We tried to sleep in as long as possible as it was our last day of our trip, a long travel day. We enjoyed the hotel breakfast once again, and watched a Japanese family of four managing their two little kids with skill. The dad gave the kids a boiled egg for them to peel while mom got her food – the eggs kept them busy and quiet.

After breakfast we went up to our room to chill out and try to use every last minute before the check-out time of noon. We were surfing the web and playing video games and I realized that the hotel WiFi was broken – it was switching on and off – so in this way I burned through most of the remaining data on my eSIM without realizing. Bummer! 

We had a do not disturb sign on our door but despite that someone knocked, and when I answered the door two housekeepers looked shocked and apologetic. Maybe a mix-up, but maybe they just wanted to get a jump on cleaning. Either way, they were early and we were still entitled to stay. I was just trying to be horizontal for as long as I could.

Finally we checked out and stored our suitcase in the hotel’s locked storage room while we went for lunch. We had a target restaurant that looked good, but when we got to the area it seemed hard to find. Eventually we realized it was downstairs inside a shopping center, and it looked super busy. So we went back outside and looked around.

Every time we travel in Europe we see kebab places – and we love kebabs, but it always feels like a wasted chance when we could eat the local food of wherever we are. But since we tried and failed, it seemed like a good time to get a kebab. There was a busy kebab place nearby that had an automatic kebab meat slicer running – high tech! I had a kebab wrap, which Kuniko had a falafel wrap and they were both excellent. We drank lingonberry soda with them, and it was a big, messy meal but very delicious.

Back at our hotel we went to pick up our bag from the storage room. I joked with the staff by asking if we could take any one we wanted, and he joked back that he recommended the bigger suitcases for more loot. But seriously, we could have taken anything and they wouldn’t know whose was whose. Weird system.

From there we got back on the Arlanda Express (using the savings trick we learned coming in) and we were able to do early check-in at the airport. The kiosk was a little weird and wouldn’t print out my boarding passes, but at the desk everything was fine. 

We went through security and on to a bar for drinks and to recharge our devices. We had a great corner seat at a big mainly empty place, so we killed a couple hours using our phones, reading, playing games, and drinking beers. 

Closer to our departure we stopped at a really stylish bar/restaurant for sparkling wine, and had one of the best meals of the trip – a big open-faced shrimp sandwich. It was so good! Much higher quality than typical airport food.

We caught a three hour flight from Stockholm to Istanbul, and had a little time to kill in the airport as we awaited our connecting flight. We knew better to drink Prosecco here, and we weren’t super hungry after the snacks on the plane. So we just chilled out by the gate until the line started moving to board. 

We sat next to a high school aged Japanese girl, part of some kind of group of other school kids scattered throughout the cabin. She kept to herself during the flight, and Kuniko and I could do some serious sleeping. Once again we were able to sleep through about eight of the eleven hours on the plane before arriving in Osaka. 

We got lucky with immigration, our suitcase and customs so that we caught the next bus to Kobe, and then from there we took a train to Nishi Akashi and a taxi back to our home, as is our tradition. All our souvenirs survived the trip, and we had a cold bottle of champagne waiting for us in the fridge. 

It was another great summer trip for us. We really like the vibe in Europe and exploring new countries there is a great way to escape the summer in Japan. But as we look to the future there are only a few more countries left unexplored in Europe, and as we get older we might want to look around some other places, too. We might change things up next year – who knows?

We slept a solid 9 hours, maybe the days and days of walking around are starting to catch up with us! 

Our hotel breakfast was one of the better ones of this trip, with a good layout that is designed to handle a lot of people. We enjoyed eating our eggs, fruits and yogurt at a relaxing pace, along with some unusual juices that really hit the spot. 

We started that day by heading on foot across town to the Vasa museum. As we crossed town we had a lot more chances to see all the beautiful buildings, especially on the waterfront. The air was cool and the weather was beautiful – hard to imagine what kind of humid hell people were going through back in Japan. 

There were not so many people at the museum as we arrived just at the opening time, and we used online tickets to enter. The Vasa museum centrally displays the 64 gun warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. It was salvaged and restored, and the museum is beautifully designed to give you a feel for life on the ship, and see all the details that went into building it. Just looking through had me thinking of Master & Commander. 

Once we finished with the museum we walked around the area to take pictures, especially of the compelling buildings. There were plenty of trees and it was a very natural setting. 

From there we set out in another direction and found ourselves at the Ostermalm’s Food Hall, which was our kind of place. Full of local ingredients, meat, fish and vegetables, this was a gourmet heaven. Luckily we arrived with full bellies otherwise we’d have maxed out our credit cards.

In a department store nearby we browsed through all the candies looking for souvenirs for our students back in Japan. There were endless varieties of Swedish black salted licorice (an acquired taste) but also some more palatable options so we stocked up there. I was surprised to see so many candies from other Scandinavian countries – not so many local to Sweden. 

We dropped off our souvenirs back at our hotel and then went to lunch at Bistro Bestick. It was quite close and promised traditional Swedish food. The staff were curious about Kuniko, and surprised that I spoke Japanese. At first they spoke to me in Swedish so I guess I blended in. 

We started with bubbles and then had a great lunch: Reindeer meatballs, and some cured salmon in sauce with potatoes, egg and salmon roe. It was a great meal, and we were really getting our meatball cravings satisfied. 

Off we went to see the Parliament House, and there were more tourists out on the streets by now. We walked through the grounds of the Parliament House and back behind to the Royal Palace, half of which was under renovations. Nearby was a culture festival with live music, and we saw many food trucks lined up. I noticed that all their menus and signs were only in Swedish, so meant for locals, not us. There was a fair amount of security guards walking around the area, too.

At Kuniko’s request we visited the Nobel Prize museum, and it was worth the stop. The exhibits showed a background of the winners, and sometimes some personal memorabilia indicating the Eureka! moment that helped them make the connections that earned them the prize. Some were pretty odd – a jar of a favorite kind of peanut butter, for example. Overhead there was an automated track system with little runners that carried a banner for each of the Nobel prize winners. Each one had a chance in rotation to go around the room introducing the winner. It was unique and fun to watch.

Finally we walked back to the hotel for a little rest and to do some journaling. Mostly we hung out in the hotel bar to await the cleaning of our room, and we played shuffleboard a few times, too. Eventually our room was cleaned so we went up for a short nap to build up energy for the evening.

For dinner we walked to Knut Upplandsgatan, and sat outside the restaurant in the beautiful weather. Some great dishes here, including Plate from the North: a sampler of moose sausage, vasterbotten cheese, smoked deer heart (yum!), reindeer steak, prosciutto cured with pine needles (excellent!). Also crayfish tails on dark rye with radishes and shoestring potatoes. We were also served spiced bread and butter mixed with whey. 

When we first arrived one person set us up at the table, and while we talked another guy suddenly came up with a notebook and said hello, and I thought that it was somebody looking to conduct a survey. But it turned out that it was our waiter, and he had been just a bit tentative (perhaps wondering what language to open with). Later he said that their sous chef is from Japan, but unfortunately we didn’t get to meet them. With dinner we had a nice South African Cabernet Sauvignon – we ought to go visit there sometime!

After dinner we got some lingonberry caramels that were excellent – unfortunately we couldn’t find them in stores anywhere. But we did more walking around to explore new areas. We did a little more shopping at an upscale supermarket, and Kuniko bought salmiak tablets for her coworker. We walked to a nearby church (Gustaf Vasa), and then saw a metro station and on a lark bought tickets. There was no machine, but a very nice lady sold us tickets from a window, and I was struck again about how nice everyone was to us on this trip. 

As we approached the gate to the station with our tickets a bunch of police were marching a young woman away, don’t know what was going on there. 

We traveled from that station, Odenplan, to old town Gamala Stan. The train ride was smooth and in a modern design, but not really that special. But at least we had a chance to ride a train in every country on this trip. 

We walked around old town again, this time there were fewer tourists as the tours were finished and it was dinner hour. Slowly we worked our way back towards the central area, but sat on the waterfront a bit. A young family were fishing for their dinner – the wife and husband both had poles while a little kid played nearby, crying quite loudly. Another fisherman thought he had something, but he only pulled up seaweed. 

We went to Radisson Blu’s bar for a final cocktail, with the bartender winking (a little excessively) to each customer before making the drinks. Kuniko had a tropical twist which was tasty but the egg white merengue was a little too sweet. My drink was a ginger/basil/cucumber refresher that was very nicely made. 

Finally we went back to our room and crashed out, the end of an active day of sightseeing and eating.

