Back In The Land Of English

Finally finally finally, after hours and hours and hours (can you sense a slight over exaggeration?) I have arrived back in good old America. And as much as I wish I could say it was a blissfully uneventful journey home, it sadly was not. Lots of sleeping in airports, unexpected train rides, and delayed flights. In fact, I am currently sitting in my hotel room in New Jersey (conveniently paid for by Continental Airlines) because my flight was so delayed from Madrid to Newark that there weren't anymore flights out when I got here. So boo to that.

Of course, one cool thing is that I have a great view of downtown NYC from my hotel room window. So as far as first views of the US go, this is a pretty good one.

I have a few more last pictures I took of Norway and Europe in general, and I would love to go much more in depth about the LONG journey home, but right now I'm just too exhausted and I have to be up at 4:30 in the morning to catch my flight to Cleveland, so I'm going to call it a night. But just know that I am back in the homeland where I actually understand everyone that talks to me! Woo Hoo!

As for me now, I'm going to sit back, relax, and watch some Olympics. Which is nice to finally see them in English. Simple pleasures. :)

Life in the Land of the Vikings

Well I have to say that my time in Norway has been absolutely 100% incredible. The country is beautiful and Anne has done a great job of playing host. So, in honor of my newfound love for the country....

I have become a Viking. Minus the raping and pillaging. But a Viking nonetheless.

As ridiculous as this picture is, I really can say that Norway is great. I'm glad that I got to stay here for an entire week, because every day has brought something new and interesting and exciting. You can also notice that in this picture I'm wearing both a sweatshirt and a jacket. Even though it's the middle of summer, for me, it's pretty chilly here. Woo hoo for returning to 110 degree weather in just a couple of days! haha

But another thing that Anne has done a great job of is introducing me to all of her friends and really making me feel welcome among them all. I definitely like all of them and, as far as I know, they seem to like me too.


This picture is from one of my first nights in Norway where a big group of us hung out together for the evening. From the left to right it's me, Anne, Marit, Sigren, and Astrid (very Norwegian names, no?). But they're a really fun group and I've had a blast hanging out with them. And it's been awesome to FINALLY meet all these friends of Anne's who I've heard about for all these years.

Here is just another quick shot of me, Anne, and Astrid in Anne's family's apartment.

Another thing that Anne and her friends have done is try to show me what life is like for a typical Bergen local. So I've been able to see and go to places that I otherwise might have never known about. This place was called "Cave" and it lived up to it's name. It was basically a concert venue and bar that was in a cave. And it was really cool.

And here are Marit, Anne, and Sigren while we were at Cave.

I had already mentioned the tall ship races that were in Bergen for the weekend, but I didn't mention how beautiful they were all lit up at night. And since they left yesterday morning, I had to snap a few last pictures so that I would remember it all, and this is one of those.

And then Anne and I decided to hit up some nature so that I could see some of Norway's natural beauty. So yesterday we did this tour of the countryside called "Norway in a Nutshell" that was so named because I really got to see a little of everything. The mountains, the valleys, the fjords. It was all incredible.


The first part of the trip was a train ride from Bergen to Voss, a really small city just a couple of hours east of Bergen. The great thing about the train ride is that it is one of the most scenic routes in the world and it winds through a lot of different mountain passes. The end result is that you get some great scenic shots like this one.

The next round of the trip was a bus ride down to the foot of the fjords, but as you can see, the bus ride was kind of a scary one. It goes through this winding, zig-zagging road down the face of this mountain. Once again a great opportunity for some great scenery, but a very scary ride! haha

And then we got to my personal favorite part of the journey, the fjords. Basically they are these huge lake areas in huge valleys surrounded by high mountains. They were carved out from travelling glaciers over millions of years, and they are beautiful. We took a two hour boat ride through the fjords, so I was able to take a ton of pictures, but I'm exercising some restraint in not putting up a ton of pictures. Because I know it's more of one of those things that you just have to be there for. But trust me, the fjords are incredible.

The last leg of the journey was a couple more sets of trains to get back to Bergen, which once again provided some incredible scenery. One of my favorite pictures was of this HUGE waterfall, which may not seem that big. But if you look on the bottom rock at the bast of the waterfall, there is a little tiny person standing on there. Which makes the picture have a bit more perspective.

One last thing to mention about Norway that I sadly do not have any pictures of is the food. Incredibly delicious. Anne's mom is a master chef. One of the first dinners I had was reindeer cooked in a cream sauce and it was incredible. Easily one of my favorite meals I've had the entire time I've been in Europe. And of course, the food has flowed since then and they have all been equally good. It has definitely been extremely welcome after living on sandwiches and water all through Denmark and Sweden. haha

But that's it for now! Tonight we are going to end my Scandinavian Adventure in true European style by going to a football match (soccer for you non-euro folks) between Bergen's team and a French team from Marsailles. It's supposed to be a great match, and I'm excited because it's a great way to end my time in Norway, Scandinavia, and Europe in general.

