The Most Northern McDonalds in the World!

This is not all that Rovenemi, Finland has to offer - it is also the Official home of the Santa Village. When you send a letter to Santa at the North Pole this is where it comes (apparently).

The past week Diana and I have been in Norway, spending most of our time in a fishing village on the Lofoton Islands off the Northern Coast. It was GREAT, but when we tried to leave on Sunday the buses wen't running. We took off on Monday and made it as far as the border between Sweden and Finland. The hostels were closed by the time we got in and the buses apparently went on strike July 10th... We wandered around a bit before finding a nice comfy park to sleep in (a bit of urban camping). There were 5 of us (see below), so it was very safe. The only brutal downside was that the mosquitos were all over the place. I didn't sleep much. Today we got 3 buses and a train and have ended up in Finland. We are going to be here a couple nights, then will move south for the next week. All is well, aside from being very tired and a bit hungry (we are just on our way out to a buffet dinner to re-fuel).

The past week we ran in to a girl at a few of the hostels along the way and she has now joined us to travel for the next week. We also met up with 2 guys from Abbotsford, so we have got quite a crew. I actually had classes at UBC with one of the guys (he graduated in 2006 with a BSc in Physics - small world!)

I have so many stories, as usual, but not enough time to tell them.
I will try to get a new blog post up in the near future.

Trevor

14.23' EAST, 67.17' NORTH

I'm up in Bodo, Norway right now (way up above the arctic circle). Haven't really had a chance to look around yet, but the landscapes on the train ride up here were amazing. I've been travelling non-stop for the past 26 hours and have another 4 hour ferry to catch this afternoon to take me over to the Lofoten Islands. Aside from being killer expensive things are going great.
To give you a quick idea of costs:
Big Mac meal = $14
700ml of Bacardi = $65
Pint box of strawberries = $12

The list just goes on and on. Typically prices are about 3 times as much as Canada, but eating at restaurants is probably closer to 5 times as much. It is like going to Milestones or The Keg and paying $120-150 for an average meal. Needless to say we are sticking to the grocery stores and eating a lot of sandwiches...

There is a hostel in Stamsund on the Lofoten Islands that we plan on staying at for a few days. They have free boat rental and lend fishing gear so that you can "catch your own dinner", as they advertise. We currently have our fingers crossed that there is space available for the next couple of days.

Our plans have changed a bit (turns out that a month is plenty of time to see Scandinavia). We are foing to finish up Norway this week, head down through Finland, across to Sweden and in to Denmark for the start of Aug. I am looking at dropping Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from my list and heading straight to Germany, Poland and Czech Rep. If I have lots of extra time I might look at fitting in a side trip to Morocco, Egypt, Greece or Turkey. Time will tell...

Hopefully I'll be able to update again sometime next week.

Cheers,
Trev

Leaving the UK

Diana and I made it to London on the bus just fine. It wasn't the most comfortable ride by any means, but I have had worse in the past and count on having much worse in the future...

I have put up some of the pics from the Highlands here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2193428&l=2c286&id=21002902
Diana has a bunch of pics that I will eventually get from her and put up or tag as well.

Our first day in London we made the most of it by going to the Science Museum, V&A Museum and Natural History Museum. I had been to all the last time I was here and much of the stuff was the same, but it was good to see it again. It doesn't feel like it has been 2 years since I was here last; it feels much more recent. I have been able to find my way around great.

The past few days we have taken in the typical sights:

• Westminster Abbey - covertly snapped a few photos of Darwin and Newton's burial sights
• Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace - saw some tourists get mowed down by the guards as they switched places in front for St. James's Palace
• Walking tours around the Old City and Royal Palaces - we were both fairly sun burned by the time we got home (turned out to the the hottest day of the year)
  
• Chessington World of Adventures (amusement park) - got tossed around on a roller-coaster; Diana has the bruises to prove it
• Diana discovered Primark/Penny's clothing store, so we spent our fair share of time in there browsing and buying

In addition we attended a Canada Day celebration in the middle of Trafalgar Square. They had kiosks with info about immigrating to Canada and the typical tourist stuff, along with an all-day street hockey game. The day was sponsored by Alberta Tourism, so they had Alberta Bison Burgers on the grill. Tim Hortons was there as well, but it was ripping hot and not excatly coffee and doughnut weather. The best part was the "Canada Store" where they were selling all the gourmet treats native to Canada (eg. Aunt Jemima's pancake mix and syrup, Ruffles All-dressed/Dill Pickle/Ketchup chips, Tootsie Rolls, Coffee Crisp bars, etc.). I'm looking forward to stocking up on all of them when I get home. We ended Canada Day with a BBQ on the deck - couldn't have asked for anything better.

My London pics are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2193437&l=297d6&id=21002902
Once again, I will be putting more up and tagging others of myself once I get them from Diana.

We leave for Oslo tomorrow (Thursday morning). We have 3 days in Oslo booked before heading to Bergen for a few days. From there it is all up in the air.