Where in the World is Carl Nelson Hoeg?

So it turns out on August 28th, 2008, I was an international man of mystery? Due to a miscommunication with the Larkins, they thought I would be travelling to England a day earlier than I actually was! When I did not show up at the train station from what I am told the phones calls and emails were sent all over the world in able to locate the whereabouts of a certain 21-year-old backpacker! Is he still in France? Did the Chunnel collapse!? Is he lost in England (the one place on his trip where everything is in English, it would be ironic)? Or is there some other explanation that explains why he suddenly became a missing person!?

Meanwhile in Paris, France I was enjoying a relaxing dinner with my host family completely unsuspecting that anything was wrong. I guess the people who were involved in the search must of concluded that there was some sort of mix up in when I was actually coming because I myself did not receive any emails or phone calls regarding my unknown whereabouts!

At any rate yesterday I arrived in England as planned (or at least I thought as planned) and got to hear this very entertaining story about everyone wondering where I was. I got quite a laugh from it.

le Tour de France

Let me just start off by saying.....France hosts one heck of a bike race!!!!

From the second I arrived on the famous Champs Elysees Sunday morning I was like a small child on Christmas morning. I wanted to buy everything (high prices made sure that I did not...) and I was so excited for everything to get started. Of course I had showed up at about 10:30 and the real festivities would not start till around 2:30. So I found what I felt was the best spot and began waiting talking with some Scots, a student from Berkely, and a fanily from Virginia. Around 2:30 all of the team and tour sponsors came through in a big, wild parade (see pics below), which helped pass the time.



Then after another hour of waiting, the moment finally arrived and the riders of the Tour de France streaked down the Champs Elysees for the first of eight laps! There was a breakaway at the start (see next pic) and many other attempts to breakaway but none managed to stay ahead of the peleton, all were caught.


If you look at the above picture you can see that the gutter on the side of the road is much smoother than the bumpy Champs Elysees, because of this when some riders try to break away from the peleton they would ride in the gutter! So if you did not pull back your head and camera you might have a rider crash into you! You can see riders using the gutter in the below video, plus it gives a good sense of what it was like to be right in the action!!! (I must say thought that the video does not do justice to how rediculously fast they go!).




Sometimes the peleton would be in one big clump while other times it would be long and spread out. Everyone was always trying to spot the Maillot Jaune (proof that where's Waldo books have real life value!!!). Try your luck on these next two photos....


I could not see any of the ending ceremonies from where I was, but I am told (by the scots, who have been to countless stages over the years) it is not nearly as exciting because you only see the riders once, when they finish, instead of the sixteen times I saw them (eight times on both sides).

After all the ceremonies finish each team takes one final lap around the Champs de Lyse as a team to celebrate the ending of the tour. The picture below is of Carlos Sastra (the winner, in yellow) with a teamate and the Spanish flag.


As you can probably tell I really enjoyed this, in fact it is probably the highlight of my trip so far! I could go on and on and post tons more pictures (I have around 100), but I imagine this should do the job without boring my readers!

P.S. - The rest of Paris is great as well!

One Very Happy Stomach

So I have moved on from Brugges (I am travelling to Paris today), but my stomach is wishing I stayed longer in Brugges! Everything about my time in Brugges was great I had perfect weather, the town was beatiful, and it was nearly as blasted expensive as Scandanavia or Amsterdam! My first day I wandered around the town taking in all the different squares, markets, churches, canals, and all the sites. In the main square I bought Fries and had them with Mayonase! From there I proceeded to find the largest Spagetti Dinner you have ever seen (I could not finish it) for only 5 Euro! Finally I finished the day off eating a hot waffle with fresh whipping cream and straberries while I watched the sun set over a canal full of swans.

On my second day the weather was also beatiful and quite hot, so I did as the locals do rented a bike and headed to the sea by biking along a beatiful canal (see picture). I of course stopped in the city of Damme for a snack and had a pancake with a massive pile of fresh fruit. After that I proceded to go the wrong direction for 10 km before figuring out my mistake and turning around! Finally I made it to the beach. It really was the perfect day to go to the beach and just relaxm read a book, and take a plunge! In the evening I made my way back to Brugge for more Fries and dinner before turning in for the night. I would love to come back to Brugge some time and spend a relaxing week, it really is a nice place!

Its a Small World!

