Norway. Hm.

As I alluded to earlier in my post about Crazy Travel several weeks ago, Simon & I went to Norway this past weekend. The airport we flew in to was about 120km outside of Oslo, so instead of going thru the effort to go to Oslo (we flew in Sat morning & flew out Sunday nite. a 2.5 hour bus ride to Oslo just didn't make sense), we opted to stay in the tiny, quiet town of Sandefjord where we flew in to.
If you're looking for a quiet, low key, relaxing weekend, Sandefjord is your place. If you're a city-boy like Simon, well...that's a different story. On foot, we actually managed to see the entire town (or what was worth seeing) is less than 5 hours-and that included going to the Whaling Museum and wandering in shops. Wow. Which, it's a good thing it only takes 5 hours-the town closed down at 5p on Saturday, and from what we could tell on Sunday, didn't open back up either! :)
And, let's talk about cost. I knew the Scandinavian countries were 'expensive.' But, I thought that after London, I'd be prepared. Wrong. Two beers in the pub (the *one* thing that was open Saturday nite past 6p...) cost $26. Yep. $26. That's not a typo. Thank goodness the hotel provided free breakfast and dinner-eating there was the only way we could afford the beer! :)

Super nice, friendly people. A huge thumbs up there. The scenery is pretty (not stunning-which that could just be a function of where we were at..), but it reminded me so much of being in Alaska-both the landscape and the buildings-function over form-that I didn't feel like I was actually seeing or experiencing anything new. Odd.

I doubt I'll ever go back to Norway-unless I'm suddenly inspired to join the jet-set winter ski group. But, at the very least, I guess I can now say, 'been there, done that.' Not exactly the reaction I like to have after travelling somewhere new, but it's the truth. Hm.