Since we knew the breakfast at our hotel was busy early on, we made sure to arrive just a few minutes before 6 am. There were plenty of people eager to start eating. The way the buffet was laid out was that there were plenty of approaches to the food – it was an open style, and some people just started going up to get started. One staff member was yelling to stop because it wasn’t ready yet, but other people saw the first people grabbing food and thought it was time. Seems like they need to organize a little better.

Our breakfast was just as good as the previous day. Next to us a young Japanese couple took an inventive approach – they each filled their plate with different things and then set up a tiny buffet at their own table – sharing what they had and making sandwiches. It was a cute idea but we tend to fill our own plates. I think we’ll keep our strategy.

Around us the tables filled up quickly and there weren’t enough to go around, so we wrapped up our meal quickly and went upstairs to free up space. It was raining pretty consistently outside, so we spent time after breakfast lounging in the room, packing and organizing, and then we checked out. Some previous research found that the light rail station that we wanted was just on the other side of the regular train station, and there we used a kiosk to buy tickets. The tickets were sent by SMS to Kuniko’s phone, but they were not appearing. Strangely when we changed the phone number to mine, they arrived. But in the end nobody checked anyway, so no worries. 

The light rail ride was about 45 minutes to the airport. The windows fogged up due to the rainy weather, so we couldn’t see a whole lot of scenery. At the announcement of each stop they played a little jingle of music that was different for each stop. Inside the tunnel a long LED strip was placed in cascading shapes so that it worked like an animation as the train moved by. These little touches made the ride go by more quickly for us.

At Bergen airport we had a seamless experience.  We checked in via kiosk, put our suitcase onto the automated luggage drop off system and said goodbye to it. We went through security into a large common area, and commented on the lack of duty free shops – they are usually ubiquitous when we travel. Then we went off towards our gate, and then we saw that our gate was through a one way door, once we went through there then we were in the international area of departures and yes, of course they had duty free shops. We made a stop at a sports bar for two glasses of sparkling wine and an order of French fries (great combo). 

We waited at the gate for boarding, and I got into the leftover rose candy from Bulgaria. The white sugar powder from the outside had leaked a bit in my bag, and suddenly I looked like some kind of rose candy cocaine freak – white powder everywhere.

We boarded the plane, and this flight had us sitting separately for the one hour flight. This was thanks to our travel site, Kiwi.com, which tries to charge extra for seats next to each other. But it could have been due to Norwegian Air Shuttle – this was our second time flying them and again I was not impressed with their service. 

The plane had a lot of Spanish people who tended to speak with very loud voices, but it was good practice for my Spanish listening skills. Across the aisle from me I saw a single Japanese woman reading her Japanese guidebook for Stockholm, maybe her husband was sitting elsewhere in the plane.

Once we arrived I was surprised to see how aggressively everyone pushed forward to got out as soon as possible. When it was our turn I nodded to the Japanese woman and said, “Please, go ahead” in Japanese. Her eyes got big but she seemed appreciative. Kuniko I met outside the gate and then got our suitcase fairly quickly. The next step was train tickets on the high speed Arlanda Express to the city center. We had just started the process to buy two single tickets when a lady ran up and said, “Stop!” in English. She showed us that there is a discount ticket for groups of 2 or more, and so we saved some money. That’s great but why not change the system so that it is more intuitive? Why pay a staff to stand there all day and point out the savings?

It was a 20 minute ride on the very comfortable high speed train, very similar to the ride into Oslo a few days ago. I’d have to give the Oslo train better marks as it seemed newer and I preferred the more modern design. 

Kuniko had booked a hotel right next to the central train station. The lobby was nice, a bar in the corner – good sign. They also had two long shuffleboard tables (which are always fun), and hidden somewhere in the back was an “ice bar” – a bar constructed completely of ice that requires polar wear to enter and drink. We never did get in to try it but my first impression was that it was too gimmicky to be really enjoyable. 

We had a very comfortable hotel room, but we wasted little time in dropping off our bags and heading out to explore the city. We crossed the bridge to the south and found the Riddarholmen Church, then turned around and saw the rest of Galla Stan island – and couldn’t believe that there were so many beautiful buildings. We walked from building to building, snapping pictures and just in awe of the whole thing. The old town area is compact, mainly on cobblestones, and makes for an easy walking adventure.

Of course there were tourists as we had gotten a late start arriving in the city, but the narrow old town streets kind of separated the crowds and it didn’t seem so bad. We stopped for drinks at a random cafe, and the waiter who took our order looked like a teenager. I had a local beer to start, and on a lark ordered a pear cider since we had such a nice apple cider back in Bergen.  But this was a sweetened drink that reminded me a lot of Zima. Ugh. 

For dinner that night we stayed in the old town and ate at Slingerbultin. We had made reservations online, and a cool-looking manager inside rocking an 80s heavy metal mullet took our order. He was having a great time laughing with everyone and seemed like the freest spirit I’d seen this trip. Behind us a big group of Japanese tourists took a table, and Kuniko and I were joking about the “motto motto, Takemoto” jingle from Japanese TV, and how that group would have their minds blown if I said it loud enough for them to hear.

Our appetizer was a beet and goat cheese tartin, and our entrees were a plate of Swedish meatballs, and cod with a mussel sauce. The dishes were excellent (especially the beet/goat cheese tartin) and we had some red wine by the glass with our meal. The staff who was pouring chatted with us a little bit and we were struck by how everyone seemed so genuinely friendly here. After leaving there was a long line waiting to get inside, so I was glad we had made the reservation. 

We headed back to the central area near the train station and continued to walk around. We explored an underground shopping area that reminded us of Whity back in Osaka, and we did some shopping at the local market for yogurt, Keks chocolate for tasting, and then finally crashed out in our room for the night. 

Even though we were pretty tired the previous night we found ourselves getting up at 6 am, so we headed down at this early hour to get some breakfast. Surprisingly, the buffet was almost full.

Breakfast was good, with lots of fish of very high quality. With so many people sometimes we had to line up for some foods, and the buses lined up outside explained the source of all the guests. Because of the location right near the train station and the wide streets out front, our hotel was popular with tour groups.

After a quick stop back in our room we went out and hit the road early. The original idea of staying a day in Bergen was to allow another chance at a fjord cruise if necessary. I didn’t know if it would be rainy, or if the cruise that we took yesterday would be enough to satisfy, but as it turned out we were happy to just spend time relaxing in Bergen before moving on to our next country.

We walked through town, making a minor wrong turn but eventually finding our way to the waterfront. The big attraction there is the UNESCO awarded Bryggen – a row of historic waterfront buildings that have been preserved. Similar (but slightly less colorful) to the Nyhavn canal buildings in Copenhagen, these buildings had a variety of shops (some less than traditional) and overlooked the ships coming and going in the harbor. We walked through a fish market, similar to what we had seen in Helsinki – set up mainly for tourists and not yet open. Inside the harbor many ships were docked, one named “Eric Bloodaxe”, and others much larger that were built to push around cruise ships. We circled around the waterfront and behind to see St. Mary’s Church, and then sat on a bench to rest. From the bench I ordered online tickets for the funicular that runs to the mountains above Bergen, and then we walked several blocks down some old streets that were under construction. 

When we got to the funicular entrance it was completely hidden inside the building, and built in to the mountain so as not to disturb the view of the mountainside. When we arrived there was no line, so we got right on the modern funicular car. About halfway up the car emerged and then you could enjoy views of the city through the clear glass windows on the top of the vehicle. 

Once at the top we could enjoy panoramic views of the city, the ocean, and dark rain clouds far on the horizon. There were a few other things at the top – a bunch of goats lounging around, a pod that elevates into the trees (available for overnight rentals!) and a troll forest. Trolls are a part of the local folklore, and they had made some cute/grotesque statues of trolls and hidden them here and there in the woods. 

It was a popular destination – we recognized the Japanese family that had sat around us on the train the previous evening – and as we were wrapping up there were a lot of people arriving. We grabbed a ride down the hill, and found a rather long line waiting to go up the hill. Our timing had been perfect.

And speaking of perfect timing, we started to seek out a place to have some sparkling wine, and ducked into the fish market just as the rain started coming down. We talked to a waiter in an attached restaurant, and he was happy to sit us at a table in the glass enclosed back patio. Through the glass ceiling and windows we watched people running for cover and getting wet while we sipped our bubbles and stayed dry.

While Kuniko had a Prosecco, I took a chance to try a local cider, that was dry and quite flavorful. My good experience with this cider caused some problems for me later in Sweden, however. Along with the bubbles we decided to order a sampler plate of various caviar, called “Caviar Symphony”. I asked our very friendly waiter if one plate would be enough for two people, and he just smiled and said we could always order another one if it came to that. 

The caviar was one of my highlights of the trip. It had four kinds of fish eggs – black and red varieties of lumpfish eggs, trout and salmon eggs. There was also some crème fraiche, red onions, some bread and also some dill. It was perfect with the bubbles in with the rain falling around us.

