Journey Duration:
18 September 2010 - 11 January 2011
Countries Visited:
Great Britain
Belgium
Italy
Spain
France
Germany
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Passport Stamps:
17
Luggage Weight Departing:
~ 70 lbs
Luggage Weight Returning:
~ 130 lbs
Restart the journey by clicking here. Follow the archives on the side for all following posts.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Homecoming
11 January
Cereal with Alicia for breakfast. Got ready. Alicia said she would accompany to the airport except she had a prior engagement at 1pm and would be late if she came with me. It's an hour to get to Heathrow from Lambeth North and it would take another hour to get back. I left a little after 11am.
It was just enough time. Got to the airport, got a luggage trolley, checked in. Met a nice couple from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin who were coming home from visiting their daughter in England. We didn't talk that much, but they were really friendly. Checked in my bags, and was on my way.
Bought a whole bag of candy at a WHSmith plus a wrap with duck in it. The duck was good. Ate it while waiting for my gate number to be called. Two minutes passed 1:30p, a woman asked an airport worker which gate was for Minneapolis (because the gate was supposed to have been called at 1:30p). I overheard the conversation and walked with her to the gate. There, I waited some more and did some more sudoku until boarding was called.
There was barely anyone on the plane, which was nice. I could spread out on the whole two seats I had to myself. The screen in front of the window seat didn't have good sound, but the screen next to it worked. So I watched movies on that one. Saw Easy A which was really good. Also started Despicable Me but it couldn't hold my attention because I had seen Scott Pilgrim vs the World and I wanted to watch that. So I stopped Despicable Me and started Scott Pilgrim, which I call a good decision because Scott Pilgrim is an awesome movie. It's funny and full of video game references and really quite campy. Highly recommended movie. Between movies, napping, sudoku, and journaling, I didn't have enough time to watch Inception. Sadness. So I passed the last two hours of the flight watching sitcoms and napping.
Food on the flight was good. I had a pasta dinner, which turned out to be lasagna. Kept drinking water throughout the whole flight to help with jet lag. Towards the end of the flight, we got a small pizza and container of gelato as a snack. That was good stuff. You can't go wrong with bad pizza.
I was excited to have my US phone back. It's much much better than the phone I bought in England. Did I tell you how much I hate the phone I bought in England? I'll save that for later.
Customs took away my fruit. I was sad because I wanted to eat that fruit later, but I guess you can't bring it into US soil. Darn. At least I got to keep my Finnish crackers.
Reunited with Mom and Dad right after that. Mom was teary eyed, but that didn't last long. It wasn't like I was completely out of touch with them the entire trip. So I was alright when I got back to them. Felt all right in the hotel as well. Didn't cry much when I got home. Yeah, it's home. Can't explain why it wasn't an emotional thing for me. Nothing's really changed, except the garage door and the family room, but those are family matters. Mom and Dad still bicker like an old couple (I intend this in a lighthearted way. They love each other very much. This is the kind of bickering that comes with age, love, and a good sense of humor. I greatly look up to my parents, and I love them to death). Ryan kept texting mom about when I was gonna be back, did they see me yet, etc. Adam was working.
Dinner at Culver's, where I had real American bacon and cheese curds. How I missed cheese curds and American bacon. Yum.
~ ~ ~
Spent five days in Neenah doing general things like procrastinating, reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis (which you all should read, by the way). There was some packing involved. Mom made a giant turkey dinner, of which I got three servings of leftovers. I also have leftover homemade lasagna, which will be delicious. After a few relaxing days at home, I managed to pack up my stuff again and I moved to the next town.
At the moment, I'm in Madison. It's currently the day before school starts. I have cats to cuddle with, a master bedroom to myself, a freaky high-def television, and awesome kitchen supplies. My family is just a two hour car ride away, my friends are a ten minute bus ride away or a ten second walk down the stairs, and I have some real school work to occupy me this semester.
All in all, life is good. Stay tuned for a finalizing post about my journey.
Cereal with Alicia for breakfast. Got ready. Alicia said she would accompany to the airport except she had a prior engagement at 1pm and would be late if she came with me. It's an hour to get to Heathrow from Lambeth North and it would take another hour to get back. I left a little after 11am.
It was just enough time. Got to the airport, got a luggage trolley, checked in. Met a nice couple from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin who were coming home from visiting their daughter in England. We didn't talk that much, but they were really friendly. Checked in my bags, and was on my way.
Bought a whole bag of candy at a WHSmith plus a wrap with duck in it. The duck was good. Ate it while waiting for my gate number to be called. Two minutes passed 1:30p, a woman asked an airport worker which gate was for Minneapolis (because the gate was supposed to have been called at 1:30p). I overheard the conversation and walked with her to the gate. There, I waited some more and did some more sudoku until boarding was called.
There was barely anyone on the plane, which was nice. I could spread out on the whole two seats I had to myself. The screen in front of the window seat didn't have good sound, but the screen next to it worked. So I watched movies on that one. Saw Easy A which was really good. Also started Despicable Me but it couldn't hold my attention because I had seen Scott Pilgrim vs the World and I wanted to watch that. So I stopped Despicable Me and started Scott Pilgrim, which I call a good decision because Scott Pilgrim is an awesome movie. It's funny and full of video game references and really quite campy. Highly recommended movie. Between movies, napping, sudoku, and journaling, I didn't have enough time to watch Inception. Sadness. So I passed the last two hours of the flight watching sitcoms and napping.
Food on the flight was good. I had a pasta dinner, which turned out to be lasagna. Kept drinking water throughout the whole flight to help with jet lag. Towards the end of the flight, we got a small pizza and container of gelato as a snack. That was good stuff. You can't go wrong with bad pizza.
I was excited to have my US phone back. It's much much better than the phone I bought in England. Did I tell you how much I hate the phone I bought in England? I'll save that for later.
Customs took away my fruit. I was sad because I wanted to eat that fruit later, but I guess you can't bring it into US soil. Darn. At least I got to keep my Finnish crackers.
Reunited with Mom and Dad right after that. Mom was teary eyed, but that didn't last long. It wasn't like I was completely out of touch with them the entire trip. So I was alright when I got back to them. Felt all right in the hotel as well. Didn't cry much when I got home. Yeah, it's home. Can't explain why it wasn't an emotional thing for me. Nothing's really changed, except the garage door and the family room, but those are family matters. Mom and Dad still bicker like an old couple (I intend this in a lighthearted way. They love each other very much. This is the kind of bickering that comes with age, love, and a good sense of humor. I greatly look up to my parents, and I love them to death). Ryan kept texting mom about when I was gonna be back, did they see me yet, etc. Adam was working.
Dinner at Culver's, where I had real American bacon and cheese curds. How I missed cheese curds and American bacon. Yum.
~ ~ ~
Spent five days in Neenah doing general things like procrastinating, reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis (which you all should read, by the way). There was some packing involved. Mom made a giant turkey dinner, of which I got three servings of leftovers. I also have leftover homemade lasagna, which will be delicious. After a few relaxing days at home, I managed to pack up my stuff again and I moved to the next town.
At the moment, I'm in Madison. It's currently the day before school starts. I have cats to cuddle with, a master bedroom to myself, a freaky high-def television, and awesome kitchen supplies. My family is just a two hour car ride away, my friends are a ten minute bus ride away or a ten second walk down the stairs, and I have some real school work to occupy me this semester.
All in all, life is good. Stay tuned for a finalizing post about my journey.
I don't even wanna blog about Helsinki
9 January and 10 January:
What you basically have to know is I wandered, I looked around, and, miraculously, I got bored. I was pretty much done with Helsinki on the 9th, and I wondered why I booked a flight that was at 9:00pm because that gave me a whole extra day in Helsinki to wander and wonder what else there is to do. Helsinki is a city where you go with friends to hang out with friends. Yes, there are some cool sights, but I was more involved in the shopping scene. There was an Open Air museum that would have been fantastic, but it was only open in the summer.
There was food from the Forum, the National Museum of Finland was interesting. Paid 5EUR to wander and learn about Vikings and see an exhibit all about dollhouses, which was really interesting. I liked that one. Also wandered around the treasury in the basement and looked at all the coins both old and new. Even saw an American dollar in there which I thought interesting. Also saw some really fancy and expensive goblets and jewelry from the Days of Yore. That was pretty too.
On the 10th, I took a tram around the city center and saw the Opera House, the Olympic Stadium, and the Finlandia building. Also found a store that had a plethora of Star Wars memorabilia in the window, so of course I tracked that down to find out what else was in it. I'm pretty sure that store out-geeked even me, but I did find a Pokemon Yellow Version in the vintage video game section. I picked it up to check the price (99EUR!) and a worker came up and asked if I needed anything. I said no, but started a conversation anyway. I told him how I still have my Yellow Version and we continued to talk about old games and how they're awesome but forgotten because of new games. Then we got onto the subject of Halo and that occupied our time for the next three minutes. He was really nice. Kind of socially awkward, but sweet.
The flight back home was uneventful. It took off thirty minutes later than it said it would, but according to the complaints of the guy behind me, that was completely normal. Alicia called while I was on the bus back to Central London, I told her that I'm almost there, it'll probably be another hour considering I have to take night buses back to Lambeth North with the Tube closed. And that's what I did. It was kind of sketch considering it was bar closing time, but I did alright. Just kept an eye on my surroundings and made sure I had a hand on my spray deodorant. All was well.
Got back to the dorm at 1am. The security guard let me in because he recognized me. He asked how my holiday was, and I told him it was fantastic. Then he let me up to Alicia's room where she had a better air mattress that didn't leak with sheets and an awesome pillow. They were leftovers from Siri and Marianne and Carina who had left things behind when they returned to Scandinavia.
What you basically have to know is I wandered, I looked around, and, miraculously, I got bored. I was pretty much done with Helsinki on the 9th, and I wondered why I booked a flight that was at 9:00pm because that gave me a whole extra day in Helsinki to wander and wonder what else there is to do. Helsinki is a city where you go with friends to hang out with friends. Yes, there are some cool sights, but I was more involved in the shopping scene. There was an Open Air museum that would have been fantastic, but it was only open in the summer.
There was food from the Forum, the National Museum of Finland was interesting. Paid 5EUR to wander and learn about Vikings and see an exhibit all about dollhouses, which was really interesting. I liked that one. Also wandered around the treasury in the basement and looked at all the coins both old and new. Even saw an American dollar in there which I thought interesting. Also saw some really fancy and expensive goblets and jewelry from the Days of Yore. That was pretty too.
On the 10th, I took a tram around the city center and saw the Opera House, the Olympic Stadium, and the Finlandia building. Also found a store that had a plethora of Star Wars memorabilia in the window, so of course I tracked that down to find out what else was in it. I'm pretty sure that store out-geeked even me, but I did find a Pokemon Yellow Version in the vintage video game section. I picked it up to check the price (99EUR!) and a worker came up and asked if I needed anything. I said no, but started a conversation anyway. I told him how I still have my Yellow Version and we continued to talk about old games and how they're awesome but forgotten because of new games. Then we got onto the subject of Halo and that occupied our time for the next three minutes. He was really nice. Kind of socially awkward, but sweet.
The flight back home was uneventful. It took off thirty minutes later than it said it would, but according to the complaints of the guy behind me, that was completely normal. Alicia called while I was on the bus back to Central London, I told her that I'm almost there, it'll probably be another hour considering I have to take night buses back to Lambeth North with the Tube closed. And that's what I did. It was kind of sketch considering it was bar closing time, but I did alright. Just kept an eye on my surroundings and made sure I had a hand on my spray deodorant. All was well.
Got back to the dorm at 1am. The security guard let me in because he recognized me. He asked how my holiday was, and I told him it was fantastic. Then he let me up to Alicia's room where she had a better air mattress that didn't leak with sheets and an awesome pillow. They were leftovers from Siri and Marianne and Carina who had left things behind when they returned to Scandinavia.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Remember Suomenlinna for the Zombie Apocalypse
You would think that, now that I'm home, I would do this more often. Not the case. I will try to get the final days of my journey as soon as I can.
8 January:
Although breakfast wasn't included in the room, I still didn't think it would cost 7EUR for it. 7EUR for an all you can eat buffet isn't that bad now that I think about it, but thinking in terms of American currency, that's about $11. Which is a bit expensive in terms of all you can eat buffets, especially ones that don't offer that much hot food. The only hot things were tea, coffee, porridge, and sausages. Not even a pancake in sight, which had me disappointed. Dined that morning on granola cereal and some fruit. The big projection screen had a BBC show about a racecar road tripping from Alaska to the southern most tip of South America. Crazy. It was all about how they were trying to find a charger for the car because it was electrical and they were stranded in the middle of nowhere. Brilliant.
Left for Soumenlinna, which is a big fortress Helsinki is noted for. Took me a while to get on the ferry to it. Soumenlinna is a big island and takes about twenty minutes by ferry to get there. Public transportation tickets work on the ferry going there, so that's what I attempted to get. But the machine didn't take my card because it wasn't a chip card. (Don't ask what that means. They have two types of debit cards over there and one has a chip in it, and others are like mine.) So I went to get cash from a cash machine. When I returned, the machine only accepted coins. Grrr. The ferry had left by this point, but I wanted my ticket so I went to find a place to get 20EUR in coins. Once that was done, I got my three-day travel pass and waited.
The giant parking lot nearby had a small market, so I walked around there for a while. There were mostly souvenir booths. I guess the market is bigger when it's summer and only open for tourists in the winter. Didn't buy anything, but I did try on a really cute hat with ears on it. It didn't seem like it would keep my forehead that warm though. Also, it was more than I would spend. Oh well. There were only two booths with food inside. But they were both for fish, and I wasn't about to walk in to smell the fish. Besides, I don't like fish. Don't really enjoy eating it, although I am trying to warm up to shrimp now.
Got on the ferry when it returned. I found a really nice seat by the window towards the front, but a team of men led a drunk in chains my way and he started making a ruckus nearby. I wasn't going to deal with that, so I got up and left for another seat. It wasn't by a window, but the people weren't drunk or in chains, so that was nice. I could still take pictures from my seat, so that's what I did on the ride.
At the island, I figured I would do what I do best and just sit and explore. So I wandered away from the main path several times until I started to follow signs pointing me to food. Except there was only one, maybe two places on the whole island that sold food. I wandered away from them and decided to eat a light lunch before I ate dinner back on the mainland.
Found my way into the Soumenlinna Museum where I learned about the history of the island and the fortress, mostly through a big 30-minute video presentation. This movie was interesting because before it started, you had headphones attached to a receiver. You chose the channel for the receiver depending on what language you speak. The narration of the documentary happened on the headphones, but the sound effects and the music came from the screen. I thought that was an interesting and unique way of doing things. It was a cool way to break the language barrier.
The rest of the museum wasn't much. The panels were only in Finnish, but there were booklets with translations in other languages. I picked one up and explored and read, but I missed just skimming something on the wall and moving on. Walked along the first floor and the second floor before exiting the museum to explore some more island. This isn't to say that it was a bad museum, it was actually really good. There was a lot of history and detail in everything. You can learn a lot about the island in that museum. I, for one, learned that Finland became an independent nation in the early 1900s, that it was inhabited by Russians before that, and invaded by Sweden before that. I also couldn't help but think that I would definitely have Suomenlinna has one of the first fortresses I conquer if I were to start conquering the world. I declare the walls thick enough and the fortress well enough protected to have it as a military base.
