Bergen Fjords

After Oslo took an incredibly scenic train ride across Norway to Bergen. Beautiful port city. Great fish market...smoked salmon - incredible. I even tried whale meat. I know, I know...they're going extinct...and now I can swee why...they're delicious.
Met some lovely Dutch Dental students at the hostel and took the ferry with them to Stavangar. There we did a great hike up to the top of one of the fjords (forget the name now, but it starts with a P). The view was amazing, and the drop was very steep.
Went back to Oslo for a night before heading to Stockholm. Stockholm is great. It's made up of a bunch of small islands so you can take the ferry around. Today I went to this huge outdoor museum/zoo called Skanset which was very cool, then went to the Vasa museum which consists of a huge ship that was sunken for 333 years before being pulled up and restored. Very cool.
After that, took a ferry to the modern art museum which had some very interesting pieces (on the way there saw a gang of 6 people zip by on their segways) and then took a ferry back to my island - Sodermalm
On the way I saw the most amazing full, double rainbow stretching from one island to the other. Once I can upload photos, you'll see what I mean.
Off to dinner now. It's been a long day.

It's been a while, but a lot has happened

Before my brother's wedding I decided to visit some friends in San Diego and LA and then drive up the PCH to Monterrey on the way to Berkeley before. I've said it before and I'll say it again...San Diego is great. Plus, everyone there is so friendly. LA was fun too and the drive up the coast was amazing. The west coast has some crazy scenery. Lake Tahoe was equally beautiful and we got so lucky with good weather for the wedding. Did a bike ride to the lake on a beautiful path, took a nice hike up one of the ski mountains and saw a few classic car conventions. The wedding ceremony was very nice and the reception was a blast...luckily my best man speech went over well. What a relief. So happy for my brother and his new bride.
Last week I flew to Dublin to begin my 4 month European adventure. I'm planning to visit 16 countries before flying home for my cousin's wedding, but I may try and hit a few more eastern european countries because I've been hearing amazing things. The only reason I started in Dublin is because it was the cheapest flight to Europe I could find. I'm really glad I went though and I wish I had more time there. Dublin is a really nice city, especially since I got really lucky with the weather. When I got in early Tuesday morning, the sky was overcast and it was a bit chilly. When my bus to downtown entered a long tunnel, the weather looked dismal, but at the end of the tunnel I saw the light, literally. It was nice and sunny and remained that way for my entire stay in the country. My first day I was pretty much a zombie due to the fact that I slept about 15 minutes on the 6 hour overnight flight from JFK. In an effort to get adjusted to the new time zone as quickly as possible I decided not to sleep when I arrived and instead began my sightseeing. Dublin is very walkable and there's some good stuff to see. The huge spire, a slatue to their sweater knitting skill, some cool castles and cathedrals and some very nice parks where I wound up taking a few naps while soaking up the sun. Met some cool girls from Buenos Aires which was great since I got to my practice my Spanish the rest of the afternoon. Might meet up with them in Spain or Morocco. Passed out very early that night so I could enjoy the free "breakfast" included with my hostel. It was basically just bread, something they told me was orange juice and some surprisingly decent coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker though, so I wouldn't really know the difference.
Next day headed to the Guiness Brewery with a new friend from my hostel. The tour was pretty cool and I got to push the button which started a new brew process...whatever that means. The end was the best though when we got our free pint at the Gravity Bar. On the top floor they have a sweet bar with a 360 view of Dublin. Very cool. That night we went out in Temple Bar, very touristy but fun.
All kinds of hungover, the next morning I grabbed an early (11:10am) train to Galway on the west coast of Ireland. The sceneray along the way was beautiful even if the a/c wasn't working for the 3 hour ride. The town itself is also really nice (and Europe's fastest growing city, so they say). Walked around and hung out near the spanish arch for most of the afternoon and hung out with some friends from the hostel on the very cool pedestrian streets which had tons of pubs and restaurants all with outside seating. Next day we all decided to take the ferry out to the Aran Islands - population about 800 people. We rented bikes and rode around a quintissential Irish landscape.
Next day grabbed the train back to Dublin then hopped on a flight to Oslo, or what I thought was Oslo. Turns out Ryan Air flies to an airport 1.5 hours from the center of Oslo. After a nice ride into town (even though it was after 11pm the sun was still out!) I waslked around asking people how to get to the train I needed to find my hostel. I asked this one group of people and they walked with me to where the train stop but along the way offered to put me up at their place. How could I say no? So we all went out in Oslo which is really nice (I need more adjectives to describe all the nice-ness I'm experiencing) and then they had an afterparty in their apartment. It was very strange seeing the sun come up around 3am.
Today was absolutely gorgeous so we rode our bikes to Huk beach where I think I was the only non-local. The place was packed too with all kinds of Norwegian girls in bikinis...not too shabby. I hear the girls in Sweden are better looking, but it's gonna be tough.
Did a little BBQ back at the ranch and watched the sunset around 11:30pm.
Alright, time for bed now as I have a big day of sightseeing ahead. I'll be uplaoding tons of great pics when I can, so take a look.