Europe: My Old Main Home Page

When I started this website, it was just to track my trip through Europe. Because of this, I had two pages devoted to the trip. Now that I’m continuing this website, I want to consolidate all of the Europe related blogs, notes, photos, etc. to one section of the website to keep in case I’d like to look back at it. The first long post here is actually my whole main home page from the trip. Then the blog that I kept will follow in case anyone is crazy enough to read all of this! haha. Thank you for visiting… I really do appreciate it. I like to keep this website for myself, but it’s nice to know others look at it as well.

Ireland (July 2016)

Well I made it to Ireland... the last country on my trip! I'm going to be heading home after I leave here, but I'm already planning two or three other trips for a few years down the road. I'm going to keep the website up and update it with other things in my life, so check in whenever you'd like!

Back to Ireland... I'm heading to Galway today, but so far I've mostly only seen the countryside. It's real nice. Lots of farms, pubs, small cottages, etc. I'll write more about it in my blog soon!

 

England (July 2016)

England was on the list of top 3 places that I wanted to visit before I left for this trip. I think there were many reasons I wanted to visit. England to me is our sister country. We have a lot of connections with England and even though we fought our revolutionary war against them, we're still close friends. In the towns and cities there is to me some sort of old fashioned Harry Potter-like magical feel to the houses, countryside and the cities. For an American, I feel at home here with everyone speaking my language and knowing most of the people have many of the same core values and beliefs as me, but at the same time it feels like an entirely different place. 

 

Amsterdam (July 2016)

I made it to Amsterdam on my way to the UK. I was told by many, many people in Europe how nice Amsterdam was so I had high expectations. It turned out to be a great city, just like everyone said. I've only been here 1 full day, but I'm excited to spend another 2 days here and explore a lot more. I did not realize Amsterdam had sooo many canals and an unbelievable amount of bicycles. I believe a true fact about Amsterdam is that there are more bicycles in the city than there are people in the city. It's an intricate maze of bicyclists and I'm having a lot of fun here.

 

Norway (June 2016)

I took a long train ride from Oslo up to Northern Norway. I was not sure if it was the best thing to do because of how far I had to travel. Also, my family vacation at Newfound lake is at the end of this month and I was thinking of maybe heading to the UK, then back home because of time and money constraints, but I decided to go for it anyway. You only live once right :) So, thank God when I got to the Lofoten Islands, they turned out to be the first place on this trip that fit exactly with the picture that I had in my mind. This is the nicest place I've been to...my favorite part of the trip and it's just beginning. I've only been here 1 day, but I expect to stay for a week or two. I'm certain that this will be my favorite part of the whole trip already....before even seeing the UK. If you ever get a chance... please visit the Lofoten islands in Norway on a bicycle with a tent haha. It's a great place to bike, hike, camp, fish, etc. I'll be writing extensively about it in my blog.

Sweden (6/21/16)

I left Germany on a car ferry to Trelleborg, Sweden. The first thing I noticed about Sweden was not the country itself, but the people. The people in Sweden have been the most kind, helpful, and down to earth that I've met on this trip so far. Everyone I met here greets you with a smile. Also, as you can see in the photo... in the southern part of Sweden there is some awesome farmland to ride a bicycle through. I'm here for one more day to see their biggest holiday called Midsummer and I'm about to head out to see the festivities. I'll update my blog with what I find for all of you to see.

 

Germany (June 2016)

Munich is a real nice city. After leaving places like Slovenia and Austria though, I realize that I get much more excited about mountain ranges, lakes, and streams. I stayed for about 5 days in Munich as my wallet was stolen (Long story, but it's fine now...moving on...) then headed straight to Berlin. I'm here for 2 days, then I'm heading right to Sweeden to get back to biking and camping in Scandanavia! I spent a lot of time in Munich in the hotel as I did not have money, but I was able to get out to a few beer gardens, restaurants, and the technology museum.

 

Slovenia and Austria (June 2016)

Once I got to Slovenia and Austria, I realized immediately that I spent too much time in Italy haha. I really love this part of the world. There are vast mountain ranges, nice people, old chalet type houses, many small farms, rivers, and the views are spectacular. I have always loved the outdoors and my time spent in Slovenia and Austria have been the best parts of the trip so far. This countryside is amazing and I'll post many pictures in the blog. Above is a photo I took on the way to my campsite and Mt. Kanjavec which I am climbing and will write extensively about in the blog.