Outside the museum, I found the grave of the man who built the fortress. His grave was in the middle of a courtyard and covered in snow. Then I wandered over to the King's Gate, which was important enough to have a different colored sign on the street signs, so I followed them. Wandered up by some cannons with other people and saw children sledding down the stairs, which weren't maintained for winter so it required a bit of skill climbing up them. Then I walked down the fortress wall until I explored some not-so-hidden crevices and eventually followed a pair of footprints up to the top of the wall.
That was a really fun adventure right there. Wandering the top of the walls as the sun mingled above the horizon. It wasn't sunset just yet, but it was debating on it. I walked along the walls just to see how far I can go and if it'll lead anywhere. All the while, I thought about using it as a fortress just in case aliens attacked the planet and some people needed a safe place to defend themselves and think up a battle plan. The thoughts mostly included buffing up the place for alient invasion. Please, don't ask about the state of my imgination. Anyway, although I came to the end of the wall and eventually made it to the King's Gate, there was no way for me to get down easily, so I ended up retracing my steps back to the place I climbed up the wall in the first place and walking the rest of the way on the actual path.
The King's Gate wasn't as magnificent as I thought I would be. I didn't realize it was the King's Gate until I saw a map later. Good thing I took pictures of it. From there, I was sufficiently hungry so I went to find a place to eat. There was a small cafe in the small village by the ferry dock where I first got on the island, so I walked in there.
Cutest. Cafe. EVER!!
I dare anyone to find a cafe cuter than this one. It was tiny with only about five or six tables for people. The wallpaper was red and gold and intricate and reminded me of the 1930s. There was only girl behind the counter and a really small kitchen behind that. I didn't see an oven or anything, so I figured that you could only eat whatever was displayed in the small display case immediately to the left of the cash register. There were two pies on the counter: one slice of pecan pie left and about three quarters of apple pie. The apple pie came with a hot vanilla sauce that looked really good. Today's soup was smoked salmon.
There was a small line when I got there, and most of the tables were full already. But some of them looked done with their fika (fika being a Scandinavian activity involving tea/coffee/hot chocolate and conversation. It's basically a Swedish coffee break) so they left after a few minutes. I was patient and waited for a spot to open up. One did as I was ordered hot chocolate and the last slice of pecan pie. I settled down and set out to slowly enjoy my pie and hot cocoa.
Although any hot chocolate is mediocre compared to the stuff Ryan and I had in Berlin, I still ordered it just to see if it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal. So far, it is. But the hot cocoa was still good, even with the whipped cream. The peacan pie was also really good. I savored it and ate it slowly. There was an Asian man behind me in line. He got a slice of apple pie and coffee. He sat, ate, took pictures of the place, and left. Eventually, some others left and I was the only one in the cafe, now playing sudoku.
As new people came in for the next wave of customers, I finished up my puzzle (and pie) and left. I was nice and put my dirty dishes on the dirty dish tray next to the counter. Then I left for the mainland.
Of course, the sun sets about 4pm, and I left as soon as the sun set, which means I would feel eternally lame if I returned to the hostel now. So I went and walked around Forum some more because I didn't effectively explore it the previous day. Walked into H&M and bought some cheap wrist warmers and a cute hat. Dinner was a Chinese buffet in the food court basement. I found it unique that I walked the walls of a sea fortress in the afternoon and ate bad Chinese food for dinner at a very modern mall.
Went back home after that and spent the night on Skype. w00t
8 January:
Although breakfast wasn't included in the room, I still didn't think it would cost 7EUR for it. 7EUR for an all you can eat buffet isn't that bad now that I think about it, but thinking in terms of American currency, that's about $11. Which is a bit expensive in terms of all you can eat buffets, especially ones that don't offer that much hot food. The only hot things were tea, coffee, porridge, and sausages. Not even a pancake in sight, which had me disappointed. Dined that morning on granola cereal and some fruit. The big projection screen had a BBC show about a racecar road tripping from Alaska to the southern most tip of South America. Crazy. It was all about how they were trying to find a charger for the car because it was electrical and they were stranded in the middle of nowhere. Brilliant.
Left for Soumenlinna, which is a big fortress Helsinki is noted for. Took me a while to get on the ferry to it. Soumenlinna is a big island and takes about twenty minutes by ferry to get there. Public transportation tickets work on the ferry going there, so that's what I attempted to get. But the machine didn't take my card because it wasn't a chip card. (Don't ask what that means. They have two types of debit cards over there and one has a chip in it, and others are like mine.) So I went to get cash from a cash machine. When I returned, the machine only accepted coins. Grrr. The ferry had left by this point, but I wanted my ticket so I went to find a place to get 20EUR in coins. Once that was done, I got my three-day travel pass and waited.
The giant parking lot nearby had a small market, so I walked around there for a while. There were mostly souvenir booths. I guess the market is bigger when it's summer and only open for tourists in the winter. Didn't buy anything, but I did try on a really cute hat with ears on it. It didn't seem like it would keep my forehead that warm though. Also, it was more than I would spend. Oh well. There were only two booths with food inside. But they were both for fish, and I wasn't about to walk in to smell the fish. Besides, I don't like fish. Don't really enjoy eating it, although I am trying to warm up to shrimp now.
Got on the ferry when it returned. I found a really nice seat by the window towards the front, but a team of men led a drunk in chains my way and he started making a ruckus nearby. I wasn't going to deal with that, so I got up and left for another seat. It wasn't by a window, but the people weren't drunk or in chains, so that was nice. I could still take pictures from my seat, so that's what I did on the ride.
At the island, I figured I would do what I do best and just sit and explore. So I wandered away from the main path several times until I started to follow signs pointing me to food. Except there was only one, maybe two places on the whole island that sold food. I wandered away from them and decided to eat a light lunch before I ate dinner back on the mainland.
Found my way into the Soumenlinna Museum where I learned about the history of the island and the fortress, mostly through a big 30-minute video presentation. This movie was interesting because before it started, you had headphones attached to a receiver. You chose the channel for the receiver depending on what language you speak. The narration of the documentary happened on the headphones, but the sound effects and the music came from the screen. I thought that was an interesting and unique way of doing things. It was a cool way to break the language barrier.
The rest of the museum wasn't much. The panels were only in Finnish, but there were booklets with translations in other languages. I picked one up and explored and read, but I missed just skimming something on the wall and moving on. Walked along the first floor and the second floor before exiting the museum to explore some more island. This isn't to say that it was a bad museum, it was actually really good. There was a lot of history and detail in everything. You can learn a lot about the island in that museum. I, for one, learned that Finland became an independent nation in the early 1900s, that it was inhabited by Russians before that, and invaded by Sweden before that. I also couldn't help but think that I would definitely have Suomenlinna has one of the first fortresses I conquer if I were to start conquering the world. I declare the walls thick enough and the fortress well enough protected to have it as a military base.
Outside the museum, I found the grave of the man who built the fortress. His grave was in the middle of a courtyard and covered in snow. Then I wandered over to the King's Gate, which was important enough to have a different colored sign on the street signs, so I followed them. Wandered up by some cannons with other people and saw children sledding down the stairs, which weren't maintained for winter so it required a bit of skill climbing up them. Then I walked down the fortress wall until I explored some not-so-hidden crevices and eventually followed a pair of footprints up to the top of the wall.
That was a really fun adventure right there. Wandering the top of the walls as the sun mingled above the horizon. It wasn't sunset just yet, but it was debating on it. I walked along the walls just to see how far I can go and if it'll lead anywhere. All the while, I thought about using it as a fortress just in case aliens attacked the planet and some people needed a safe place to defend themselves and think up a battle plan. The thoughts mostly included buffing up the place for alient invasion. Please, don't ask about the state of my imgination. Anyway, although I came to the end of the wall and eventually made it to the King's Gate, there was no way for me to get down easily, so I ended up retracing my steps back to the place I climbed up the wall in the first place and walking the rest of the way on the actual path.
The King's Gate wasn't as magnificent as I thought I would be. I didn't realize it was the King's Gate until I saw a map later. Good thing I took pictures of it. From there, I was sufficiently hungry so I went to find a place to eat. There was a small cafe in the small village by the ferry dock where I first got on the island, so I walked in there.
Cutest. Cafe. EVER!!
I dare anyone to find a cafe cuter than this one. It was tiny with only about five or six tables for people. The wallpaper was red and gold and intricate and reminded me of the 1930s. There was only girl behind the counter and a really small kitchen behind that. I didn't see an oven or anything, so I figured that you could only eat whatever was displayed in the small display case immediately to the left of the cash register. There were two pies on the counter: one slice of pecan pie left and about three quarters of apple pie. The apple pie came with a hot vanilla sauce that looked really good. Today's soup was smoked salmon.
There was a small line when I got there, and most of the tables were full already. But some of them looked done with their fika (fika being a Scandinavian activity involving tea/coffee/hot chocolate and conversation. It's basically a Swedish coffee break) so they left after a few minutes. I was patient and waited for a spot to open up. One did as I was ordered hot chocolate and the last slice of pecan pie. I settled down and set out to slowly enjoy my pie and hot cocoa.
Although any hot chocolate is mediocre compared to the stuff Ryan and I had in Berlin, I still ordered it just to see if it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal. So far, it is. But the hot cocoa was still good, even with the whipped cream. The peacan pie was also really good. I savored it and ate it slowly. There was an Asian man behind me in line. He got a slice of apple pie and coffee. He sat, ate, took pictures of the place, and left. Eventually, some others left and I was the only one in the cafe, now playing sudoku.
As new people came in for the next wave of customers, I finished up my puzzle (and pie) and left. I was nice and put my dirty dishes on the dirty dish tray next to the counter. Then I left for the mainland.
Of course, the sun sets about 4pm, and I left as soon as the sun set, which means I would feel eternally lame if I returned to the hostel now. So I went and walked around Forum some more because I didn't effectively explore it the previous day. Walked into H&M and bought some cheap wrist warmers and a cute hat. Dinner was a Chinese buffet in the food court basement. I found it unique that I walked the walls of a sea fortress in the afternoon and ate bad Chinese food for dinner at a very modern mall.
Went back home after that and spent the night on Skype. w00t
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Most Awesome Airline Efficiency I've Ever Experienced
7 January:
I remember waking up, being quiet, and leaving earlier than I anticipated. When I left for the station, I ended up passing it. Whoops. There were people waiting outside for it to open when I got there. I joined them knowing full well I was waaay too early for my flight. But there was nothing to do anyway, so I sat there. We walked in when it opened, I found the Arlanda Express, which is the train that takes you to the airport. I checked to make sure my Eurail pass can work on it, and then I found a seat.
Checked into my flight without any trouble. The flight was delayed thirty minutes, and I didn't like that it was delayed because I wanted to get going, but I was still willing to wait. I spent the time playing sudoku, journaling, and napping. When we boarded, I liked how everyone was given an assigned seat instead of picking when they board like they do on Ryanair. It made boarding that much faster. There wasn't a super-annoying and recorded safety brief, in fact I believe the captain explained the safety features herself. She even apologized for being delayed. The plane started in Helsinki and it had snowed overnight there, so they took 30 minutes to defrost the plane before launching. But what really surprised me was the plane actually took off on time.
Everything was so efficient! I loved it to death! Of course, the one thing I didn't like was the English version of announcements coming on third instead of second. First was Finnish, second was Swedish, third was English. I guess it shows how many people travel between Finland and Sweden. This sort of language distinction was also found throughout Helsinki, so it's not just the airline. But I was still amazed by my flight. We took off when they said we would take off, we landed when we were supposed to, and we even got complimentary refreshments like tea and coffee, though I only had water. I liked that bit.
Found my way to the Helsinki city center alright. There was a bus that took you directly to the central station. I bought a single journey ticket, but it was good for 80 minutes since time of purchase, so I could also use it for the tram to my hostel.
Speaking of which, I couldn't find it right away. I was lost and walked around the station, found the trams, but none of them were the 4 which was the route I had to take. So I went to the information desk and asked where the tram 4 stop was. The man was nice and gave me a really good map of the city which I used the rest of the time there. Upon walking out of the info booth, I saw the street that lead to the stop, but I was hungry so I decided to get some lunch now that I knew where I was going. Ate at a small deli in the station and just people watched. While leaving, I gave my table to a couple of women who patiently waited for me to get my stuff together before occupying my table. That was nice of them.
At the hostel, I went and paid for my room and was nicely informed that I can come back and get my room number anytime after 2:00pm. I had forty minutes to kill time before I could see my room. No big deal. I saw a giant mall thing while on the tram. Besides, I had to find some eye drops for my eye and a charger for my phone. So after I dropped off my duffel in the luggage room, I asked for a pharmacy and an electronics store. The woman at the desk kindly pointed them out on the map and I set off for my errands.
Of course, I got distracted by a souvenir shop. Because it was so cute, and because it was kind of cheap, I got a small Viking figurine with a fur beared and the flag of Finland on his shield. He's so cute. I name him Sven the Viking.
The electronics store was more the electronics section of Stockmann, the largest department store in Finland. They're like JCPenny, but with more departments. Perhaps more like a Shopko with better quality and more expensive clothes? Definitely not like Wal-Mart. Anyway, I found the section and struggled through finding a charger and/or an adapter. The only charger for my phone was 19.50EUR and I couldn't find an adapter, so the $30 charger it was. The workers at the store wore little flags on their nametags denoted which languages they can help customers in, which I though was really awesome. Nearly everyone had a Finnish and British flag on their nametag, which goes to show how widespread English is. Swedish was more common than I thought, so there were only a handful of workers that didn't have it on their nametag. At least most people had English flags.
The next step was finding a pharmacy, but I managed to find a giant mall called Forum that I wandered through aimlessly for a while. Finnish malls are just like American malls. While wandering the Forum, I got so sore from my backpack. I attempting to find a place to sit, but I clearly wasn't looking in the right place because I had no idea where to go. The maps by the entrances said there was a pizza and kebab place on the third floor, so I attempted to find it. Found it I did, but there wasn't room for me to sit right away. So that plan was scratched.
After wandering around a bit, I found a small cafe a block or two away from the Forum. I ordered a hot chocolate and sat there for a while just people watching and playing sudoku. I rested until my shoulders stopped complaining and I finished three puzzles. Then I picked up my backpack and attempted to find the pharmacy the woman at the hostel desk pointed out.
Between the cafe and the pharmacy, I went the wrong way down the road and found a souvenir shop which some pretty awesome stuff. Got a patch and some postcards there. They had tee shirts, one for 10EUR and three for 25EUR. I debated getting some there, but I figured I would find the same deal again and I would buy then. I wasn't ready to buy tee shirts just then. In restrospect, it was the opportune moment to buy tee shirts because I never got my Helsinki tee shirt. (Neither did I get my Nightwish tee shirt, but I'm not too heartbroken about that).
Walked the wrong way down the street after that. Of course. But I found the right way and by now I was looking for a cheap place to eat. Found it at a place called Carrolls, which is the Finnish version of McDonald's or Burger King. The fries were awesome. But that's where I ate and then I left for the hostel.
