I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in Oslo, with about 20 minutes to rattle off as much as I can about the last few days before I go to meet up with people.

I've written heaps about the flights over from the states, but having only 20 mins to write isn't very conducive to sharing everything I've experienced. Anyway, after landing in Copenhagen where my tour began, I had to make my way to the youth hostel we were all going to be staying at. Rain was pouring and everything is disturbingly Danish. All the non-english signs are somewhat off-putting at first, but as many a traveller may tell you, you get used to it.

Being the middle of June, I was expecting mild, but warm summer weather. It was anything but. I waded through 11C weather, extremely jetlagged, along trainlines I was completely unfamiliar with, using odd-looking money that whole morning until I got to the youth hostel at around 11 am. I thought that was quite an achievement considering how tired I was and how little sleep I'd had that last night.
Unfortunately, check-in time was 2 pm, so I had to wait around for several hours before I could have a sorely-needed shower and collapse into bed for a few hours.

I woke up around 5:30pm and decided it was time to go out and see the city.

Copenhagen is a delightful city. It's clean and pretty and full of friendly people. The bus driver I had on the way to the hostel was sweet and helpful even though he spoke only a handful of english words. When I got lost and stood on the side of the sidewalk peering at my map, trying to figure out where I was, someone stopped almost immediately to ask me if I need any help. People ride bikes constantly (around 50% of the population ride bikes regularly) and almost everyone speaks English.
Not only do people ride bikes, but they don't feel the need to lock up their expensive road bikes much of the time. Literally hundreds of bikes are left at the entrances to stations, and they also hire out bikes for tourists for free. It seems like they are such a caring and trusting culture.

As one of my tourmates mentioned, they are also an extremely good-looking race of people. All tall, slim, and blonde with high cheekbones and tanned skin. This tourmate also mentioned that she saw a park in copenhagen with people relaxing and sunbaking. But it looked as though it had been staged with solely beautiful people.

On this first evening in the city, I just wandered around, drinking in the atmosphere. I walked along the main shopping streets and took many a snapshot. (photos will be posted when I have more internet time.) Tourists are everywhere, it seems.

After a while, I got tired and eventually went back to the hostel, around 11 pm. But the odd thing was that it was still very light outside. It does not get dark is this area till around midnight, and then gets light again around 3 or 4 am. It's not sunlight, just a perpetual state of twilight. But such extremely long days make for excellent touristing. You can get up late and still go out to the city for 10 or 12 hours, then come back to the hostel and chat and drink with friends for another 4 hours before wandering off to bed while it's still light outside.

Gotta run - more soon!