We spent a while there as the place was empty and nobody was in a hurry with the rain outside. We watched a Korean family try to take a table at the next restaurant while bringing along McDonald’s bags full of food – they soon got kicked out but came back later without the food. A staff member of our restaurant talked with us a while about her experiences living in Norway – she came from Argentina, and was working in different countries in Europe. 

After a second round of bubbles the rain seemed to be tapering off, so we decided to go ahead and move on. As we left the fish market we took a closer look at the seafood on ice – they had everything you’d expect: big king crabs, shrimp and lobster, even smoked whale. We saw a lot of whale on the menus in Norway, which is the only country besides Japan that does commercial whaling.

Nearby we went through to supermarket to see what kinds of things they sold, and then walked around a shopping center (the entrance was hard to find!) and stopped in Flying Tiger, and also walked through Normal!, which is a similar sort of store, more like a drug store that we had first seen in Oslo. In the shopping center we made a bathroom stop, and somebody was just walking out when I grabbed the door and went in. Kuniko had to pay to enter her bathroom – and it turned out that I illegally used the toilet in Norway. I should have tapped my credit card (like Kuniko did) to pay to use the restroom, so I accidentally saved a little money through ignorance. 

We walked back to our hotel in a light rain to take a break there – and we both were enjoying staying in a town that makes it so easy to walk around. Similar to Japan, it is easy to get around without a car and we didn’t even need to use the light rail system in Bergen until we left for the airport.

We had expected our room to be cleaned by the time we returned but found a tag hanging near the door that said that they clean the rooms every three days. Unfortunately we had already thrown our wet towels into the bottom of the shower and we were out of soap in the dispenser by the sink, so we called the operator and they brought those items for us. 

In the late afternoon we went back out into town to look around some more. One thing we noticed right away was that there were roving groups of young people, maybe college age, wearing odd clothes and participating in various activities. Some were running impromptu races, others playing games or trying to limbo under a pole. Later we heard from our waiter that it was a sort of college social club activity day, but it was surprising how many people were out and about.

Thanks to online reservations we were able to get into the restaurant that had been packed the previous evening. We had dinner at Pingvinen, and it was really good. We started with a crab and fish salad, served with flatbread crackers slathered in butter. For main courses we had a big slice of fish pie, and also a bowl of plukkfish, which contained fish and potatoes mixed with a handful of heavily roasted meat chunks on top, and pickled onions on the side. This was one of our favorite meals of the trip, and we wanted to take a shot at cooking them at some point. 

After dinner we walked around a little more and then headed back to our hotel. Since there was a bar out front we hoped to have a cocktail, but despite a huge amount of booze bottles on the shelf they had only a few choices. The staff looked pretty busy and stressed. Eventually I had a Moscow Mule, and Kuniko ordered a Porn Star Martini. The bartended heard Kuniko say “Oishii!” and he said that he is a big fan of anime. Finally we decided to go up and head to bed. It was still light out when we went upstairs at 10 pm.

I’ve always wanted to see fjords in Norway, and seeing as we’d have such a short time in the country it was natural to check out “Norway in a Nutshell” – a tour package sold online that allows you to traverse the country from one side to the other, mostly by train, but also including a cruise through one of the UNESCO fjords. 

There is no rule preventing someone from checking out the itinerary of the trip and booking the tickets themselves, so that’s what I did in advance (and saved quite a bit of money, too). Today was the day of the trip, and we needed to get an early start.

One thing we did that was a big help was pay a porter service to pick up our suitcase from our hotel in Oslo and deliver it to our hotel in Bergen at the end of our route. Since we had only one suitcase it was reasonable, and it really made our trip easier. Of course we could have dragged a suitcase along – there was plenty of storage for luggage on all the transportation we used – but not having to worry about it was worth the extra money.

So we had to catch a 6:30 am train and we stopped at the markets that we had reconned yesterday, and then went to the platform. The train was already waiting, with a huge group of big senior citizen Americans shuffling towards their train car. We managed to get in front of the slow moving crowd and then got on to our train car. We entered from the opposite side as our seats so we had to swim upstream a little, but at last we arrived at our seats. They were facing what seemed to be the wrong direction – most other passengers were facing the other way – but when it left we were facing the direction of travel so lucky us. 

There were a lot of Japanese and Americans on board sitting around us. In front of us was a 4-set of seats facing each other with a table between them. In one pair of seats a couple of older Americans were sitting, who turned out to both be widowed and traveling together after recently starting a relationship. Across from them were a younger couple, an American soldier based in Japan with his Japanese girlfriend who spoke British English but worked for the military as a nurse. 

The older guy in the widow couple was quick to strike up a conversation, and thanks to his ceaseless questions I was able to ascertain the previous information about them. I started to feel bad for the younger couple who were forced to answer all the questions, and so glad that our tickets ended up being one row away. 

We enjoyed our breakfast while watching the scenery outside of Oslo, the change from city to rural happening very quickly. There was a lot of open space stretching out to the mountains, and the landscape reminded me a lot of the game Valheim that I had played so much of last year. It felt like I had been here before.

Some houses had immaculately trimmed lawns in the backyard, looking like something out the American 1950’s suburbs. Mostly the train followed the river, and offered some pretty dramatic scenery. Looking around the train car most people were either sleeping, using their phone, or answering personal questions. They were missing out on some beautiful views. About halfway through near the town of Bromma I saw a house that was absolutely haunted. Surrounded by nothing but forest, I couldn’t imagine approaching that place at night. Spooky!

One odd moment was when the sun started rising, burning bright light across the train car and glaring in people’s eyes. I had my sunglasses ready as I was enjoying the view, but the window shade on my window was also the window shade for the group in front of us, and they wanted to drop the shade – I wasn’t happy to give up my view so I told them so. We sort of compromised by pulling it down a bit, but I knew that once the shade went down it would be up to me to convince them to put it back up. 

The train climbed up the mountains and eventually reached the small town of Myrdal. It was here that we got off and waited for our connecting train. There was snow up on the mountain tops, a dramatic view of the Flåm valley, and people were getting excited for the next stage. When the Flam train came, we got a nice seat as people were aggressively jockeying for position. The train then descended into the valley, passing through tunnels now and then. The video screen above displayed video images of the valley around us as we passed through the tunnel – good idea!

There were dramatic views everywhere – spectacular waterfalls that fell from the tops of mountains, and striking river scenes below. Someone would gasp, “Oooh!” and then people would jump up and try to take pictures with their phones, then an “Aahh!” from the other side and they’d jump up again and snap away. Because of the light, the glass and the reflections I didn’t take many photos – but instead tried to soak it into my memory. 

At one point the train stopped next to a particularly large waterfall, and let people out to take pictures close up. Kuniko got out and took some photos and I stayed to hold our seats. There was a lot of water moving through the falls, and mist was rising quite high in the air. 

The train suddenly played some new-age dramatic music from the speakers both inside and outside the train, and you could tell they really wanted it to be a moment to remember. Kuniko did a pretty good impression of the music the rest of the trip and had us laughing each time. 

The next stop was the terminal station at Flam, and the beginning of the next stage of our trip. Flam sits on one end of the fjord network we were planning on cruising through. But it also receives cruise ships, and to see a huge cruise ship towering next to the tiny town was pretty impressive. These fjords must be deep to allow something of that size to cruise in. 

Thanks to that cruise ship there were a ton of tourists in Flam. There were food trucks, a brewpub, a cafe, and another restaurant, along with some tourist shops and a convenience store. That was about it for Flam, but it was our lunch break so we went to the brewpub first to try some of their beer. I lined up to get some food downstairs, but upon arrival they said that food was only upstairs, so I settled for a tasting flight of their beers. I ordered a 7-up for Kuniko but got an orange Fanta instead. 

The beers were pretty standard, except for their Aegir IPA which was exceptional. After sipping here we went to get some food at another restaurant, and while ordering a customer in front of us tried to take our drinks for some reason. The food was pretty good, though – we had fish soup, roasted lamb with vegetables, and I had another Aegir IPA.

 I was liking the beer so much that we went back to the brewpub to buy a T-shirt. The staff was busy pouring so it was tricky to get someone to come over, but eventually we did. She asked us what size shirt and Kuniko said “X” – but the lady understood and gave me the extra large shirt.

It was time to get ready for the fjord cruise, so we went to the ship and the line was huge! There were multiple tour groups, and we listened to a Japanese tour guide explaining things behind us. Once we boarded we walked around – the ship had a cafe, and a multilevel design that allowed for plenty of rails on all sides so that everyone could get an unobstructed view. We managed to get a good spot up front, and once the boat left the cool air was blowing in our faces as we headed up the fjord – it was a fantastic feeling.

