Probably the last post ...

Hey all who check here ...

We're in Stavanger, in southern Norway, with 5 days to go. We've got one more night here, then an overnight train to Oslo, another overnight to Copenhagen airport, a flight to London, two nights there, and then home ...

It will certainly be interesting going to London for 2 nights. By all accounts the atmosphere in the city is very tense. Despite all logical reassurances about probability, etc. I'm sure our rides on the tube will be at least somewhat frightening. But what do you do?

Anyways, that's occupying a small portion of our collective minds, but mostly we're just enjoying Norway. We went on a brilliant hike yesterday to a giant piece of granite called Preikestolen, or The Pulpit Rock. You can see a picture of it (not one that I took or anything) over on the side there ... it was absolutely unreal. 604m (approx. 2000 ft.) high, with sheer cliffs on three sides down to the Fjord below. When we were up there we were actually above the clouds, giving us a very interesting cloudscape to look over. Wow.

It's a little chilly today so we're just kind of hanging out ... have a couple points of interest to look into today and tomorrow - unfortunately Norway absolutely shuts down on Sundays ... no stores of any kind are open, and even many restaurants are closed.

Anyways, it's been amazing ... see you all soon.

Dane

Norway: Live for the moment!

I saw that slogan on a postcard yesterday and thought "if only I knew how!" - but today, after para-gliding, I think I've got it figured out.

So we're here in Voss (the extreme sports capital of Norway), and today (as I mentioned above) we took advantage and went paragliding (no more comments in parantheses after this).

So, for those who are unsure of what this entails, here goes:
1) You and your instructor strap yourselves to a thin, stylized parachute that is joined to a boat, sitting in the nearby lake
2) The boat takes off and you run as fast as you can after it until your parachute fills and you are lifted into flight
3) The boat tows you, slowly letting out cable until you are 3000 (!!!) feet above the earth
4) The instructor pulls the rip cord and you are gliding free

So after this is takes about 15-20 minutes to glide down to earth, and you get to steer the rig, the instructor takes you through a couple easy turns, some harder ones, and finally a death spiral (during which I almost blacked out) before you hit the ground running and end it.

It was amazing ... the scenery in Norway (Fjords, snow-covered mountains, lakes, etc.) is mind-blowing from the ground, nevermind 3000 feet up. Definitely an experience to remember.

Okay!

Home in 11!

Dane

Sandy and I in Helsinki

Sandy and I in Helsinki
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

Here's a pic of my and Sandy during our walk around Helsinki.

The Secret of Hilary's Eternal Beautry

The Secret of Hilary's Eternal Beautry
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

Another from the Isle of Skye

Hil and I on the Isle of Skye

Hil and I on the Isle of Skye
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

A beauty shot from our hike on The Isle of Skye .. you can see 'The Old Man of the Storr' in the background - it's the rock spire - where we finished our hike.

Hil on Isle of Skye

Hil on Isle of Skye
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

This pic is a bit dark, but the figure there is indeed Hilary, this is actually on the way down from our hike on the Isle of Skye, probably the most beautiful bit of scenery I've ever seen.

Danish palace with Palace Guards

Danish palace with Palace Guards
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

This is part of the palace where Queen Margaret II lives in Denmark. My grandfather on my Dad's side was a palace guard when he was young, so it was very cool to see them marching around as he would have done 80 years ago.

Radhus (town hall) in Copenhagen.

Radhus (town hall) in Copenhagen.
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

Most of the Radhus was covered in scaffolding, so I took this picture of the clocktower ... I just liked the sky behind it more than anything.

The Gold Hall

The Gold Hall
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

Stockholm city hall, like Stockholm istelf, was insanely beautiful - there's two pictures from it that I'm posting.

Church/Alien Landing Pad in Helsinki

Church/Alien Landing Pad in Helsinki
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

Sandy and Satu took us to this pod shaped church in Helsinki - probably the oddest church I've ever seen - but very cool.

