Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

I am back in the swing of things in Tromsø after returning from a meandering journey through Northern Europe for Easter. My friend Elisa and I had a great time wandering through the capital cities of Oslo, Helsinki, Tallinn, Berlin, and Copenhagen drinking coffee, taking photos, trying to stay warm, and enjoying random experiences while couchsurfing!

Couchsurfing may be my favorite concept/social project. Basically, you offer to host people visiting in a city where you live and in return can stay with people wherever you are! Elisa and I stayed the entire journey with a random collection of hosts who showed us the local ins and outs of the Euro capitals.

We officially started our journey in Oslo where we crashed with Hanne. Elisa got there in time to sleep, but before her arrival Hanne and I enjoyed ice cream on Karl Johans Gate. Yes, ice cream! It was a beautiful day and great to see Oslo in the summertime as the Of Montreal song goes. We headed out early Friday morn for....

Our first stay was with Timo, the 37 year old divorcé who was an experienced host and avid hockey fan. He treated us to tickets to a semi-final game that featured the local Helsinki team Jokerit winning! He also gave us the local bar tour along with a host of other couchsurfers, ultimately leading us into a gay kareoke bar after our original kareoke destination was full. Elisa and I also explored a nearby island and were treated to a day at a Finnish cabin thanks to Marjaana's parents!

From Helsinki we sailed across the Baltic to Tallinn for one afternoon in the beautifully ancient city. We stayed with Kaarel who was a 21 year old bartender taking time off from his cultural studies to improve his cultured/artsy image. He gave us a great walking tour of the old city and in the evening insisted that he show us all the "alternative" bars in Tallinn. This included one bar with no sign and a single red light outside the door and a bar that was decorated with 1970's hair perm machines. It was a short and fun stay in Tallinn, even though we just slept on Kaarel's Persian rug.

After a flight to Berlin we met up with Cyril who was the 21 year old French/New Zealand host who was based in Berlin working for EasyJet. Berlin was my favorite city that had an amazing combination of new and old, local and international in everything...architecture, history, transportation, food, and style. Elisa and I had a great wandering tour past all the sites and down Karl Marx street where Soviet style apartment blocks lined the streets. We also explored Potsdam and had fun playing football, eating turkish and vietnamese food, and enjoying cheap drinks with Cyril and the other guy staying with Cyril at the time, Brian.

Elisa and I somehow managed to get the last tickets on a bus to Copenhagen and after an eventful trip arrived in Copenhagen where we were immediately greeted by our warm-hearted, body healing host, Marie. We spent our days in Copenhagen riding rented bikes all over the city, just like the locals! We saw the alternative community of Christiania, I bought 10 LP's for 50 kroner, and even got to play some ultimate frisbee! Marie was very generous and invited Elisa and I to her family's home for an "Easter Monday" dinner with ham and potatoes. We enjoyed the evening with her brother and parents after enduring a 45 min bike ride to the house. The rain and Marie's cozy house forced us to relax a bit more in Copenhagen. We left very early Tuesday morning and arrived back to sunny and snowy Tromsø!

It's great to surf Europe. Somehow the traveling makes it more exciting to come back and be in Tromsø. I think I'll stay put for a while finishing the thesis before plotting my next adventure, but I do have some couchsurfers coming my way already next week, so I too can be a paragraph in someone else's blog. Happy surfing everyone. Check back for more photos and videos soon (berlin and copenhagen forthcoming).