Looking down into that deep still water it was easy to imagine my phone dropping in there never to be seen again, taking all our vacation photos with it, so I was mainly using my other camera that has a strap. Because of our position we were often asked to take photos of people, which is always fun. 

A big family of Indian people were really enjoying themselves. The teenage kids less so, with lots of complaints and drama. But you could tell the parents were happy to be doing a big family trip.

After passing beautiful waterfall after beautiful waterfall, even the dramatic natural beauty wasn’t enough to keep us out in the sun, so we went inside for some sparkling wine and to rest for the last 30 minutes or so of the cruise. We got off the cruiser in Gudvangen – as I walked off the ramp onto terra firma I made a goofy face at Kuniko and she snapped a great picture of it. 

The next stage was taking a bus to the Voss train station, and there were plenty of buses waiting for us. We bought a ticket on the bus from a large driver who was wearing really cool sunglasses. We told her so, and she looked happy to hear it. We rode the bus for just 15 minutes or so and then the driver announced a stop at a hotel for a break – it seemed like the hotel was paying kickbacks. We didn’t go inside but most other people did, and outside we saw a father lose patience with his daughter who was freaking out. He got a little rough which alarmed me, but later we saw him holding her and they both seemed OK.

The bus continued on to Voss, and dropped us off at the train station there. We already had our tickets so it was just a matter of lining up on the platform. We saw the Indian family again on the opposite platform, and this time their son was shouting and complaining that everyone in his family was blaming him for something he didn’t do. I thought it might be exhausting to travel with that family.

We caught our train and sat down, again the train was full of mostly Japanese and American passengers. Around us a Japanese family sat and talked about their upcoming visit to Sweden. Down a few seats a lady brought her dog on board, and it was cute to see a little boy politely ask the lady if it was OK to pet the dog. The dog was happy to get the attention but kept checking back with the owner to make sure everything was OK.

This was a shorter train ride from Voss to Bergen, and it was past 8 pm. Outside the sun was still out, and the scenery remained beautiful. Lakes, tiny towns, and still waterfalls here and there – I wonder if the residents realize how good they have it.

We arrived in Bergen at 8:45 pm, and thanks to Kuniko our hotel was right next to the train station. Our hotel’s restaurant was pretty lively, and there was a nice bar too. We checked in, our bag was waiting for us, and so we brought it up to our very Scandinavian room. We were still looking to eat dinner so we headed out to take a look at Bergen.

It was still light outside (and a little cold) and we could enjoy some sightseeing as we worked towards the center of town. There were a lot of younger people out at this time of the evening. The restaurant that I had picked had changed from a traditional seafood restaurant to a party bar, which wasn’t the vibe we were looking for. Another restaurant had a long line, so we ended up at a place called Egon – which apparently is a chain since we had our hotel breakfast there in Oslo.

It wasn’t a traditional cuisine restaurant really, but we ordered a cod dish that was tasty, some shrimp that was cooked in a spicy Thai style, and I had a local juicy IPA that I had been wanting to try. The servers there were super-friendly and everyone spoke English so it was easy to order. It was a little strange that we had to order from the counter, not the table. An old guy was there flirting with the staff, who took it goodnaturedly. 

It was a short meal for us since it had been such a long day, so from there we walked back to our hotel and went straight to bed – pretty exhausted!

We didn’t sleep as long as we expected to, so we got organized and decided to talk a little walk around the area to look around before breakfast.

We had central Oslo to ourselves – the sun was coming up and the temperature was just on the border between cold and cool. We chose streets at random, enjoying the architecture and empty streets, and found ourselves near the cathedral. It was a simpler structure compared to the others we’d seen on this trip, and of course this early it was all locked up so we would have to wait for later to go inside. 

Oslo station was a very modern station that did have a couple of people walking around, and some shops were open so that people could stock their backpacks before catching a long distance train ride. We knew that we’d be back here tomorrow morning to do just that.

It was about time for our hotel breakfast, and we went next door as they had some sort of agreement with a restaurant called Egon. It was a pretty big restaurant, designed to resemble the interior of a train which was fitting as it was right next to the station. They had prepared a breakfast buffet that was quite good – I liked the melon/passionfruit yogurt, and plenty of eggs, cold cuts, cheeses and mushrooms. The coffee was only so-so. 

After breakfast it was time to explore the city, and the size of it made it easy to do on foot. We started out heading towards the waterfront, and walked past buildings right on the water that seemed like they were either rental cabins or small restaurants – it wasn’t very clear. At the end of the waterfront was a giant cruise ship docked, and we could hear announcements inside rallying the troops for a shore excursion.

From there we passed through the fortress grounds, along the back way to get to the city hall, which was unfortunately under renovation at the time. Mostly there was no people – a few bikers or joggers but all the sightseeing spots were available for us to enjoy on our own.

Eventually we stumbled on the main thoroughfare called Karl Johan Gate, which connected the downtown with the royal palace on the hill. The palace was also undergoing renovations on one side, but it was disguised well enough that I didn’t notice at first. There were royal guards here and there, moving their heads back and forth to watch for attackers and to stave off boredom, I guess. We walked to the back of the palace which is located inside a large, well-cared for park, and took a break on a bench. Kuniko was impressed that all the benches were perfectly clean – something hard to find in the last three countries that we had visited.

As we walked back along Karl Johan Gate we started to see a few more people out and about, and the stylish cafes and restaurants were opening up for breakfast business.

By the time we reached the Oslo Opera House there were buses of tourists and one more super-size cruise ship was moving in to dock.  The design of the opera house is unique in that anyone can just walk up the sloping roof and climb to the top of the building, and continue over to the other side. The steps were a little scary for Kuniko and she was worried about falling, kind of like when we visited the Batu Caves back in Malaysia. Next to the opera house was a giant temporary structure that was used for a Red Bull cliff diving event that was coming up. 

We squeezed through lots of Chinese tourist groups and then found our way to the Edvard Munch museum, the artist famous for “The Scream” paintings. I had been able to buy tickets online, so we just had to wait for a bit outside before they let us in, and everyone was eager to rush to see The Scream. 

Since The Scream is a series of paintings, they have the most famous three of them for viewing, and to limit their exposure each one is displayed for only 90 minutes at a time. Then it is covered and the next one is revealed. While we were there we saw two of the three, a black and white version that I liked quite a bit, and one of the colored versions. This system took visitors by surprise and I think the staff members who worked in that area must have had to answer lots of questions all day long. 

But there was much more to Munch than just The Scream. There were some dramatic works – some huge in scale – that I had never seen before and the design and layout of the museum was exceptional. Kuniko and I took our time here and really enjoyed the museum. We even got a Scream keychain for our Christmas tree.

By this time we were getting our appetite back, so we walked across town to our lunch restaurant pick. The sun was really shining now, and despite the cool temperature Kuniko was worried about the sun on her scalp. She pulled her cardigan over her head and was looking like a babushka. Earlier in the trip we had seen a shop called “How to Babushka” and we loved the name – Kuniko was doing it in real life.

The restaurant we targeted, Kaffistova, was closed when we arrived. Once again the Google maps application had opening hours that were not correct – this was a recurring theme on this trip. We had to kill 20 minutes so we went to a nearby park and relaxed on a (clean) bench in the shade of the trees. 

Once it was time we went back to the restaurant, and we were the first customers. The staff sat us down and gave us menus, but after we translated them using our phones and made our decisions, the staff apologized and said that they were the incorrect menus. She gave us some lunch menus that were in English, so much easier.

Our first choice, the moose patties, was apparently going to take a long time, so we just ordered fish soup to share, with a glass of Prosecco and a local beer. As we waited a huge group of Korean tourists came in, part of a bus tour apparently. They all settled in and suddenly we were in a crowded restaurant. We were lucky to get our fish soup before the group ordered – and the soup was really good! 

The restaurant staff were clearly overwhelmed by the tour group so we decided to leave and get some more food somewhere else. Next we went to Dovrehallen, and on the 2nd floor of this historic building we found a guy looking exactly like Rasputin waiting around with no customers at all.

It was a really cool restaurant and interior, and the background music was an eclectic selection of American soul music from the 60s. We had fried halibut and local beer, and a great pickle salad that I want to try to make sometime. Rasputin was a friendly guy, maybe because he was so lonely, and we talked about weather. It almost sounded like he was complaining about the heat – this is the coolest we’ve felt in six months, dude!

Later we walked around some more, there was a big demonstration supporting Ukraine, complete with some people stepping on the Russian flag and making angry speeches (in Norwegian?) Around the city we saw a lot of Palestine flags as well, so the city seemed pretty active in political issues. Also in the city we found a chain coffee place called Hakone Coffee. Hakone is a city in Japan, and I remember finding Oslo Coffee in Tokyo and Kobe, so it was an odd mirror moment. And Hakone Coffee had a pretty long line, too.

