough to be hosted by three separate groups of people. During my first few days I stayed with Espen and Robin, a couple of guys around my age. I spent this time familiarizing myself with the city during the day. At night Espen, Robin, a few of their friends, and myself spent time checking out the local night life. My second stay was with a busy guy named Jon. He knew all of the insider tips to the island and most importantly told me how to go dog sledding for less than half price, which I will talk about later. My first day here I was sharing his place with a couple of Australian Couchsurfers. We spent the day checking out the Polar Museum and its extensive collection of polar history and mounted animals. The next couple of days I spent climbing a mountain, which I will talk about later, and at night Jon was able to spend time showing me around town. My last stay was with Thomas and Kine, a wonderful couple with a house very close to the city center. My time here was mostly on the weekend so I was able to spend a lot of time with them. It snowed a lot, so we spent a lot of time indoors. Although Thomas did take me to multiple places to try and catch the Northern Lights, which I will also talk about later.

FOOD
During my stay with Thomas and Kine we did a lot of eating. Thomas, being like myself, is almost never full and can continually eat like me. While we spent time eating food that can be had anywhere, I also did get to sample some Norwegian specialties. One night Thomas made us a delicious reindeer stew. Last night we had whale... Most people around the world will probably not be to fond of me eating whale. Norway is one of only a handful of countries that its even legal to hunt whale. However, it must be known that the whale hunting done here is very limited, and the species of whale that is hunted is not endangered. If this still wasn't convincing enough, I am sorry but maybe you will not want to read about how I describe the taste next. Uncooked it looked like a very very dark piece of meat. When cooked, in a frying pan, it came out looking very close to how a piece of steak may look when cooked the same way. The texture of it was also very much like a steak, and after the first few chews one may actually thing they are eating a steak. However, after the first few chews a slight fishy taste became apparent, but not overwhelmingly so. As a certain someone I know might say, it was good, but not great. I am very glad to have tried it, as I love to try most foods. If it were available in the states I would probably eat every once in a while, but not too often.

TO BE CONTINUED...