 

Venice, Italy (May 2016)

Venice was supposed to be a short stopover on my way out of Italy..maybe 2-3 days. I haven't had a good internet connection for a while, so I'm writing this from Slovenia. I have to say, Venice was probably my favorite town in Italy...close to Florence and Rome. I ended up staying 5 days or so because next I wanted to climb a mountain in Slovenia, but the weather just looked terrible for 10 days. I spent the 5 days at various campsites traveling all around the little islands near Venice and wandered around the main island extensively. Venice is a beautiful place and I think everyone should visit it one time just because of how unique the city is with it's canal structure. It's pretty awesome to see.

Florence, Italy (May 2016)

I got to Florence Italy Last night. All I can say is Wow!!! This city is great. Out of all of Italy, this is the nicest city I've been to. I would say by far, but Rome was pretty nice as well. If you want to have an absolutely amazing time seeing a great Italian city filled with traditional and modern culture, artwork everywhere, outstanding food, nightlife, and enjoy every minute of your trip... this is the place to go!

 

 

Rome, Italy (May 2016)

I'm in Rome right now. The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was head straight to the Colosseum. It was awesome!! They suggested you get a tour guide online because it's the type of exhibit that you need to really know a lot about to fully enjoy, so I jumped in on a tour. It was completely astonishing to me and I'm going to write a lot about it in the blog. I'm going to walk around Rome more tonight, then Rome and Vatican City tomorrow... then head towards Florence I think on Saturday.

 

 

 Sicily, Italy (May 2016)

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to go to Sicily and see the culture, try the food, and get to know the people. I'm finally here and it's amazing. The people here are great, the island is great, the food's great... But the big question for me is whether I go east or west from Palermo. I considered this to be the starting point of my trip 1 month ago. I planned to start in southern Italy and work my way north due to the time of the year and the weather. I got sidetracked, but now I'm here and my real trip can begin! Follow my blog to find out which way I go and how the bike ride goes. Wish me luck haha... It's gonna be a tough few days!

 

 

Pisa, Italy (May 2016)

I stopped by Pisa because the train to Rome would have taken too long. While in Pisa, I thought a lot about Sicily and found a ferry that goes directly to Palermo, Sicily. I'm currently on that boat in the port of Livorno and I will be in Sicily tomorrow!

But back to Pisa...... Pisa, Pisa, Pisa... I have very mixed feelings about Pisa. The leaning tower was actually so much nicer than I expected even after hearing about it for years in grammar school text books. It's absolutely amazing to see in person. It's a massive cylindrical bell tower made out of pristine stone and the whole thing is leaning enough that you're waiting for it to fall at any moment. It's surrounded by other ancient buildings of the same caliber and then that is surrounded by a huge stone wall as if this was the heart of a fortified city 1000 years ago. The only problem is that the wall is still needed today to keep the bad part of the city right outside. I'll talk more about this in my blog, but all in all, it was well worth visiting for me.

 

 

Marseille, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Ventimiglia (May 2016)

After Toulouse, I took a train to Marseille. Marseille was just sort of a normal city from what I could tell so I biked to Touloud. From there I took a train to Cannes to see what the film festival was like. Rode my bicycle to Nice (Which is my favorite french city so far). Rode my bike to Monaco where the F1 Grand Prix was taking place. Next I took a train to Ventimiglia which is in Italy! Italy is one of the countries I'm most excited to see so I'm very happy to finally be here in Ventimiglia!

The photo above is from the road I was biking on just leaving Nice and heading towards Monaco. It was by far the most scenic bike ride I've ever been on.

 

 

Toulouse, France (May 2016)

My trip took me through Toulouse, France briefly on the way to Andorra. I'm back in Toulouse now to pick up my bicycle and begin bicycle/train touring!! Toulouse is a very modern city, but aesthetically it still looks very old as if it has not changed much in the past 400 years. I'm spending another 3 or 4 days in France as a stopover before heading to Italy. I plan to visit Paris and more of France later if time and money permits!

 

 

 

Andorra (May 2016)

I took a bus to Andorra from Toulouse France. There's a lot of great nature, wildlife, camping, hiking areas there. I was walking with a heavy pack for many hours a day for 4 days straight and when I got to Andorra, I needed to rest. Unfortunately, I did not get to go on a big hike in the mountains, but Andorra was still really neat to see. The view from my hotel room is above. I'll put some photos from a campsite I stayed at in my blog.

