Hospitality of Florence

Sometimes my posts do come in non-specific order - it's just because some experiences are brighter and some need more time to process. So, there is a huge gap to cover - from Friday to Sunday.
After milongain Bologna followed a milonga in Florence which was in less cosy place, and the gap between dancing experiences was wider too. But first things first - before going out to dance our feet off, we experienced a real italian hospitality. It was my first couchsurfing experience as a guest too. I guess staying with a person you already know helps a bit. After exploring a Callenzano town (which if not for the cars parked there could fool you into thinking that you experienced time travel and ended up in medieval times), we visited a park with freely roaming rabbits, lots of hungry ducks and one turtle. Then followed a park with a giants statue, an overlook to Florence from a far and a dinner. Which had to be somewhere in a restaurant,  but ended up at hosts home. It had tobe a pasta bought from a shop, but turned out to be a specialy for us homemade pasta with a bottle of fine wine. So, our host is an excellent cook.
The next challenge we had to face - finding a parkingplace next to milonga. It took nearly 10 minutes - not bad for a first timer. And then dancing dancing dancing with live music and some acrobatic moves.

Hello and Good bye Bologna

At this specific moment - my feet are screaming and hurting like they had walked the whole day. Because they did - half day in cersaie fair, half day in Bologna. One thing for sure that half day in city center wasn't even barely close to enough - so, when there isn't enough time, you just walk without looking at the map, finding street musicians, street arcs and buildings older than the previous ones, ordering dinner in my poor italian without asking "parla inglese?".
One thing i know for sure - I must come back to it sooner or later. Of course, better sooner than later.

And yet to make this end of vacation more painful - an early flight with 1 stop awaits me.

One question which bugs me - how italians can sleep with just thin sheet-like blanket?

Milonga a la Bolognese and other stuff

Transition from Milano to Bologna went smoothly. Transitioning from Bologna to Monzuno - was more interesting. So, me and my friend rented a car - which turned out to have a 1.2l engine! And climbing mountains with it isn't very fun - but I guess I never drove into so steep hills and it's just a matter of time to accustom to a different horizon level.
As I say - our home now is in a deep deep village high in the mountains. With a beautiful view over Apenines and an incredibly starry night, if there are no clouds. So, I guess a little pain with a car is worth it.
But when there are low clouds in the sky - in the mountains you end up in the cloud. It feels like a fog, but you know it's a cloud. It may rain down below, but not in the cloud itself. And it's not very fun to climb a hill or mountain. There is zero visibility - there is no perspective for your goal. It gives you a creepy and mysterious atmosphere. And maybe to experience it for once - is quite ok.
But the other day turned out to be the opposite of the foggy one. The sun was burning as much as 27 degrees. We rode to Rocchetta Matei, which was closed, and then to Pistoia - we took the scenic road, but it allowed us to ride as fast as 60km per hour. Pistoia turns out to be a lovely city, with the population as much as in Kaunas. A compact old town, not too many tourists (or they were hidden somewhere), a bit an army of beggars considering the amount of tourists.

And on our way home - I forgot to check "avoid toll roads" in my google maps and we came home earlier than we would have the other way. I wanted to ride a highway in Italy, but all those toll booths were a bit frustrating. But they say - the best way to learn to swim is to be thrown into a water. The more you are preparing, the harder it gets to find the courage. But it turned out to have some other positive side effect - the plans we had for tonight went more smoothly. We did came home late, but we spent less time on driving and more on dancing in a fresh air.

