Re-Adjusting & month long vacation in northern Europe

I think it is only fitting, that I use this famous painting byNorwegian painter Munch, to show you how I felt and still feeling sometimes, when returned to Guinea after spending 2 weeks in Norway and 2 weeks in its neighboring Scandinavian countries.

Oh, the cool weather, the clean streets, the incredible efficient, comfortable, reliable, convenient and extensive public transportation network of buses and trains, dentless solid one color spanking new vehicles, beautiful consumer products for your every possible needs(or should I say wants) in your life, drinkable tap water, ice cubes, proper buildings, proper restaurants and cafes... I can go on forever. La Guinee is anything but...

I feel more shocked this time around. I think the difference between Conakry and say Stockholm or Oslo is greater then the difference between Conakry and New York for me. It must have something to do with the fact that I lived in NYC for 6 years, and have seen many different neighborhoods. Its cityscape runs the whole gamut of social-economic conditions. Where when one is a tourist at a place, one tend to see the most presentable parts of that city. But I would still say, that NYC public transit still have much catching up to do to their northern European counterparts.

Now onto a quick rundown of my month long vacation in Europe.

First I spent a day and night in the quaint and artsy neighborhood Montmartre, in a hostel situated behind la Basilique de Sacre Coeur. It is not touristy at all in this part of Montmatre. One can enjoy a quite stroll through beautiful parisian streets admire flower adorned balconies, sidewalk cafes, colorful sidewalk fruits and vegetable stands like a local. I sat in a small park behind the church and took this picture, the back of Sacre Coeur soaring into the blue sky with white fluffy clouds gently brushing by. The weather was just right, the breeze was just refreshing, the sound of water from the fountain in the park was just soothing, and I am awestruck at have experienced the two extreme worlds in less than 12 hours. Apparently the area around the church is very populated with west Africans, and during some of my walks, I heard a lot of Pular, the local language spoken in my village. I felt certain closeness, and I greeted random strangers in Pular and got a lot of smiles and warm greetings in return. Yeah, I was much more comfortable speaking broken Pular to Guineans I found in Paris, then speaking broken french to parisians. Guineans are so warm to people who try to speak their mother tongue, regardless how badly one's pronunciation is. Here, it is the effort that counts. One of the reason why I enjoy my time in Guinea despite of the ever deteriorating physical, economical and political condition of the country. I enjoyed some crepes, salmon spinach cuiche, and of course a tasty meal of sushi (not because Paris is known for sushi, but because it will be the cheaper place to eat it compare to the rest of stops on my trip).

Next, I flew to Copenhagen via Amsterdam. One day I will visit Amsterdam instead of just its airport. Spent a night in a at least 10 stories high old office building turned into a modern IKEA inspired hostel that has more than 1000 beds. My 3 danish roommates from the countryside were here to hang out in the city for the weekend. My parents flew in the next day as scheduled. It's so wonderful to see them. While on the surface they seemed just like I remembered, but I can tell that my dad has slowed down quite a bit from the last time I saw him. As I am writing this now, I feel that the month I spent with them was not enough. Copenhagen is a really flat, with wide streets to accommodate the main mode of transportation - bicycles. Old, young, in jeans, in suit, in dress, going to work, going to stores, all by bicycles. There are still buses and metros, but they love getting around on bikes. I rented a bike for day, a wonderful way to discover the city, in particular to Christiania, originally found by communist hippies, partially self-governing neighborhood of about 850 residents, where the people have developed their own set of rules, completely independent of the Danish government. It is kinda like the equivalent of american trailer park with grafittis all over the place.

3 days later, we crossed from Danmark to Malmo, Sweden via the Oresund Bridge, the second longest suspension bridge in the world (at 1,624 meters long) on the train, meandering along the western coastline of Sweden before entering the capital of Norway, Oslo. Oslo is a lot more compact then Copenhagen(CPH), with narrower streets, and therefore much less bicycles. It is also greener and more hilly. Like CPH, Oslo has its share of pedestrian streets, royal palaces, stately european buildings, bustling waterfront, but I think because it is build on rolling hills and has smaller streets, the cityscape is softer and cozier to that of CPH.

My mom parted from my dad and I after spending 2 days in Oslo, she headed west to Bergen where my brother and sister-in-law recently moved to in Norway to fulfill her "duty" of a new grandmother. Her very first grandchild at an age of 73, needless to say, she is elated. My dad and I, headed in the opposite direction by train, re-enter into Sweden to its majestic capital, Stockholm (STK). STK is made up of 5 to 6 large islands interconnected by many old style bridges. Thank to the varying elevation of the islands, the view across the city is rather dramatic. STK seems larger, more metropolitan, more majestic, more well heeled than the previous two capitals I have visited. It also has a greater mixture of old and modern architecture. It's great to stroll on the cobble stone path in the old town and window shop, or sit on the grass in many small parks along the waterfront. Both my dad and I (two engineering "nerd") really enjoyed the VASA museum, where a well kept 17th century ship is on display. VASA was one of the greatest warship at her time, but sank on its maiden voyage. Apparently the counterweight was too little to keep it stable to the slightest wind. It's not so much that a beautiful large wooden ship (220 feet long, 170 feet tall) was built so long ago, but it is the engineering feat that lifted this ship 100 ft from the sea bottom while keeping the ship intact and brought it to land, that interested us and impressed us.