 

 

 

Barcelona, Spain (April 2016)

The ship landed in Barcelona as our final destination. So I finally set foot on mainland European soil! I spent the first morning walking around Barcelona. In the first half hour of wandering around, I stumbled across the building shown above as well as a 14th century castle across the street. It's pretty amazing to think that within a half an hour, I had already seen a building that was around before there was a concept of the United States.

 

 

 

Funchal, Medeira Portugal (April 2016)

Funchal, Medeira shown in the photo above from the cruise ship is an island state or territory of Portugal. The cruise ship stopped for 1 day and I spent the day walking around the main city area talking to people who live there and seeing the stores, architecture, and trying to get a good feel for what it's like on the island. 

 

 

 

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (April 2016)

From Florida, I took a Norwegian cruise liner towards Europe. The first stop on the cruise was at an Island called St. Thomas which is in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The beach above is called Magen's Bay and it's rated very highly on world's top beach lists. 

On the boat to Europe

 Cruise from Miami to Barcelona, Spain (April 2016)

Port Charlotte, FL USA (April 2016)

Here is a photo of my Uncle Mike and Aunt Pam's pool area. There's a pool, grill, patio, dry bar, and a 50" flat screen TV with the MLB package! We watched the Red Sox beat the undefeated Orioles last night and it was a great time. I watched part of the game while swimming in the pool and drinking a beer. Port Charlotte is a town right on the southwest coast of Florida and their house is a short walk from the ocean. All of the people here seem to be on vacation all of the time and I'm right with them as my vacation has finally began!

Dracut, MA USA (4/11/16)

I'm preparing to leave tomorrow from Dracut, Massachusetts, the town I grew up in. Every Time I get to a new place on the trip, I'll post a photo and write a little about what I saw on the overview page. Hopefully when complete, this will show the entire tour on one page! Above is a photo is of a typical farm in Dracut, MA. and below is one of yours truly before the trip.

TOP

A Few Recent Things...

Just some things that have happened this year:

I was able to go back to Germany for a week...

I bought a 1960's Gibson Hollowbody Guitar:

This is the mountain I hurt my back on. I halfway feel like it was worth it... (Update 3/17/19 after surgery and 2 years of pain… It wasn’t lol)

Halloween with my Niece and Nephew:

My New Apartment:

Recording my life

I'm going to begin using this website to record things that I do in my life. Hopefully there will be many more trips on this webpage soon!! However, for now I will be just posting new and interesting things, places I travel to, fun experiences, new music, good food, etc. Just the basics for now as I get back on my feet.

This week I'm looking at a few condos with my friend Cappy who's a realtor. I'm looking to get a small place near my work and pay it off as fast as possible with the end goal of selling it to use towards a place right in Boston, or to rent it out for the same reason. I believe I will want to stay in the Boston area for the forseable future, but of course you never know!

I think my next big trips will be Alaska or maybe a small european trip. I also would like to see many other countries of course. I'm excited to figure that all out once I have some more time and money saved up!

For now, I'm living in a nice apartment in Lowell, MA. I found a great job this past january and things have been pretty good. I hurt my back mountain climbing in the summer and I'm still trying to heal it.. so that's been pretty rough, but I'm optimistic that everything will turn out fine.

In case you're bored and feel like listening to a song, I found this today. I like it a lot and put it on my 2018 coming soon page until I have new things to post!

Hope you're all doing well. Talk to you soon,

Jamey

Settling Back in to the USA

Hi Everyone,

So it's been a while since I've written! I'm going to keep this website going with new things going on in my life so I hope you check in once in a while!

I got back from my trip about a month ago and I've really been enjoying hanging out with friends and family again. I'm excited for football season and I've been trying to keep riding the bicycle as much as possible. I've been cooking a lot, riding a lot, looking for work, hanging out with friends, spending time with my family, etc. etc. etc. 

I'm very excited to keep this blog going with every day occurrences and also... in the future, whenever I do take new trips to interesting places, I will be able to keep a record of it all on here! I got a new phone number as most of you know. It' 978-596-5465. 

I'll write again soon. Hope all is well,

Jamey

Just to include a photo for you, One thing that I did this week was that I bought a ravioli tray. They came out great. I made about 150 raviolis:

A night out in Galway

I went out last night pub hopping in Galway, Ireland. It was a lot of fun. I got guinness at 4 bars and tried to only go to bars with live music...which was pretty much every one. I loved one of the bands and I bought their CD. Here's a video of them and some photos from the night! Remember when you had a recorder in school and tried to play mary had a little lamb? Well this guy really played it well I'm sure...