Milongano

So, it's my fourth(and last) day in Milano. Me and my friend, we are already sitting in a Lampugno coach station caffe and waiting for our bus in Bologna. I can't say we've seen the city a lot, but that wasn't our goal. However the experience was more that amazing. By some lucky coincidence we ended up at tango nuevo milonga. For both of us it was a biggest milonga ever, but that wasn't the most amazing thing. The Tdj playedbotg old and new music, that was well fitted for the environment and created the unforgettable atmosphere. This amazing atmosphere was created by Tdj Fabrizio Ferranti Auslaender. Although with milonga itself the evening would have been perfect, it was even better. Before milonga we went to a classical music concert in a church Certosa di Garegnano, where we listened to Brahms and Arvo Pärt pieces, performed by Voce degli Archi with Mario Brunello itself. And we had a company of a classical music lover(he told us so much about the piece, musicians), which showed us both the concert and the milonga place.

A rainy day in Prague

I know that posts of this trip doesn't come in the right order - some older experiences are yet to be described. It's because not always I was granted with a privilege of Internet or not always I have enough energy left to lay them down on paper( it's how I call this electronic space). So, let me treat you with the freshest experiences.
We are in Prague. Technically it's a second day, but we arrived late in the evening yesterday - so, the only chance to see the city was during our walk from bus station to our hostel. First difference we noticed was that - you have to be very careful when crossing the street. The cars won't usually stop even if you are standing at the edge of sidewalk at the pedestrian crossing. It's not Germany and you have to take responsibility for your own safety.
The w Esther forecast was not promising any good news, but we still head out into the city - got a map at the reception and took a random direction. But the rain wasn't feeling any pity for us - so, we ended up sheltering at various coffee shops, restaurants and shops. The up side is that we tasted some local food, warmed ourselves with tees and spend some money on post cards. One of the most memorable purchases was a dvd film about the trip with a trabant car across during continents. Sounds totally random? Yes, it is and it's not. Well, on our hitchhiking trip from Kaunas to Warsaw we met a Czech guy who told us many interesting and random things. So, he told us about his acquaintance who travelled with a motor bike to China. The story turned sideways into a direction, where we received a valuable information about a documentary(a hit in in Czech Republic) how three of four guys travelled with that old car trabant in different continents. So, when we ended up in a huge book store today, I recalled this story and decided to take my chance. I didn't know the name of the movie, but I asked the store employee about it and it was kind enough to check this out for me. According to his database they had only one copy left, but it didn't take much time for him to find it. Now I can't wait to return home and watch it.
The other highlight of the day was an unexpectedly found Apple museum and because the rain was still washing our clothes, we decided to hide from it. And just like that couple of hours passed by observing all models of Apple computers and reading various information about their appearance and selling records. And we got a free apple!
The hostel we are staying is very nice - located in a very center just five minutes in walking distance from Charles bridge. The staff is very friendly and helpful. And every day there is at least one free walking tour(as many hostels nowadays do).  The one we took started at 8pm and it's topic was "ghost stories of Prague". We didn't meet any ghosts but we were told many creepy stories about who killed what and why(and of course when). It was a very different perspective to look at the city. With an old town as big as Prague's - there are so many dates and numbers and names involved - it's too much to process everything in one go - especially with such little time as ours, but with a tour with twisted topic as this, I hope something stays in our head.

Berlin - Bastei Weg - Wiesbaden

Sometimes a randomly seen picture can turn into a real view before your eyes. Even if you dismiss the first idea to go there - the people, the events around you weave into a web of coincidences that lead you to that place. That was the case with the Bastei's weg in Rathen near Dresden. A perfect trail for those who love beauty of ancient bridges, deep valleys, steep rocks,  forest paths covered with a carpet of last autumn's leaves.
And the rest of the day did turn out to be quite adventurous as well - ten minutes before our train ride we realized that we need a printed ticket. 3 minutes before it's departure, the ticket was still being printed... And then we ran with huge backpacks on our backs to the train. Luckily we made it. And late in the evening we reached our aunt's home in Wiesbaden.

Warsaw - Berlin - 5 cars in one day!

