Scandanavia

After the Italian holiday, we head back to Frankfurt and met Vishal Chachu. There was a forecast for the Aurora Borealis for the next night and we decided to chase it down. The only problem was that the closest viewing place was in Trondheim and that was over 2000 Km away from us. What’s more, the roads got progressively smaller and slipperier as we went north. In any case we headed north and left at 3 pm to reach Gotenburg by the night. The journey was over 1000Km and it had a ferry in between as well. So by the time we reached the hostel, it was 3 in the night! But it was actually a nice drive, the unlimited German autobhans meant that I could drive at over 170 kmph! What’s more, it was quite scenic, we crossed wide open fields, mountain ranges and a huge bridge over the sea!

Although Scandanavia is very beautiful, it is too expensive and very different to other parts of Europe. First of all, the people are way too kind, we needed money in the local currency for a parking meter, so we went into a store to get some changed. One guy, instead of changing the money just gave away 10 Kronos (about Rs. 100) and then met us at the parking meter and gave 5 more(there are more examples as well)! Second of all, the service concept is very different, each restaurant will have just one waiter and even in the hostels, we had to get and put our own bed sheets unlike any other hostel in Europe (this despite each hostel bed costing us 40 Euros!)

The next morning, we had a discussion with the hostel attendant about the northern lights and our plan. Every local we met said we were crazy and would not be able to make it in time. We were undecided and so we made our way to Oslo in any case. Once there, we could either take a flight and catch the display in the night, or just hang around in the cities such as Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. We decided to stick to the cities because of the investment we would have to put into the lights and in case it’s not a clear sky, we would not get to see anything at all. By the way, in case anyone wants to catch them, this site predicts them to a reasonable amount of accuracy http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast so when the Kp factor is 3 or above, there is a decent chance for a display and 4 is a definite go ahead.

In any case, we hung around in Oslo and realised that the city had almost nothing to offer. Even in March-April, its cold and depressing and frankly apart from an outdoor museum (which was an interesting concept), there was nothing else to do. So we went into the city for some local cuisine and noticed that there was nobody there. The only people on the streets were the ones jogging. There were just too many fitness freaks and for some reason, quite a few Indians as well (not jogging though, obviously). In fact, the restaurant where we finally ate was owned by a Pakistani! We even got free desserts thanks to him (he wanted to even give the meal away for free). As it turns out, a lot of the restaurants were owned by Indians/Pakistanis and Indian cuisine is very common there. In any case, the next morning, we saw a dumb Viking museum and moved on to Stockholm

Stockholm was much more like it. The city is basically built over several islands and joined together by bridges. The city is much more vibrant and apart from the huge number of people jogging, it also had pubs and restaurants on the streets and all of them were full. After a nice dinner we hit the sack and the next day went to roam around the city. The city was quite nice, but we couldn’t cover all of it (we hung around the Gamla Stad area, which is the old city area). We were mainly looking for a smorgasbord, which is a buffet type meal with the local cuisine, but as it turns out it only happens during Christmas and midsummer. So we sampled whatever we could of the local cuisine and just walked around town. To be honest, Swedish cuisine is not my favourite, it’s almost like Thai curry in a lot of ways.

So on the way out, we also went to a local museum, which once again was completely outdoor ( I guess that’s some Scandinavian style) and this one had a few people and activities in the exhibits as well. It was a very different concept for a museum and I think it’s much better than the traditional style, since there is always someone to explain stuff to you and you get a true feel of how things work. In fact one of the people in the exhibits gave us a complete 30 minute lecture on the history of Sweden and how it became a rich country. One day isn’t enough for Stockholm really, we also wanted to see the archipelago, which is supposed to be very nice and also there is this hostel which is basically a jail and you get to live in the jail cells!

We left Stockholm and made our way to Denmark. On the way, we stopped by a petrol pump to grab a bite and finish off our Swedish money. However we were like a couple of Kronos short on our Swedish currency for what we wanted to buy and once again, the cashier just put in the required amount from his side! It was baffling, we couldn’t figure out why everyone was so kind!

We reached Copenhagen and although the temperature was a much toastier 2 degrees (compared to the -6 in Stockholm) the wind was so strong, all of us had running noses in just a few minutes out of the car. However we got to stay in Europe’s largest hostel and the next day we visited a few sights in Copenhagen like the mermaid and the palace(although none of them were really special). The only thing of notice was the Carlsberg museum, which took us into the brewery and told us about the history of the beer. It was interesting and we even got free beer at the end of the tour (some even in between) unfortunately we had to drive back, so we couldn’t have much (I had practically none since I was driving the first stretch.

On our way out, after spending 4 days in the cold, we finally got snow! I think it was the first time I had seen such heavy snowfall and it was actually quite a lot of fun. It wasn’t that cold, just that there was snow and it was beautiful. Obviously we had to make our way back though, we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us and this time we were not going to take the ferry. We decided to take a different bridge, this was 21 Km long! It was quite magnificent and frankly it is unbelievable to see some of the things that man has built!

So that was that for Scandinavia, I think it wasn’t the best time of the year to visit the place, but then again, I doubt it will ever get anything above 10 degrees at any time in any case. However I do think that the place requires more time. Scandinavia is not about the cities, but mostly about the countryside and the lakes and the treks and the nature reserves. It’s difficult really to do justice to it with anything less than 2 weeks. To really enjoy it, I guess I’ll have to plan a long trip including a cruise, the northern lights, ice hole fishing and similar experiences in the Lapland.