All this walking around, eating and drinking had us a little tired, so we headed back to the hotel to rest, take a nap, and do some journaling. But soon enough we were thinking about getting some more food. This time we went to a restaurant that was a tiny bit unconventional, a local place focused exclusively on pork. 

Kuniko had a giant pork knuckle with garlic veggies and mustard potatoes. I had a pulled pork dish that had tasty mashed potatoes, and we washed it down with Voss Pale Ale and some house red wine. We got a nice table outside without reservations – yes! – and we saw an Asian lady sit nearby all alone and power down a plate of pork. It must be tough to travel and eat alone – it is harder to try many dishes. At another table we heard lots of Americans talking… we saw a lot of Americans and Chinese in Oslo.

Afterwards we walked back towards the central station, now the streets were packed with tourists. It was hard to reconcile this situation with the empty streets we had enjoyed earlier that morning. We decided to have one more cocktail at an outdoor cafe before heading back to bed, and so we sat in the main square not far from the giant tiger statue. Kuniko had a Bellini and I had a gin and tonic – but they weren’t all that special. It seemed like the bartender was new and so I guess he was a little nervous.

We turned in to bed a little early this time because we knew we had a very early train ride the next day. Oslo was a lot of fun, and we felt like we had seen all we wanted to see. 

It seemed like Kuniko was able to master the air conditioner settings, and we slept in a surprisingly long time. For breakfast today we went to Izzy’s Cafe, close to our hotel located in part of an empty lot with walls covered in artistic graffiti – the art was created there as part of a contest.

Izzy’s had outdoor seating, and we moved from table to table until we found a spot that was out of the rising sun. We started with some mimosas, and then had monster coffees to go with our breakfast. Kuniko had avocado and poached eggs in a hollandaise sauce, and I had the more traditional eggs panagurski – poached eggs in chili oil, yogurt, and cheese. My dish was really good – sopping up all that flavor with the bread that came with it was a pretty decadent start to the day.

On our way back we passed through the ruins that are preserved underground in the city center. It was interesting to see how they integrated the historic ruins into the design rather than remove them, and although it was quite hot under there with the glass windows above, it was worth checking out.

After buying a strange but interesting ornament from a tourist shop underground we went back to check out and store our suitcase with the hotel. Once we were free we headed to the National Gallery to get some culture and use their air conditioning. The main exhibition was on the work of Vasil Chakarov, a Bulgarian artist that was sort of discovered late in his life. 

In addition, there was a collection of national works of art, and the whole museum was housed in a beautiful building that was once a palace of its own. Our tickets didn’t get us into the national ethnography museum, but we decided to skip that and just focus on the art work. 

After our museum visit we went back to the quiet neighborhood that I had enjoyed so much the previous day, and went to the restaurant/cafe called “Made in Home”. It was a nice vibe in there, with younger patrons and simple, delicious food. We had a light meal of potatoes with yogurt, garlic, fried dill and jalapeños. I had local beer and Kuniko had a glass of white wine. We were enjoying the vibe and taking our time, I made faces at a cute kid at the next table, and we were about to order a little more when we saw that the menu said “Cash only” at the bottom. Since it was our last day in the country we didn’t have much cash, but luckily it was enough. But then oddly when we left the staff asked “cash or credit?” Confusing!

With plenty of more time to kill we made our way back to the Imperial Gastropub where the owner remembered us and was happy to pour some more wines for us. We sipped these outside under a black awning, with some stuffed peppers as a side dish. Spending an hour or more just chilling out in cafes is one of my favorite ways to relax – too bad we can only do this for a couple of months back in Japan. 

Our seats were right in front of the streetcar line, and we were interested to note that almost all the streetcar drivers were middle-aged women, wearing regular clothes rather than uniforms. The drivers looked a little stressed as they passed – I don’t think it is a relaxing job.

Finally we decided to head back to the hotel and pick up our suitcase. We used the very luxurious restroom there before leaving, and passed by a bunch of people taking pictures for an upcoming wedding. It seemed like our hotel was a historical landmark, and so it attracted some stylish weddings.

We rode the train back to the airport, sharing our train car with a big family. The dad was asleep and the mom looked a little stressed managing her three kids, but we shared a smile while watching some of their goofy antics. 

It was a breeze checking into our flight at the airport so we killed more time eating a cheap sandwich and some red Bulgarian at a cafe restaurant near the gate. The staff was really bored, reading a book with nothing else to do. He was playing some loud and annoying (to me) music, and so I started hinting to Kuniko that it was time to move on. But my hints weren’t strong enough, so eventually I said that we have to go now – something about the music was really bugging me. 

We boarded our 3 hour flight to Oslo on time, but for some reason Kuniko’s boarding pass set off some extra security check. Japanese passports are some of the strongest in the world, but they wanted to know how long she’d be staying in Norway. They didn’t care about me or anyone else, so it was strange.

We got lucky with an empty seat next to us, so we could spread out and relax on the flight. The two guys in front of me promptly reclined their seat (way back) so it was nice to have the room to slide over.

This flight was our first time to use Norwegian Air “Shuttle” – the third word in the name makes a big difference. It was sort of a low-cost carrier, and so pretty no-frills. I will always remember the expression on one of the flight attendants – she had eyes and an expression that said that she was completely dead inside.

Landing in Oslo marked a significant change in our trip. We really wanted to escape the heat of summer in Japan, and while it was much more comfortable in the European cities we had visited so far, it was still hot. Once we landed in Oslo there was no more of that, and we a week of the best weather we’ve ever had for a summer trip. The bad news was that costs for just about everything would be higher, along with the standard of living. 

But this flight was the end of one part of the trip and the beginning of another, and it was memorable because of it.

Oslo airport – wow! It was beautifully designed, clean and modern, and easy to navigate. As we went through we were sad to know that we wouldn’t be back here as we’ll be leaving Oslo by train. But from the airport, there is a high speed train that takes you directly into the city center. The ticket machine was electronic and designed in a clean, user-friendly way, and we easily got our tickets and got on board the next train. It was nearly midnight, but everything was still running normally.

Our train car was marked as a quiet car, but a group of five or six family members didn’t seem to realize it, talking in loud voices as they boarded. One of them was trying to lift their taped suitcase up onto a rack, but their foot was on the tape that had come undone, and so they were straining against their own weight without realizing. It was quite a family to watch, and eventually a train attendant came by and reminded them of the quiet zone very politely. They finally figured it out.

The train was so clean and fast, with a vertical digital display showing news and information – it was nicely integrated into the design of the train and I couldn’t help thinking about the contrast with our trains back in Bucharest. We got off at the central station – other passengers ran like hell to make some connecting train, but we had a room nearby so could go slowly.

Our hotel was adjacent to the station – we walked out the door and there it was. When checking in they had some trouble with Kuniko’s credit card, but rather than futz with it he let us go ahead and get our room. The room had a nice view of the city (and the northern tip of Oslofjord. The pipes had some trouble – a little air and brown water came out at first – but then they acted OK for the rest of our stay. 

So it was off the bed at nearly 1 am. No air conditioning needed – the temperature was much cooler here.

We got up pretty early, shivering from the cold air put out by the air conditioner. We couldn’t figure out how to adjust the temperature, or even turn it off. But we jumped into the hot shower to warm up a bit. When Kuniko stepped out of the shower, there was a pretty good river of water traveling across the wood floors to the other side of the room – uh oh. We sacrificed some towels to solve the problem, but the design of the shower wasn’t well thought out.

So, out the door early for sightseeing, and we headed straight to St. Alexander Nevsky cathedral to take a closer look. On the way there were plenty of beautiful buildings to see, and despite being a relatively small city the boulevards were sometimes quite wide. 

The cathedral itself was quite impressive, similar in style to the more modern St. Sava that we had visited in Belgrade. Inside no photos were allowed, but the interior was styled in a dark and traditional way, in contrast to the bright modern gold interior of St. Sava. We spent some time walking around and then started to backtrack towards the center of the city to get some breakfast. We had decided to forgo the hotel breakfast and see what kinds of local delicacies we could scare up. 

We enjoyed a nice meal at Rainbow Factory, a little stylish cafe in a busy neighborhood near downtown. I had a beef sandwich with melted cheese and pickled onions, and Kuniko had an omelette. Everything was good – and we liked the vibe of the place. Around the corner we checked out a Billa supermarket and got some rose candies to try out, more yogurt, and everything was really cheap. 