The second day on the road wasn't so easy as the first one. Warsaw is a way bigger city than Kaunas - you have to choose from many spots and getting to the right one takes time. And although it seems that you have a bigger stream of cars, a lot more of them just drive passed you. So, the second hitchhiking experience wasn't as easy as the first one. Our road was only 100 kilometers longer - so, we felt confident by writing "Berlin" on the cardboard. It appeared to be a mistake that costed us 1.5 hours of waiting for the first car which took us only to Łódź. And in total  - 5 cars to get to Berlin. But we enjoyed riding with polish people. Most of them didn't take any hitchhikers before - and they couldn't explain why they stopped for us. But all the rain, that has fallen that day from the sky, did fall only when we were in a car. Although we arrived late, we made it earlier than we would  have if we had ran out of luck - the last driver did really come out of his way to bring us to train station, and the train has just arrived stopping there only for a minute. A nice german gentleman helped us with buying a ticket on mobile phone - as we didn't have enough time to buy it on ticket machine.
And finally we could comfortly sleep in a sleeping bags on a floor of our ex-coworkers apartment.

Hitchhiking for the first time

As for first hitchhiking experience, we didn't struggle a lot - about half an hour and we were picked up by a chezch bass player(as his hobby) who happens to have a korean driving license. He filled our time in a car with amazing and unvelievable stories. Could you believe that Mayonaise is a bass guitar brand - the top one in Europe? Or how he got a hold of one.
He told us that he picked us up only because nobody picked him up a year ago.

green light in action

Keeping promises is a good habit. It also removes this burden from the heart. And frees your mind for other things. So, there is a little bit of my unburdening - my first attempts to shoot the Aurora Borealis. All the other things have been said in the previous post about Northern Lights.

Millions of hours on a train

So, the train started moving at 9.10pm from Bodø. It stopped at 7.48am in Trondheim. I boarded another train at 8.25am. I ended up at 3pm in Oslo. Can anybody count how many hours it has been on rails? Most of them were spent sleeping in awkward and uncomfortable positions. But I did sleep. First I tried to read Gogol's "Dead Souls" in Russian, but  I felt very sleepy instantly. The same happened on a day train too. Internet was not working, or rather it was working in cafeteria and wc. Well, I was in wagon 8, so, I guess  I was too far away from the source.
As I'm falling asleep at the moment in a hostel at Oslo, all I can say that I finished my day by buying gifts home and walking around in the center with a camera.

A lazy day of the 1st of January

So, I had very little sleep. As normal. The checkout from hostel was until 11am, and I wanted to have my breakfast. I had meeting today at 12am with a fellow couch surfer, which had kindly replied to my public request. So, he took me to see the same hill we were exploring at night while hunting for northern lights. He let me borrow his gear for walking on ice, so, we could climb the actual hill - Rønvikfjellet - a raven hill. Then we hiked to the three lakes: the lower one, the upper and the black one. Some being fully, some partially covered in ice. While we hiked we were fighting the wind at the same time. Thank god, I had my heavy backpack on, otherwise I could have been thrown from the hill. Well, maybe not really, but it could have been closer. So, I had the opportunity to observe the Bodø from the very top - magnificent view. Then the fellow took me to the beach With a light blue water. They call it Osvika. I liked the sound of that name, partly because it has a shorter name of me in it.
As the rest of the day - sheltering in a living room of hostel, as my train leaves late in the evening, reading a book "Quest for Adventure" by Chris Bonington, looking for inspiration for my next journey.

