I can’t express myself enough, if you haven’t made your way to the Scandinavian countries, please do. Between all the nice and wonderful people, the culture, and the scenery, Norway, and Sweden should be on everyone’s bucket list.
Norway is everything you imagined it would be. It’s beautiful, it’s green, it’s full of Viking communities and just full mountains and skies for days. This post is really hard to write about, because when you love something so much, how can you describe how much you love it, without actually saying you love it. This place was liking driving through heaven, every where you turned, it looked like something out of children’s book, beautiful and perfect. Everything was neat, clean, taken care for, but just green. I can’t tell you how green it is without you actually seeing it. We got very lucky with weather and it was blue skies and green scenery, it was a fairy tale adventure.
We made our way to Bergen, Norway, and wow what a city. While everyone reminded me how expensive Norway was, I wasn’t that sticker shocked. Remember, I live in Nashville and everything is getting very expensive to live here. From food to the cost of living, think really hard before you move to Nashville, it’s like moving to Chicago or LA now.
I’m getting off track, but the Bergen, is a cute town on the coast. It reminded me a lot of the roman history with the building structures and statues everywhere. It is a very walkable city with a lot of sights to see. I just wish we had more time there, I would go back in a heartbeat. One of the things I love of Bergen, is how the community takes care of each other. Bergen gets the most rain in all of Norway. To help their community out, they have an umbrella sharing program. If you get caught in the rain without an umbrella at restaurant or something of that sort, the restaurant will provide you one, and then you drop it off at the next retail location. How crazy is that!
We then made our way, way up north to Trondheim where the sun was setting at 11pm. It was crazy, I had never seen anything like it before. The skies were red/orange that bled into the dark night skies. But talk about the history, the fortress where the venue was at, was something to be seen. It’s kind of like walking on to the set of Princess Bride, just very surreal, mystical, magical… but of course it rained that day. Very little, but just enough to be annoying and to make things wet and uncomfortable.
Maybe I’m too American, but one of the things that bugged me about these countries is everything closes super early. I get it, I’m bred to work, but most restaurants even closed fairly early. It drives me nuts because I can’t get my guys warm food after a long work day. While I try my best, the circumstances do not help me at all.
As much as I love Norway and would go back in a heartbeat, I absolutely love Sweden. I was really excited about going but Stockholm has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember.
I’ll be completely honest, I have never heard of Gotenburg until I was planning this work trip to go to Europe. What a cool, cool town. The history, the sights, and the most sustainable cities in all of Europe. What a cool experience. You can do things pretty reasonable priced there but also you can spend a ton of money as well. I took a museum tour for 6 dollars of the city, but then I also spend 36 dollars on a glass of wine and some ramen. I also met some nice girls in the city that work a local pub. Very sweet, very kind, and I loved their dog. We had some beers and we talked about health care, life, dating, and just how messed up this world is. I’m glad I met them, I don’t know if I’ll see them again, but maybe one day.
As we made our way to Stockholm, there was so much to see in this city. One day was not enough. I can’t wait to go back. Remember seeing movies with Stockholm in them, that’s exactly what Stockholm is like. It’s ancient, it’s beautiful, it’s full of food and fast paced life style. I really can’t wait say enough good things, you just have to go.
We ended our tour in Germany, I’m not going to lie Frankfurt, was not my favorite. But I will say this, I think there’s a lot of history in Germany that needs to be explored, and I would be more than happy to check it out!
As I type this, I’m getting ready for my trip to Australia, tune in for the next adventures!
The Thein Way to Live 
Like your blog keeps it up
Yay! Thank you!