I was given a room number and a key and I went up to dump off my stuff and relax. But when I got to my room, I realized that I wasn't the only one in the room like I thought I was. This confused me. The website said 1bed-dorm, and I took that as one bed in a room. I guess not. I was planning on sleeping in my own room and not worrying about someone overhearing my conversations with my parents and friends. So I picked up my stuff and went back to the desk to see if there was a private room available. There was, and I said I would be willing to pay the different between the rooms. So I did and got a new room on the same floor.
I liked this better. I was more comfortable, I was alone. There was even a table for me to keep my computer so my bed can be free for clothes. So I set up camp on the table and spent the rest of the evening on the computer. Even called Dad at home to tell him I was fine. My phone ran out of minutes haflway through that conversation. Whoops. My immediate thought was how I was going to call Alicia to tell her I was back in London, but then I thought of phone booths. They're all over the place in London. So that problem was solved.
I remember waking up, being quiet, and leaving earlier than I anticipated. When I left for the station, I ended up passing it. Whoops. There were people waiting outside for it to open when I got there. I joined them knowing full well I was waaay too early for my flight. But there was nothing to do anyway, so I sat there. We walked in when it opened, I found the Arlanda Express, which is the train that takes you to the airport. I checked to make sure my Eurail pass can work on it, and then I found a seat.
Checked into my flight without any trouble. The flight was delayed thirty minutes, and I didn't like that it was delayed because I wanted to get going, but I was still willing to wait. I spent the time playing sudoku, journaling, and napping. When we boarded, I liked how everyone was given an assigned seat instead of picking when they board like they do on Ryanair. It made boarding that much faster. There wasn't a super-annoying and recorded safety brief, in fact I believe the captain explained the safety features herself. She even apologized for being delayed. The plane started in Helsinki and it had snowed overnight there, so they took 30 minutes to defrost the plane before launching. But what really surprised me was the plane actually took off on time.
Everything was so efficient! I loved it to death! Of course, the one thing I didn't like was the English version of announcements coming on third instead of second. First was Finnish, second was Swedish, third was English. I guess it shows how many people travel between Finland and Sweden. This sort of language distinction was also found throughout Helsinki, so it's not just the airline. But I was still amazed by my flight. We took off when they said we would take off, we landed when we were supposed to, and we even got complimentary refreshments like tea and coffee, though I only had water. I liked that bit.
Found my way to the Helsinki city center alright. There was a bus that took you directly to the central station. I bought a single journey ticket, but it was good for 80 minutes since time of purchase, so I could also use it for the tram to my hostel.
Speaking of which, I couldn't find it right away. I was lost and walked around the station, found the trams, but none of them were the 4 which was the route I had to take. So I went to the information desk and asked where the tram 4 stop was. The man was nice and gave me a really good map of the city which I used the rest of the time there. Upon walking out of the info booth, I saw the street that lead to the stop, but I was hungry so I decided to get some lunch now that I knew where I was going. Ate at a small deli in the station and just people watched. While leaving, I gave my table to a couple of women who patiently waited for me to get my stuff together before occupying my table. That was nice of them.
At the hostel, I went and paid for my room and was nicely informed that I can come back and get my room number anytime after 2:00pm. I had forty minutes to kill time before I could see my room. No big deal. I saw a giant mall thing while on the tram. Besides, I had to find some eye drops for my eye and a charger for my phone. So after I dropped off my duffel in the luggage room, I asked for a pharmacy and an electronics store. The woman at the desk kindly pointed them out on the map and I set off for my errands.
Of course, I got distracted by a souvenir shop. Because it was so cute, and because it was kind of cheap, I got a small Viking figurine with a fur beared and the flag of Finland on his shield. He's so cute. I name him Sven the Viking.
The electronics store was more the electronics section of Stockmann, the largest department store in Finland. They're like JCPenny, but with more departments. Perhaps more like a Shopko with better quality and more expensive clothes? Definitely not like Wal-Mart. Anyway, I found the section and struggled through finding a charger and/or an adapter. The only charger for my phone was 19.50EUR and I couldn't find an adapter, so the $30 charger it was. The workers at the store wore little flags on their nametags denoted which languages they can help customers in, which I though was really awesome. Nearly everyone had a Finnish and British flag on their nametag, which goes to show how widespread English is. Swedish was more common than I thought, so there were only a handful of workers that didn't have it on their nametag. At least most people had English flags.
The next step was finding a pharmacy, but I managed to find a giant mall called Forum that I wandered through aimlessly for a while. Finnish malls are just like American malls. While wandering the Forum, I got so sore from my backpack. I attempting to find a place to sit, but I clearly wasn't looking in the right place because I had no idea where to go. The maps by the entrances said there was a pizza and kebab place on the third floor, so I attempted to find it. Found it I did, but there wasn't room for me to sit right away. So that plan was scratched.
After wandering around a bit, I found a small cafe a block or two away from the Forum. I ordered a hot chocolate and sat there for a while just people watching and playing sudoku. I rested until my shoulders stopped complaining and I finished three puzzles. Then I picked up my backpack and attempted to find the pharmacy the woman at the hostel desk pointed out.
Between the cafe and the pharmacy, I went the wrong way down the road and found a souvenir shop which some pretty awesome stuff. Got a patch and some postcards there. They had tee shirts, one for 10EUR and three for 25EUR. I debated getting some there, but I figured I would find the same deal again and I would buy then. I wasn't ready to buy tee shirts just then. In restrospect, it was the opportune moment to buy tee shirts because I never got my Helsinki tee shirt. (Neither did I get my Nightwish tee shirt, but I'm not too heartbroken about that).
Walked the wrong way down the street after that. Of course. But I found the right way and by now I was looking for a cheap place to eat. Found it at a place called Carrolls, which is the Finnish version of McDonald's or Burger King. The fries were awesome. But that's where I ate and then I left for the hostel.
I was given a room number and a key and I went up to dump off my stuff and relax. But when I got to my room, I realized that I wasn't the only one in the room like I thought I was. This confused me. The website said 1bed-dorm, and I took that as one bed in a room. I guess not. I was planning on sleeping in my own room and not worrying about someone overhearing my conversations with my parents and friends. So I picked up my stuff and went back to the desk to see if there was a private room available. There was, and I said I would be willing to pay the different between the rooms. So I did and got a new room on the same floor.
I liked this better. I was more comfortable, I was alone. There was even a table for me to keep my computer so my bed can be free for clothes. So I set up camp on the table and spent the rest of the evening on the computer. Even called Dad at home to tell him I was fine. My phone ran out of minutes haflway through that conversation. Whoops. My immediate thought was how I was going to call Alicia to tell her I was back in London, but then I thought of phone booths. They're all over the place in London. So that problem was solved.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Skansen Open Air Museum
6 January:
Woke up later than the previous day, which was nice. I still felt like I had to wake up early to get to the sites early because sunlight doesn't last long this far north. So I was out of the hostel as soon as I was ready and planned the route.
The plan was to head to the Skansen Open Air Museum and hang around there for as long as it takes. If there was time left, and only if there was time left, then I would check out the Vasa Museum which features a giant ship from the 1600s that's boasted to be 95% original (after a very slow and painstaking restoration process that may or may not still be ongoing). But I was more interested in the Skansen Museum because it's a type of museum I've never been in before, a few trusted travel websites said it was really awesome, and I wanted to see what life was like in Swedish towns 200 years ago.
The museum was broken into quite a few sections that talked about life in various parts of Sweden. There was a Town Quarter, my first stop, which talked about life in the industry around the 1920s and 1930s. I walked into a glass blower shop (which was a shopping shop, the actual glass blowers weren't there in the winter. A bummer because that's why I wantd to go). Also visited the furniture factory, the engineering works which was all about engines. There was a small interactive area in the Engineering Works building including a mini theater where you can watch documentaries. One notable documentary was about the SAAB cars, which I would have watched except the documentary was 40 minutes long and in Swedish. I couldn't sit through 40 minutes of Swedish, so I continued on.
Forget exactly what was next, since I was just wandering around for a while. If I had gone in the summer, I would have spent two full days in that museum, seriously. What you do is when you walk into a house, or a building, you are greeted by the workers who are there doing a craft in costume. You can ask questions and they are more than happy to answer you. Once you get them talking, though, what they have to say is very interesting. I saw a house from the 1930s that would have featured a new couple from the upper middle class (new money is what the woman said). Also walked into a house from the late 1800s during Christmas time, so the woman talking about that one went into detail about all the foods on the dinner table and even a few folk traditions.
Christmas was the only time rural Swedish inhabitants had fresh bread from flour, so that was always a treat. They usually hung it out to dry and kept the small tower of Christmas bread for the 12 days of Christmas; the last day of which they would eat the tower. I found it interesting how the Swedish didn't eat fresh bread right away. But this is bread from flour and I guess they normally make bread from something else (forgot to ask what they usually make bread out of).
An interesting folk tale is about the Jud Tomte, a little gnome who goes up to about the knee of an adult man. He has a full beard and dresses in grey but wears a red cap. He's a household gnome and usually lives in the barn. During Christmas, you're supposed to take a bit from each dish on the table, place it in a basin to leave underneath the table, or put it out with the horses which are his favorite animal. Keeping the tomte happy would provide good fortune for the household, but bad fortune will come if he is not taken care of. Although just a folk tale, the woman in this housestead said that one grandmother had come in and told a story about how, when she was seven, she and her brother saw a tomte. They woke up early to go wake up their neighbors for Christmas mass, and as they came around the barn, they saw a small man dressed in gray disappear around the corner of the barn. When they went to look, they saw small footprints in the snow. I really like this idea of a tomte for each household.
Not every household had a good enough guide. I walked into one house where I took a picture or two then asked a question, and the tour guide just answered the question and didn't elaborate on anything. I attempted to get her going, but she answered my follow up in just the same way she answered the real question. Have you ever had that feeling where you have a question in your head but you have no idea how to word it? And you know that there's more to the answer of your question but you don't know how to work that to get the follow up? That's my feeling with this girl. Another couple walked in and they talked about how all the Christmas dinners in all the houses seemed like the same, and the girl agreed and they talked about that for a while. Then I left.
The next place I went to was very nice. It didn't have a Christmas dinner, but I asked a question and the woman answered with a longwinded answer that elaborated on a lot of points. She was nice to listen to. She was the one that also pointed out that a lot of items in the houses would have been painted bright reds or blues, but since the museum authorities don't want any changes to the current items as they are, they all just look drab and grey and brown. But there would have been more color if they were new. Also, a lot of windows in farmsteads faced south, especially in the north, and she thought that was a clever move on the homebuilder's part.
Families usually stayed within one or two rooms with other. Anymore rooms weren't really needed and it was a sign of wealth if you had more rooms for storage and/or a second floor.
Christmas tradition: Some of the Christmas dinners displayed had candles with more than one branch coming from it. The point of these candles was that each branch represented a member of the family. During Christmas dinner, everyone lights their candle at the same time and how the flame catches and burns predicts how the coming year will be for that person.
Also saw someone driving a horse-drawn sleigh and walked through the portion of the museum that is considered the zoo. Not a lot of the animals were out, but I did see some reindeer and a small pack of grey seals. There was also a cow, but that was mostly by the farm animals. That was cute. Smelled the cows before I saw them too. Reminded me of home.
When I was all done with the Skansen, I walked into their gift shop. It was quaint and pricey and I ended up not buying a Swedish horse while in Sweden. They were so expensive! I overheard someone say that it's hard to find someone to carve them. Painting is the easy part, finding a wood carver for them is the hard part and what jacks up the prices on them. Oh well. Maybe next time I make it to Sweden? Hopefully I'll have more money then.
Returning home, I thought I'd maybe stop by the Vasa Museum, but as I walked by, I noticed that people were walking out of it. After stopping to think about it, I came to the conclusion that it's probably not worth going in. This is a legit museum where you can spend hours walking through the exhibits. If I'm going to that museum, I'd rather spend those hours walking through the exhibits then pay a lot of money just to see one thing and then walk out again. So I skipped it and took the tram to the end of the line, which was an area I was familiar with and a closer walk than if I had walked all the way from the museum myself.
Thought I would spend some time on the Internet before dinner so that I can spend the later part of the evening blogging about the days I've been missing. This was foiled because the Internet was down. I tried my computer, and I tried a few of the hostel's computers, but everyone said that another person had the same IP address as the computer I was using, please try again later or contact your network administrator. This seemed like too much work to handle, so I did some quiet sudoku in a quiet lounge. A guy came by asking for a shower, and I pointed him in the right direction. He asked which State I was from because my accent was so obvious, and I said Wisconsin.
"So this must be normal weather for you, huh?"
"Yeah, kinda. Where are you from?"
"Texas."
"Ooo."
"Yeah. Hopefully I'll get out and do something."
"You should."
Dinner was a restuarant a few blocks away from the hostel called Cafe Trenem. It was pricier than I thought it was, but I figured "Hey, why not? Real Swedish food." They were nice enough to give me an English menu, so I could actually read what everything said. Ordered a pig's knuckle thinking that wouldn't be too harmless and drank my water and people-watched as I waited. There may have been some sudoku involved too. When the food came, I did not expected a real live cooked pig's foot in front of me. It kind of creeped me out, so I pointed the toe away from me and took as much meat off the bones as I could before chowing down. It was good, I have to say. There were three sauces that it came with. One was pumpkin, one was apple, and the other was some vegetable combination. I liked the apple the best, so I ate the pork with that mostly. The pumpkin was good too, and the vegetable one was crunchy but also good, though not a flavor I was looking for.
After getting back to the hostel, I did my Internet thing and showered. Took out my contacts and my eye went bonkers again. Argh. As I was dealing with that, a girl came into my once-empty room. And of course, being the only two people in the room together, we started talking. Her name was Karen, she comes from California. She graduated with a major in Spanish and then went to Madrid to find a job. I guess this was a weekend holiday for her. I apologized on behalf of my eye and explained that I did something I probably shouldn't have done and now my eye is seeking retribution. Yes, it hurts. No, nothing is wrong with me emotionally. I have a feeling we would have seen parts of the city together had I been staying an extra day, but since I was leaving at five the next morning, I called in early. She totally understood and I went to bed around 10pm. I hope she had a good time in Stockholm.
Woke up later than the previous day, which was nice. I still felt like I had to wake up early to get to the sites early because sunlight doesn't last long this far north. So I was out of the hostel as soon as I was ready and planned the route.
The plan was to head to the Skansen Open Air Museum and hang around there for as long as it takes. If there was time left, and only if there was time left, then I would check out the Vasa Museum which features a giant ship from the 1600s that's boasted to be 95% original (after a very slow and painstaking restoration process that may or may not still be ongoing). But I was more interested in the Skansen Museum because it's a type of museum I've never been in before, a few trusted travel websites said it was really awesome, and I wanted to see what life was like in Swedish towns 200 years ago.
The museum was broken into quite a few sections that talked about life in various parts of Sweden. There was a Town Quarter, my first stop, which talked about life in the industry around the 1920s and 1930s. I walked into a glass blower shop (which was a shopping shop, the actual glass blowers weren't there in the winter. A bummer because that's why I wantd to go). Also visited the furniture factory, the engineering works which was all about engines. There was a small interactive area in the Engineering Works building including a mini theater where you can watch documentaries. One notable documentary was about the SAAB cars, which I would have watched except the documentary was 40 minutes long and in Swedish. I couldn't sit through 40 minutes of Swedish, so I continued on.
