Breaking the dam...in Amsterdam

It's almost been 2 months since I've left home and despite my hate-on for taking pictures, I've managed to document some of the last 55 days.  I have spent the last 2 days in the Amsterdam public library and the last 2 nights wandering the streets of the redlight district.  Like all the other places I've been so far, Amsterdam is peppered with both good and bad sentiments.  Today I saw 2 pigeons picking away at a piece of dog turd.  I had bad feelings towards this.  On the other hand, I was bewitched by the city when the old dutch bar owner, reprimanding some teenage Brits yelled, "Noe shmoeking in de lounge here!".  The 3 boys filed out with their heads down, like they had been sent to bed without their pudding.  Only it was 9:30 in the morning, and it was hash and not pudding they were being denied.    

So this is my first post and I'm not sure what this will all be about - sometimes me, sometimes pictures, sometimes videos, just sometimes somethings.   I'll be back-posting pictures from the first portion of my trip - (is "back posting" even a real blog word?).  

Prague

Lovely kitchen at our lovely hostel.

BERLIN - "Poor, but sexy"

We fell in love and will have to come back to pick up our melted hearts.

Berlin Hauptbanhof.  The best hauptbanhof around.

Everyone loves Berlin and Berlin loves everyone.

From the steps of the Parliament (Reichstag/Bundestag).  In my opinion, there are not enough words that sound like "bundestag".

I tried to take a picture of one sight, but my camera couldn't but help and capture 3 interesting things.  That's the way of Berlin.

Copenhagen

Watching rollercoasters at Tivoli Gardens.  They do a special thing for Halloween, kind of like "Fright Nights" at Playland back in Vancouver...only nicer.

Nyhavn.

Tivoli at dusk.

Bjerkreim forever!

After hemorrhaging money in Oslo (the CAD took a dive), we took some financial refuge on the south west coast of Norway.  P has some family in Bjerkreim and we spent a week taking it way too easy and eating way too much.  We stayed with Ola, Tora and Bjorn at Birkeland farm, which has been in the family for 300 years - always passed down to an "Ola" or a "Bjorn".  Run by Ola and Tora (both retired teachers), the farm has sheep, dairy cows, a field of rutabagas, a lake, springs and lots of rocks.

Birkeland farm makes me happy.

A scramble up Church Mountain.
A scramble up Church
The view of the house from the top.  The siding was being replaced and the hammering started at 8:00 on the first few days.

Kuli - P's grandfather's family left their farm/home on this site 6 months before he was born.  The family had survived an avalanche (or maybe 2?), during one avalanche the kids were buried under the snow and the parents (great grandfather/mother) were able to find them because they saw a hand sticking out from the snow.  The stones were the foundations from the old house.  

   

Sopp Mania!!

Okay, this activity was so dear to me that it gets an entire post on its own.  We took some busses (about 30 minutes outside of Oslo) to hunt for mushrooms.  We were lucky with the weather and only got poured on in the last half hour of the hunt.  Of course, it was only after it was pouring that we started to hit the mother load.  We were looking for "trakkanterelles" or "funnel" chanterelles.  Don't know what to compare it to.  Perhaps an Easter egg hunt?  Only you could die if you picked the wrong one, I don't think that happens on easter egg hunts.  

On your mark...get set...go sopp crazy!

Who says you can't look good hunting for mushrooms?  There's something sexy about a man in the forest with a basket, some small paring knives and some small mushroom brushes.  

There is something magical in the discovery of non-poisonous food.

Ta-da!  I think it was close to 1.4 kg of goods.  We had to lay them out on some newspaper for them to dry, and then we brushed and trimmed each one.  We were cursing our success after 40 minutes of cleaning.  

Oslo

One of the 3 excavated viking ships at the Viking Ship Museum.  They were used as burial ships for noblemen and women.

Lunch at Cafe Dus with M&K.

Some gate at Vigeland Park

We had seen some Japanese tourists take a fun, self-timed picture.  When they left we decided to do the same.  They came around and caught us copying them.  How embarrassing.

Waiting for the tram before breakfast.