Eurotrip Part 1 -- London, Oslo and Genova

Jonathan:  So after Iceland, we flew into London for about a 21 hour stopover before heading up to Oslo.  Whirlwind European travel can be rather tiring, but Norway is such a beautiful country.  We really only had 3 days there in Oslo, but if Oslo is a representation of the rest of the country, Norway must be so incredible.  We even stumbled across the King of the Netherlands and the Queen of Norway driving by.  We figure there is some sort of Royal Scandal taking palce there :).

We had an awesome couchsurfing host, who didn't mind that we arrived at close to midnight, thanks RyanAir for your awesome travel schedule, and airports so close the major cities ... not!!  But anyway, wanrdering through Oslo seeing the sights, the parks, the architecture, very interesting.  The long nights were quite nice as well, sunrise at 3am was quite handy for our very early departure to get to our 6am flight.

So flying from Oslo to Parma, then it was time to catch a train in Italy.  Trains in Italy are an experience in themselves.  Fortunately, someone on the public bus we took knew how to get to the train station, and we found an operator who knew 5 or 6 words of English, so we managed to get the right train ticket.  Then our train sat around at the station for an extra 20 minutes while the conductors laughed, drank coffee and smoked cigarettes.  We sat there fuming because we had a connecting train to catch and only a 6 minute stopover to switch trains.  I guess they made up time by skipping a station or two.  We made our connection with 2 minutes to spare.

Getting to Genova, (or Genoa in English) we were greeted by our couchsurfing host who graciously met us at the train station, we walked back to his apartment, made us dinner while we showered, then took us on a night walking tour of Genova. Genova is a city of two faces.  It can look quite pleasant and beautiful on the seaside, as you would expect from an Italian city, but get into the little side streets and find the heart of the city to be quite different.  We were glad to have a guide who knew his way around.  We enjoyed walking through the city and seeing a ridiculously pompous Catholic procession involving the Cardinal of Genova, who is apparently next in line to be Pope.  We also found the most incredible Granite (graneetay) shop, which is like ice cream with out the cream.  We enjoyed our granite while up on a hillside overlooking Genova and the Mediterranean Sea.  What an afternoon.  After 4 great days in Genova, it was time to head off to San Remo, right on the Border with France.