Forget exactly what was next, since I was just wandering around for a while. If I had gone in the summer, I would have spent two full days in that museum, seriously. What you do is when you walk into a house, or a building, you are greeted by the workers who are there doing a craft in costume. You can ask questions and they are more than happy to answer you. Once you get them talking, though, what they have to say is very interesting. I saw a house from the 1930s that would have featured a new couple from the upper middle class (new money is what the woman said). Also walked into a house from the late 1800s during Christmas time, so the woman talking about that one went into detail about all the foods on the dinner table and even a few folk traditions.
Christmas was the only time rural Swedish inhabitants had fresh bread from flour, so that was always a treat. They usually hung it out to dry and kept the small tower of Christmas bread for the 12 days of Christmas; the last day of which they would eat the tower. I found it interesting how the Swedish didn't eat fresh bread right away. But this is bread from flour and I guess they normally make bread from something else (forgot to ask what they usually make bread out of).
An interesting folk tale is about the Jud Tomte, a little gnome who goes up to about the knee of an adult man. He has a full beard and dresses in grey but wears a red cap. He's a household gnome and usually lives in the barn. During Christmas, you're supposed to take a bit from each dish on the table, place it in a basin to leave underneath the table, or put it out with the horses which are his favorite animal. Keeping the tomte happy would provide good fortune for the household, but bad fortune will come if he is not taken care of. Although just a folk tale, the woman in this housestead said that one grandmother had come in and told a story about how, when she was seven, she and her brother saw a tomte. They woke up early to go wake up their neighbors for Christmas mass, and as they came around the barn, they saw a small man dressed in gray disappear around the corner of the barn. When they went to look, they saw small footprints in the snow. I really like this idea of a tomte for each household.
Not every household had a good enough guide. I walked into one house where I took a picture or two then asked a question, and the tour guide just answered the question and didn't elaborate on anything. I attempted to get her going, but she answered my follow up in just the same way she answered the real question. Have you ever had that feeling where you have a question in your head but you have no idea how to word it? And you know that there's more to the answer of your question but you don't know how to work that to get the follow up? That's my feeling with this girl. Another couple walked in and they talked about how all the Christmas dinners in all the houses seemed like the same, and the girl agreed and they talked about that for a while. Then I left.
The next place I went to was very nice. It didn't have a Christmas dinner, but I asked a question and the woman answered with a longwinded answer that elaborated on a lot of points. She was nice to listen to. She was the one that also pointed out that a lot of items in the houses would have been painted bright reds or blues, but since the museum authorities don't want any changes to the current items as they are, they all just look drab and grey and brown. But there would have been more color if they were new. Also, a lot of windows in farmsteads faced south, especially in the north, and she thought that was a clever move on the homebuilder's part.
Families usually stayed within one or two rooms with other. Anymore rooms weren't really needed and it was a sign of wealth if you had more rooms for storage and/or a second floor.
Christmas tradition: Some of the Christmas dinners displayed had candles with more than one branch coming from it. The point of these candles was that each branch represented a member of the family. During Christmas dinner, everyone lights their candle at the same time and how the flame catches and burns predicts how the coming year will be for that person.
Also saw someone driving a horse-drawn sleigh and walked through the portion of the museum that is considered the zoo. Not a lot of the animals were out, but I did see some reindeer and a small pack of grey seals. There was also a cow, but that was mostly by the farm animals. That was cute. Smelled the cows before I saw them too. Reminded me of home.
When I was all done with the Skansen, I walked into their gift shop. It was quaint and pricey and I ended up not buying a Swedish horse while in Sweden. They were so expensive! I overheard someone say that it's hard to find someone to carve them. Painting is the easy part, finding a wood carver for them is the hard part and what jacks up the prices on them. Oh well. Maybe next time I make it to Sweden? Hopefully I'll have more money then.
Returning home, I thought I'd maybe stop by the Vasa Museum, but as I walked by, I noticed that people were walking out of it. After stopping to think about it, I came to the conclusion that it's probably not worth going in. This is a legit museum where you can spend hours walking through the exhibits. If I'm going to that museum, I'd rather spend those hours walking through the exhibits then pay a lot of money just to see one thing and then walk out again. So I skipped it and took the tram to the end of the line, which was an area I was familiar with and a closer walk than if I had walked all the way from the museum myself.
Thought I would spend some time on the Internet before dinner so that I can spend the later part of the evening blogging about the days I've been missing. This was foiled because the Internet was down. I tried my computer, and I tried a few of the hostel's computers, but everyone said that another person had the same IP address as the computer I was using, please try again later or contact your network administrator. This seemed like too much work to handle, so I did some quiet sudoku in a quiet lounge. A guy came by asking for a shower, and I pointed him in the right direction. He asked which State I was from because my accent was so obvious, and I said Wisconsin.
"So this must be normal weather for you, huh?"
"Yeah, kinda. Where are you from?"
"Texas."
"Ooo."
"Yeah. Hopefully I'll get out and do something."
"You should."
Dinner was a restuarant a few blocks away from the hostel called Cafe Trenem. It was pricier than I thought it was, but I figured "Hey, why not? Real Swedish food." They were nice enough to give me an English menu, so I could actually read what everything said. Ordered a pig's knuckle thinking that wouldn't be too harmless and drank my water and people-watched as I waited. There may have been some sudoku involved too. When the food came, I did not expected a real live cooked pig's foot in front of me. It kind of creeped me out, so I pointed the toe away from me and took as much meat off the bones as I could before chowing down. It was good, I have to say. There were three sauces that it came with. One was pumpkin, one was apple, and the other was some vegetable combination. I liked the apple the best, so I ate the pork with that mostly. The pumpkin was good too, and the vegetable one was crunchy but also good, though not a flavor I was looking for.
After getting back to the hostel, I did my Internet thing and showered. Took out my contacts and my eye went bonkers again. Argh. As I was dealing with that, a girl came into my once-empty room. And of course, being the only two people in the room together, we started talking. Her name was Karen, she comes from California. She graduated with a major in Spanish and then went to Madrid to find a job. I guess this was a weekend holiday for her. I apologized on behalf of my eye and explained that I did something I probably shouldn't have done and now my eye is seeking retribution. Yes, it hurts. No, nothing is wrong with me emotionally. I have a feeling we would have seen parts of the city together had I been staying an extra day, but since I was leaving at five the next morning, I called in early. She totally understood and I went to bed around 10pm. I hope she had a good time in Stockholm.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Archipelago Tours and Souvenirs
5 January
I had several things on my mind when I woke up. Each fighting for precedence over the other was laundry and my eye. Laundry one because I got up at 7am to go check on it. The thought had woken me up at 4am but I wasn't going to disturb the girls sleeping in my room at that ungodly hour. I didn't want to disturb myself, even. So 7am it was.
Wouldn't you know, the dryer was still going! Oh my word, I thought my clothes would have been nice and small by now, but they weren't, thank goodness. They weren't even warm. But they were clean and they were dry, so I rolled them up and packed them back into my duffel where they belonged for the time being.
The eye was better that morning, but I was still kind of sleepy from waking up so early, so I went to bed for another hour. When I woke up, I was the only person sleeping in the room. The other three girls had checked out. Although I made them seem like a three-some travel group, I think the two sharing the bunk were the only ones traveling together and the third was a solo traveler like me. I think this is the case because the third girl sleeping in the bunk below me checked out as I slept where the others were gone when I got back from folding laundry and eating breakfast.
The goal for the day was to take a boat tour of the archipelago. I plotted a route from a map of Stockholm that will take me to the docks, so off I went.
Ran into an interesting piece of architecture that later turned out to be the Royal Palace. It was on a few lists of things to see in Stockholm, and I never expected to run into it on a whim. Took a few pictures of it, of course. I couldn't resist because of the crowd of tourists taking pictures of it, so it had to be something important. The palace was on a major tourist shopping street, and as a result, I walked into a souvenir shop and bought a patch. Took care of that one right away.
Continued onto the docks and found that I was bright and early for the next boat tour. Yes, they run them in winter but only a few companies do so. I paid for my ticket an hour before the boat launched so I decided to wander a few blocks for half an hour or so. On the way, I found a small cafe where I ate a sandwich and juice for lunch. Also spent some time warming up and completing a sudoku puzzle or two. The cashier that served me looked really bored, the way he wasn't doing anything behind the cash register. When it was five to one, I left for the docks again.
The tour would last about 2.5 hours instead of 3.5 because of the amount of ice later on in the route. So I guess we turned around earlier than expected but I don't mind. I had gotten my island fix by the time we were that far out, anyway. The tour boat was really nice. The interior was fashioned in wood and looked all fancy-like. There were two levels and I made my way to the upper deck for the better views. While waiting for the ship to launch, I overheard four adults talking amongst themselves. They were obviously American because they were loud and the men sported university clothing. One wore Wisconsin Badger gear and the other Minnesota. I wonder why I didn't step in and strike up a conversation, but I'm fine not doing so. I had an enjoyable experience anyhow.
Our tour guide was named Eva. I talked with her several times throughout the trip. I said I was just traveling at the moment and spent a semester in London for studies. She said she was jealous because I and one other girl from Australia had spent three months traveling around. I pointed out that, based on our conversations, she's lived in a lot of places around the world. She had spent two years in Miami, a few years in Madrid, and even some time in Georgia (the country not the state). Then she admitted that maybe she shouldn't be complaining.
The aforementioned Australian girl was really nice. We talked several times throughout the trip too. She was really, really excited about winter in Stockholm. Australia doesn't get much snow, and she was most amazed by the fact that the ship was sailing through ice. ICE! Can you believe it? Yes, I could, actually. But she was still amazed. She also really liked the color scheme of the islands. She had a Canon camera just like my friend David, you see, and she was snapping away the entire trip. I asked if photography was just a hobby, and she said that it was but she's rubbish. Only a few good shots in a stack of 200 or so. I believe I said that it was normal (because it's what happens to David) but I don't think she heard me. She said her sister, who lives in Stockholm, was a really excellent photographer but she's too busy to give her sister a few pointers about photography. Meanwhile, Austrailian Girl was just putzing around with her camera settings. I'm not a photographer, but from what I heard, I think she's on the right track. Just putztng, keep taking a million pictures a day, and pretty soon you'll be a really good photographer before you know it.
Australian Girl (I never caught her name), Eva, and I spent some time complaining about the lack of sunlight in Stockholm winters. Eva also said that Stockholm people prefer summer months over winter months and wonder why anyone would want to visit in the winter. So the next time I'm in Scandinavia, I'll be sure to visit in the summer when the sun is out for sixteen hours and the weather is nice.
With the tour over, we bid farewell to each other and continued our merry way. This morning, I had previously read about a shop I wanted to visit on the island with the Royal Palace on it, so that's where I ventured afterward. It was only 3pm, but it was already twilight! It was also cloudy so it was hard to tell where the sun was at this time. Anyway, I wandered up and down this street and ended up not going into the shop I wanted to visit. The shop boasted crystal gifts and other souvenirs, but I only saw the crystal gifts, which were finely crafted and interesting, but nothing I would ultimately buy. I did, however, find some other interesting stuff.
Like awesome Viking figurines! That were overpriced and thus not bought by me. I also bought a stack of postcards and a few Christmas ornaments for myself that were on sale. Two ornaments featuring Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus (with blonde hair instead of grey or white). The third was a cute angel girl with blonde pictails that was too Scandinavian to pass up. While wandering, found a tee shirt I would really like to buy, but wasn't positive on the price just yet so I kept going. Found a store that sold a bunch of items for rock bands, one of them being Nightwish (and now I wish I walked into that because I'm not having any luck finding Nightwish memorabilia in Finland). The reason I passed it up was because I thought I would find Nightwish stuff in Finland, actually. The band does come from Finland at any rate. Moving on, I also found THE Coolest Store EVER.
THE Coolest Store EVER is a bookstore that features nothing BUT science fiction, fantasy, manga, and graphic novels. Indeed, I am that geeky that I call them graphic novels, and to increase that geekiness, I will correct you if you call them comic books. They're graphic novels. But seriously, I could live in this store. I kind of wanted to buy something because I was so taken aback by the fact that a store like that existed somewhere in the world, but I immediately thought of packing and whether it would fit. And after returning and taking a look at my bag, I could have fit another novel in my backpack or duffel bag. Too late now. I even passed up the opportunity to open the first volume of Scott Pilgrim. What was I thinking?
I was thinking of that tee shirt. Which I went and got before I turned in for the night. It's a pretty cool tee shirt, if I do say so myself.
Wandered the main shopping street on my way back home. It was a more interesting route than the other one I had plotted out. Besides, I got to see a street riddled with H&Ms. Way too many people like that store over here (but I can see why, really. Their clothes are just so cute and affordable).
Bought a jar of pasta sauce before I returned to the dorm. By this time, I figured I had spent enough money on food so I should take the free pasta in the hostel kitchen while I have a chance. This was the first hostel that had free anything in the kitchen besides leftovers, so I had to take the opportunity. Just at by myself in the kitchen and didn't join into any conversations. What a loner I am. I think it's time to go home because I'm losing a willingness to talk to people.
Spent the evening on Skype, being as I was the only person in a room meant for four. Kind of reveled in the fact that I was the only person in the room, except I stayed on the top bunk for some reason. Really? Really.
I had several things on my mind when I woke up. Each fighting for precedence over the other was laundry and my eye. Laundry one because I got up at 7am to go check on it. The thought had woken me up at 4am but I wasn't going to disturb the girls sleeping in my room at that ungodly hour. I didn't want to disturb myself, even. So 7am it was.
Wouldn't you know, the dryer was still going! Oh my word, I thought my clothes would have been nice and small by now, but they weren't, thank goodness. They weren't even warm. But they were clean and they were dry, so I rolled them up and packed them back into my duffel where they belonged for the time being.
The eye was better that morning, but I was still kind of sleepy from waking up so early, so I went to bed for another hour. When I woke up, I was the only person sleeping in the room. The other three girls had checked out. Although I made them seem like a three-some travel group, I think the two sharing the bunk were the only ones traveling together and the third was a solo traveler like me. I think this is the case because the third girl sleeping in the bunk below me checked out as I slept where the others were gone when I got back from folding laundry and eating breakfast.
The goal for the day was to take a boat tour of the archipelago. I plotted a route from a map of Stockholm that will take me to the docks, so off I went.
Ran into an interesting piece of architecture that later turned out to be the Royal Palace. It was on a few lists of things to see in Stockholm, and I never expected to run into it on a whim. Took a few pictures of it, of course. I couldn't resist because of the crowd of tourists taking pictures of it, so it had to be something important. The palace was on a major tourist shopping street, and as a result, I walked into a souvenir shop and bought a patch. Took care of that one right away.
Continued onto the docks and found that I was bright and early for the next boat tour. Yes, they run them in winter but only a few companies do so. I paid for my ticket an hour before the boat launched so I decided to wander a few blocks for half an hour or so. On the way, I found a small cafe where I ate a sandwich and juice for lunch. Also spent some time warming up and completing a sudoku puzzle or two. The cashier that served me looked really bored, the way he wasn't doing anything behind the cash register. When it was five to one, I left for the docks again.