England to Ireland

Hi everyone! I made it to Ireland! My first day was a long one for sure. I spent all of yesterday riding my Bicycle around London and then walked for three hours around the British Museum. After the museum I left London and took a few trains through wales and to a ferry. I took the night ferry from Fishguard to Ireland and slept for about 3 hours on the ferry. Next, I rode my bicycle 50 miles from where the ferry lands to Wexford, then on to Waterford to try to catch a train to the Dingle area, but I missed it. I stayed for the night in Waterford (Where the crystal is from) and today I'm going to head to Galway!

Here's some photos from the museum:

Here are photos from my first day biking in Ireland:

More of London

So, I did a lot of research and a lot of walking around and I was not able to find an area of London that really still looks like the Sherlock Holmes' Victorian era... the buildings around them will be more modern. I think the whole city resembles a past time because there are so many old buildings and artistic structures like sidewalks, light poles, doorways, cobblestone streets, etc. You might walk under a bridge and feel like you're in the 1600's only to emerge from underneath next to a glass enclosed bank. The city is 100% a mix of the old and the new... though I think it's more old fashioned and creative than modern and it's great as-is. I do wish there was a neighborhood that still had oil lanterns and where horses are the primary means of transportation, though I think maybe that time has past. If I do find out there is an area similar to what I'm talking about, I will most definitely visit again in the future. I think London and Ireland are most definitely two places I will return to for a few weeks at a time in the future.

Today, I spent the day bicycling around London and I stopped at the science museum. Tomorrow I'm going to ride around a little more and visit the British Museum, then make my way towards Ireland. I really am enjoying London a lot and I'd like to stay for a long time, but I'm running pretty low on money and I'd like to see a good amount of Ireland before I head home! Here's some photos from the museum today:

I had to include just one bad exhibit in the London Science museum haha. All of the museums are awesome and they are all free which is amazing...There's tons to see. The natural history museum was amazing and I hear the British Museum is the most important thing to see in all of London, so I'm heading there tomorrow. However, one of the exhibits at the science museum was just plain bad. It's the top most floor of the museum. It's the only exhibit on the floor. I am an engineer and when I saw the sign for Engineer your future, I was excited to see what it could be! But it turned out to be this haha:

First Day in London

On my first full day in London, I went to a few of the tourist sites and they were really nice. I don't have much more money to spend, so I was hoping there would be a free museum or two and it turns out there are and they are huge! The natural history museum and the Science Museum are free here. I went to the natural history museum and today I plan to go to the science museum tomorrow. 

I also saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace, Westminster Abbey, the National art museum and a few other places as well. There was a black lives matter parade in the center of the city and there were hundreds if not thousands of people there who were also protesting Britain's policies on refugees, protesting the war, etc. It was a massive gathering and the roads were all shut down for a few hours.

Here are my photos and videos from the day:

At the National Gallery in London, I saw the most interesting art exhibit:

“The perspective box or peepshow is an optical device which enables an artist to create a convincing illusion of interior (or, more rarely, exterior) space. Using a complex perspectival construction, the four inside walls of a wooden box are painted to simulate the space and the scene is then viewed through a carefully positioned eyehole. The eye is deceived into believing that this is really the inside of a room.

The peepshow was popular among Dutch 17th-century artists, reflecting a fascination with perspectival and optical devices. Of the six peepshows which survive from the 17th century the best is that by Samuel van Hoogstraten in the National Gallery. The inside of the box is painted in such a way that when viewed through either of the peep holes, located at each end, it gives the illusion of a three-dimensional interior of a modest Dutch room, sparsely furnished and with views through into other rooms.”

— London's National Gallery

Notting Hill

I found out my hotel is in "Notting Hill". I've heard of it because it's the name of a tv show. I walked all around this area tonight and stopped at a pub to grab a beer...stopped at a fish and chips place, etc.

Notting Hill seems to have a lot of fancy hotels, next to a big park, with a few pubs and restaurants, and a lot of KFC's starbucks, mcdonalds, perfume stores, hair dressers, etc. I think it's a real nice area...very safe, very positive and the people I met tonight were real nice. All 5 or 6 of them were from outside of London, so I realized most people here are not actually from London.

Tomorrow I plan to do as many tourist things as I can do. I want to see Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Take a boat on a river, stop at the Palace etc. After that, I'll be devoting most of my time to finding the part of London that makes me feel like I'm in a Sherlock Holmes Novel... the most Old fashioned part of London. I'll be back to London some day to see the rest, but for this trip, that's what I really want to see. A few of the main tourist attractions then 221 B Baker Street.

