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.