The Northern Lights. They do exist

Yesterday, was a long day too. I'm getting used to this new regime - sleeping few hours, waking up at 8 or 9, going to sleep at 4 or 5 in the morning. As it was the 31st of December, and sort of everything half closed, there were limited options on activities. So, I've heard of "Nyholmen skandse" - a fortification at the end of small cape and a lighthouse. So, I packed myself in a tent of skiing jacket and trousers, prepared a thermos of hot tea and set out into a walk that appeared to be longer than I have expected it to be. Strong wind was not helping at all. Once I finally reached that place, I found out I can't climb the fort, because there were fireworks being set up for the evening. So, I turned back, buying some sparkling lights on my way. And I was starting to feel hunger.
The grand firework was at 6.25pm. Well, a little bit early for New Year's celebration, but this firework was actually meant for 200 year anniversary of town Bodø. It took as long as five minutes, technically. But watching those different flying colors in the sky, it seemed that it took longer.
It was time to go back to hostel and give up into action, whatever there was going on. Actually, not much. Solo travels were keeping on soloing. Group travels were keeping it in their group. Luckily I noticed a Chinese guy I met a day before has returned from his day trip in Værøy island. So, we had different experiences to share on Lofoten islands, and we kept talking as the midnight was approaching. But we didn't come up with any solid plan where it would be the best place to go watching for fireworks. Obviously, we ended up in the wrong location - next to the church of Bodø. There were stifle firework shooters, but all the other beauty, or so to say serious stuff was blocked by surrounding buildings. On the way there we met a couple from Norway and Thailand(one of them was living in the same hostel too). So, we double-sized our company, and it was way better. The Lady from Thailand was terribly afraid of falling on the ice and the fact that she had not the proper shoes did not help her overcome that fear. After lighting our sparkling firework for kids and observing the other miserable ones, we came back to hostel.
Others were coming back too, and started bragging about observing some shades of Northern Lights. It trigger our lust for adventure and a huger to see one. I actually was already giving up to observe them during this trip. But now altering hearing this news, we were ready in five minutes, heading somewhere into the hills - we wanted to retrace the first journey, but somehow missed it. The journey took longer, or it seemed so. As we were approaching the end of light zone, we started seeing some weird shades and shapes in the sky. Somewhere of them were clouds, but unusual ones. But when we witnessed the green ones, we knew this had to be it. And it was quite intense. I haven't properly trained for shooting Aurora Borealis, so, was still playing with my camera, getting useful tips from my fellow adventurer. Yes, there was it - the Northern Lights in all it's captivating beauty, unpredictable, moving fast. And it really was addictive, observing it, and setting up my camera for the right shot. I even didn't notice that I was kneeling in snow with my jeans totally wet at the knees. I didn't care about that neither about the fact it was 4am in the morning. As always on this trip, the screenshots of proof will come later.

Roadtrip: Svolvær - Å - Svolvær

In the end I did get some sleep after listening to a conversation of the crazy classical music lovers. One hour.  Then I stepped out into a cold dark night of Bodø, which seemed more livelier than 6pm that same evening. I had to walk to airport. First it was fun - love to of lights on the streets, even pavements were glittering from ice. But then at some point they ran out of light poles or later they bulbs, and I had to walk in total dark only using my smartphone as a light source.
Probably I was the first one to arrive at the airport - there was not a single soul there. But I could go in, and it was warm there, and they had wifi.
Me and another Norwegian lady were the only passengers at that time. But we still had to listen to security instructions. In both languages! The plane was small and we were forced to sit in the back. So, we talked. She asked me where I'm going, what I will be doing. After hearing my unplanned trip story she said, that aLost everything is closed in Lofoten on these days and that I will have trouble going from airport to Svolvaer. I didn't have any concrete plan, but just an idea that I could rent a car and drive around. Well, she pointed out the cheapest company I could use for service. But there was still a problem. I haven't booked a car in advance and it was 5.30 in the morning. So, I had to wait until 7am. So, I sitted and browsed Internet and smiled to airport employees. Svolvær airport is not big, so, there isn't many employees.
Then about 8 o'clock I was sitting in a white Hiunday with a mileage of 10000 kilometers and figuring how the stuff works. After it was light enough(or not too dark), I set out by the route E10 making little detours I knew of. It was dawn(sort of, because I didn't see the actual sun), and it was magnificent. Add all this colorful beauty to breath-taking landscapes of Lofoten Islands and you get the address for paradise. Yes, it exists. Yes it is accessible to living people. No, it's not on some tropical island. It's up in the north and it's called the Lofoten Islands. After each magnificent landscape opening before my eyes, I knew why everyone acted surprised finding out that I was going there for one day. It's not exactly true. I'm going there back next year in the summer.

