Where I have Been, Where I am Going

[CaleD]

Hey folks!

As a couple of you have noticed, I have been very much AWOL this year... I haven't found a single cache and my appearances on the forums have been incredibly rare. I just wanted to give you an update on where I have been and where I am going to!

This year I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to undertake studies in Law at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. Since late December I have been living here and haven't really had the opportunity to go caching (it's cold, hard to remain stealthy due to all the cyclists whizzing past and most of the cache descriptions are in Dutch!) I have also had the chance to travel to Paris (Paris I wasn't really a fan of) and Luxembourg (which is an amazing city that you should definitely go to if you get the chance!) In several weeks time when my time at the University wraps up, I'll be heading off to travel Europe for several months. I'm planning on visiting Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and the UK before returning to the land down under later this year. I hope that I will be able to grab a few (English-language) caches on the way!

Photos from my adventures can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cale3/

See you!

[Richary]

Sounds like an awesome opportunity! Lucky bugger

But who needs to read the description for a trad anyway Well me lots of the time! Google translate or babelfish is your friend, at least get enough to get a few in each country!

[stealth_ninja_penguin]

Go to Norway
Definitely go to:
Oslo has Vigeland Sculpture Park, The Scream at the National Museum and the FRAM (the boat that Roald Amundsen took to Antarctica after Fridtjof Nansen made an attempt to the north pole in it (he was going to get stuck in the ice and let the ice flow take him further north before walking the rest of the way)). Setting foot on the Fram was awesome, rant rant rant.

Really think about going to:
Tromsø has the midnight sun and a cable car with a fantastic view of it, a statue of Amundsen the most northern Burger King and most northern botanical gardens.
Bergen is pretty as well as the train ride to Flam.

Don't go to (unless you are a total Polar nut):
Vadsø has an old airship mooring tower where airships made attempts on the north pole and arctic regions (check out pictures of airships at the Fram museum). Vadsø is in the arctic climatic zone (ie no trees) and was a strategic location in WW2 and has a statue of Nansen. You can drive from the mainland to the island through the tunnel. Watch out for the reindeer, they're sillier than kangaroos. Oh yeah, they shot some scene of Moonraker just out of town too.

They even have caches up there too

[GammaPiSigma]

Sounds fantastic. Have a good time, explore and if you get time do some caches.

[CaleD]

Well today I am pleased to report that I went caching for the first time this year... and what an experience!

First, I made an attempt on a cache just out of town, and ran into the cache owners (Team Blackie) who had just replaced the container! I was so amazed to come across another team in the field... I have never had that happen in Australia, so it was nice to have a chat to some of the locals!

I then did 8 more caches nearby... and throughout the afternoon (I was out for about 2.5 hours) I came across FIVE CACHING TEAMS. I was amazed! There was a WWFM event the day before in the town (that I didn't know about... whoops!), but most of the cachers told me that it was the first nice weekend they have had this year, so they took the opportunity to get out and about! It was so nice to see such a large and active caching community up here!

I'm still trying to get over how many teams I came across today... wow!