Norway Trip (Feb. 9th - 19th)

Well, I was off again for another voyage, this time to Northern Europe. I was invited by my girlfriend's family to join them and some of their family friends for a skiing vacation in Norway. The place is called Trysil and is located 200kms north of Oslo near Lillehammer (site of the winter Olympics a few years back)

I arrived in Copenhagen on the 9th to meet my girlfriend and then we went to meet her parents so that we could begin the voyage up by car. Tanne's family has a cottage in Sweden, about 200kms from Copenhagen, so it was decided that we would spend the friday and saturday nights there and complete our journey to Norway on Sunday. The cottage is beautiful! Its a really classic old style Swedish Cottage with a stone oven and heating by fireplace. When we arrived the place was completely cold, but as we threw some logs on the fire and started some cooking, the place came to life.

The stars there are amazing. Its been awhile since I've been outside of a city and had the chance to see the stars in their full glory. It was an amazingly clear night, perfect for a little stargazing. On saturday we took it slow, went for a walk around the cottage and awaited the family friends....Sunday saw the start of our voyage north, which was expected to take 8 hours...

The drive was really wonderful, beautiful scenery and wonderful weather (except for the frigid cold of -17). It was fairly uneventful until Tanne decided to drive the car off the road :) The roads were really slippery and we lost control and veered off the side. Luckily we were stopped by a little tree before rolling over. In the end, everyone was alright and the car was fine aside from a smashied light.....we arrived a few hours later than expected, but it was all good.

The cottage that we had was wonderful! It was a log cabin built for 11 people... we were 8 and so had plenty of space to relax. There was a Sauna as well!! The snowboarding was awesome and I even got out for 20 kms of Cross-country on one day (my first time!!) Near the end of the trip I injured my ankle snowboarding, but it was all good because I only missed one day.....

So, I'm back here in France now and have had some pretty good news here. I got a job teaching english which is really well paying and will allow me to work in the summer. This will allow me to finance myself here and lessen my reliance on debt and give me the flexibility to travel a bit more and live a bit more comfortably....I also found out that I won a scholarship from the EDC for $3000!! This is a great accomplishment that I am really proud of..... I have bought myself a bike here in Lille (50euros from ebay :) which will give me a bit more mobility. It is a really sexy red racing bike, maybe ill post a pic during my next post.....

thats all for now,

Ian

Amsterdam Pics

Amsterdam!

I was in amsterdam last weekend, and I must say, I love that city!!!!! I went with my friend Herby, an exchange student from Montreal as well. We made a reservation at a hostel and decided to take the bus up there.

Taking the bus is sortof a risky move as we had heard many horror stories about 6 hour delays and people getting left at reststops. But, it was half the price of the train and didn't take that much longer (5.5 hrs as opposed to 3.5) so we opted to take a risk.

We got there and found our hostel. It actually turned out to be really nice. It was located right next to a really big park and was a short walk from the centre. After putting down our bags, we got out for a little walk around the town to get an idea of the place. Amsterdam has definitely earned its reputation as the capital of bikes. There are bike paths all over the place and unwary tourists really must keep their eyes open or risk getting run over.

Later on in the night we went out again for a walk. We found ourselves in the redlight district which was really an ..... experience..... I am sure you've all heard about it, so I would go into details, but it was definitely strange for me. Later on we went to a coffee shop to experience that part of Amsterdam (typical tourists eh?) I didn't inhale though, I swear....lol.....

Saturday we spent walking around again. We were thinking of hitting up a museum, the Van Gogh or the Rijksmuseum, but the weather was too beautiful and we didn' really feel like spending 10euros to walk around inside. We met two really nice American girls at breakfast and planned a night out with them.....

The club that we ended up at was incredible!!! It was called Sinners. The music was great, a mix between house, hiphop and electro, and the 4 of us danced our asses off all night!!!! Fantastic, just what I needed :)

My camera was out of batteries for the trip, so as soon as I get them from Herby, ill post some pics.......trust me, there are some good ones!!

Next up is Norway for me. I will be away for the next week there for a skiing trip with Tanne's family. I promise to take pics this time and tell you all about it when I get back :) Take care all!!!