So I know the phrase "Its a Small World" is way over used, but sometimes it is so true! So two days ago in Amsterdam I was out and about seeing the various sites of the city. I had actually ventured away from the main tourist areas in order to see the Heineken Expearience, a museum all about the famous Dutch Beer (plus admission gets you three beers!!)! Unfortunately it turns out that the place was closed for renovations so I found a nice canal and sat down to figure out what I should do next. All of a sudden I hear a voice say "Carl Hoeg?!?". I look up and see one of my friends from college Aaron Schute! I could hardly believe it! I knew he was going to be in Europe for about a week or two when he came home from Tanzania, but I had no idea when or where in Europe he would be going, and here we were not only in the same city (with millions of other people), but we had some how managed to run into each other! Of course from there we spent the rest of the day togther wandering the streets of Amsterdam and catching up with what each other had been up to. Aaron like myself plans to make his way up to Finland to visit Ari and his family before he heads home via Amsterdam. Yesterday we went our seperate ways, me to Brugge, Brussels and Aaron to Frankfort, Germany.

There have been a number of random things happening to me throughout this trip including being on the same plane as Ruth Torkelson, meeting students from UNI in Sweden, and just running into random people from Minnesota, but I must say that this one takes the cake so far! In fact I will as they say "Eat my hat" if anything actually tops this one!

I am Home! (At least in 1890 I would be)

So I have arrived and spent the last few days here in Southern Denmark rediscovering part of my family's European roots! I arrived and was picked up by Mie and Michael. I recognized Mie right away, but I was a little unsure about Michael. It has been around 10 years since he visited my family in the states and at the time he had a ring in his eyebrow! Now he is a professional vet, married, and has changed a lot (he no longer as the ring by the way). Right away I was treated to a massive meal (something I have become accustomed to here) and beer (I seem to be drinking beer as if it is a substitute for water!).

My first morning here I was taken to Anne Marie and Hedamon’s house (see above picture) for breakfast where they showed me old pictures of our family and who immigrated to the United States and who stayed in Denmark (turns out they showed some of the same pictures to another college bum some 30 years ago…). If you look at the picture below you can see a family from the mid 1800s. The two adults are Anne Marie’s grandparents.

I believe it was the son on the left who immigrated to the United States and since the Hoeg family (and myself!) has come into existence. The son on the right due to health problems stayed in Denmark, and actually died after only another 10 years or so, but not before he had a few children creating our Danish Relatives family!

After breakfast I was taken all over Denmark. We made our way over to the West Coast for a lunch amung the Sand Dunes, and then went to many different cities and historic sites on our way back to the East Cost. We finished the evening at Mie's home, which is beautiful! It overlooks the sea, farmfields, forests, and the horses she raises!

From there I spent the next two days at Jens and Anna's house, which is the family farm. This farm has been in the family since around 1000 AD! That is a LONG time, and really cool. During my time here I got to meet a lot of sheep and two more horses while also being shown around much more of Denmark, including many more local spots that have significance to the family. I even saw the grave of the son who did not immigrate to the US.

Lastly I came back to where I started this visit, Michael and Carla's house. Here I was able to utilize high speed internet to plan the next few parts of my trip, including several changes. I decided that Denmark to England is a long trip and would skip a lot of good spots, so I have moved back my trip to England in order to see more! Tomorrow I am off to Amsterdam for two days followed by two days in Bruges before I will head to PARIS!

Gustavus' Folly

My family members might believe this post is about the fact that Gustavous College hired President Ohle...but they would be wrong! I am actually talking about the person named Gustavous! At one point during his rein he decided he wanted to drastically improve his naval power and ordered 4 new boats to be constructed, one of which was the Vasa.

The Vasa was a giant of a ship, which two decks of canons. Normal boats only have 1, and for good reason it turns out. After the Vasa was completed it set off on its maiden voyage, which lasted for a grand total 0f 20 mins. Two strong winds came up causing the boat to list on the first occation, and then tip onto its side on the second occation allowing water to rush in through the canon holes and sinking the boat. Gustavous was obviously not happy and their was an inquiry and everything but no real reasons were discovered at the time other then general theories.

333 years after it sank it was rediscovered and after some elaborate work it was raised from the bottom in 1959, and the restoration work began. The Vasa now sits in a museum full of information about the ship and the lives of sailors from the time. The boat is really impressive and looks like it came right out of pirates of the caribean.

Turns out the boat sank because it was too top heavy and did not have enough space for a proper amount of ballest weights! Meaning it was on the one hand too small, and on the other hand too big! At anyrate the massive design was ill concieved and brought on the boats doom, thus Gustavous' Folly.

At any rate if you can not tell already, I thought this boat was really cool! I also went to a national park today full of buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries in Scandinavia ranging from Manors to farmsteads to settlements. The park also had a zoo of animals from Scandiniavia, which included Reindeer (A small girl near me asked her father how they fly!).

Tomorrow I am off to visit the Danish relatives! I hope everyone back home is doing well!

A Good Home Stay

How does one know if a home stay was good? While there are many different criteria one could use, but it was not hard to figure out that I was treated exceedingly well While I stayed with Ari´s Family.