By the way, Fish and Chips are ok, but nothing beats Marky's and Browns in Salisbury!

Riding through the English Countryside

So I happened across London, England today. I was not planning to come here until after I saw Ireland...I was going to take trains to Ireland then bicycle back to London. Well it's funny how when a small thing happens, your mindset can completely change in an instant! 

I rode my bike all day yesterday through the countryside Northwest of London. I was heading Northwest....so away from London. I rode in the countryside for about 6 hours yesterday and 3 hours today the whole time with my gearing on my bicycle not working properly. Having a touring bicycle, there are hand adjustments that you can use to adjust the gearing with no tools, but I had already fixed them a few times times and they've reached their limits. I have fixed this before by removing the gear cable from the shifter and re-attaching it, but I began thinking...maybe it's time for a tune-up. I looked at the map for a bike shop and saw once again how close I already am to London right now and started thinking.....does it really make sense to go to Ireland, just to turn around and come back to London to end my trip there? I looked up plane tickets from Dublin and they are cheaper...and I'm already here so... I just hopped a train to London.

I'm here now near Hyde Park. Just got in a few hours ago and my legs are pretty tired so I'm just going to relax in the hotel mostly tonight. I spent the last 2 hours looking up ideas for work for when I return, but I still have no clue about what to do with that. I'm about to head out to grab a pint at a pub and get some dinner. My aunt Carol has been here many times and she gave me some great ideas for things to see. I plan to see a few of them tomorrow including Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey. I'd like to take a tour if I can afford it. Primarily, I will be staying right in the heart of the city in the most out-dated and old fashioned places I can find. I like to immerse myself in the most old fashioned parts of cities that I see and I think London's will be one of the most unique! I'll update you all soon. Have a great weekend!

Here's some photos of my trip through the countryside and a couple of videos:

Some more photos of Amsterdam

Anne Frank's House... If you read the book, I'm guessing you did not expect it to look like this haha. I had a completely different picture in my mind:

It's one of the row houses on the left close to the church.

This is a closer view of Anne Frank's house:

Some more photos from riding my bike around Amsterdam today. I decided to stay in the Jordan region of Amsterdam today which is the "Old, working class" part of the city just to spend some time there, but tomorrow before I head out to either Paris or the UK, I want to ride a little around more of Amsterdam...hopefully if the weather holds up I'll have some more pictures for you at my next campsite!

Jordaan Region of Amsterdam

Jordaan

My Hotel for the Eurocup "Football" Finals

There's a lot of interesting people here

This guy spun the music box like a jack in the box while playing some thimbles or spoons to the music with his other hand all while seemingly having his eyes closed and wandering around the city. I saw him close to the center of the city the day before.

Lots of Odd Museums including this one, the Tulip Museum, The Cheese Museum, etc.

I found a bottle of Blue Chardonnay, so I'm enjoying that while updating this website!

It actually tastes like wine mixed with those blue freeze pops... very good, but I'm not quite sure what's in it.... the bottle says apples, peaches, mangos and grapes give it it's blue color... but none of those are blue haha I guess purple is a kind of blue so maybe...

Represent.US

I came across this website a few months ago before my trip. I believe what these people are doing is important for the USA so I wanted to share it with anyone who hasn't seen it yet. It's a website/organization called represent.us and they are a movement to try to eliminate corruption in American politics. I think it's important that they do well and people see their message so I'm just putting a post up here to introduce you to Represent.us in case you have not seen it before. The "Problem" and "Solution" videos sum it all up:

In Amsterdam

So I finally made it to Amsterdam. I had a very, very long train ride from the northern part of Norway. If you look up Lofoten Islands in Norway to Amsterdam on google maps, you'll see what I mean haha. One thing you can probably not tell from my blog is that when I say I took a train ride on here, sometimes it's actually 6 trains. With the bicycle, they don't let you get on high speed country to country trains so I always have to take the much slower regional trains that make many more stops. I do get to see quite a bit though and meet more people on the slower trains.

Since I've blogged last, I've done quite a bit. I camped another night or two in Lofoten, stayed in a hostel and watched the Germany football game (it's really soccer, not football) with the people at the hostel in Lofoten, rode my bike through a lot of rain, took many ferries, many trains, got stuck a few times between stations and ferries, spent a night at a train station in Sweden with some German students without sleeping, then went to Copenhagen which is mostly a blur because I was deliriously tired haha. Slept a 2-3 hours on 4 more trains, including a brief layover in Copenhagen, then got on more trains to Amsterdam! 

I'm here for three days now and I'll update the site as soon as I can with photos and more stories. It's a very unique city and probably the nicest looking city that I have been to. There are more old buildings, canals, crazy people, stores, bars, nightlife that you could ever imagine. Also, I read that there are literally more bicycles in Amsterdam than people and it's ridiculous to see and ride through. It's an intricate maze of bicycles and bicycle trails weaving in and out of city streets and alleys. There is actually a rush hour of bicycles like we have rush hours of cars back home with traffic jams at lights. There are pot stores are called "Coffee Shops" everywhere by the way because they are not allowed to call themselves pot stores haha which is very strange. It's not really my thing so I'm actually just excited to see the finals of the Eurocup out at a bar tonight and to walk and bike around the city!

I will post updates soon! For now here's a couple of videos of biking around amsterdam towards the city center in one and towards my hotel area west of the city in the other. Have a good Sunday, Jamey

I dare you to try to get even a rough count of how many bicycles there are on this 2 block bicycle ride:

Oh, when I got stuck at the train station in Sweden, here's a photo of me and the recent graduates I hung out with instead of sleeping at the train station haha:

Please Read This Post!

I wanted to bring special attention to this post because it is my favorite place from the trip. Lofoten Norway was amazing. The mountains, Fjords, Ocean, People, everything. I have a ton of photos and videos from Lofoten and I want to make sure you all get to see this. If you like the outdoors, you should plan a trip here immeditely! :) Click on the photo to see more.

These are two of my camping spots:

Camping in Lofoten 2nd Night

Wow! I found a pretty amazing campsite for tonight and tomorrow night. The call it "Wild Camping" up here in english. But you can basically just camp wherever you'd like including on other people's property as long as you use common sense. So for night two.... I found either my first or second best campsite of all time (I camped on top of a mountain peak in NH once which really may never be beat). 

I get to show you all twice as much with these photos as not only can you see the view from my campsite in panoramic style, but I also took photos at 11PM, 12AM, 1AM, and 2AM....so you'll be able to see what it looks like in Norway in the summer at night! (Update... my photo from midnight did not come out...so I only have 11PM, 1AM, and 2AM) It's getting lighter out at 2AM...so the darkest time of the night is around 1:00AM or 1:30AM.

11:00 PM

1:00 AM

2:00 AM

Panoramic Campsite

This is a panoramic view of my first campsite "Wild Camping" in Norway. I think I picked a pretty nice spot! :)

Lofoten Photos Continued

Sent from my iPhone www.JameySquires.com

First day on Lofoten Islands

I'm on the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway and they are exactly as imagined/hoped they would be like. This place is the nicest place that I have seen on this trip by far. If I could have all of you go to one place I visited, this would be it... Especially if you're an outdoor enthusiast... Go to the Lofoten Islands!!! I'm writing this from my tent using a SIM card which costs me money, but I don't care. I'm too excited to show you all this place! I might need to do a couple of posts to get all of the photos on here since I have no wifi.. And I'll clean it up next time I do.. So keep an eye out! These are all from my first day and it's only 7pm... The sun is not supposed to go completely down tonight. Everyone talks about watching the "midnight sun", so I'll see that for the first time tonight!

Sent from my iPhone www.JameySquires.com

Ferry to Reine, Norway

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to post a quick update. I'm on a ferry from Bodø to Reine, Norway right now. I plan to bicycle back to Bodø and wild camp in the woods along the way. I plan to spend 1-2 weeks around here. If it goes great then maybe longer. This will definitely be the most adventurous part of my trip along with the mountain climb in Slovenia.

I got a SIM card for my phone yesterday so hopefully I'll have service and I can keep you updated with how the adventure goes. Talk to you soon!

Sent from my iPhone www.JameySquires.com

Norway

I finally made it to Norway! I'm thrilled to be here. Since Slovenia, I've been just sort of trying to make my way up to Norway. I've seen a lot of neat things and met some cool people on the way, but I'm thrilled to be on my way to the Fjords. I had a little setback last night. I planned to take an overnight train to Bodø, but it was full last night and tonight, so I had to buy tickets for tomorrow nights train. Trondheim is a real nice place though and I'm making the best of it. I can't wait to be in the island fjords. It's going to be an amazing site to see.

I'm getting pretty far north now. I'm still 10 hours by train south of where I'm going and I'm not quite in the arctic circle yet, but still... this is a photo from last night at 12:15 AM.... the sun's not quite up...but it's pretty bright out: