Good Bye and Good Night

I'm back in Kansas...

Well actually it's more like Victoria, British Columbia.

This will be the last posting for this blogsite. I felt that I needed to have a final concluding word to just sum up my Scandinavian adventures. Destinations in chronological order beginning 29th of August 2009 and ending 7th October 2009:

Tonsberg, Norway
Oslo, Norway
Bergen, Norway
Balestrand, Norway
Fjaerland, Norway
Alesund, Norway
Trondheim, Norway
Sundsvall, Sweden
Umea, Sweden
Vaasa, Finland
Jyvaskyla, Finland
Pori, Finland
Helsinki, Finland
Tallinn, Estonia
Turku, Finland
Stockholm, Sweden
Helsingborg, Sweden
Helsingor, Denmark
Humlebaek, Denmark
Copenhagen, Denmark

A brief visit to Glasgow again to send some boxes home, kiss my boyfriend and pick up my cat before heading home to Canada.

Packing List:

hiking boots ( useful for the first week on the farm, gave them away in Helsinki because I got tired of carrying them, plus they started to hurt my feet)
1 pair of waterproof pants ( gave these away in Jyvaskyla)
walking shoes
fast drying top ( I lived in this shirt, super comfortable and breathable)
3 extra long sleeve cotton tops ( 1 too many. I think I would have been better off with 1 extra fasting drying top)
PJ top
PJ bottom
5 pairs of socks
5 pairs of underwear
2 bras
1 swimsuit
1 hat
1 pair of gloves
contacts/solution
hair brush
deodorant
toothbrush
toothpaste
shampoo
body soap
small bottle of laundry soap
nail clipper
mobile phone
phone charger
digital camera
digital camera battery charger
USB card reader to transfer photo files
1 hooded base layer jacket/doubled as jumper
1 3/4 length rain jacket
1 umbrella
Combination Lock (I didn't use this)
1 pair of flip flops
Head torch
Spork
Travel Guides
Sketch book
Diary
Pens

Wish I had brought:
sink stopper for washing clothes
personal music player of some sort

10 things I learned along the way:

1. From Linda, Marianne, the family and their students, I learned that a happy life can be found in the garden.
2. I'm allergic to Norwegian midges
3. Scandinavia has many good qualities, coffee quality isn't one of them I'm afraid.
4. Couchsurfing has forever changed my independent travel adventures. I'm glad I took the time to go search for fellow couchsurfers who shared my age and my interests. I was able to meet contacts that I will endeavour to keep in touch with. Seeing a place through the eyes of a local has to be one of the best experiences ever.
5. As Marja, my lovely Swedish friend put it - Amongst the Scandinavian countries - " The Swedes are like the English of Scandinavia, nobody likes us "
6. There seems to be a mutual respect between the Scandinavians and the Japanese when it comes to design aesthetic and the Moomintrolls. I'm still contemplating this one.
7. Being able to experience and visit Alvar Aalto's masterpieces completely inspired me again. Learning about his buildings through books is nothing compared to actually seeing them in person. He just has this innate understanding of light, nature and landscape that seamlessly resolves itself in architecture that is sensitive to human scale, form and materials.
8. Try to avoid train travel during the day. There were a few beautiful afternoons that I could have spent sight-seeing, but because of my tight itinerary I had to spend them on a train.
9. Norway has some really good alternative music. Thanks again Annette for introducing me to Kings of Convenience
10. There is sauna etiquette in Finland. Note to foreigner - you might want to do some research before participating in Finnish sauna. Thanks to Kevin, Tero and Emmi for enlightening me.

Thanks to all my followers who were just so bored at work that they had resorted to following me on my blogsite. Mincing About is going to take an extended hiatus while I get settled on the west coast of Canada, but may resurrect itself on my next travel adventure! Also, I've added some more photos to previous postings, if interested. To future travellers who will be visiting Scandinavia, I hope my blogs have been helpful in planning your itinerary.

I am working on my next blogsite which is called: http://dugnadcollective.blogspot.com/. It's still being fleshed out but I hope to use the site to explore and document my post graduate research and next career path...so watch this space.

Safe journeys
xoxo