Continuing westward, we took a overnight cruise to Helsinki. We had a buffet dinner on the ship. I ate a lot of salmons, smoked, raw, cooked, and about 4 or was it 5 heaping plates of food plus desert. Just like anyone who came from impoverished Africa would have done, or someone who makes about $2 a day traveling in countries that cost of living is at least 20% higher than the U.S., plus being in her 30's still have her parents pay for food and lodging because she makes only $2 a day. Needless to say, while I really enjoyed spending time with my parents and visiting new places, I felt very strained financially and therefore mentally. Needless to say, my stomach did not feel very good at all after stuffing myself that night. I ate much less on our return cruise.

Helsinki was more of a transit town for us. A relative newer city without old architecture. It felt more eastern european to me, perhaps partially because the weather was mostly cloudy and rainy while we were there. We took a day trip to see Tallinn, capital of Estonia by boat crossing the Baltic sea. Tallinn is a wonderful surprise. The old town is ornate but not tacky. (here is a picture of me in front of a cathedral). The city has a large area (25% of city area) of forest, green space that date many centuries back, and left untouched, very natural. Along the waterfront, there are many stylish modern houses or apartments, with the kind of design that can go into Architecture Digest.

The next couple of days were by ship and by train backtracking to Oslo, then continuing westward to Bergen, the former capital of Norway. The train from Oslo to Bergen is about 6-7 hours, with the view on the way in the last two hours very dramatic. Rivers cutting through soaring glaciers creating deep valley - the fjords, and countless waterfalls of all different shapes and forms. The train track meander through mountains, twisting and turning, made me rather sick at the end.

Bergen is a beautiful seaside town. Somehow, my brother always manages to live in a place that's off the mountains and by the water, a beautiful combination. My brother's apartment is somewhere half way on the mountain. While the straight distance from the waterfront to his home is short, the uphill climb makes it much longer. The terrain does keep one in shape through.
Most sightseeing places in Bergen are with walking distance, like the fishman's market, the old wooden houses, the pedestrian shopping area, the museums. There is also a tram that takes people to the mountain top for a panoramic view of downtown Bergen (see picture on the right), and do a lot of hiking.

My niece is really cute! I love kissing her soft cheek. My niece's chinese name is Yucheng, meaning rainy city, named after Bergen (the rainy city of Norway). We were fortunately though enjoyed almost a week of sunny days.
It was also unseasonably warm. The vibe at Bergen felt very relaxing. Because it usually gets a lot of rain, when it is sunny, people just leave work early in the afternoon and flock to the sidewalk cafes. Norway seems to be far from the fast paced NYC life. Here, people are well taken care by the government because it is rich in crude oil, there seems to be a large number of middle class, and the difference between rich and poor are much smaller than U.S. or Guinea.

It was a last minute decision, but a great one, Winnie came to meet me in Bergen. We were able to do some more active trip together that I couldn't have done with my parents, or my brother and sister-in-law. Life is much centered around the baby for them these days. It is also a tough transition period for my brother, new country, new job, new language (although he uses english at his work and simple daily life), new baby, - C'est difficile! A phrase we use often here in Guinea. We, thank to the wonderful cob-web like train/bus network in Norway, went to a small village of 200 people, Solvorn in the Sogne Fjords. We stayed at a small b&b, borrowed their bikes and bike along the fjord, hiked to a tall waterfall, visited a wooden church built in the 1100, and ate a lot of apples along the road. The last time I saw lake water this clear, this blue was in the high plateau of Tibet. It is so gorgeous out here. My pictures don't do it justice.






Unfortunately, every vacation and gathering must come to an end, so we will treasure it more and wait for the next one with eagerness. I reorganized all the wonderful toys that Winnie, Michael and Qi bought, and some food that my parents brought over from the U.S. into one big huge suitcase. I owe Winnie big, lugging such a heavy suitcase over to me. She is amazing, always able to work a lot and still have time for friends. Again, thank to all my wonderful friends: Fenyee, Winnie, Kay, Martin, Helen, Qi, Mark, Huston, Cindy, Sam, Tracy, Nicole and Barbaros, for donating money to help shipping many wonderful french books to me from the U.S., and had enough left over to purchase educational games and toys; Michael for bringing back the books from Canada, packaging them and sending them to me; and Ravi for contributing his effort in the west coast on collecting books and sending them to me. I could not have done it alone. Merci, Merci, Merci!!!

I spent the last day there with my family while Winnie toured around Bergen on her own. Got to eat more of my mom's great cooking that I miss so much and unable to reproduce due to lack of ingredients and skills.

Winnie and I took an overnight train together back to Oslo where she flew back to the U.S., and I continued onto CPH to catch my flight to Paris, then onto Conakry. My suitcase weighed 11 kg (22 lbs) over the limit. It costs 16 euro for each additional kg. It would've costed more than what we spent on the toys. So I went to a corner in the airport (it was not crowded that day), went through every packaging, threw out all the cartons, and boxes, stuffed all the heavy stuff in my carry-on, got the weight down to 1 kg over the limit, which they didn't bother to charge me. Phew! 1 day later, I was back in hot, humid, sewage ridden, shanty town Conakry, feeling very frustrated about how I can get myself and all these books and toys back to my site. I've since slowly eased into C'est la vie mood and take things as they go again. It will be all better when I get back to my village where life is much simpler and cheaper, where I am the happiest. I am only staying here longer than I wanted to in hope to catch a free and safer ride back to site.

That's it for now, folks. More later, soon, I hope.