The tour would last about 2.5 hours instead of 3.5 because of the amount of ice later on in the route. So I guess we turned around earlier than expected but I don't mind. I had gotten my island fix by the time we were that far out, anyway. The tour boat was really nice. The interior was fashioned in wood and looked all fancy-like. There were two levels and I made my way to the upper deck for the better views. While waiting for the ship to launch, I overheard four adults talking amongst themselves. They were obviously American because they were loud and the men sported university clothing. One wore Wisconsin Badger gear and the other Minnesota. I wonder why I didn't step in and strike up a conversation, but I'm fine not doing so. I had an enjoyable experience anyhow.
Our tour guide was named Eva. I talked with her several times throughout the trip. I said I was just traveling at the moment and spent a semester in London for studies. She said she was jealous because I and one other girl from Australia had spent three months traveling around. I pointed out that, based on our conversations, she's lived in a lot of places around the world. She had spent two years in Miami, a few years in Madrid, and even some time in Georgia (the country not the state). Then she admitted that maybe she shouldn't be complaining.
The aforementioned Australian girl was really nice. We talked several times throughout the trip too. She was really, really excited about winter in Stockholm. Australia doesn't get much snow, and she was most amazed by the fact that the ship was sailing through ice. ICE! Can you believe it? Yes, I could, actually. But she was still amazed. She also really liked the color scheme of the islands. She had a Canon camera just like my friend David, you see, and she was snapping away the entire trip. I asked if photography was just a hobby, and she said that it was but she's rubbish. Only a few good shots in a stack of 200 or so. I believe I said that it was normal (because it's what happens to David) but I don't think she heard me. She said her sister, who lives in Stockholm, was a really excellent photographer but she's too busy to give her sister a few pointers about photography. Meanwhile, Austrailian Girl was just putzing around with her camera settings. I'm not a photographer, but from what I heard, I think she's on the right track. Just putztng, keep taking a million pictures a day, and pretty soon you'll be a really good photographer before you know it.
Australian Girl (I never caught her name), Eva, and I spent some time complaining about the lack of sunlight in Stockholm winters. Eva also said that Stockholm people prefer summer months over winter months and wonder why anyone would want to visit in the winter. So the next time I'm in Scandinavia, I'll be sure to visit in the summer when the sun is out for sixteen hours and the weather is nice.
With the tour over, we bid farewell to each other and continued our merry way. This morning, I had previously read about a shop I wanted to visit on the island with the Royal Palace on it, so that's where I ventured afterward. It was only 3pm, but it was already twilight! It was also cloudy so it was hard to tell where the sun was at this time. Anyway, I wandered up and down this street and ended up not going into the shop I wanted to visit. The shop boasted crystal gifts and other souvenirs, but I only saw the crystal gifts, which were finely crafted and interesting, but nothing I would ultimately buy. I did, however, find some other interesting stuff.
Like awesome Viking figurines! That were overpriced and thus not bought by me. I also bought a stack of postcards and a few Christmas ornaments for myself that were on sale. Two ornaments featuring Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus (with blonde hair instead of grey or white). The third was a cute angel girl with blonde pictails that was too Scandinavian to pass up. While wandering, found a tee shirt I would really like to buy, but wasn't positive on the price just yet so I kept going. Found a store that sold a bunch of items for rock bands, one of them being Nightwish (and now I wish I walked into that because I'm not having any luck finding Nightwish memorabilia in Finland). The reason I passed it up was because I thought I would find Nightwish stuff in Finland, actually. The band does come from Finland at any rate. Moving on, I also found THE Coolest Store EVER.
THE Coolest Store EVER is a bookstore that features nothing BUT science fiction, fantasy, manga, and graphic novels. Indeed, I am that geeky that I call them graphic novels, and to increase that geekiness, I will correct you if you call them comic books. They're graphic novels. But seriously, I could live in this store. I kind of wanted to buy something because I was so taken aback by the fact that a store like that existed somewhere in the world, but I immediately thought of packing and whether it would fit. And after returning and taking a look at my bag, I could have fit another novel in my backpack or duffel bag. Too late now. I even passed up the opportunity to open the first volume of Scott Pilgrim. What was I thinking?
I was thinking of that tee shirt. Which I went and got before I turned in for the night. It's a pretty cool tee shirt, if I do say so myself.
Wandered the main shopping street on my way back home. It was a more interesting route than the other one I had plotted out. Besides, I got to see a street riddled with H&Ms. Way too many people like that store over here (but I can see why, really. Their clothes are just so cute and affordable).
Bought a jar of pasta sauce before I returned to the dorm. By this time, I figured I had spent enough money on food so I should take the free pasta in the hostel kitchen while I have a chance. This was the first hostel that had free anything in the kitchen besides leftovers, so I had to take the opportunity. Just at by myself in the kitchen and didn't join into any conversations. What a loner I am. I think it's time to go home because I'm losing a willingness to talk to people.
Spent the evening on Skype, being as I was the only person in a room meant for four. Kind of reveled in the fact that I was the only person in the room, except I stayed on the top bunk for some reason. Really? Really.
Eye have Issues
I was informed today that a certain cousin David calls this the Blah-Blah-Blah Blog. Fortunately for you, I have no witty comeback to that (besides "Blah blah blah your face" but that's just lame).
4 January:
While putting in my contacts, I noticed that my left contact looked slightly unusual. The reasoning for not throwing it away included not having any spare contacts and the reasoning for putting in my eye involved not wanting to wear glasses on the train. Keep this slightly silly decision in mind because it comes into play later.
There were more people at breakfast that morning because it was later in the day. My train didn't leave until 10am or so, so I ate around 9:00/9:30am. Then I went back, packed up everything and made sure nothing was left behind, and left for the train station right under my hostel room, so it wasn't too much of a hastle getting there. The train came, I boarded, and we were off.
Had the small two-seat thinger to myself the first leg. When switching at Oslo, I ate Burger King for lunch. Only notable thing there was the ketchup container I got turned out to be barbeque sauce. Which isn't bad on fries, I just wanted honest to goodness ketchup.
Hopped on the train to Stockholm then. I was actually going forwards this time. While pondering what to do for the next few hours, the conductor came by for the ticket. She had to be the most cheerful person on the planet. Greeted me a perky "Hej hej!", stamped my Eurail pass, then asked where I was going. When I said Stockholm, she pulled out her timetable and told me which stop to get off at to transfer trains and which train I had to catch. I've never had a conductor ask for my destination before, and I thought that was really nice. That gave me high hopes for Swedish customer service.
Took pictures of scenery and just sat and listened to some music on a dying iPod. Attempted a sudoku puzzle, but I started to get dizzy so I stopped doing that. The sun set and it was dark when we pulled into Karlstad.
The train to Stockholm required you to book a seat on the train first, so that's what I did in the ticket office. Once finished, I figured I'd better get something to eat, so I bought a wrap and Vitamin Water at the convenience store next to the station. Put it in my bag to save for later because it wasn't time for dinner just yet.
Shared a four-seat compartment with a mother and her two sons. The boys took turns on their PSP and did that before I took an hour-long nap on the train. When I woke up, they were finishing a boxed lunch meal with their ears in headphones connected to their mom's phone, which I guess plays music. Always something in an electronic device. Perhaps these guys are easily bored? But they were quite lively when I was around, always talking and doing something. One of the kids started dancing and he would look at me from time to time, so I danced a little with him and that got a laugh. I remember him saying something to me in Swedish, so I asked "Do you speak English?" and he reacted with a surprised look like "Wait, you don't speak Swedish? What is this???" It reminded me of the drunk Czech guy way back in Bath.
At the station, I saw the family meet up with a woman I assumed was the mother's sister. In a genius move, I slung my duffel over my head so I carried both my backpack and duffel on my shoulders, which was easier given that mobility increased and I can stop switching hands. I didn't have a map to the hostel, but I did memorize directions given on the Internet. I was looking for Vasagatan that would eventually change to Uppslandgatan where the City Backpackers Hostel is located. Managed to find the right road, but went the wrong way. I knew it was the wrong way because I came to a series of bridges and water. That wasn't in the directions. So I walked back and went the other way on the road. Just my luck to go the wrong way, you know?
But I found the hostel and checked in. My room was occupied by three other Chinese girls. I assume they were Chinese, at least, because they sure didn't speak Japanese. Anyway, I spent the time to myself for two reasons. One, I had to get laundry done, but that was easy enough. Two, I took out my contacts.
Remember how I put in that one dry, odd-shaped contact? Well, when I took it out, my eye went berserk. It was really hard to open it and it felt like it had gone completely dry. It was so weird. Really hurt to keep it open too. I spent the better part of asking for laundry and doing laundry wondering what was going on. Then I thought, maybe if I put in contact solution to moisten it, it would help? And it did when I got the stuff in. When I went to switch over the laundry, I moistened a tissue and put that over my eye. As I waited for my clothes to dry, I dropped some of that water into my eye to see if it'll help. My eye felt better after getting wet, but I was still worried.
An hour after I put in my clothes to dry, I went to check on them and they were still really wet. I wondered what was going on, I don't have time for this nonsense, it's midnight and I'm dog tired. So I put them back in the dryer, hoped no one stole my clothes (it's a pretty big hostel with lots of people despite wintertime in Stockholm), and went to bed.
4 January:
While putting in my contacts, I noticed that my left contact looked slightly unusual. The reasoning for not throwing it away included not having any spare contacts and the reasoning for putting in my eye involved not wanting to wear glasses on the train. Keep this slightly silly decision in mind because it comes into play later.
There were more people at breakfast that morning because it was later in the day. My train didn't leave until 10am or so, so I ate around 9:00/9:30am. Then I went back, packed up everything and made sure nothing was left behind, and left for the train station right under my hostel room, so it wasn't too much of a hastle getting there. The train came, I boarded, and we were off.
Had the small two-seat thinger to myself the first leg. When switching at Oslo, I ate Burger King for lunch. Only notable thing there was the ketchup container I got turned out to be barbeque sauce. Which isn't bad on fries, I just wanted honest to goodness ketchup.
Hopped on the train to Stockholm then. I was actually going forwards this time. While pondering what to do for the next few hours, the conductor came by for the ticket. She had to be the most cheerful person on the planet. Greeted me a perky "Hej hej!", stamped my Eurail pass, then asked where I was going. When I said Stockholm, she pulled out her timetable and told me which stop to get off at to transfer trains and which train I had to catch. I've never had a conductor ask for my destination before, and I thought that was really nice. That gave me high hopes for Swedish customer service.
Took pictures of scenery and just sat and listened to some music on a dying iPod. Attempted a sudoku puzzle, but I started to get dizzy so I stopped doing that. The sun set and it was dark when we pulled into Karlstad.
The train to Stockholm required you to book a seat on the train first, so that's what I did in the ticket office. Once finished, I figured I'd better get something to eat, so I bought a wrap and Vitamin Water at the convenience store next to the station. Put it in my bag to save for later because it wasn't time for dinner just yet.
Shared a four-seat compartment with a mother and her two sons. The boys took turns on their PSP and did that before I took an hour-long nap on the train. When I woke up, they were finishing a boxed lunch meal with their ears in headphones connected to their mom's phone, which I guess plays music. Always something in an electronic device. Perhaps these guys are easily bored? But they were quite lively when I was around, always talking and doing something. One of the kids started dancing and he would look at me from time to time, so I danced a little with him and that got a laugh. I remember him saying something to me in Swedish, so I asked "Do you speak English?" and he reacted with a surprised look like "Wait, you don't speak Swedish? What is this???" It reminded me of the drunk Czech guy way back in Bath.
At the station, I saw the family meet up with a woman I assumed was the mother's sister. In a genius move, I slung my duffel over my head so I carried both my backpack and duffel on my shoulders, which was easier given that mobility increased and I can stop switching hands. I didn't have a map to the hostel, but I did memorize directions given on the Internet. I was looking for Vasagatan that would eventually change to Uppslandgatan where the City Backpackers Hostel is located. Managed to find the right road, but went the wrong way. I knew it was the wrong way because I came to a series of bridges and water. That wasn't in the directions. So I walked back and went the other way on the road. Just my luck to go the wrong way, you know?
But I found the hostel and checked in. My room was occupied by three other Chinese girls. I assume they were Chinese, at least, because they sure didn't speak Japanese. Anyway, I spent the time to myself for two reasons. One, I had to get laundry done, but that was easy enough. Two, I took out my contacts.
Remember how I put in that one dry, odd-shaped contact? Well, when I took it out, my eye went berserk. It was really hard to open it and it felt like it had gone completely dry. It was so weird. Really hurt to keep it open too. I spent the better part of asking for laundry and doing laundry wondering what was going on. Then I thought, maybe if I put in contact solution to moisten it, it would help? And it did when I got the stuff in. When I went to switch over the laundry, I moistened a tissue and put that over my eye. As I waited for my clothes to dry, I dropped some of that water into my eye to see if it'll help. My eye felt better after getting wet, but I was still worried.
An hour after I put in my clothes to dry, I went to check on them and they were still really wet. I wondered what was going on, I don't have time for this nonsense, it's midnight and I'm dog tired. So I put them back in the dryer, hoped no one stole my clothes (it's a pretty big hostel with lots of people despite wintertime in Stockholm), and went to bed.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Skiing in Lillehammer
3 January
Let's see. Where did I leave you off at? Oh yeah, Lillehammer, Norway. Which is gorgeous, by the way.
Woke up that morning and got ready first thing because doing that is always faster than eating breakfast first. I piled my ski stuff on my bed (and the rest of the stuff on the other bed) just to make sure I had everything I would need. Extra foot warmers? Check! Snow pants? Ski goggles? Gloves? Check check check. Ran over a mental list of anything else I would need for skiing, and I wasn't sure I had everything so I quickly dialed home. According to home, it rang once before it stopped ringing. Between dialing and the final decision, I figured that I did have everything and I wouldn't need anything else. Then I went to eat breakfast (which was free with the room. Yay for free breakfast!)
The initial plan was to leave on the 9:20a bus because I thought that would be early enough to make it to the hill. However, I was ready by 8:00a, so why wait that extra hour and a half being impatient? I left at the 8:20am bus instead. And I think I annoyed the driver because I asked "This is the bus to Haljell right?" and then "Is this the ski hill?" Dumb American, I may be, but at least I ask questions and don't get stuck someplace rather than not ask anything and get stuck someplace strange.
For the record, yes this is the Haljell that hosted the Winter Olympics in 1992.
The ticket office wasn't open yet, but the ski rental place was! I walked in and the guys behind the counter were very nice. I asked if they spoke English and they said "Of course! What's your shoe size?"
"I don't know the European size."
"That's okay."
So I gave him my size and he checked a sheet hanging on a shelf before retrieving a pair of boots. I tried them on and they fit well enough. Enough room to wiggle the toes and even for a toe warmer if needed. It wasn't too tight, and I didn't try to make it too tight. First time's a charm.
"Does it fit?"
"Yep!"
"Take the right boot to that counter there," he pointed to the ski counter "so it can be fitted with a pair of skis."
"Thank you! Er . .. tak!"
The ski guy stayed with me the rest of the time. He asked how long I've been skiing, I said a great deal of my life. He asked if I wanted advanced skis, and I said that I wasn't THAT good. Really, I'm not THAT good. Mostly because I don't take enough risks on the ski hil, not like my little brother who learned at the same time as me and skis like an Olympic pro. But the guy was sympathetic to my experience and gave me a pair of skis slighter better than the standard intermediate adult skis. Which was really nice of him. As I was paying, he gave me a pair of poles to use. He also strongly recommended a helmet which is included in the price of the "complete set" that I was renting. Not required, but strongly recommended.
