Travel plans

Tomorrow morning my coworkers and I are flying to Oslo, Norway, for a day of accounting training (fun, I know). Miranda will be flying over in the afternoon and we'll be turning my boring day of training into a whirlwind tour across another European country.

Thursday night we'll hop a train to Bergen which takes us "over the roof of Norway." This refers to the fact that we'll start at sea level in the south-east part of Norway, go over/through a large mountain range, and end at sea level on Norway's west coast. It's supposed to be one of the most incredible train rides in the world. Hopefully I can stay awake to see some of the scenery. After a day in Bergen we'll hop a night train back to Oslo where we'll stay through Sunday. Both cities are built in a fjord, so I'm hoping we can take a boat trip to explore the fjords a bit. I've hear that the Bergen fjord is supposed to be amazing.

We didn't book a sleeping car for the train trips and we won't have access to showers until Saturday afternoon. We'll probably be pretty crabby and might not smell the best once we return to Oslo, but that's what backpacking is all about, right? I'll pack an extra bar of deodorant, just in case.

I'm looking forward to meeting the crazy Norwegians (as the Swedes call them), especially now that I can understand a little Swedish. I guess the languages are similar enough that a Swede and a Norwegian will communicate with each other in their own tongue without any problems. They can read each the other language as well, even though most words are spelled differently. There are a few words with completely different meanings that often lead to slight confusion, but considering that Miranda and I will probably stick to English, I'm not going to go into that.

One of my highlights will be watching the European Cup in a Norwegian pub on Saturday. Think World Cup soccer restricted to European teams...it's kind of a big deal here. I'll be wearing Sweden's colors, and I hope I don't catch too much grief from the locals, especially since Norway didn't even qualify.

On top of that, I have another trip in the works. I received an email inviting me to Minneapolis for an actuarial seminar in two and a half weeks. I talked to my boss and, because it's something I need for my exams, he encouraged me to go and also let me know that work would cover my travel expenses. So I'll be in Minneapolis between June 26 and June 30. I'm just beginning to make plans, but have already started by putting together a shopping list, and will do my best to get in touch with as many people as possible. Miranda's jealous, and I must admit that I'll be coming home much sooner than expected, but it worked out so perfectly that I just couldn't pass it up. I'm pretty excited, but I also feel guilty for leaving Miranda here alone. Oh well, I'm sure she won't feel too guilty about spending a few weeks in Minnesota later this summer while I stay here to work and study Swedish.

Finally, we're working on a week-long getaway in July. Currently eying Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest. More on that to come.