I was driving and stopping to take pictures( there is one of smartphonish quality). And the dusk I arrived to a village with magical name Å, walked around a bit, found everything closed. The village was engulfed by peacefulness. And then drove back as the darkness was approaching me. It was somewhen around 2:30pm. Describing the beauty I found on the road requires a separate post, so, I will write it someday with semi-decent pictures I took.

Now I'm sitting in the airport and sort of everyone knows me: greeting a wishing happy new year. Kind of cool.

Arriving at abodø

What Excel I could probably have for not writting a post yesterday? Well, the day literally pasėdėti though my eyes. It was a train ride day from Trondheim to Bodø and it took almost ten hours. 3 cups of cacao and other eatable stuff. I arrived here before 6 and no surprise - it was already dark. This place called Bodø is a little bit above arctic circle, so, that explains a lot. Once I stepped out the the train that after making two steps forward I was making one backwards - the wind was so strong. And it was all ice on the pavements and roads - my biggest nightmare. But somehow I dragged my luggage with broken handle to a hostel next to train station up to the third floor and received a room on the 2nd - oh, well lots of luggag dragging. Then I was told that it's actually a nice weather, but it doesn't change the fact that there is nothing to do in Bodø(not exactly the truth).  I met other guests at the living room and they were talking about going there tomorrow, that is today.  At 1am. OK. That's not normal, but there is no other reasonable options. Well, there is, but they aren't reasonably priced. But the earliest(and cheapest) plane was leaving just before 5am. Well, I thought - that's way much better. At least I would have more time to sleep before flight. So, I thought. And I bought tickets - I tried once on iPad, once on my smartphone, but I succeeded only normal pc. Any normal person having an early morning flight would go to sleep earlier, I went to hunt for Northern Lights with another guest and hostel employee - so, having almost personal guide and expert on all the slippery roads and paths in Bodø, I acted on impuls. We couldn't see any northern lights, but at we least had a good exercise in refreshing((re)freezing, I mean) weather.

Monday in Trondheim

A night train ride wasn't that exciting, but tiresome it was. Ok, except for the part where I noticed that there was -14 degrees outside somewhere between Oslo and Trondheim. Oh, boy! I thought, but the temperature ended up a bit milder than that - "only" minus 8. I couldn't survive with jeans and warming underpants layer, but when I switched to skiing pants, it got a lot better. Then I bought a scarf and one more layer of gloves. Having sorted out the cold fighting armour, I was ready for sightseeing. I knew about the Trondheim's Nidaro Cathedral:

It's not only very beautiful, elegant, but it is being warmed from inside. But the ticket is quite expensive as for entrance to cathedral(80 NOK). There are few museums as well, but because it's holidays and because it's Monday, most of them were closed.
As my time in Trondheim and daylight were very limited, I did the walking tours that were suggested in tourist map. I happened to be there when the sun decided to go up, so, the buildings were in really beautiful shades. They are beautiful by themselves, but with a light touch of sun, they were like from fairy tale. The old wooden houses in the old town seem like ordinary ones. But they aren't. Hugging the canal, beautifully decorated for Christmas that just passed - they are perfect. Same perfect picture was reflecting in canal water.

Then I strolled along the fjord coast and headed for the Kristiantens fortress(there you can find many canons, as well). It was the right time - the sun started setting down. Oh, I did sweat a lot, but the view of the city was rewarding. I sweat even more when I had to descend the hill - the snow was pressed so much, that the protector of my shoes had no effect.

Trondheim is one of those cities, that makes you want come back at different seasons - to find out what colours and shades it will wear then. But tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Bodø.