Ari's Mother made it her personal mission to make sure that I had clean clothes (she did laundry twice!), and was always enjoying big hot meals (I added a few pounds during the stay). I saw their local town of Jarvenpaa, Helsinki, as well as the lake district of Finland when we went to their summer home.

During my time their I was able to relax (the saunas helped) and recharge my batteries. Overall I had a great time there! I have now taken the boat back to Stockholm Sweden where I will be for the next two days before I start making my way down to visit my Danish Relatives! Today I saw the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. It was a 45 min ceremony which involved a lot of numbers by the Swedish Army Marching Band (they were really good).

Pictures!

So in a little under 2 weeks I have already over 300 pictures....Obviously I can not post them all to my blog. That would be a bit much! I hope you enjoy the pictures I have posted!

At the Bus Stop by my home, waiting to go to the airport...

Blue Lagoon!

More Blue Lagoon, it was so neat.

Iceland, Very Rugged very beautiful

Geyser in Iceland (the little dots around it are people)!

View From the Harbor in Iceland


Copenhagen!


As I said in a previous post, the Gardens in Copenhagen were Amazing!


Royal Palace in Oslo


Vikings! (in an Oslo Museum)

Brilliantly Colored Sunset in Bergen

The Fjords around Bergen


Flam Railway

The View of the Fjords from Flam

I hope you enjoyed that taste of my trip so far, I will put up more photos as the trip goes along, but do not worry I still will have plenty more photos to show you all when I get home!

BREAKING NEWS: Carl Obliterates Hoeg Hollow Sauna Record!

BREAKING NEWS from Jarvenpaa Finland! Last night while taking a sauna Carl and Ari achieved the temperature of 80 Celsius, which convertes to 176 degrees Fahrenheit! While this was an average Sauna temperature for Ari, it blew away anything Carl had ever experienced in the Hoeg Hallow Sauna. Best temperatures reported from Hoeg Hollow average from 140-150 degrees Fahrenheit, suggesting that Carl topped the record by at least 25 degrees!

Amyways It turns out that Saunas are extreamly popular in Finland, so much so that every single house in Finland has one in it! If a house did not have a sauna no Fin would want that house, because a house without a Sauna is hardly a house at all! Ari's family was very impressed that we had a Sauna at our Cabin (even if it is not quite up to their lofty temperature standards).

Transversing Scandanavia

So the next 24 hours will include the final segment of my trip that has essentially crossded scandanavia from the western coast of Norway to Helsinki Finland!

Yesterday I took a train back from Bergen to Oslo, but not being in the mood to soley travel I worked some sight seeing into my trip. I stopped and got off the train at Myrad and took a train that decends almost 900 meters in 20 km into the beautiful town of Flam, Norway. It was an amazing ride and I loved every second of it. After Flam I made my way back into Oslo were I found some dinner and then bought some food for the next part of my journy, a night train to Stockholm Sweden! Unfortunatly all the beds on the train were already taken so I had to spend the night in a normal train chair (which is nothing special). Still I managed 7 hours of sleep during the 10.5 hour ride. Normally a train from Oslo to Stockholm is much faster but ours was not direct, in fact we went all the way down to Malmo (which is within spitting distance of Copenhagen, Denmark) and then back up to Stockholm. Obviously night trains are not the most efficient way to travel, but still it accomplished its purpose for me.

Today Ienjoyed a completely free day of Exploring Stockholm. It was perfectly sunny, and the city was abuzz with activity. At 7:00 pm tonight I board a massive boat to go to Turku Finland. From there I take a 2 hour train to Helsinki and then a quick one to my friends house (Ari). After all this traveling I will finally settle down for 3-4 days to explore Finland from Ari's house, and maybe even do Laundry for the first time.....I could go longer though ;)

Norway

Sorry for going several days without a new post, I am afraid that even when hostels claim they have free wireless or internet access it is not always the case!

I did make it to Oslo on my second try just fine. In fact I ran into two other people on the train who were from UNI (university near wartburg). My first day in Oslo I checked out the city center, waterfront, and the Royal Palace. My Hostel in Oslo was way out of the city center and while being servicable it was not the greatest hostel ever (too many old people!). The second day in Oslo it rained basically all day, which made sighseeing sort of difficult. Still I went out and checked out the Castle near the waterfront and its various Museums. I really liked the Resistance Museum (WWII). The last major attraction I went to in Oslo was the Viking ship museum, before conceeding to the weather.

