Statistics and Highlights

Well, I didn't end up blogging much during Europe. Seems like everytime I got to a computer I was busy booking a room, or researching flights, or looking up train schedules. It felt like a job at times. If nothing else, travelling makes you appreciate the Firefox browser and American-style keyboards.

Some statistics on the trip:

Weather: sunny everywhere but the three westernmost cities (Reykjavik, Bergen, and Dublin)...the best weather was in Italy

Cities visited: Reykjavik, Oslo, Bergen (Norway), Flam (fjords), Oslo (again), Copenhagen, Aelmhult (Sweden, slight backtrack, home of IKEA), Hamburg, Amsterdam, Cologne, Munich, Florence, Palaia (near Pisa), Bratislava, Vienna, Dublin

Elevation: I managed to make a very, very flat tour of Europe. Except for airplanes, clock towers, and parts of Italy and Norway, it was mostly at sea level. The countryside had lots of windmills, cows, and soccer fields. Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Northern Germany were particularly flat.

Travel days within Europe: 1 by car (Hamburg to Amsterdam), 1 by bus (Oslo to Copenhagen), 2 by boat (Sognefjord and Danube), 3 by plane, 8 by train, or 15 total out of 30 days

Distance from Bergen, Norway to Florence, Italy: I did this all on the ground or by sea. 1300 miles in 15 days. It is approximately the same distance (and direction) from Seattle to San Diego, but the terrain was more like going through the Midwest.

Lodging: couchsurfing 1, friends 2, family 3, hotel 5, hostel 17

Most $$$$$ place: Norway

Countries with their own currency: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark

Countries with the Euro: Germany, Holland, Italy, Slovakia (!), Austria, Ireland

Places where it was easiest to meet the locals: Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Italy (but this was largely driven by the circumstances of my trip and my inability to speak Slovakian, Dutch, Swedish, etc.)

Friendly tourists: American, Russian, English, Canadian, Belgian, Australian, German

Water:
Canals: Amsterdam, Dublin
Lakes: Hamburg
Rivers: Cologne, Florence, Vienna, Bratislava
Fjords and waterfalls: Flam
Hot springs: Blue Lagoon, Iceland
Private swimming pool overlooking beautiful Tuscany countryside: Palaia, Italy
Sailboats: Bergen, Oslo, Copenhagen

Manmade things:
Churches: Florence, Vienna, Dublin
Museums: Amsterdam, Vienna (did not have time in Florence)
Clocktowers: Amsterdam, Hamburg, Munich
Nightlife: Reykjavik, Oslo, Munich, Dublin
Urban parks: Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna, Dublin
Italian restaurants: Palaia, Florence, Vienna
Pedestrian streets: Munich, Dublin
Medievally spiral staircases: Amsterdam
Soccer fanatics: Hamburg, Florence
Late-night hamburger joint: Rick's in Dublin
Undergrounds: Vienna, Munich

American-like things in Europe:
grunge/rock/music: Reykjavik/Oslo
grad student party: Copenhagen
people who speak English: Iceland
BK/McDs/KFC: too many places

Things I forgot to pack: nail clippers, power adapter
Other essentials: iPhone, good local maps

Travel snafus: one hostel reservation botched, one train overslept, one tube of toothpaste leaked, one international driver's license lost, but nothing major

Air travel: totally painless, I am a big fan of IcelandAir and RyanAir now

Biggest regret: None. I covered a lot of ground, which meant I never spent more than three days in any one place, but I cannot think of a country that I would have nixed.

Nuisances: laundry (but it is so nice to pack light), being your own travel agent (even with the Internet it takes so long), overbooked cities (marathon in Berlin, Ocktoberfest in Munich, students finding flats in Vienna), not knowing the local languages (especially in Germany/Vienna/Holland), Italian trains

Best natural scenery on my trip: Norway by a long shot, but I am spoiled by all the great places you can go in North America

Books read while in trains, plains, and laundromats:
Freakonomics (nothing special, just good light reading)
House of Sand of Fog (excellent)

Movies seen:
Inglorious basterds (with German subtitles, so I understood English and some French, and saw it with a bilingual German who made her best attempt to translate the German for me)

Future trips to consider:
rent a car and travel the perimeter of Iceland
bike trip through Norway
yearly trip to Italian villa with my mother and aunts
learn German in Vienna
Stockholm, Barcelona, Brussels, Berlin, Prague (did not make them this time for various reasons)

Expat places:
Oslo (Swedes go there to make money)
Vienna (Billabong's is great Aussie bar)
Reykjavik (the government gives grants to artists and musicians)

Coolest hostels:
Reykjavik Downtown Hostel, Reykjavik, Iceland
Ruthensteiner, Vienna, Austria
Plus Florence, Florence, Italy