Snow, trains, Oslo and other things

But you should actually reserve a train ticket in Norway. Jumping from one seat to another is no fun at all. The up side is that you may talk to different people if they are not sleeping, and the downside is that you may be politely asked out to free the seat. So, today I experienced both things. The old lady that I got a chance to sit next to was very kind and talked English pretty well. So, we talked a lot and shared our thoughts about Christmas in Lithuania and Norway. She even explained me the meaning and purpose of colors of Norwegian houses.
Have I told that we finally have some snow there, haven't I? Well, we do. And when it snows, it snow we differently than in Lithuania. In Lithuania most of the snow melts right away. In Åmli and surrounding locations it stays a bit longer. And as always it has it's upsides and downsides. The beauty of the nature becomes even more stunningly beautiful. The downside - well, if it snows too much - you might stay at home even if you have a planned trip. Especially, if your is no good for winter conditions - just like my friend's. So, we didn't go to Arendal as planned. But then I got to go to Oslo earlier. That means more time in Oslo! Yeah, right... The wind is so cold there sometimes, that I have to stop breathing. And six hours is way too much to spend just in train station. I had to run an errand - retrieve my cards that I so unexpectedly forgot under my bed in hostel(don't ask how I manage to do this, but it's way better than losing them somewhere else).
Then I walked on a slippery roof of Opera and Ballet theater, went out for a cup of spicy chai latte in Starbucks and ended up in a really interesting place In Brenneriveien street - with graffitis on the wall and really huge chandelier hanging just in the street. Funny thing, that I was lured there by blue light under the bridge.
Two and a half hours till night train to Trondheim leaves. I was planning to go there tomorrow morning, but then I would have had very little time in Trondheim. I guess, the snow changing my plans turned out to be a good thing.

Snowy Nelaug's train station

A picknick in Tvedestrand and Borøya island

It's the second day of Christmas and the streets of Åmli are pretty empty. It was colder than usual at night - the grass and moss around the house were covered in silverfish frost. No sitting at home for us! Exploring ghostish towns is quite fun. Today's destination - Tvedestrand - an almost two hundred year old small town with white wooden houses climbing the shores the fjord of Oksefjorden. It is called a town of books and indeed we could see new and old books shops on every corner. Technically, all of the were closed, but one of them had an outdoors book shelf - there you could leave a certain amount of money in the hole and take the book you like.
There is a tern( a seagull) in the coats of arm of Tvedestrand, but we did see very little of those. But there were plenty of ducks in the harbor - they weren't afraid of us at all, and even started following us when we walked on the pier. I guess they are used to tourists feeding them, and we were almost the only ones at that time.
Cats there are very friendly too. One, the ginger one, was making sure that there aren't too many ducks on the pier. The grey one just came to us and started snuggling to our legs as if we were his owners. It was a pretty nice cat and didn't look homeless at all.
After having a small picknick at the harbor it was time to move forward. Me and my friend's boyfriend were secretely hoping to see a sea. Not a  fjord, but a real open sea. That could happen if we would go to one of the many islands there. But the drive to any of them is really crazy. Well, the views through the car window is amazing, but the drivers have to be really careful. Some roads were fit only for one car in any direction. On one side there would be a steep rock, on the other - either lake or river and that's only few meters away. Anyway, we talked her into driving us to Borøya island without telling all the difficulties that will be waiting for us ahead. And although the trip was stressful, the view from the beach into the sea paid off. There were some people already there, but not too much. The shore was covered with tiny brownish summer houses - so typical to Norway. Almost all of them were empty now. One can really run away from people in Norway.
Having seen the see we called it a day and we were back home before sunset. According to weather forecast, it should be snowing tonight in Åmli. Finally!

