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Joachim Breitner's Homepage

It has been a while since my last post - internet is kind of rare when you travel by train around. Currently, I'm staying with Gunnar Wolf, a fellow Debian Developer, and using his neighbors open and fast WLAN, instead of bothering his mother's dialup pay-per-minute connection...

Since my last post, I went to Kuopio in Finland for one night in a school serving as a Youth Hostel - nice idea. It was nice there, but it started to rain, so I did not stay long, but started my travel around the north. By train to Kemi, then with busses to Tornea, over the boarder to Sweden to Haparanda and finally to Lulea. I joined forces with two Spanish InterRailing girls, and since in Lulea both the Youth Hostel and the Bed and Breakfast were full, we stayed in the "Comfort Hotel". Not the cheapest option, but with dinner and breakfast included, this was not the worst option.

The train to Narvik was an interesting experience: While noticing the changing other side of the window from flat forests-and-lakes to rough rocks-mountains-and-fjords, I noticed my clear favour for the latter. It was raining that evening - first time for long pants and shoes instead of shorts and sandals during the whole drip, but the next day a clear sky and a warm sun welcomed me, so I spontaniously stayed for another night. The Spanish girls left to the Lofoten, and I examined the Narvik War Museum, which is actually quite nice and detailled. Later, I went on a little hike with a Youth Hostel roommate from Austria that, as it turns out, is also interested in RPG of various kinds, so we hat enought to talk about to the Lake "Fornesvannet". There, we had the idea for a semi-real-life trade game, currently dubbed "Mundus Mercatibus" (modulo latin grammar fixes) - more about that later - and that's what we talked about all the way back and in the pizza place, where we put down the thoughts in writing, that is, typing.

The next day, I went back the way I came, changed onto the night train that went to Göteborg, which was full, so I (more or less) slept in the gangway. From Göteborg to Boras, where Gunnar picked me up. 25h of train traveling! My travel back to Germany is planned already. I wish I had more time, but a university exam is coming nearer, so I better get back...

I marked my travels on the map. Green are overnight trains/ferries, red are day trains/ferrys/cars (well, car is only Helsinki to Vaasa). Thin lines are only planned. Big black spots are overnight stays. Pictures are currently being uploaded too, thanks to the unknown neighbor.