Contrary to the horrible series of movies with the same name, Bergen wasn’t horrible; even though, it rains about 270 days a year. Bergen is a far more beautiful city than Oslo or Trondheim, so it is a definite stop for anyone.

List thing again:

• Drank a lot of very expensive beer
• Met a bunch of locals a rock bar called Garage
• Had a local show us around and found out where beer isn’t ridiculously expensive. But still expensive anyway because we’re in Norway.
• Checked out the town and sort of saw it through the rain.
• Got some aquavitt.
• Went to the airport for the long journey home.

I had the best weather I’ve had in Norway in Geilo. Perfect for snowboarding. It was sunny, but the weather still sat at about -5 so the snow wasn’t melting. The snow conditions were only decent however, but the best I’ve had so far in Scandinavia.

The resort was a bit interesting. It was separated by the town. They provided a ski bus to travel between them. Included in your lift ticket, of course. The fun park was spread out all over the mountain and was kind of separated in difficulty. They had some interesting rails. All the jumps and rails seemed to be constructed well.

The main reason I went to Geilo was of course to snowboard. My next reason was because it broke up the train ride from Oslo to Bergen. Which is recommended as the most scenic train ride in all of Norway. I have to say it was well worth the cost. Check it out if you are in Norway, but it fills up, so book a week in advance.

Goteborg is quite a nice city and it was quite easy to get around with my handy Swedish guide, Helena. I met Helena in Edinburgh in September and decided I should go visit her since I was going to be near her home. And what a better way to see a city than with someone who has lived there their entire life. Also it happened to be my birthday so it was nice to seem someone I knew previously to my Scandinavian travels.

I’m going to summarize this post again in the same way that Lauren does, because I like stealing people’s ideas. And also it is quick and makes me seem like I’m way too busy exploring the world to have time to post a thorough message.

• Enjoyed free accommidations and prepared meals from my host.
• Went to the Universium. Walked in the rain forest. Checked out some sharks, snakes, and other animals. Did some experiments in the lab. Walked on a tight rope.
• Tried to get in some other museums, but turned out to be closed for winter.
• Checked out the art gallery to find most of it was closed for repairs.
• Shot some pool and drank a few pints.
• Probably did other stuff I can’t remember at this time.

I was in Oslo over a week ago, but I’ve been having laptop troubles so I haven’t been online much. Now that I’ve provided my typical excuse for a late update, I will begin with the normal posting.

Here’s what I did:

• Went to the ski museum/ski jump
• Watched a cross-country ski race
• Checked out Vinglepark
• Visited The Vingle Museum thinking it was for Emanual Vingle. When it is actually for his brother, who designed all the sculptures in Vinglepark. Only the people at the Vingle Museum seemed to be aware of the difference between the two museums.
• Got solicited so much sex from hookers that I thought I was in Amsterdam.
• Walked around the city randomly in the rain
• Watched too many free DVDs at the hostel due to rain.
• Found a good coffee shop and drank copious amounts of coffee.

These are the two places I’ve been s-boarding over the last week or so and I’m going to compare them.  The 1994 Winter Olympics were held in Lillehammer, Norway and Hafjell happens to be the main resort nearest Lillehammer.  On top of that, Åre was a contender as well for the ’94 Winter Olympics but lost out to Lillehammer.

The best part about Lillehammer is the snow condition.  The snow is far superior to what I was riding in Åre.  I talked to a couple locals about it while I was there and the general response was that the season in Åre doesn’t kick off until February.  I happened to be there in January and a considerable amount of runs and lifts were closed, but given the size of the resort, I hadn’t noticed.  They claim the snow gets better in February.  As well, after telling one of them where I was from, turns out, “No good skiers come from The Rockies.  The snow conditions are always good, so skiers don’t have to worry about riding on shitty snow.  So skiers in Sweden are better because they are forced to ski in worse conditions.”  Well I agreed with him that I’ve never rid on snow that bad at any mountain I’ve been to in Canada.  I’d say that Lillehammer’s snow was on par with some of the resorts in Canada.

Åre was giant resort.  It had 3 peaks.  And it was probably the only resort I’ve been to with a bus service running between the bases of the peaks.  A couple of runs I went on I didn’t end up at the bottom for an hour after I reached the top of the lift.  Speaking of the lifts, they seemed to have a good lay out.  There were several lifts from different parts of the base that went up different heights and linked you with other lifts.  It really worked well for spreading people out on the mountain and not clogging up lifts with long lines.  Hafjell seemed to have a decent lift system as well, but the mountain is just way smaller.  The only complaint I have about both resorts lifts systems are the over use of T-bars.  I don’t mind the T-bar now then, but they really start to hurt after a while.  And considering the distance you’d travel at Åre on a T-bar, you weren’t having a good time riding after a couple times up.

So in the end, I will say Åre was a better resort.  I rode their for two days and for the first day and a half I was still exploring new runs and routes.

As usual, I always find myself at least a week behind in my updates.  Well I guess it’s catch-up time.  Also, I’m sort of not doing these cities in order so you will have to deal with it some how.

This was my first stop in Norway.   Trondheim is Norway’s third largest city.  And my first biggest surprise about Norway is that is more expensive than Finland or Sweden.  The next was Trondheim is a really nice city.  Situated on a large lake with mountains off in the distance and wide canals running around the old part of town.  I’d recommend you check it out in the summer however.  There were many boat tours offered that only operated from May to September and they seemed very worth while by their description in the guide book.