Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Scandinavia = pretty but no booze

So we are ending our tour of Scandinavia this week, later in Denmark for Tim's wedding, but today we are in the lovely port town of Gothenburg, Sweden, at a 7-11 checking our email. We started our trek taking an overnight train from Berlin to Malmo, Sweden, that literally looked like a metal toy train from 1957 Christmas pictures. There were 3 cars total with distressed looking interiors. Needless to say after being in the Reich for 3 days, we weren't surprised. What also wasn't surprising was that the conductor was clearly drunk, taking sharp turns at lightning speeds while we slipped all over the shower compartment hanging on to the towel racks for dear life. Mia actually had to be strapped in her bed, as to not roll off 2 stories below to the linoleum floor. I, on the other hand, popped 2 Klonopin, as prescribed, and was totally knocked out. When the train stopped in god knows where and men started screaming in different languages, Mia's cries for help could not be heard by me at all. That's how sedated I was.
So we survived and reached the endless sunshine of Stockholm. Seriously, we went to the bar and it was light out; we came out of the bar and the sun was rising at 3:30 am. We ended up at a locals' bar by accident and met some cool Swedes, including Johann, who you will see in next week's picture postings. We then took the WORST EVER bus ride from Stockholm to Oslo in the middle of the night where I almost overflowed the toilet on the bus and caused a riot.
We arrived in Oslo at the crack of dawn and got on yet another train to Bergen on the West coast and through fjord country. The train ride was amazing... glaciers, waterfalls, mountains, etc. After a long day of dealing with Japanese tourists, we took the night train back to Oslo yet again. No drunk driver this time. Why, you ask? Because Scandinavian countries don't sell liquor past 6 PM!! No wonder the Swedish train conductor was getting hammered in Germany. So yes, we are sober in Sweden departing for Copenhagen tomorrow, beginning our last leg of our trip together.
I'll post all the pics next week because I'm not uploading them in some shady 7-11 internet kiosk, so expect numerous emails!

1 comment: