The western part of Norway is absolutely beautiful. I had no idea. This part of the country rivals the Swiss Alps, if not better. Everybody talks about Switzerland, but you don't hear much about Norway, definitely unjust because this is as good as it gets. We arrived here by taking another free cruise boat from Helsinki to Stockholm, just as good the second time. However, this time I spent some time in the game room that has free PS2 video games, it just kee...

Joensuu was nothing more than a city we stopped to stay during our train tour of Finland. However, it is worth mentioning because our hostel inlcuded the best breakfast we've had since we've been in Europe. The breakfast buffet (and yes I'm blogging only about our food) was actually located in the hotel associated with our hostel. It had scrambled eggs (which you take for granted, so eat some tomorrow morning), potatoes, several types of sausage and bacon, som...

We didn't actually see the city of Rovaniemi, we just trained there to see the country side by train. The arctic circle is only about 3 miles north of the city, so needless to say, it was absolutely freezing up there. We actually have a picture of me standing in front of a grocery store with a temperature sign that reads negative five degrees celsius. Northern Finland is very remote and not quite as scenic as we expected because the pine trees lining the railr...

So our unbelievable cruise journey has ended, for now, and weve arrived in Helsinki. Much smaller than I expected, only about 500 thousand, and more of a port city feeling than Stockholm our Copenhagen. We saw most of the city within 3 hours, not a whole lot to see, but another country so Im happy. Not much to say about the city, its not a must see like Stockholm. However, I did go to a bookstore and buy a 1200 page book called the History of the World, so th...

Stockholm is without a doubt the nicest city in Scandinavia, Ill actually put it in my top 5 in Europe so far in terms of overall city beauty. It has self proclaimed itself as the Capital of Scandinavia which Copenhagen has disputed, but Im gonna have to agree with Stockholm hands down. The city is comprised of about half a dozen or so islands that are all close and connected with bridges and is on the coast of the Baltic Sea. All of the views of the city are ver...