Fort in Helsinki

Fort in Helsinki
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

A couple hours prior to this photo we were exploring the fort and we saw a boat go by, then two ours later there we were on the BOAT, watching the FORT go by - irony?

Stave Church

Stave Church
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

13th century wooden church in Norway.

Our Ship

Our Ship
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

This ship gave us two phenomenal nights of great food, english movies on TV, and bright midnights.

The Blue Hall

The Blue Hall
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

Called the blue hall because it was supposed to be blue, but the architect changed his mind and left it brick. Crazy architects, what will they think of next.

Loch Ness

Loch Ness
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

A view down Loch Ness - no monster sightings, but we learned that the current theory is that the monster is actually a Sturgeon - a fresh-water fish that can grow up to 27 feet, and lives for over 300 years.

A View of Stockholm

A View of Stockholm
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

Here's a view of Stockholm from up high in the city hall - I built this interactive map so you can see what some of the buildings in the city are, so if you click the pic and move your mouse over the big version of the picture, some notes will pop up.

Hold tight London.

Just in case Hilary's mom wasn't the only one wondering - we flew out of London yesterday, and are in Copenhagen so we were totally unaffected by the bombings - aside from my own feelings of sadness and anger.

Dane.

Does 'plummit' rhyme with 'lovin' it'? (alternate title: On the state of the Euro)

Hey team,

Well, we're here in Naxos, 1 hour before our ferry leaves for Mykonos. I've just spent almost an hour uploading and commenting and blogging all the photos you see below, and Hil is done everything she needs to do on the internet, so this will be brief. It's been a long time since the last blog post, these pictures cover a lot of what's gone on ... some highlights:

- Paul (Bissett, friend from camp) joined us in Santorini and Ios for 4 nights, we had a great time - and both islands were amazing. Santorini in particular is beautiful.
- The sunsets have been just unreal, and on Paros and now here in Naxos we have had just incredible rooms with direct sunset views. Especially on Paros, the place we stayed was just unreal, for so cheap. Rooms Mike is the answer.
- Naxos is gorgeous, we went out for easily the best meal of our trip two nights ago - and have since developed a strong fondness for the local cheese.

So many others ... but that's all I've got time for now, enjoy the pictures - they're in chronological order starting with the Puppy in Plakias, and ending with a sunset in Paros from 3 nights ago.

Hope everyone who went had a blast at Matty's cottage ... I hear it's hotter 'n hell in Toronto, so it must've been sweet to get away. And happy birthday Matty.

Let me know what's up with y'all.

Dane

Hil with a Puppy

Hil with a Puppy
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Dane at Knossos

Dane at Knossos
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Paul in Santorini

Paul in Santorini
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Thira

Thira
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Dog

Dog
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Our whip

Our whip
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Red Beach on Santorini

Red Beach on Santorini
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Santorini Coast

Santorini Coast
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Sunset in Oia

Sunset in Oia
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

"Friends"

"Friends"
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Volcano

Volcano
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

The beach on Ios

The beach on Ios
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Paul and Hil

Paul and Hil
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Flowering Tree

Flowering Tree
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Sunset in Paros

Sunset in Paros
Originally uploaded by djsquared.

click the photo for a description.

Greece and the art of bus maintenance

Well, it has been over a week since I posted on here - and a surprisingly vast amount has happened since then.

We spent a day in Athens cramming as many ruins into one day as we could fit around Hilary's hair appointment, and then it was off to Crete on the overnight ferry.

An overnight ferry in Deck class is an interesting animal - as you lie down on the floor of the ship's cafe with your earplugs, blinder mask, etc. on and attempt sleep in a room slightly dimmer than a stadium, with 5 TVs and 200 people in it, you begin to wonder about the value of a cabin.

Anyways, we arrived in Hania bright and early at 6am - found our beautiful hostel, and settled in. Hania was charming - we had planned to hike the Samaria Gorge, but had to abandon after a massive thunderstorm closed the entire park. That was disappointing. However, in the spare day we had we planned the missing 3 weeks of our trip - which now centers around Bergen, Norway and the Fjords ... details to follow.

From Hania it was on to Plakias, a tiny seaside town that I visited two years ago. On the Southern edge of Crete it has Europe's southernmost youth hostel - also home to the world's weirdest collection of people. The hostel functions more as a playground to a core group of middle-aged regulars, including Crazy-Bush-Guy, the team of lesbians, "Evil Christos" (that's actually how he introduces himself - and he looks exactly like Matty except he is German, with long hair, and about 40), "Scary French guy who carries on conversations with himself", and "Bjorg".

Anyways, we had a fantastic time doing a fantastic river-walk that includes climbing up waterfalls, and walking upstream until you come out on top of this amazing hill in a beautiful Cretan valley. So that was a highlight ...

Another highlight was the bus ride there, which featured "four-hundred-pound-milkshake-drinking-and-smoking-while-driving-a-stickshift-bus-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff-bus-driver" - amazingly you can pilot a massive bus around a treacherous mountain cliff with only your elbows, although occassionally he had to pause with the cigarette in his mouth to shift gears. The driver proved his worth, however, when 10km from Plakias the bus broke down and he fixed it with his bare hands, pausing to wipe the grease off them before resuming drinking/smoking/driving.

So, that's what we've been up to - we're in Iraklio now, seeing the Minoan palace of Knossos tomorrow, and then we are off to rendevous with my friend and (maybe) yours Paul Bissett on Santorini.

Hopefully I can upload some pics soon.

Let me know what's up with all y'all

Dane

Words I know in Spanish (Alternate title: "Opinión hola a mi pequeño amigo")

Hi everyone ... it´s been an amazingly action packed last few days, but we´re also wrapping up Spain, so I´m not sure whether to go with the ´detailed exploits´ or ´sweeping vista´ blog post. So maybe a little bit of both ...

From the details category, in the last 5 days I have done the following things:
- seen Picasso´s Guernica
- gone to a Real Madrid game
- visited Gehry´s unreal Guggenheim museum in Bilbao
- partied at an 8-floor superclub in Madrid where drinks were €10 (!!!)
- found out that I have been saying the same phrase wrong repeatedly for 3 weeks..

that last point segues perfectly into the next area I want to cover: words I know in Spanish ... hopefully this will give you an idea of what I´ve been up to.
- 100, or 200, grams - when ordering meat or cheese ... this is what I´ve been saying totally wrong on a pretty much daily basis for 3 weeks, I found out from a helpful bilingual bystander a couple of days ago
- ham
- cheese
- apple
- orange
- banana (sort of)
- bread
- sorry - I use this the most often
- excuse me - second most often
- hello - (hint: the ´h´ in ´hola´ is silent)
- thank you ... although pronoucing graçias is harder than you might think
- and
- or
- beer
- red wine

so, as you can see, aside from eating I am basically toast ... haha, toast, get it? ah...

So today, we took the bus from Bilbao to Madrid ... now these bus rides are cheaper, usually faster, and more luxurious than the train, and they always show a movie. It´s usually some random 80s movie dubbed into Spanish that we´ve never heard of (for instance, some great classic starring Ted Danson, and a pre-CSI William Peterson a couple of days ago), but today it was ... get this ... Scarface. Yep, the all-time violence and swearing kingpin is the in-bus movie - this is classic Spain. Anyways, as you´ll notice in the headline, some of the classic Pacino lines were pretty solid translated into Spanish.

Okay, that´s what I´ve got. Tomorrow we fly to Athens via London, and begin a new chapter in the trip ...

stay classy everyone
Dane

P.S. If you want to check out a video message Hil and I recorded at the Guggenheim and sent to our parents, click here.