In Oslo. Totally blown away by Bergen and Flam, but a little bit ready to be seeing people I know again. Will try to write more later.

Today is my last day in Sweden, though due to some complications (I'm so used to train service here being good and regular I didn't check the overnight train schedule to Oslo, and so to avoid paying for a hostel in a city I won't even see, I'm going to take an overnight train down south, and then another one back up to Oslo), I will get to see a lot of it tomorrow via train. And then I will have a day in Oslo, and then I'm heading to Bergen.
I got really lucky with the weather in Stockholm and so spent a lot of time exploring by foot; today will be my museum day, as soon as I get my act together and leave the hostel.

Tonight I am in Tampere, spending my only my second, out of the last eight, night in a bed. Also, as of yesterday when I got off the train, I had spend significantly more time traveling than actually being in places. So it will be nice to spend some time in Stockholm. And tomorrow I'm going to Moominvalley! Apparently it is unseasonably cold here, but I do not understand how people live in this country. I think I would have to become migratory.

It is raining in Helsinki so I am hiding out in the tourist office, using free internet on a superbly disfunctional computer. I have counted that my total country count will be 20 after this trip, or 21 if I decide to go to Tallinn when I'm back in Helsinki on Saturday (but I would like some time to explore here when it is nice). The ferry over was quite nice, with beautiful views of Sweden's coast and a room dedicated for deck passengers sleeping. Now I've left my pack in a locker and will take an overnight train (12hrs after an 18hr ferry ride) to Rovaniemi, a city 8km south of the arctic circle (and Santa's village). It will be cold there (I had to convert to celsius to rember what 52 degrees felt like) but less rainy, I think. If I were coming a month earlier, it would be light all the time, a month later and I would be able to see the northern lights.

p.s. People aren't joking about this whole scandanavia being expensive. The cheapest (filter) coffee I can find in Helsinki is 2 euros.

Some highlights of my past two weeks, since I haven't been updating with details:
-Took the train jaune into the Pyrenees
-World Petanque championships
-Crazy local goat's milk curd/ cheese
-An awesome art exhibit inspired by Rabelais all over Montpellier
-2 euro jeans
-24 hours of straight trains
-The world's largest cukoo clock
-Karl Marx's birth house
-Two new countires: Luxembourg and DENMARK (and Sweden tomorrow)
-Seeing my first 7-11 in almost a year (because there are a ton here)
-The world's smallest coffeeshop
-Five+ hours in an art museum with a design inspired by Dante's Inferno
-Lots and lots of cool people and new friends

I'm leaving Copenhagen today, heading to Aarhus in the Northwest. Its pretty rainy and cold, and I discovered my raincoat doesn't function anymore, so that sucks a little bit, but other than that I was pretty much in love with this city. For example, this morning I went to the world's smallest coffee shop (with 5 seats, and about the size of a large walk in closet). I also met some really cool people in my hostel, and now have a person I can stay with if I ever come back here (a Norwegian starting university) and potentially someone to take me around Oslo.

p.s. my rail pass is for 30 days

I don't have time to type up any journal entries, but I just wanted to say that after 24 consecutive hours of train travel, I arrived in Freiburg, the cutest little German town. Yesterday I saw the world's biggest cukoo clock. Now I am Trier, Germany's oldest city and the birthplace of Karl Marx. Tomorrow I am going to Luxembourg and then taking an overnight train to Copenhagen. Cool!