An attempt on Trogsfjell

The view from the house of my friend overlooks the river called Nidelva (as wide as our longest one Nemunas), a layer of high fir trees  and a steep  and bare wall of rock - about five hundred meters in height. The water in river is calm, reflecting the always green trees and the mood of the sky. The view makes the viewer feel small instantly and gives that spine-shivering feeling of Twin-peaks like atmosphere.
There aren't much residents in the Åmli town, which spans alongside both shores of river. All houses white or brown, modestly decorated with Christmas lights. No sign of snow there yet, but the rain is a constant companion these days. We took off for the hike to the center first, hoping to continue our journey up the hill. Armed with a thermos of hot tea and a heavy bag of camera and lenses we started our journey. Soon we were greeted with a cloud of rain. It started raining lightly, our upper bodies were protected by proper skiing jackets(what works for snow, works for rain, right?). As we continued it started getting more wet and our jeans were totally wet by the time we reached town center. We went into the pharmacy our friend worked and asked for the keys of car to get back home.
The second round of conquering the hill started by carefully studying weather forecast and drinking the tea from the thermos we have prepared earlier. In two hours the rain almost stopped. Now we drove to the center, left the car there and went over the stone bridge (which was built in the 1918). The path to Trogsfjell peak was starting just few steps ahead. But the wasn't any real path - just bare steep black rock and the moss growing on the path sides. Firs and pines, blueberry bushes, fallen thorns on the wet stone. A walk up was long and slow, and nature tried to attack us with rain again. But at the height of mere 290 meter we gave up - the rock was too steep, too wet for us coming unprepared. The view, however, however was still breathtaking. We gulped our pride and descendent down even more carefully.
Because our friend was still working, we went to see the church - a white wooden one with a cemetery around it.

Åmli's church

And the evening comes early to this town - at 8 pm it feels like like a deep dark night. Everything is closed, and there is zero social life. A real small mystery town.

From Oslo by train

It turns out that even if you can't get a reservation for a train on specific time, there still might be a place for you on that train. And you won't need to sit on your luggage after all. I talked to three nsb (Norwegian rail) officers hoping at least one of them was a conductor of my train. None of them was. But one of them told me to go to wagon, choose a place from 13 to 20 and just wait for conductor. And so I did. The conductor didn't show until the train started moving. Technically they can ask you out, but humanly they won't. And if you have a rail pass(which means it's a ticket valid for specific dates), then in worst case there is some space in restaurant wagon. Standing there for three and a half hours would have been quite difficult, I think.
Once I got on a train and it left Oslo, I couldn't take my eyes off the window. And the weather was quite nice. Medium height mountains, bays, fjords, valleys painted with the warm shades of sun. White or brown wooden houses, following same design principles - similar and different at the same time. The railway was dangerously going across the lakes, rivers, tunnels. Sometimes it seemed like there was only a half meter between a rock wall and a train window. Good weather ended soon. The mountains hid their peeks in the pillows of clouds and cloaks of fog - but it still looked magical to me. Though there was no snow to be seen, the small lakes were frozen and looked like mirrors on the surface of earth. Only the reflection wasn't quite clear - as if it has been covered with hot water steam. The spring water on the rocks - tiny waterfalls - that was frozen too!
As the train moved towards my destination - Nelaug - everything became engulfed with a light rain, the sky was just gray and everything else was of that colour as well. The two-coloured houses of white and brown fitted into that landscape very well.
Nelaug was just the train station where we had to get off - we were going to far more disconnected place - Åmli - no trains, just local buses going there. Therefore, a friend had to pick me and her boyfriend from train station. As we got off, she was already waiting for us.

It's getting hot before Christmas

It's geting too warm these days in Lithuania. Synoptics promise 11 degrees by Celsius. Exactly the same as last year in Rome. So, I decided to head somewhere more cold - Norway! I did manage to win few degrees, but it's still 5 degrees above zero and no snow at all! Of course, this reason of my journey is a total bullshit and I'm going there to visit my friend for Christmas. And maybe few other things.
One thing I already learn is that Norwegians travel a lot by train and to reserve a ticket in advance even if it's not mandatory is a must. Especially in this period of festivals. The price of gaining this knowledge is not huge yet - I'm hoping to sit on my luggage for 3 and half hours on a journey to a small town of 600 people.