We went back to the hotel to do some laundry in our room – we were kicking ourselves for not doing it the night before and having our air conditioner dry everything out. After laundry we were ready to do some wine tasting, so we went back out on the town. I had a pretty good list of places that offered tastings, so we went to the closest one, Tempus Vini, but got bad news.

Apparently they do tastings only through “guided experiences”, like Viator and Trip.com. I’m sure this is more profitable for them, but for us it meant that we’d have to wait until 2 pm for their next reservation. No thanks, plenty of other wine places to check out. The guy didn’t seem that friendly or interested in more business, so I’m glad we skipped tasting here. The second place said they were open for sales at the moment but tasting wouldn’t be until 2 or 3 pm, so we decided to go get a couple of glasses of wine at a nearby square. After a little searching we found the Imperial Gastropub, with an owner who was happy to open a few bottles and let us taste. 

We tried a Bulgarian white wine, that in all honesty was a little simple for my taste, but we could sit and sip and plan the rest of our day. The atmosphere of the place was pretty stylish, with seats out front overlooking the streetcar rails and square. 

After a bit we headed out to have lunch at Izbata Tavern, the first actually traditional restaurant since our aborted attempt on the touristy thoroughfare last evening. As we entered we were apparently a little early, but they seated us in a corner and gave us drinks while we waited 15 minutes or so for the kitchen to open. I enjoyed a cold local beer – it hit the spot.

For lunch we were served some grilled bread with garlic and cheese, and I had sausage and porcini mushrooms served in a hard bread bowl. The mushrooms were a little mushy, but the sausage was nicely flavored. Kuniko had pork in wine sauce with rice, and that was excellent. It tasted like comfort food, and both enjoyed finishing that off.

As we finished our lunch people started drifting in to eat, and a group of local workers were sitting near us. I tried to see what they ordered to see what dishes were popular with the locals, but I couldn’t see clearly without looking like a stalker. It was good to see that the restaurant was doing well, though.

Walking back through the neighborhood around the restaurant I was struck by how comfortable it was. The streets were lined with trees, there were many small shops and interesting looking restaurants, and it was quiet with a comfortable breeze flowing through even in the heart of summer. I wished I could stay longer and explore more.

We took a break back in our hotel room to cool down. We hadn’t forgotten our original plan to do some wine tasting – so we next headed off to try wines at Wine Generator. This time, they let us inside and we walked down some steps. The lady who helped us (and who seemed to be the owner) seated us and asked us what we were looking to do. She had a tasting with some cheese for a very reasonable price, so we promptly agreed. After some trouble with some wine glasses we got sorted out and were able to choose from six different wines. We each chose three to taste (making sure that Kuniko and I had different wines) and that helped us taste the lot.

Kuniko’s three were: Sandanski misket, Vrachanski misket, and Gamza. I had Nikolaevo Chardonnay, Mavrud, and Syrah. All the wines were tasty, I especially liked the reds as they tended to be hearty and flavorful without hitting you over the head like some big reds do. 

As we sipped the wines another group nearby were talking and tasting, switching between English and another language we didn’t recognize. It was strange how they switched languages for no apparent reason.

The owner came by now and then to get our opinions and see what she could do to help us. As we left she brought out some cherry liquor as an apology for the glasses mixup, and it turned out that she had been to Napa recently for a wine industry event. She was super nice – Kuniko said she reminded her of Lady Gaga – and I was so glad we chose this place to taste wine rather than the first one with the tour requirement.

As we walked around we stopped in Lidl, a market that we had often visited on our last trip to Europe. It was a little junkier than I remembered, with lots of boxes unpacked on the shelves. Different countries, different vibes, I guess. 

Later we were able to develop our appetite and decided to try another traditional restaurant for dinner. This time we went to the very touristy Hadjidragonov’s Houses Restaurant. It was a pleasant walk in a different direction for us, in pretty hot weather. Even though it was cooler than Japan, it still was tough going when walking in the sun. 

Since we were eating earlier we didn’t need a reservation, and we were seated upstairs in a big room all by ourselves. I’m not sure if it was meant as a snub, but we were happy to have the quiet place, and avoid any traditional live music or dancing that might break out. We didn’t have the friendliest server, but she was speaking English for us so I can understand. For dinner Kuniko had kavarma po radomirski – baked pork in a tomato sauce, with a chili pepper on top for fire. I had a similar dish but cheese rather than pork. Both dishes nicely fit into the comfort food category, and we enjoyed them with glasses of local red wine. 

After we ate I think the server kind of forgot about us – we waited for quite a while but nobody came up the stairs. So in the end we had to leave on our own, and when paying the bill our server looked visibly unhappy. Often on this trip servers would say something like, “this price does not include service” or something to that effect. They are hoping that you’ll add a tip or leave some cash. This tipping in Europe feels weird to me – I hope they are not trending towards the American style of tipping. But we certainly weren’t planning on tipping after being sort of forgotten upstairs, and so  I think our server was caught in a cycle of bad attitude -> no tip -> bad attitude -> endless loop.

On our way home we stopped once more at Billa to stock up on the rose candy (that was quite good – jelly candies dusted in white powdered sugar – and came across a little drama. As our cashier was ringing up our items some big voices erupted (in Bulgarian I guess) behind us, and we turned to find a huge (and I mean huge) supermarket worker in the process of apprehending a shoplifter who was trying (I guess) to steal a can of beer. Shouts were exchanged between the two of them, and then the staff physically pushed the guy towards the exit door. Unfortunately between the shoplifter and the exit door was a line of customers checking out. The two of us, for example. So as this shoplifter is bouncing against walls on his way out the door we had to do some quick side stepping to avoid being hit.

The big staff guy followed the shoplifter out the door to get in a few licks, and even our cashier stepped away from the register (leaving our items still on the counter being scanned) and went outside to get in on the event. She wasn’t a big cashier but I guess she had confidence with her big coworker by her side. Once they left the door automatically closed on them, and suddenly all the customers were left standing there going, WTF? 

Our cashier wanted to come back in and was locked out by the automatic door, so I went over to activate the motion sensor, and she came in to finish our transaction, practically throwing our items against the wall after scanning them. Whoah lady – we are the good guys here!

After that excitement we walked down the long touristy street to check out the National Palace of Culture. The palace is located in the center of a huge park area, designed as a place for the people of the city to gather and relax. There were a lot of people out that night, amateur singers and dancers, magicians, and just families enjoying the outdoors.

I liked the vibe out here – with the sun down it was cooler, and it felt like the city was sort of coming together to celebrate. The palace itself was dramatically placed at the center of some fountains (although nowhere near the scale of Bucharest) with trees and flags lining the square. 

Eventually we wandered back down the touristy street, checking shops and buying water and drinkable yogurt on our way. There were two types of water bottles from the same maker, one pink and one blue. I asked the staff what the difference was, and she looked at me like I might have asked the stupidest question in the world. She just shook her head, and said that it was water. And she was right – I picked one at random and that was exactly what it was.

We retired for the day, hopefully the air conditioner would treat us more nicely this evening. 

We got plenty of sleep, then got up at 7:30 and went downstairs to avail ourselves of the hotel breakfast. The cat that was there the other day was waiting around, but he clearly knew that we were not givers – he ignored us and slept on a chair instead. He was missing out – the breakfast was once again very delicious. The presence of a big jug of fresh squeezed OJ was enough to make it memorable, but I was blissed out on the eggs, mushrooms, cherry jam in yogurt, and a cappuccino. Sitting outside enjoying a slow paced breakfast after sleeping so well is one of the best parts of our trips.

Later we walked around the neighborhood looking for touristy shops that sell keychains. We walked past the wild area from last night – the clubs were closed, the dancers at home sleeping – and it was empty and peaceful.

As the weather started to turn hot we went back to our room, organized and then checked out of the hotel. There was not a farewell glass of Prosecco so we left with only our suitcase and headed to the airport.

To get there, we retraced our steps upon arrival, and headed to the fountains once again. On our way we noticed some Asian people interviewing people as they passed by. We had seen this now and then and it had us curious. Unfortunately we were not in their target profile and nobody approached us. A couple of homeless guys near the fountains called out to us, “(something something) English!”and I responded, “lo siento” for some reason, and then we were both confused.

We took a break in the shade and spent a few last minutes enjoying the fountains, and then went down the elevator that we had emerged from just two days ago. We felt that we knew Bucharest much better. 

But apparently not well enough to catch the correct train. We got on the wrong one and had to backtrack after discovering our mistake. Even train veterans like us make wrong turns now and then. Once we arrived at Gara de Nord we had some time to check it out more. It was seriously old fashioned, and there were lots of people waiting around for their trains. Cats lounged on the platforms looking very comfortable in the shade.

