Skandinavian Sleepover Stories

Transient are we, Flo and I, (as constant travelers and world conquerers. ha!) and the latest Skandinavian adventure was definitely an ode to world exploration in the 21st century. Our viking ship was the trusty rental car (which had no spare tire as we only discovered after 3000++ kilometers and landing safely back in berlin but I digress...), a 6 man tent, 2 sleeping bags, 16 Liters of Beer, 16 Liters of canned food, a tiny cooker, some gummi bears and a box of matches. We had no navigational device but we were armed with ADAC maps and the Flobee's sense of direction (and the occasional argument from know-it-all Trinkabee)!

Our First Night of Camping! Under a pear tree!

Our first feast! (Gourmet Beer and Canned Ravioli!

And The Beach next door!

The lure of countryside (make that three countries! haha) led us to pretty interesting (and cheap!) camping grounds. For the typical world explorer, 150 Kronor is all you need for a site where you could pitch your tent, have access to cooking facilities, a clean toilet and sometimes a free shower. The world explorers from this side of the world can be pretty hardcore. We met all sorts of campers--from the weary backpackers with nothing but their tents and sleeping bags, the more comfortable car travelers, lugging the comforts of home neatly squeezed in the trunk of the car or backseat; the hippie roadsters who have a funky van equipped with a makeshift kitchen and bedroom--especially good for youngsters with their young. There were even bikers or motorcyclists who have their gear hanging at their rear ends, who camp or rent cottages for a good night's sleep. Then of course, there are the ultimate hardcore world explorers who lug their entire homes with them. And they are fully equipped indeed, with their own hot&cold showers, toilet, kitchen, bedroom and cable tv. And when they go camping, that means, they park their mobile home, pitch their backyards and barbecues, fill their wine glasses and enjoy their candlelit dinners with a view of the lake or mountain, or in our case, many times, a fjord :)

Our first fjord! The view from our tent! (Strömstad, Sweden)

A view of the Camping Grounds! (Gerainger Fjord, Norway)

The View from our tent: A parked Cruise Ship (and the day's Alarm Clock!).

Luxury Camping! Grilling Norwegian Salmon and Shrimp! (Tau, Norway)

Introducing: The Neighbors:
Parked everywhere.

The home of the winers and diners by candle light.

Some live in their cars.

Friendly Tents and Trailer Home

Some camp on top of their cars.

The Dutch and their mega camping bus: the most hardcore of them all!

"Roughing it" is a luxury. Camping affords you the daily pleasure of new neighbors and a new vista as well as the ease of packing up and going, leaving just footprints, a bag of trash and your 10kronor for a warm shower and heading right on to the next adventure. Trolls and a swarm of mosquitos may make for new best friends but most of all, it beats sleeping in the car. Right Flo?

Bridges, Tunnels and Ferries

On the way to Smogen, Sweden

Bridge to Puttgarden Island, Germany
The Border between Sweden and Norway

When I was younger, and our family would take a whole lot of road trips during the summer. Daddy would always tell me to count the bridges as they were indicators of how many mountains we've actually passed. (I think this was a plan to keep me awake for the ride while the rest of the family napped in the car!) And Flo and I did just that. We counted bridges. But we counted tunnels and ferries too which carried us over and through the mountains and lakes of Norway. Yes. We counted them. From the time we crossed from Strömstad,Sweden to Norway, we started counting connections. in from going up to Oslo and then to Lilehammer, and to the Gerainger Fjord and then down down down to Skie, Sogndal, Voss, Bergen, Haugesund, Stravanger, Tau and back again to Stravanger to head back to Hirtsals, Dennmark.

While Sweden and Dennmark are amzingly flat for the most part, Norway is riddled with mountains.
100 Kilometers in northern Norway could pretty much be a 6 hour curvy drive, a huge contrast from the straight road trip up western Dennmark and eastern Sweden and counting (or remembering the last number) was certainly entertaining me as I tried to keep awake while we traversed the Norwegian countryside. The grand total? 115 (most of them mountains and tunnels).

And these lovely passages were sweet reminders that we were indeed moving on to the next destination, and that they are in themselves grand events for the long journey.

Are you ready to enter the World's longest Car Tunnel?

Hold Your breath! Here we go!

4 Songs later, we still weren't out of the tunnel! And entering the ice age!

Here going through the 3rd Ice cave!

Almost out? Ganz nicht!