I choose a helmet for various reasons. The most prominent is that I've never skied with a helmet before. Second, it's probably a good idea being all alone on a ski hill that's probably more advanced than anything in Wisconsin. Thirdly, you're on a ski hill that hosted the Olympics. Of course you should take a helmet. A green is probably the equivalent of a blue back home. That last statement couldn't have been more true.
I'll be using skier terminology in this post from now on, so here's a few pointers as to what I'm talking about.
Non-Skier Legend:
- Green = easy run
- Blue = intermediate run
- Red = advanced run
- Black = super advanced run; experts only
**In Wisconsin, a Red would equal a Black Diamond and a Black a Double Black Diamond. I'm using what they used in Norway for this post.
- slope = interchangable with run. Means a groomed path on the mountain
So yes, a WI Blue was a Norwegian Green. So it took a while for me to re-acquire my ski legs. But I eventually got it. Didn't do anything behond a blue, though. And even the blues were kind of hard. Wait, I did do something beyond a blue, but it was only because I had no idea where that one particular slope went and before I knew it, it was steeper than I was comfortable with.
The thing with skiing is if you come to a challenge like this, you really have to take it. You can't really go back unless you were THAT determined to avoid the challenge. And even then, when the challenge comes in the middle of the hill, it's easier to just accept the challenge than avoid it entirely. I remember a time in Wisconsin I was skiing with my friend LIndsay, my brothers, and Dad. We had to get to the chalet at the bottom of the hill, and most of the runs were closed. The only way left down the hill was the steep black diamond right in front of the chalet. Lindsay was there to help me down, but I do think she was more impatient than encouraging. But Dad was there to say "Take really wide turns". I took the hill slowly and with really wide turns, but I made it to the bottom.
And that's what I thought of as I descended that harder-than-anticipated hill mostly because I did the same thing. I took wide turns and I took it slowly. Don't go a speed you're not comfortable with. Do what's comfy and everything will be fine.
But you should know that the comfy speed isn't always the most pleasant speed on the thighs. You really gotta dig in your skis if you want to go slow enough to turn in time before you hit a tree (or someone else). I started feeling my thighs about two in the afternoon, after I had been skiing for about four hours (factoring in that hour I took for lunch). So I would take breaks halfway down some runs to stretch them out and loosen up again before continung onward.
Lunch, by the way, was a hamburger in a cafe with the Olympic name on it. The hamburger didn't have any cheese but it had some 1000 Island dressing that reminded me of the Nitty Gritty in Madison. The fries it came with had a flavoring I couldn't put my finger on, but it was good enough to snack on as I waited for my toes to warm up. That was nice. Also while eating lunch, a girl came up and pointed to the side of the table I wasn't using and asked something in Norwegian. Of course, though context and gestures, I understood what she was asking so I said "Yeah, of course you can sit there." She was joined shortly after by a couple friends and they sat and warmed up with hot chocolate.
I had also bought the Norwegian equivalent of a Kit Kat bar for lunch, but I saved that for later since I didn't feel like eating it right away. It was a bit of an impulse buy, more of a "Ooo! Norwegian candy!" than anything. That chocolate bar I ate a few hours later when I stopped in the same cafe to warm up. Ate it with a cup of hot chocolate that wasn't as good as the hot chocolate in Berlin but it was better than the stuff Ryan had in London. So I deemed it acceptable albeit overpriced.
What else about that day? First time on a gondola, that was an experience. Nothing worth noting other than it was my first time riding a gondola. And since I had nothing better to do, I rode it all the way up to the top.
There was a mini terrain park for children on the hill. I liked to play in that because it was less scary than the real terrain park for adults and tricksters. I liked the rounded hill and the see-saw. There was a mini race course where the halfway mark was a cute inflatable viking. Of course there were a couple jumps and a few ramps that were extra slidey so you could spin or what not on them. There was even a little conveyer belt so you can restrict playtime only to the children's terrain park. I didn't stay much at a time because an adult in a children's terrain park was kind of weird, especially a solo adult. So I would play for a few minutes, finish going down the mountain, take a few more runs, then return to the play park for some more innocent fun.
It was time to call it a day when I went down a run and couldn't make out what sort of powder was coming my way. I didn't want to ski on unknown snow, I skied the rest of the way down the mountain and into the locker room where I had kept my stuff for the day. After getting off the equipment, I returned the skis and poles and stuff and went to get some cash for the bus ticket back to Lillehammer.
Also bought a postcard or two from the sports shop at the hill. Mostly because I didn't know if I would get a souvenir from Lillehammer, but I planned to walk the main shopping street when I got back anyway.
It took maybe an hour and a half for the correct bus to come. It was empty when it finally came, but the skiers returning to Lillehammer filled it up pretty fast. I sat next to a window and was so tired I fell asleep during the twenty minute return trip. Could not keep my eyes open for the life of me.
Got wide awake when I returned to the outdoor air, though. I had walked a main shopping street the previous night and I wanted to walk it again now that some of the shops might still be open. So off I went and lo and behold, the sourvenir shop was still open! Yay! I ran into that and got a few postcards, a patch for Norway, and a tee shirt that fittingly says "Scandinavian Explorer" and features the flags of all 4 Scandinavian countries. It just fits me, so I'm going to have to be careful about washing it. I hope it doesn't shirnk on me!
Dinner was leftover pizza from the previous night. I cooked it in the microwave in the guest kitchen in the hostel. I wanted to eat and hang out online as I did so, but my computer wouldn't connect to the Internet in the kitchen. To pass the time, I opened up an old Big Bang Theory file and watched an episode of that. During the episode, more people came in to prepare their own dinner. Don't know what they were waiting for, but they watched the remaining episode with me since it was the loudest thing in the kitchen. After cleaning my dishes, I left for my room where my computer could connect to the Internet. I had planned to catch up on blogging, but I hung out on Skype instead. Yay Skype.
Let's see. Where did I leave you off at? Oh yeah, Lillehammer, Norway. Which is gorgeous, by the way.
Woke up that morning and got ready first thing because doing that is always faster than eating breakfast first. I piled my ski stuff on my bed (and the rest of the stuff on the other bed) just to make sure I had everything I would need. Extra foot warmers? Check! Snow pants? Ski goggles? Gloves? Check check check. Ran over a mental list of anything else I would need for skiing, and I wasn't sure I had everything so I quickly dialed home. According to home, it rang once before it stopped ringing. Between dialing and the final decision, I figured that I did have everything and I wouldn't need anything else. Then I went to eat breakfast (which was free with the room. Yay for free breakfast!)
The initial plan was to leave on the 9:20a bus because I thought that would be early enough to make it to the hill. However, I was ready by 8:00a, so why wait that extra hour and a half being impatient? I left at the 8:20am bus instead. And I think I annoyed the driver because I asked "This is the bus to Haljell right?" and then "Is this the ski hill?" Dumb American, I may be, but at least I ask questions and don't get stuck someplace rather than not ask anything and get stuck someplace strange.
For the record, yes this is the Haljell that hosted the Winter Olympics in 1992.
The ticket office wasn't open yet, but the ski rental place was! I walked in and the guys behind the counter were very nice. I asked if they spoke English and they said "Of course! What's your shoe size?"
"I don't know the European size."
"That's okay."
So I gave him my size and he checked a sheet hanging on a shelf before retrieving a pair of boots. I tried them on and they fit well enough. Enough room to wiggle the toes and even for a toe warmer if needed. It wasn't too tight, and I didn't try to make it too tight. First time's a charm.
"Does it fit?"
"Yep!"
"Take the right boot to that counter there," he pointed to the ski counter "so it can be fitted with a pair of skis."
"Thank you! Er . .. tak!"
The ski guy stayed with me the rest of the time. He asked how long I've been skiing, I said a great deal of my life. He asked if I wanted advanced skis, and I said that I wasn't THAT good. Really, I'm not THAT good. Mostly because I don't take enough risks on the ski hil, not like my little brother who learned at the same time as me and skis like an Olympic pro. But the guy was sympathetic to my experience and gave me a pair of skis slighter better than the standard intermediate adult skis. Which was really nice of him. As I was paying, he gave me a pair of poles to use. He also strongly recommended a helmet which is included in the price of the "complete set" that I was renting. Not required, but strongly recommended.
I choose a helmet for various reasons. The most prominent is that I've never skied with a helmet before. Second, it's probably a good idea being all alone on a ski hill that's probably more advanced than anything in Wisconsin. Thirdly, you're on a ski hill that hosted the Olympics. Of course you should take a helmet. A green is probably the equivalent of a blue back home. That last statement couldn't have been more true.
I'll be using skier terminology in this post from now on, so here's a few pointers as to what I'm talking about.
Non-Skier Legend:
- Green = easy run
- Blue = intermediate run
- Red = advanced run
- Black = super advanced run; experts only
**In Wisconsin, a Red would equal a Black Diamond and a Black a Double Black Diamond. I'm using what they used in Norway for this post.
- slope = interchangable with run. Means a groomed path on the mountain
So yes, a WI Blue was a Norwegian Green. So it took a while for me to re-acquire my ski legs. But I eventually got it. Didn't do anything behond a blue, though. And even the blues were kind of hard. Wait, I did do something beyond a blue, but it was only because I had no idea where that one particular slope went and before I knew it, it was steeper than I was comfortable with.
The thing with skiing is if you come to a challenge like this, you really have to take it. You can't really go back unless you were THAT determined to avoid the challenge. And even then, when the challenge comes in the middle of the hill, it's easier to just accept the challenge than avoid it entirely. I remember a time in Wisconsin I was skiing with my friend LIndsay, my brothers, and Dad. We had to get to the chalet at the bottom of the hill, and most of the runs were closed. The only way left down the hill was the steep black diamond right in front of the chalet. Lindsay was there to help me down, but I do think she was more impatient than encouraging. But Dad was there to say "Take really wide turns". I took the hill slowly and with really wide turns, but I made it to the bottom.
And that's what I thought of as I descended that harder-than-anticipated hill mostly because I did the same thing. I took wide turns and I took it slowly. Don't go a speed you're not comfortable with. Do what's comfy and everything will be fine.
But you should know that the comfy speed isn't always the most pleasant speed on the thighs. You really gotta dig in your skis if you want to go slow enough to turn in time before you hit a tree (or someone else). I started feeling my thighs about two in the afternoon, after I had been skiing for about four hours (factoring in that hour I took for lunch). So I would take breaks halfway down some runs to stretch them out and loosen up again before continung onward.
Lunch, by the way, was a hamburger in a cafe with the Olympic name on it. The hamburger didn't have any cheese but it had some 1000 Island dressing that reminded me of the Nitty Gritty in Madison. The fries it came with had a flavoring I couldn't put my finger on, but it was good enough to snack on as I waited for my toes to warm up. That was nice. Also while eating lunch, a girl came up and pointed to the side of the table I wasn't using and asked something in Norwegian. Of course, though context and gestures, I understood what she was asking so I said "Yeah, of course you can sit there." She was joined shortly after by a couple friends and they sat and warmed up with hot chocolate.
I had also bought the Norwegian equivalent of a Kit Kat bar for lunch, but I saved that for later since I didn't feel like eating it right away. It was a bit of an impulse buy, more of a "Ooo! Norwegian candy!" than anything. That chocolate bar I ate a few hours later when I stopped in the same cafe to warm up. Ate it with a cup of hot chocolate that wasn't as good as the hot chocolate in Berlin but it was better than the stuff Ryan had in London. So I deemed it acceptable albeit overpriced.
What else about that day? First time on a gondola, that was an experience. Nothing worth noting other than it was my first time riding a gondola. And since I had nothing better to do, I rode it all the way up to the top.
There was a mini terrain park for children on the hill. I liked to play in that because it was less scary than the real terrain park for adults and tricksters. I liked the rounded hill and the see-saw. There was a mini race course where the halfway mark was a cute inflatable viking. Of course there were a couple jumps and a few ramps that were extra slidey so you could spin or what not on them. There was even a little conveyer belt so you can restrict playtime only to the children's terrain park. I didn't stay much at a time because an adult in a children's terrain park was kind of weird, especially a solo adult. So I would play for a few minutes, finish going down the mountain, take a few more runs, then return to the play park for some more innocent fun.
It was time to call it a day when I went down a run and couldn't make out what sort of powder was coming my way. I didn't want to ski on unknown snow, I skied the rest of the way down the mountain and into the locker room where I had kept my stuff for the day. After getting off the equipment, I returned the skis and poles and stuff and went to get some cash for the bus ticket back to Lillehammer.
Also bought a postcard or two from the sports shop at the hill. Mostly because I didn't know if I would get a souvenir from Lillehammer, but I planned to walk the main shopping street when I got back anyway.
It took maybe an hour and a half for the correct bus to come. It was empty when it finally came, but the skiers returning to Lillehammer filled it up pretty fast. I sat next to a window and was so tired I fell asleep during the twenty minute return trip. Could not keep my eyes open for the life of me.
Got wide awake when I returned to the outdoor air, though. I had walked a main shopping street the previous night and I wanted to walk it again now that some of the shops might still be open. So off I went and lo and behold, the sourvenir shop was still open! Yay! I ran into that and got a few postcards, a patch for Norway, and a tee shirt that fittingly says "Scandinavian Explorer" and features the flags of all 4 Scandinavian countries. It just fits me, so I'm going to have to be careful about washing it. I hope it doesn't shirnk on me!
Dinner was leftover pizza from the previous night. I cooked it in the microwave in the guest kitchen in the hostel. I wanted to eat and hang out online as I did so, but my computer wouldn't connect to the Internet in the kitchen. To pass the time, I opened up an old Big Bang Theory file and watched an episode of that. During the episode, more people came in to prepare their own dinner. Don't know what they were waiting for, but they watched the remaining episode with me since it was the loudest thing in the kitchen. After cleaning my dishes, I left for my room where my computer could connect to the Internet. I had planned to catch up on blogging, but I hung out on Skype instead. Yay Skype.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
A Day For Trains (This Was Planned, Unlike Christmas)
2 January
So I didn't really sleep in as much as I thought I would. In fact, I kind of took my time packing up my things. But that wasn't what made us late for the train. It was the fact that we were both fairly sleepy and just moving at a slow pace. Hanne was nice enough to offer her food up for a packed lunch. I made a sandwich of bread and meat and cheese and cucumbers and moisted the bread with butter. It was good sandwich when I got around to eating it. But once that was all set, we headed off for the station.
Hanne asked if I could manage on my own without her being there. There wasn't enough time to park and find the platform and the spaces in front of the station were for drop offs and pick ups and not for parking and showing friends the way. But she left the car anyway to show me the screens that listed the correct platforms. We said our good-byes, I thanked her for everything she did, and off I went. The train was on time and kind of empty. I sat in an area with four seats facing each other. I was alone for a few stops before an old man came by and sat opposite me. I continued to look out the window because I liked the scenery.
It was kind of difficult listening to the Danish over the PA system. I couldn't always understand the name of the next station until I saw it written on a board as we pulled into the actual station. I hoped this wouldn't be a problem later on. But I knew the station at Coppenhagen when we got there because it was the end of the line and everyone was getting ready to leave. I swung my backpack on my shoulders and my duffel over just one shoulder, and I was off to locate the train to Oslo.