We found an electronic ticket machine and bought our (very cheap) tickets, and then boarded the airport express train. This time we were ready for the hot and sweaty ride. The ride was quicker this time, and then we got off to head for the departures area of Bucharest airport. Once again we had to traverse a lot of steps with a suitcase, and we wondered at the poor design decisions here. There were elevators available, but not many escalators or ramps.

Since I had checked in online we simply had to drop off our luggage, but after finishing that we walked away and then realized that we weren’t issued boarding passes. Even when I’ve checked in online before we get them usually to make things simpler for security, so we went back. The same lady helped us but she was pretty pissed to have to go back in and issue the tickets. “Use your phone, use your phone!” she exclaimed.

Once through security we went to a burger restaurant to chill and have a light snack, but the staff was overwhelmed. There was some construction going on at the adjacent gate (jackhammers and everything!) so it was pretty loud and stressful. At first the staff were not friendly at all but eventually they warmed up to us and started being friendly. The burger wasn’t bad, the “standard fries” that we ordered were covered with Parmesan and garlic so I wonder what the premium fries looked like.

After that we went to the gate and just waited for boarding the short flight to Bulgaria. As we waited we talked about our visit to Romania, and our impressions. One impression I had was that the places we visited were sort of underdeveloped (like the train system), and in the process of improving infrastructure. Great architecture all over, and the people were almost always nice despite smiles being a rarity. We both commented on all the smoking – even more than Japan. Good food, good wine, and pretty delicious meat-based food. All the ingredients are there to make this a great stop – but there is still some room for improvement.

We took a bus out to our ride out of the country, a propeller driven ancient Tarom airline plane. It might have been the oldest plane I’ve ever flown in (commercially). The handful of passengers were remarkably quiet for the one hour flight, and they seemed more patient than the Romanians we’d met so far. Maybe they were all Bulgarian.

The plane circled over the city of Sofia, and as we drifted on a pattern towards the runway the course brought us right over the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky – the golden domed church that was on the top of our must-see list. Thanks to the time of day the sun lit up the domes and the city around it was lined with plenty of trees between the buildings, showing a lot more green than we are used to in a city.

It was easy entry into the country, we got our bag and then tried the ATM to get some cash – my card didn’t work but Kuniko’s did – so it was nice to have a rich independent wife to bail me out.

Luckily we had the cash because the ticket machines at the train platform didn’t take credit cards, despite the internet saying that they did. It was a bit disorganized getting through the gate and we missed the first train, but it was only 7 minutes until the next one. The train was a little more modern than the one in Romania, and ran inside a covered track, so it was hard to take in the scenery, and then it went underground and continued into the city in the dark. 

Our stop was fairly close to the hotel so it was easy enough to roll our suitcase and check in. The hotel had an old leftover-Soviet feel that reminded me of our hotel in Minsk. The bell captain had a spooky scar in a large circle around his face and head, and the corners will a little dark and historic. But the real trick was finding our room. The number of the key didn’t match any of the rooms on our floor, and after we asked a nearby staff he led us behind an unmarked door in the corner, which had two numbered room doors behind it. Huh.

Our room was very nice, but the controls of the lights and air conditioner used a touchscreen device that had no text – the icons were not so clear and it took a while to figure it out. Also, the room did contain a baby crib taking up one large area, so some wires had apparently crossed. On our way out for dinner we asked the staff and they later took it out and put it in the hallway. 

We were pretty hungry and it was getting late so we went to the nearby tourist area to find a bustling street with lots of cafes and restaurants. It was a little past the dinner hour so many cafes had switched to just drinks, and we also were hoping to try some local food rather than pizza or burgers. Unfortunately our requirements were a little strict so we started getting grumpy with each other. Finally in desperation we sat down at a restaurant that specialized in kebabs, pizza and sandwiches. The drinks took a long time to show up, so our mood wasn’t good. We finally got in an order and we had some club sandwiches. At least my sandwich had some Bulgarian sausage for the meat portion, and once we had a little food and some drinks we were feeling better.

After dinner we found a little market that was selling many kinds of Bulgarian yogurt – I scored some really good strawberry flavored drinkable yogurt, I love this stuff. Finally we headed on back to our hotel, and went to bed around 11 pm, with the air conditioner running – we couldn’t figure out how to adjust it!

This was a long day, and as a result this is a long post.

Since we were in Romania I was interested in seeing Transylvania and Bran castle, the historical castle once owned by Dracula. Unlike the character from the story, Dracula was an actual historical figure in Romanian history, but I thanks to the vampire story his old castle brings in a lot of tourism. And since we were kind of nearby, why not check it out?

I knew that it would be a serious tourist draw, and I wanted as much as possible to avoid contributing to huge crowds and buses and long lines. We usually do this by getting up really early and organizing things ourselves. However, the area we wanted to see was quite a bit north of Bucharest in the mountains with the Transylvania area just beyond, around the city of Brasov. My first thought was to go by ourselves by train, but having seen the condition of regional trains in Bucharest I’m relieved we didn’t take that option. 

Next I looked into small group tours, but there were none available on the day that we wanted to go. So the last resort was a big group tour – a busload of people on a day trip from Bucharest. There are good and bad points for a group tour – we’ve had some really funny moments on tours like these, but the trade off for the convenience and low price is the loss of independence, which we tend to value greatly.

Having no other real option we went with the tour, and so early in the morning we headed over to the meeting place with our cash in hand for admission to Peleş castle (Dracula’s castle had online tickets – nice!). There was more than one bus lined up waiting, and we checked the license plate to find ours. When the time came to board, a line sort of naturally formed and our guide, a lady named Otilia asked for our name and then checked off a list as we boarded.

Once we boarded we could watch all the chaos around us as each bus tour guide had to try to get the correct people on the correct bus. One lady didn’t have cash for the castle ticket – our guide sent her off in the direction of the closest ATM. Apparently she had trouble and went searching for another one, but she still hadn’t made it back by the departure time so the guide called her and said sorry, but we’re going.

An old sort of confused lady kept trying to get on our bus but she wasn’t in our group, and Otilia patiently told her to check elsewhere. The old lady wouldn’t give up, and our guide lost her patience quickly. “I told you that you are not in our group. Go away!” 

I’d hate to be a tour guide on one of these expeditions.

One more dramatic event occurred before departure when our guide made an announcement, asking for David to raise his hand. Nobody raised their hand, and the guide said that actually, the real David just checked in outside, and having shown his ID to prove his identity revealed that there was a fake David on board. The passengers listened in silence while this interesting new development played out. A liar among us? “Come on guys, this is illegal,” complained our tour guide. In the end the real David was allowed on board as there was an empty seat available (since the poor lady couldn’t find an ATM) and finally we were off with an imposter in our midst.

As we left town the tour guide went through the basics of the trip, “Guys, we are going to have a long day so please listen carefully.” She explained the plan for the trip, and also mentioned that as we were insured by the company during the trip we would need to write down our full names on a sheet, which she started passing around. Was this a ploy to flush out the false David? That seemed quite a clever ruse. In the meantime the guide went person to person to collect the cash for the castle entry.

I was on the edge of my seat. The suspense was better than a mystery movie – happening in real life! 

Meanwhile, Kuniko dozed off asleep next to me.

The end of the mystery turned out to be pretty anticlimactic. Turns out that the guide asking names at the beginning of the tour had checked in someone named “Devin” as “David”, not looking at last names and apparently not noticing that “Devin” had never been checked off. The whole thing was due to poor organization, and I was thinking that this was going to be quite a tour.

On our way out of town we passed the Romanian Arc d’ Triomphe, which seems to be a popular architectural landmark around Europe. The bus made its way through many roundabouts, which helps speed us along towards the mountains north of Bucharest. During this long stage of driving through the farmlands the guide gave us a history lesson on the Romanian people, and some of the customs and culture that they hold dear. Especially interesting was their feelings about money, funerals and generosity – nobody wants to be invited to a funeral because they’ll have to pay big money. It was an interesting contrast to Japan where the same sort of idea happens but at a wedding, instead.

Kuniko continued to sleep as the bus rocked back and forth through the heart of Romania.

After a nearly two hour drive the bus started to climb through some beautiful mountains and past smaller and smaller towns. This area was home to the royal family retreats over the years, and once the royal family set up that meant that other nobles wanted to live nearby, leaving some beautiful homes and palaces behind for history. The guide explained about the history of the royal family in Romania and the good ones, the bad ones, the horny ones, etc. She insisted that Wikipedia information wasn’t really true and every true Romanian knows this stuff. My bullshit alarm started to go off.

Because Kuniko was asleep she didn’t get the history lesson. Maybe she had the right plan all along.

But once we approach Peleş castle, Kuniko was awake and ready to check things out. The bus dropped us off in a tiny little mountain town, in a turnout designed to drop off big groups. 

“Guys, we need to meet back here no matter what at 11:30, OK guys?”

