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