I knew it left several minutes after this one arrived, but I couldn't find it on the screens. Not knowing what to do, I went and asked the guy at the information desk where the Oslo train was. He kindly informed me of the platform and what time it was leaving. I thanked him and went out to the platform and got on the train.
It was during this train that I wrote the next chapters of My Idea, but I didn't shoot any pictures. Because I felt weird taking pictures of toys on a train. So I just sat and listened to music and watched the scenery and eventually figured out that I was probably in Sweden and not Norway yet. Once again, I couldn't fully understand the name of the next station until I saw it written somewhere. When people started getting ready for the next stop, I asked the guy in front of me which stop this was. He said it was the last one, don't worry. We spoke a bit and I said that I was bound for Oslo, he asked what I was doing in the south of Sweden, I said I just came from Denmark, actually. I couldn't understand his accent very well, so I kept asking him to repeat what he said. That's annoying for the both of us, so we were kind of glad to part on the platform.
I found the train I needed, then I saw that the seats were numbered on the side of the train. I knew some trains required a reservation of some sort before you could board, so I went to ask information if this was one such train. It was a close call because I couldn't find the information desk right away and then I had to pick a number, you know, like from one of those machines and the cashiers call up the next number as they like. I was impatient, but I got a cashier and I asked if I had to reserve a seat on the train to Oslo. No, I did not, hurry up or you'll miss it. Thank you very much! And off I ran. Really, ran. I wasn't missing that train!
Entered the first carriage I could and wandered about three other carriages until I found an empty seat. That train was very full. Really. I thought I wouldn't have a seat and then I wondered what I would do (until I saw a small group of girls eating Subway on the floor together like they do that every day. Saw people sitting like that in German trains too, so I guess if you have a ticket, you're on the train). But I found a seat by a woman who eventually got off at the next stop. I thought I would be facing forward in the seat, but that wasn't the case. I was going backwards. It bugged me for maybe three minutes until we really got going. Then I didn't mind.
Across the aisle was a little boy who noticed me about the same time I noticed him. At first, I didn't do anything thinking that his mom wouldn't like a complete stranger interacting with her very young son. He couldn't have been older than two the way he wasn't talking but he could walk very well. After locking eyes with him a few other times, I finally waved. Innocent stranger action. When the woman beside me left, I took her seat because it kind of had a window view. The window as really for the seat in front of us, but I could see the trees passing by.
A thing to note about this little boy and his parents . . . I think both women with him were his parents. He referred to each of them as "mama" on separate instances, and they both treated him like their own, so I only assume they were a homosexual couple with a young son. I thought it cute, though.
I waved once or twice more, and then I played peek-a-boo from behind his mother that took the seat I vacated. There was one time where he waved at me instead of me waving at him. I liked that. Also attempted a one-handed peek-a-boo game with him that probably wasn't very successful. The other hand had a sanwich in it. They left before we got to Oslo, though. He was such a cute child.
Took a small nap as the sun set, so it was dark when we pulled into Oslo. I thought it was the wrong station, but everyone was getting up. I saw a sign for Oslo S, which was my stop, so off I got. The goal was to maybe find a snack or something. A lot of the places in the station were closed because it was kind of late. Only around six or so, but it was also a Sunday, so that's understandable. Bought a snack in the form of clementimes and a drink in the form of two bottles of Fanta (2 for 40NOK; $1 = ~5NOK I think). So, in retrospect, it was kind of expensive, but it was worth it. Meanwhile, I attempted to getsome cash from a cash machine. Here's the story.
There was a series of cash machines in a corner. Some of them had various flags above them. Naturally, I was attracted to the one with the American flag over it. So when I asked for $100, I thought I would get the equivalent in Norwegian Crowns. Not the case. I got two $50 bills and no currency exchange open in the station. So I waited in line again and went to the cash machine with a Norwegian flag above it. Withdrew what turned out to be $70 worth of NOK. Which I was fine with. It got me two Fantas and a pack of clementimes.
Waited outside on the platform for the train (along with two other smokers, but they weren't next to me). Boarded when the train arrived and this time I had the two seats to myself. That was nice. Spent the time listening to music. Once again, I thought I got a seat that would be facing forward, but that wasn't the case again. My trains through Norway had me going backwards the whole way. But that was alright. I didn't get motion sickness anyway.
On this train, I noticed a kid who couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen on his own. I wondered what his story was and made up one about him going from one parent's house to the other. Who knows? He left about halfway to Lillehammer and his seats were then occupied by teenaged twins. Those guys had to have been about sixteen or seventeen, and they had the same haircut and the same jacket and they both looked like they were going snowboarding. I wouldn't be surprised if they had the same kind of snowboard. Really, how do you tell them apart? Can identical twins switch names for a day and see if anyone notices? If I had an identical twin, would we pull that sort of antics?
Arrived in Lillehammer at the scheduled time. I felt like it was late because the sun had been down for a few hours, but it was only about 8pm. I knew my hostel was right inside or above or very very close to the train station, so I went looking for it. Found the sign right away upon exiting the station. So I followed it to the reception which was the first floor above the station. I checked in and smiled at the key to my room being connected to a Brio engine. It was cute. After dropping off my stuff, I asked the guy behind the counter if there were any restaurants in the area still open. Lucky for me, he pointed one out that was only about two blocks away. Yay! So I gathered up my valuables and set off for the restuarant.
Walking through the town, which was more empty than I was used to, I was strongly reminded of going up north in Wisconsin to ski. It had the feel of a small town that didn't see many strangers in the summer and only saw people in winter because it's a prime skiing area. No one went out because there wasn't much to do once out. No clubs, just a few corner pubs maybe. I didn't see any pubs, though. The restuarant reminded me of the Bell Chalet, which is a restaurant often ventured by skiers in northern Wisconsin. Although this place was a lot more smooth and polished wood than the Bell Chalet, it still served pizza and it was open late. Everyone at tables were talking with people and I was the only one by herself. I waited patiently and busted out the old iPod to play a game on. No music, though. I liked listening to the conversations of everyone.
I actually got tap water at this place. That gave it another plus. Free tap water that even came with a small pitcher for when I run out. How nice. I ordered a Hawaiian flavor pizza because it was the only thing I could read on the Norwegian menu. I could have maybe figured out hamburger, but I would have wanted cheese on that. Besides, I felt like pizza, so pizza it was. Could only eat half of it, though, so I saved the other half for later. I figured I would need it eventually.
Back at the hostel, my room was a private with two twin beds. I stole the comforter off the second twin and used it for myself. Also stole the second pillow. Blogged a bit. Talked to my parents on the phone. When I called, I got the answering machine at first, but then Mom picked up and immediately informed that Mrs. Bowen and Mrs. Lewis were with her so she's putting me on speaker. It was a nice conversation between us and Dad (assumably in the other room with Mr. Lewis and Mr. Bowen watching the game). And I fell asleep with happy thoughts in my head.
So I didn't really sleep in as much as I thought I would. In fact, I kind of took my time packing up my things. But that wasn't what made us late for the train. It was the fact that we were both fairly sleepy and just moving at a slow pace. Hanne was nice enough to offer her food up for a packed lunch. I made a sandwich of bread and meat and cheese and cucumbers and moisted the bread with butter. It was good sandwich when I got around to eating it. But once that was all set, we headed off for the station.
Hanne asked if I could manage on my own without her being there. There wasn't enough time to park and find the platform and the spaces in front of the station were for drop offs and pick ups and not for parking and showing friends the way. But she left the car anyway to show me the screens that listed the correct platforms. We said our good-byes, I thanked her for everything she did, and off I went. The train was on time and kind of empty. I sat in an area with four seats facing each other. I was alone for a few stops before an old man came by and sat opposite me. I continued to look out the window because I liked the scenery.
It was kind of difficult listening to the Danish over the PA system. I couldn't always understand the name of the next station until I saw it written on a board as we pulled into the actual station. I hoped this wouldn't be a problem later on. But I knew the station at Coppenhagen when we got there because it was the end of the line and everyone was getting ready to leave. I swung my backpack on my shoulders and my duffel over just one shoulder, and I was off to locate the train to Oslo.
I knew it left several minutes after this one arrived, but I couldn't find it on the screens. Not knowing what to do, I went and asked the guy at the information desk where the Oslo train was. He kindly informed me of the platform and what time it was leaving. I thanked him and went out to the platform and got on the train.
It was during this train that I wrote the next chapters of My Idea, but I didn't shoot any pictures. Because I felt weird taking pictures of toys on a train. So I just sat and listened to music and watched the scenery and eventually figured out that I was probably in Sweden and not Norway yet. Once again, I couldn't fully understand the name of the next station until I saw it written somewhere. When people started getting ready for the next stop, I asked the guy in front of me which stop this was. He said it was the last one, don't worry. We spoke a bit and I said that I was bound for Oslo, he asked what I was doing in the south of Sweden, I said I just came from Denmark, actually. I couldn't understand his accent very well, so I kept asking him to repeat what he said. That's annoying for the both of us, so we were kind of glad to part on the platform.
I found the train I needed, then I saw that the seats were numbered on the side of the train. I knew some trains required a reservation of some sort before you could board, so I went to ask information if this was one such train. It was a close call because I couldn't find the information desk right away and then I had to pick a number, you know, like from one of those machines and the cashiers call up the next number as they like. I was impatient, but I got a cashier and I asked if I had to reserve a seat on the train to Oslo. No, I did not, hurry up or you'll miss it. Thank you very much! And off I ran. Really, ran. I wasn't missing that train!
Entered the first carriage I could and wandered about three other carriages until I found an empty seat. That train was very full. Really. I thought I wouldn't have a seat and then I wondered what I would do (until I saw a small group of girls eating Subway on the floor together like they do that every day. Saw people sitting like that in German trains too, so I guess if you have a ticket, you're on the train). But I found a seat by a woman who eventually got off at the next stop. I thought I would be facing forward in the seat, but that wasn't the case. I was going backwards. It bugged me for maybe three minutes until we really got going. Then I didn't mind.
Across the aisle was a little boy who noticed me about the same time I noticed him. At first, I didn't do anything thinking that his mom wouldn't like a complete stranger interacting with her very young son. He couldn't have been older than two the way he wasn't talking but he could walk very well. After locking eyes with him a few other times, I finally waved. Innocent stranger action. When the woman beside me left, I took her seat because it kind of had a window view. The window as really for the seat in front of us, but I could see the trees passing by.
A thing to note about this little boy and his parents . . . I think both women with him were his parents. He referred to each of them as "mama" on separate instances, and they both treated him like their own, so I only assume they were a homosexual couple with a young son. I thought it cute, though.
I waved once or twice more, and then I played peek-a-boo from behind his mother that took the seat I vacated. There was one time where he waved at me instead of me waving at him. I liked that. Also attempted a one-handed peek-a-boo game with him that probably wasn't very successful. The other hand had a sanwich in it. They left before we got to Oslo, though. He was such a cute child.
Took a small nap as the sun set, so it was dark when we pulled into Oslo. I thought it was the wrong station, but everyone was getting up. I saw a sign for Oslo S, which was my stop, so off I got. The goal was to maybe find a snack or something. A lot of the places in the station were closed because it was kind of late. Only around six or so, but it was also a Sunday, so that's understandable. Bought a snack in the form of clementimes and a drink in the form of two bottles of Fanta (2 for 40NOK; $1 = ~5NOK I think). So, in retrospect, it was kind of expensive, but it was worth it. Meanwhile, I attempted to getsome cash from a cash machine. Here's the story.
There was a series of cash machines in a corner. Some of them had various flags above them. Naturally, I was attracted to the one with the American flag over it. So when I asked for $100, I thought I would get the equivalent in Norwegian Crowns. Not the case. I got two $50 bills and no currency exchange open in the station. So I waited in line again and went to the cash machine with a Norwegian flag above it. Withdrew what turned out to be $70 worth of NOK. Which I was fine with. It got me two Fantas and a pack of clementimes.
Waited outside on the platform for the train (along with two other smokers, but they weren't next to me). Boarded when the train arrived and this time I had the two seats to myself. That was nice. Spent the time listening to music. Once again, I thought I got a seat that would be facing forward, but that wasn't the case again. My trains through Norway had me going backwards the whole way. But that was alright. I didn't get motion sickness anyway.
On this train, I noticed a kid who couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen on his own. I wondered what his story was and made up one about him going from one parent's house to the other. Who knows? He left about halfway to Lillehammer and his seats were then occupied by teenaged twins. Those guys had to have been about sixteen or seventeen, and they had the same haircut and the same jacket and they both looked like they were going snowboarding. I wouldn't be surprised if they had the same kind of snowboard. Really, how do you tell them apart? Can identical twins switch names for a day and see if anyone notices? If I had an identical twin, would we pull that sort of antics?
Arrived in Lillehammer at the scheduled time. I felt like it was late because the sun had been down for a few hours, but it was only about 8pm. I knew my hostel was right inside or above or very very close to the train station, so I went looking for it. Found the sign right away upon exiting the station. So I followed it to the reception which was the first floor above the station. I checked in and smiled at the key to my room being connected to a Brio engine. It was cute. After dropping off my stuff, I asked the guy behind the counter if there were any restaurants in the area still open. Lucky for me, he pointed one out that was only about two blocks away. Yay! So I gathered up my valuables and set off for the restuarant.
Walking through the town, which was more empty than I was used to, I was strongly reminded of going up north in Wisconsin to ski. It had the feel of a small town that didn't see many strangers in the summer and only saw people in winter because it's a prime skiing area. No one went out because there wasn't much to do once out. No clubs, just a few corner pubs maybe. I didn't see any pubs, though. The restuarant reminded me of the Bell Chalet, which is a restaurant often ventured by skiers in northern Wisconsin. Although this place was a lot more smooth and polished wood than the Bell Chalet, it still served pizza and it was open late. Everyone at tables were talking with people and I was the only one by herself. I waited patiently and busted out the old iPod to play a game on. No music, though. I liked listening to the conversations of everyone.
I actually got tap water at this place. That gave it another plus. Free tap water that even came with a small pitcher for when I run out. How nice. I ordered a Hawaiian flavor pizza because it was the only thing I could read on the Norwegian menu. I could have maybe figured out hamburger, but I would have wanted cheese on that. Besides, I felt like pizza, so pizza it was. Could only eat half of it, though, so I saved the other half for later. I figured I would need it eventually.
Back at the hostel, my room was a private with two twin beds. I stole the comforter off the second twin and used it for myself. Also stole the second pillow. Blogged a bit. Talked to my parents on the phone. When I called, I got the answering machine at first, but then Mom picked up and immediately informed that Mrs. Bowen and Mrs. Lewis were with her so she's putting me on speaker. It was a nice conversation between us and Dad (assumably in the other room with Mr. Lewis and Mr. Bowen watching the game). And I fell asleep with happy thoughts in my head.
Happy New Year's!!
1 January:
Took the opportunity to sleep in. When I checked the time, it was 11am. Yay. I heard Hanne wake up earlier, and I just lay around until she saw me on the computer. She went to get breakfast and I sat around to start this post instead of writing about Berlin. Just to get everything down while it’s still fresh. Breakfast was pieces of Danish bread with butter and small sheets of chocolate. That was good. We also split a giant cinnamon pastry sprinkled with chocolate sauce. That was also good. Hanne asked why we called pastries Danishes in America, and I told her that a Danish was just a pastry with a hole on top for cream or fruit filling. It’s just the name of a certain pastry and not a name for all pastries.