Despite what it sounded like we were still going to all go through the castle together, but it was smart of the guide to give a meeting time just in case. From the bus we all walked with the guide down the hill and through a beautiful forest. Along the way some babushkas were selling berries by the road to tourists, and I suppose making a pretty good buck doing it.

We passed through a sort of gate that now was also a shop and some restaurants, with some construction going on nearby. The construction was quite loud and some of the construction workers looked more like somebody’s really big uncle than trained professionals. 

After the gate we could finally approach Peleş castle, which was undergoing some renovations to the exterior at the time. That’s always a bummer because it makes it tough to appreciate the architecture and take nice photos, but what can you do? We lined up with our group in the courtyard, along with a whole bunch of other people and at least three other bus groups. 

Ahead our tour guide was holding up her flag and she had our cash so we all just sort of waited for something to happen. 

Nothing happened.

People around us sort of jockeyed for position, some wasps flew around causing people to react dramatically – maybe wasps in Romania are much more dangerous than other wasps. We stood and waited – but the castle wasn’t really letting anyone in. The guides were consulting with each other and no information was forthcoming. 

After about 30 minutes of this I was starting to wonder if all of this was worth it. I was really interested in Dracula’s castle more than anything, the exterior of this castle was more dramatic but it was covered by tarps and equipment, and how long would it be before we got in?

So after consulting with Kuniko we decided to just head out on our own and meet back at the bus at 11:30. We squeezed ahead to our tour guide and told her our plan, and she looked like she never considered that something like this might occur. After some half-hearted attempts to get us to wait she finally said that she understood, and she gave us back our cash for the entry tickets that we’d no longer need.

Hooray – we were on our own! We did some walking around the castle, taking some pictures of the grounds and enjoying views of the mountains and heavily forested valley between them. The line for the castle was getting even longer (as nobody was going in), but we meandered back towards the buildings by the gate to look around. We stopped in the little shop but there were really only history books, so we thought to kill time at the restaurant with a light breakfast.

We sat outside overlooking the square that was under construction, and ordered a couple of lemonades and an omelette to share – we didn’t want to over order and get caught waiting for the bill if our tour group suddenly finished and walked past us. 

The construction guys were making a lot of noise and using heavy tractors for little jobs that seemed like overkill to me – but it was nice watching them work while we sipped our homemade lemonades. Mine was mint, Kuniko’s was standard, and they came with packets of honey to adjust the sweetness to your taste. 

At the table behind us four large ladies sat down and one accidentally sat on a wasp, all of which I understood through the gestures and reactions around us – I couldn’t recognize the language spoken. 

And despite all this I really had a great time sitting out there with my wife in the fresh outdoors eating an omelette. It seems like having the freedom and the choice of what we want to do makes all the difference.

About this time our guide texted me and said that they’d be entering the castle in 5 minutes if I wanted to change my mind, but we thanked her and said no, thanks.

We finished our meal, used the clean restrooms and headed back up the hill. The way the area was set up was convenient – our group would have to leave the castle using one road, and so we just needed to keep an eye on one road to know when they were coming back. 

We waited patiently at the bus stop at 11:30, but no bus came. After 10-15 minutes I texted our guide, but her response was, “12:30 guys”. I guess due to the late entry they had shifted the bus pickup time. 

So we had more time to kill – we went over to a nearby cafe and had some gelatos while sitting outside on a wooden patio with a view of the exit road. 

Finally, we saw our guide and the members of our group coming out, and we were able to get back together with them and head to our bus. A pair of women were 15 minutes late to the bus – they had been waiting somewhere else, apparently. As they came running up the hill the bus driver gave them some loud blasts from his horn to motivate them to hurry up. We were running pretty far behind schedule as we left the mountains.

Our guide scolded the group as a whole for putting us behind schedule, and then told us that she had been saving bad news for later – there was a road closure on the other side of the mountain and that all traffic would be routed to the road we were on. It looked like we’d have a long day ahead of us. The driver apparently knew a shortcut, and so we traveled on some back roads and over some train tracks to try to get to Brasov, our next stop.

Brasov is situated in Transylvania, and it was a pretty town. We were released in Old Town with the idea that we’d be able to get lunch and look around for a couple of hours. I was glad to visit – we both enjoyed the vibe of the town and its picturesque location near the mountains. We chose a recommended restaurant on the square, went inside and had a really nice meal. The manager brought over some tomatoes from their restaurant’s farm, and cut them up for us at our table with a little bit of salt – they were really good. As for lunch, I had mutton pastrami (a little different from what I expected but still great) with a pickled mushroom side, and Kuniko had braised veal with risotto that was excellent.

Despite the fresh tomatoes the service was kind of spotty here, and when the manager finished our credit card payment and started hinting at us leaving some cash as a tip, the whole free tomato service thing became more of a gimmick than a true organic experience. We had only the 100 lei bill and 3 1 lei bills, one was way too much and the other too little. It was an awkward spot to be sure.

After lunch we walked around Brasov, taking pictures and enjoying the town vibe. The town reminded me a little of downtown Dijon when we visited years ago during our honeymoon. We tried to buy some small snacks in case it we were still stuck on a bus late at night, but the convenience store couldn’t (or wouldn’t) break our 100 lei note and so we had to give up. 

We caught our bus on time and left Brasov at around 4 pm, and we still hadn’t been to Bran castle, the main event. It was about an hour drive to get there, and we noticed that occasionally on the side of the road were some clutches of wooden shacks, selling crafts and knickknacks. I don’t think the targets here were tourists but regular Romanian people – but some of the shacks were in disrepair or abandoned, and it gave us a creepy vibe.

Bran Castle was next, and it was just as touristy as you’d expect. This is the same everywhere we’ve been – and at least we expected it coming in. There were tons of tourists and buses, and we walked through a lot of tourist trap shops before we got to the entrance to the castle. Our pre-purchased tickets went through just fine and then we climbed up the hill and joined the queue to enter. 

The weather that day was clear and a little warm, but not hot. We could wait in the shade with the rest of our group, and after about 30 minutes or so we reached the entrance and could go inside. 

The castle itself reminded me in many ways of Himeji castle back in Japan, with lots of creaky wood and low ceilings, historic doorways and expositions of what life might have been like living there. I really enjoyed the interior and because things were so narrow the crowds were forced to spread out. In a nod to the vampire legends a couple of rooms were set up to look a little scary which was the perfect amount of cheese for me – right on! 

Having gotten our fill we went outside and then back down to the check out the tourist trap shops for a keychain. It says a lot about these kinds of shops that the keychains available here were too cheesy for even our taste. There was a lot of junk for sale, and the overall vibe was like a gypsy caravan or something. 

We went back to the bus, the first people back from our group, and the driver left us in charge while he ran out for a coffee. Talking with him we learned that he gets paid a flat rate, no matter how long the tour takes. He wasn’t really happy with the schedule we were keeping either.

Slowly people trickled back on board, and then we were off, precisely as the doors closed at Dracula’s castle. We had to sit through quite a bit of traffic, nodding off now and then, and there was a pit stop for a restroom (where we saw a beautiful sunset). From the pit stop back to Bucharest was about an hour, and then we were let off at the starting point.

“Guys, I know we were late but thanks for everything and don’t forget to leave a review for me and for our driver.”

I was expecting to be braced for a tip at the end, but in this digital age a positive review is more important. We thanked the guide and driver and then walked back towards our hotel, not too far away.

Even though writing this I tended to point out the negatives, the mission was ultimately accomplished and we saw what we wanted to see. If you know going in that things will probably go a little off course then it should be easier to deal with the trip. It was a good experience and I think both of us left satisfied.

On our way back to our hotel we walked through the adjacent street, the one that had the Nomad Sky Bar, and we almost didn’t recognize it. There were crowds of people at the restaurants, pounding bass and DJ music filled the street from clubs, with masked dancers in the windows, a group of giggling teenage boys ducked into a strip club with video displays of girls licking each other’s butts. Nomad Sky Bar was jammed with people above us – it was a completely different scene at 10 pm!

We turned the corner onto our usual street and again walked by the Irish bar. The lady said hello with a big smile – she had stopped trying to get us to go in since she we were practically locals by now – but this time we went inside and sat down for a very late dinner. She looked surprised and happy, and while we ate a dinner of chicken wraps she went back to work trying to wrangle customers. 

It was at this Irish bar that I tried the plum brandy that is a distinctive product of Romania. I had the strong version at 50% (!) alcohol, but despite the strength there was a lot of plum flavor to it. The waiter reminded me of the owner of Bridges Beer Brewing back in Nishi Akashi, on the other side of the world. 

It was a light dinner and drinks and then we headed back to the hotel – what a long but interesting day!