On monday morning I got on a train and traveled to Bergen! While Oslo was nice, I probably would never go back, because Bergen is beautiful and has so much more to do (active stuff!). Monday night I hiked up a mountain to get the overlook of the city and watch the sunset over the harbor. Later I went out for a beer with an English and Swiss students who were also staying at my hostel in Bergen. Food and drinks in Norway are really expensive! Today I went out on a four hour boat tour of the fojords and they were beatiful! I love Western Norway and will be sad to leave it in a few days, but there is so many more places to go and people to see!

I wish I could post some of my pictures, but without a real computer (this is a network setup), I can not download my pics from my camera, hopefully I will be able to soon!

Where exactly am I?!?

So today was my first day I planned to travel via trian. I set my alarm early so I could get up plenty early to catch my 8:23 train to Oslo. Sounds like a good plan right (I sure thought so).

Well things went downhill from the start, first I slept through my alarm and woke up to find that my train would be leaving in about 40 mins. I quickly threw my stuff into my bag, got dressed, grabed some food to go from the hostels breakfast cafe and sped over to the station in Copenhagen. Well I made it in time, but it turns out that the timetable I have is no longer 100% acurate (not really a huge surprise to me) and that there was no train leaving at 8:23 for Oslo. instead the ticket officer gave me an itinerary to get to Oslo only slightly later than what I had planned on. The catch was it was not direct and I would change trains three times. Well I figure as a 21 year old adult I should be able to deal with this, so I decide to give it a try.

My first train went great and I made it to my first change with lots of time to spare. So I found the gate for my next train sat down and waited. unfotunately this is where it all went wrong. Due to the fact that a train was partially blocking my gate it turns out my train was further down, indeed I saw my train, I just did not realize it was mine. I am quite sure that the station made an announcement but it was a smaller Swedish town so it was only in Swedish which does me no good. As soon as the train left (without me), and my gate showed a new destination I instantly realized my mistake.

So armed with a map of Sweden and a Eurail pass I started to create my own route to Oslo! Lucky Eurail does not have me creating their itineraries, because I turned out to be very inefficient.

To make a long story short (very long story actually), after ending up in many different Swedish Train stations I finally had to face reality in Karlstad Sweden (which is actually a very nice town), I was not destined to make it to Oslo today. So turned on my nokia and looked up the map of Karlstad Sweden and began going from hotel to hotel in order to find the cheapest place to stay (no hostels here).

So here I am in a best western in sweden enjoying my very own room and complimentry email! (Only for about $90, not bad considering my predicament). Tomorrow will be take II as I again try and reach Oslo, there is a train leaving here at 11:30 tnat goes straight to Oslo, and I plan to be on it!

It's a biker world...

It's a bikers world, at least in Copenhagen Denmark it is. I arrived to find bikes everywhere! Indeed my travel book even recommended that travelers should rent a bike in order to better xplore the city. Being a big biker, I was not going to anger the biking gods by not indulging in this biking center! So I rented a bike from my hostel (which is even nicer than my hostel in Iceland) and set off to explore the city.

It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky with the temprature around 80. Copenhagen is full of beatiful green and colorful gardens, so I explored many of them, the britanicle garden created by the univfersity was particularly beatiful. After exploring the gardens I biked on and saw many of the famous buildings and squares in Copenhagen. Then I headed for the coast to check out Copenhagen's most famous site, the statue of the little mermaid!
I spent a good portion of the afternoon sprawled out in a park and reading a book, it seemed like the thing to do (the park was full of people doing the same as me).

In the evening I chatted with my two french roomates and then I went to the mainstreet to find some food stands and watch some of the street performers. Finally I called it an early night (no sleep 2 of the last 3 nights), so I could get up and catch a morning train to Oslo!

(This post tells what I did on the 3rd of July, I just could not post it until now)

Reykjavik

After a six hour plane ride I arrived at my first destination, Reykjavik! The flight was uneventful (as usual I got no sleep), except for one thing. Ruth Torkelson (Armstrong) was also on my flight! She was with a group from the University of Minnesota headed to Paris for a six week summer study abroad program. What a coincidence!

Today was cloudy and cold, and from the plane Iceland looked like a barren land, so I was not sure what to expect. I made it to my hostel just fine (it is really nice) and then I headed off for one of the most famous sites of Iceland, the Blue Lagoon. It is a hot spring located in the middle of a rock lava field. The combination of cemicals creates erie blue water with steam rising from different spots. It really is a beautiful site (Iceland is much nicer once you get away from the airport) After the plane I was perfectly happy to send the majority of day relaxing in the water, sauna, steam room, or under the water fall. It makes jet lag a non issue!

When I finished up at the lagoon I went to the city center by the harbor and found a food stand where I got diner. Finally I headed back to the hostel to relax and probably get to bed early. Tomorrow I will also be in Reykjavic sight seeng before I move on to the mainland of Europe!