Then we hung about for a bit. The plan was that I would finish up my blog post about Boxing Day, then I would get ready for the day, and we’ll head out to the town while It’s still daylight. That’s what happened. We walked into town because it was only a kilometer away, and that’s only about half a mile, so it’s not too bad. It was a nice walk. I saw some old buildings that were so old they were protected from renovations by law. They were leaning a bit, but they were probably very straight back when they were new. It was cool to see old buildings. Then we walked to the Hans Christian Anderson house, which is the house he was born in. There were a couple statues commemorating him throughout the town that we saw. Statues we saw included the soldier with one leg and the woman with eggs on her head.
Walked to the train station later where we inquired about how I should activate my Eurail Pass. Hanne was nice enough to talk for me and I sat there and let her go. The woman talked with another woman who said that we would have to do it today because they won’t be open that early tomorrow morning. So we rushed back to her place, I got my ticket and passport, and we took the car back to the station. I went in while Hanne parked the car and got that all sorted out. I just have to write down my train number and destination every time I switch trains. Gotta remember to do that otherwise I could get in trouble. Uh oh.
From there, we walked around the small city center that included a bunch of shops. It’s like an outdoor mall, that. It was really cute and quaint, paved with bricks and no cars allowed. Hanne said that she never saw anything like this in America but they seem to be all over Europe. I said that no, America doesn’t have cool places like this often. Madison has State Street which is similar but not really because no buses can fit through these small streets. Also, there are quite a few cars that go through, but they’re mostly delivery cars or have special permits to be there. Otherwise, State Street is entirely pedestrian. There’s also an outdoor mall in Milwaukee, but the streets are full of cars because you drive through the mall to get to the parking garage. So it’s not exactly pedestrian friendly in that sense.
We were going to shop for food in the supermarket for dinner, but that was closed. Instead, we saw what Hanne had in her freezer, and given the options, we made spaghetti Bolognese with baguettes. That was good. Hanne admitted that she wasn’t an amazing miracle cook, but she could cook and that’s all that counts. And I admit, the meal wasn’t all that special, but it was still good.
From there, we proceeded to watch movies. We first started with John Tucker Must Die because I’ve never seen that movie and always wanted to. That was cute and typical high school chick flick. We wanted another movie, so I went to pick one out. Offered up 13 Going on 30 but Hanne said she saw that too many times. She completely rejected 10 Things I Hate About You because her old roommate saw that once a month so she was sick of it. So we watched Mean Girls instead, which was basically John Tucker Must Die with a different form. Until the end. The endings were slightly different. But both were happy, at least. Actually, I had a thing with John Tucker Must Die. I thought some of the things were unbelievable. Like when they were in the boat and didn’t have phone signal. Dude, they were right next to the city. They could have totally had signal! Ugh. Oh well, it’s a movie.
Somewhere between Hanne leaving for bed and now, I checked the times in my book, researched what the little symbols mean, and went to tell Hanne that my train was leaving later than expected because I’m traveling on a Sunday and they have different times on Sundays. But that’s fine because I’ll still be getting into Lillehammer at around 8pm. Which is fine. The hostel is right next to the train station. I told Hanne this, and we double checked to make sure my book was right, and she told me to not forget to request compensation if a train is delayed or anything. So I should remember to do that. And I shouldn’t worry about not speaking the language because everyone speaks English.
Everyone speaks English in Scandinavia because it’s easier that way. There isn’t a big cultural icon that comes from Scandinavia, everything goes there and they don’t have the voice acting talent to dub everything, I guess. So it’s easier to watch movies with subtitles and learn English so they can communicate with the rest of the world. It’s just easier. That’s what I was told.
Called my parents then. Talked for about thirty minutes. The Rose Bowl is going on so the boys were watching that. I told my parents I was nervous about my trip, and they said “Yeah, I would be too. But you’ll do fine because you’re smart.” It was very reassuring. They told me to have fun skiing. I kind of hope I meet a group of travelers to hang with for a day or two in the strange cities. That would be really nice to do. Sort of like what Krista did when I was in Italy. She hung out with us for a day because we went to see some of the major things to see and she wanted to see them too. Besides, we invited her along. It’s better to travel in a group, you know?
I’m not upset if I didn’t get to see a lot of Denmark. I saw quite a bit of the daily life of it, and it made me think of something I heard once. It’s the idea that people are people no matter where you are in the world. At the New Year’s party, people were talking and joking and having fun with strange antics just like my friends would back home. People are people no matter what language you speak, what cultural traditions you uphold, no matter where you are in the world. John Green, a renowned YA author and one of the vlogbrothers, told a story on the blog once. He was sitting with his friend who could read Arabic and they were watching the news. The story was about a house that was bombed in the Middle East. In the background of the news reporter was the house and there was some graffiti on it. Hank’s friend laughed, so he asked “What’s so funny.” Apparently, the graffiti read “Happy birthday, sir, despite the circumstances.”
People are people just like you. It’s a good thing to know.
New Year's Eve
Let me be the first to note the joys of copy and paste. This was written while still at Hanne's.
31 January:
I had previously left Ryan alone in my dorm room to fend for himself for a while. His breakfast would consist of a double Mars bar and my leftover Irn Bru from the movie. Which was awesome, by the way. Just have to tell you. Anyway, I got to the easyBus as the last person was getting on. I went to the driver and apologized for being late, does he have anymore room on the bus? Yes he does have room, but not a lot, but he didn’t recommend me waiting for the next one because the buses were full and couldn’t take on extras. Luckily, this bus was the bus I purchased online, so I already had a ticket.
Listened to music and slept on the way, since the last sleep I’d gotten was this time the previous day. Got to the airport just as I was falling asleep, which sucked. Inside, I found the Ryanair check-in desks and napped until people started lining up to check in. Ryanair was having difficulties with their computers so check in started later for a lot of people, and no one was happy about that. I waited in line with the group with my heavy backpack and slightly lighter duffel bag. (My computer is so heavy!) But when I approached the desk, I asked if I could check in my bag and the woman directed me to the self-service kiosks behind me and said I had to take care of that over there.
I didn’t argue. I went and paid for my bag with my credit card and got back in line. Checked in my bag and proceeded down to security.
At security, my bag for my liquids and gels was too big. So I had to go all the way back and buy one of those small plastic balls with four bags inside. I fit my liquids and gels into two of those, but when I attempted to go through security again, the man told me that everything has to fit into one bag. This was frustrating, but I didn’t feel any anger or anything. Just impatience because I wanted to get to my gate. But I didn’t have to step out of security again, I could reorganized my liquid/gel bag right there and have people go around me. The woman and her daughter behind me had to do the same thing eventually, so at least I’m not the only one with a lot of gels. In order to get everything into one plastic bag, I had to give up my glitter moisturizer thing. That sucked, because I wanted to use that stuff for clubbing and partying. But I don’t really go clubbing and partying and whenever I do, I’m always always always underdressed in some way or another. So I guess it’s kind of useless to me. And that’s why I gave that up and not my toothpaste, or deodorant, or other item of make up or hygiene that’s actually important. So there we go.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, once I got through security, my backpack set off the alarm. It wasn’t me, I would have been fine if it were me. It was my backpack. So it was taken and I was there when a security guard searched through it to make sure nothing sharp or dangerous was inside. He took all my electronic equipment, including iPod charger, plug adapters, computer power cord, and all the lip balm stuff that didn’t make it into my plastic bag (because I forgot it was in there), and sent that through the x-ray thing again. We made small talk and he mentioned hating checking rucksacks because they’re always full of pockets, and I said I love pockets because there were so many places to put things and he said “I’ve never heard that before.” I was all clear, though, as I knew I would be. He wished me a happy flight and I said without thinking “You too.” But I caught myself as I said it, he saw, and he said “Yeah, maybe someday.” So here’s hoping you manage to take a long holiday someplace exotic, Mr. Security Dude.
I was hungry, but I didn’t want to munch of something. Perhaps someplace beyond security has a smoothie I could eat? Found a place that does and I had myself a strawberry-banana smoothie for breakfast #1. It was good. I drank it while waiting for my gate to be announced. When it was, I was already done with my drink and promptly got up to walk the entire terminal to the international flights. Why are those flights always so far away?
Attempted to journal a bit, but I decided to join the queue instead because it was so small. Waited in line for a while and got onboard the plane. Put in my earplugs shortly after the safety briefing but they kept on loosening in my ear. Halfway through the flight, I took them out. Yes, the engines were louder, but at least they weren’t selling anymore annoying Ryanair products. Slept there too. But I woke up as we were descending and took some pictures of the Danish countryside from the air. It was very pretty, I thought. Snow-covered and quaint and not very metropolitan. Very likable.
Normal border control procedures. Got passport checked and stamped. Picked up luggage from the luggage thing. I found it right away which was really nice. Walked through with nothing to declare and found Hanne right away. We hugged and lugged my stuff to her parents’ car which she was borrowing for a few days over New Year’s. She’s the designated driver at the party, so she has a car and she’s not drinking a lot. I was totally down with that.
On the way to Odense (pronounced with a very light D so it almost sounds like “onse”), we stopped at a small mall so Hanne could quick buy a cheap, new dress for the party tonight. I looked, but I didn’t find anything that tickled my fancy. I learned that about 50 Danish Krone is about $9 give or take, so I used that as a judge for what everything cost. We were at H&M, which can be a dangerous place. But I felt gross and didn’t want to try on clothes just to figure out my European size. Instead, I found the toilet while Hanne was in the dressing room.
The H&M was part of a small shopping center/mall thing. For a couple minutes, I thought I had left my phone in the toilet, but I found it in my sweatshirt pocket later on in the car. Between that time, we walked around the mall some more because I wanted to see what Danish malls were like. They’re like American malls, by the way. I’m sure those don’t change much from country to country. Hanne told me about some of the traditional sweets Danes have for New Year’s and Christmas and some other holidays. She even bought some for us at a small bakery on the first floor of the mall.
The first was marzipan which the Danish eat at New Year’s. That was really good, but the taste was familiar. I thought Mom might have made a Christmas cookie or something with marzipan sometime within my lifetime. I told this to Hanne and she thought it was weird to have marzipan for Christmas. The second treat was a pastry with a cream filling. That was good too. They usually have that for a holiday that resembles Halloween in February. I forget the name of it, but it’s a traditional sweet during that time. Danish hoiiday sweets encompass breakfast #2.
The Danish countryside was really pretty. The sun was in our eyes the entire drive home, though. Hanne warned me that it would take about an hour and a half to get to Odense, and I said I didn’t mind. So we drove and we talked about things and before we knew it, we were in Odense. It’s bigger than Neenah, the third biggest city in Denmark, but it’s not huge like London, Paris, or Berlin. Maybe about the size of Appleton? Hanne lives in an apartment by herself that’s really nice. The walls are decorated with pictures and she has two big shelves of books and a shelving unit full of movies. Now was the time to relax.
I took a shower to get rid of my mucky feeling and started a blog post about a day around Christmas. I did that until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, so I napped soon after. Hanne offered me a blanket and I snoozed until I woke up a few hours later. I walked around look for Hanne since she had disappeared and found her asleep in her own bed. So I napped a bit more.
She woke me up around five thirty or six (I can’t remember which because the clock in her living room is an hour ahead and I used that for reference). According to her, we were running late so we quickly got dressed and made ourselves pretty. She was prettier than me because she had a dress and I just had slacks and a sweater, but I guess it was nice enough because no one made any comment. I even put on eyeliner. We waited around a bit for her boyfriend to show up because he had the address to the place we were going. His name is Peter. Peter said that the guy who’s having the party is a bit of a redneck, and that right there was just some misunderstanding. I thought that, by redneck, he meant something like Larry the Cable Guy, but the house was a lot nicer than I expected.
We waited for some other friends to arrive as well. They were Joel (pronounced Yoel) and Nikolai but we called him Elmo throughout the night. The girl with them was Lina, and I didn’t catch anything else about her besides her name. Elmo runs a role-playing game shop in Odense. Didn’t catch what Yoel does. Peter is a student going for his masters, Hanne is an undergrad. I am also an undergrad and younger than everyone else. So the six of us piled into Hanne’s car and we made our way out to Peter’s friend’s house.
The car ride there was longer than we thought it would be. Took maybe an hour to get there. Along the way, the Queen of Denmark came on the air and had her traditional New Year’s speech to the entire country. We listened to that, me without catching anything having my Danish vocabulary be limited to “tak” which means thanks and “pis” which is the swear word for piss. Oh, and “hej” which basically saying “hey”. This wasn’t so much a problem at the party except that everyone tended to speak Danish when I wasn’t included in the conversation, so I couldn’t even do my usual Just-sit-and-listen-until-you-have-something-to-say. Bummer. Hanne hung about with me, though, which was really nice. It was her first time meeting a majority of the people there as well, so at least we were together in that part.
Dinner was three courses. First we had a shrimp cocktail which featured lettuce, shrimp, some sort of dressing, two tomato quarters, and a lemon. That was quite tasty even though I may have eaten the shrimp with some trepidation at first. Well, if you spend your entire life avoiding sea food, I guess you’ll be hesitant to eat shrimp too. Even if it does taste good. The second course was ham and potatoes and steamed carrots and cauliflower and small potatoes cooked with brown sugar sauce. Those were really good. Dessert was a peach thing with marzipan on top of it? You put whipped cream on that. The dessert was really good. Really good.
Afterwards, it was a lot of drinking and having fun. Hanne and I retreated to the living room where we sat and talked. Our Host came by and we talked for a bit. He attempted to get the TV connected to the free channels, but the TV wouldn’t have it. Meanwhile, we started a game of charades, one team against the other. The theme was movie titles, so we did hard ones for the other to act out. I had to act out Narnia, which involved roaring like a lion and pretending to be an ice queen. I probably did not humiliate myself as much as I think I did. We did that until 2011. We didn’t see the midnight countdown on the television because, as said before, the TV just wouldn’t have it. We did, however, utilize the Interweebs to have our own countdown. And that’s how we came into the New Year. We clinked our glasses, drank multiple sips of champagne, and there were lots of cries of “Happy New Year” in both English and Danish. It was good.
In the hours after, someone started a dance party with 90s techno music. I managed to dance with Hanne and Joel, and there were several group dances that involved a circle of people and hopping up and down because that’s all you can do when you’re surrounded by other people. We danced until we couldn’t breathe and then we danced some more because we were so energized. Hanne and I were running on adrenaline from the dance floor. Eventually, I sat down and closed my eyes. A couple minutes later, Hanne came and said “We’re leaving in ten minutes. Start saying good-bye.”
So I did. I hugged these people I would probably never see again for a long time and there were many “Did you enjoy the party?” and “Yes, I did” exchanges. Our Host told me to have a safe journey home, and I smiled and said “I will” because my safe journey involved three other countries. Didn’t get the opportunity to tell him that, though. Didn’t get the opportunity to have an actual conversation with anyone. I wonder how many would have been surprised by my adventurous spirit? I’ll never know now.
Fell asleep in the car ride back. We said good-bye to the people we drove home and parted ways. Once Hanne and I were in her apartment, we set up our beds and promptly fell asleep. It was roughly four in the morning.
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