Germany - 1 : BERLIN!

Our entire trip began with Berlin and we were real lucky at that. We had assumed the Malmo-Berlin train reservation would not be a problem. After the train arrived we saw that it was only sleeper coaches! and it was quite a tiny train! Luckily..and i mean LUCKILY we got the last 9 spots available. Imagine that. Cost us 15 Euro pax thanks to the Eurorail pass.

Believe it or not, this train spend more time at sea than on land :) Turns out to leave scandinavia the fastest mode is through Ferry; so this train boards a huge ferry.




It carries trucks, cars and god knows what else and was 7 storeys high. Pretty cool stuff.

Right, so we arrive at Berlin at some unearthly hour like 6am. Then we learnt an important lesson. Make reservations :)
3 guys split up and went looking for acco. Fortunately they got it without too much fight. It was a pretty cosy place and cost us some 15 euro/night. Good deal in all.

Berlin has lotsa architecture and a active night life...


..Couple of hot chicks as well.

We just walked about most of the while. All the famous places were kinda on the same long road. On the way we bumped into some Pakistani fella selling general touristy cool stuff; Russian Army caps and belts from WWII, handcuffs and stuff like that. It was fun to bargain, in Hindi that too :)
Right so Girish was eyeing these Handcuffs notoriously. After a whlie, once everyone was generally creating a ruckus on what to buy and bargaining and all, he quietly states his intent. Pays the man. Pockets the Cuffs. We all caught it though :)
Mane follows Suit (but he's pretty open about it). This is the beginning of a bond between the 2 that will strengthen in Munich (my next post :)
Chammi on the other hand didn't say a word during the whole thing. Watched. Smiled. Laughed. After we moved on, we checked around and saw Chammi is missing. Looking back we saw he was having a chat with the paki guy. he reached into his pocket handed the man something and took a brown bag in return. He tucked it safe within his 'Designed-for-the-Arctic' jacket and casually joined us.

So now we all headed for the parliament building. Its got a fabulous view from the top, we got in line for it. Now its the parliament so there is Xray screening and frisking and all :) The Xray guys were kinda shocked when the first pair of handcuffs showed up, then another. by the time Chammi's secret handcuffs showed up they were cracking up (amongst themselves :) Hahaha..frickin hilarious

Besdies the monuments, we also went to a Concentration Camp and the Zoo :D
Some pics below

Google Rocks

It really is the most amazing company! Their entire approach is simple yet amazingly useful.
Well this thought isn't random.

When Manu & gang arrived here in Jonkoping they didnt have our address. If you see coupla posts back i had mentioned our exact coordinates on google earth, just for kicks really, but those guys actually tracked our place down using Google Earth!!

This coupled with all the innovative stuff they've launched..

Gmail: revolutionized the seemingly-saturated free webmail market
Picasa: Free easy to use and seriously feature packed Photo software
Google earth: mapping the whole planet!
Relevant text ads!
and of course...Google search itself!

and there are tons of more products out there which i havent tried and i saw a documentary of what all they plan to introduce! Phenomenol!

I guess its their whole idealogy that makes them winners.

Norway - Gods Own Country

In Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the creator of Earth mention that he received a prize for his picture-perfect creation of the Norwegian Fjords. I can verify that he did deserve it.

Norway IS God's Own Country. Awesomely beautiful. The pics will give you some idea.








Right so the 14 of us, from all over Europe, SOMEHOW managed to get organized and actually get going on our 2200km road trip across Norway and Sweden. We rented 3 cars.
Just for clarification, there was:
Manu, Shubha and Savvy from Nice
Ethan and Navya from Amsterdam
Tommy and Chammi from Germany
Mane from Copenhagen
and ofcourse Girish, Guhan, Vivek, Kata and I from Sweden
and oohh...almost forgot..Pukhu from Milan (we had to pick him up from Oslo Airport!)

Right so the first thing that happens to us after picking up the cars is a Parking Fine. Seriosuly. didn't really think that ppl here cared, but they seem to. So thats out first 500 Kr Fine.
Later on, Girish tries the same in Norway and Sandjeford airport while picking Pukhu: thats our second 500 Norwegian Kronor fine.(Mane was having his own fun with some locals at the airport)



While driving on those awesome expressways we were a 'little' cautious of the speed limits, that means we oversped most of the time. Girish's car got caught on the Radar Camera once and Mine once. so thats 2 more speeding fines..but we dont know how much cause they'll mail that. but you can expect the worst.

So after driving for about 600 kms from Jonkoping to Oslo, it occurs to us that we dont have a place to stay in Oslo. Not that it was some new revelation but we thought..Oh well..we'll go there and find a youth hostel.

After searching for a good 3 hours we turned up with nothing. nada. zilch. So we shifted to plan Z. Sleep in cars. Can you believe that we actually had to drive around and find a spot where there wasnt a parking charge for the night!

all 3 cars, all fogged up n all at Oslo central.

The journey from Oslo to Bergen was what the trip was really about. The drive was too good for words. The best thing about your own vehicle; you can stop whenever and wherever you want and enjoy the scenery.






The drive in itself was fun too, awesome bridges, ferry crossings and way too many tunnels..one even 25 km long!







Bergen was nice as well; but we barely spent any time in any of the cities. This was mostly a "road" trip.
Though we do have some memories of Bergen..