Sadly, this will probably be my last post from Europe because tomorrow I start the looooooooonnnnnnnggg journey home, which includes an 8 hour train ride from Bergen to Oslo, a 4 hour plane ride from Oslo to Madrid, a 12 hour layover in Spain, a 9 hour plane ride from Madrid to Newark, a 4 hour plane ride from Newark to Dallas, and the last 1 hour plane ride into OKC. What a fun trip, huh? So I doubt I'll have any time to give any last updates from the European front, but no worries. Expect a final report on the experience from me when I return to the states.

But for now I'm going to enjoy my last Norwegian day and my last days in Europe. And I'm getting crazy excited because I'll be home in a little over 2 days! Woo Hoo!

Beautiful Norway

Well after a 7 hour train ride from Stockholm to Oslo and another 8 hour train ride from Oslo to Bergen, I have FINALLY made it to my final destination of the Scandinavian Adventure. It was so incredibly exciting to finally make it here and see the welcome sign in the train station.

Anne picked me up as soon as I got to the train station, I went to the apartment to meet her mom, and then I promptly went and laid down and went to sleep. Because 15 hours of train travel isn't exactly the most comfortable way to go from place to place.

And I can honestly say that Bergen (and Norway in general) is absolutely beautiful. So natural and with so much terrain. All around the city are mountains covered in evergreen trees and houses situated all throughout them. I don't have many pictures of the city itself, but I'm sure some will come.

Anne has been a great host/tour guide. Yesterday we walked around the city to see a few of the main sights. One of those was the fish and farmers market right down by the dock.

And let me tell you, the fish here is about as fresh as you can get. It was really cool to see it all and people were EVERYWHERE. Bergen is a pretty popular place and there are cruise ships coming in and out of here all the time. According to Anne, it's because Bergen is the connection to the fjords. But there are tourists all over the place.

Another cool thing going on in Bergen right now is the tall ship race. Basically these huge ships come from all over the world to hit up a few different ports along the European coastline, and I was lucky enough to be in Bergen for the weekend that they're here. The ships really are incredible, and they each have cannons that they fire off pretty constantly. It's kind of cool, because this picture is taken from the view from my bedroom here, so I have a perfect bird's eye view of it all. And even better, there is a ship from Uruguay that has been playing a lot of spanish music, so it gives me a little bit of a spanish fix. haha

I bet you didn't know that Vikings were still around, eh? haha Last night Anne and I heard some chanting and yelling and so we walked out on the balcony and this is what we saw. These guys came walking off of a ship from Finland and proceeded to walk around the city dressed as vikings. Funny stuff.

And last, but not least, here is the picture of the INCREDIBLE dinner that Anne and I made for ourselves last night. She did the fish and bread and I did the pasta and salad and it turned out to be delicious, if I do say so myself. :) For real though, it was my first time to get to cook since I've been over in Europe and it was nice.

So that's all I have for now. There will be much more to come because Anne has a TON of stuff planned, like mountain hikes, boat rides through the fjords, and so much more. So it's hard to imagine Norway getting much better than it already is because I'm loving it so far. But it's looking to be a really cool few days.

A Brighter Day

So Sweden continues to brighten up in several ways. First and foremost, it FINALLY stopped raining and at a few (VERY few) points during the day, I was actually able to see blue sky.

Secondly, things brightened up because I finally have got to see Anne! And I met her sister Eva, who I have heard about for all these years. And seeing Stockholm with those two has been a lot of fun.

First off, the three of us met at the Royal Palace last night to go find a place to get some dinner. We picked this one restaurant that had some great Swedish food, which consisted mostly of fish. But I got some great swordfish and fried potatoes, so it was great.


Here is a picture of Anne and I from dinner. We were definitely those people who took tons of pictures and bothered everyone with the flash. But I didn't care, because I was so excited to see her.
And here is Eva, who is three years younger than Anne. She's really cool, too, and we get along great. It's like we've been old friends for years.

So today the three of us decided to hop on a boat and see some of the other islands in this little archipelago around Stockholm. It was a lot of fun, and luckily, I didn't get seasick! Thank God for small blessings, right?


So here is a view from the back of the boat as we left the harbor.

And here is a shot of Old Town Stockholm, where the oldest buildings are and where a lot of the original architecture is still there. I am being completely honest when I say that Stockholm is a really beautiful city, and I honestly wish I had a little more time here to explore things.

So the island that we went to was probably the most stereotypical Swedish looking place I have ever seen. It was covered in these little red wooden buildings that each had some different type of artisan in it, like glass blowers, silversmiths, etc. It was really cool.

It also had some incredible natural scenery all around the island. Sweden is a pretty untouched place, and it really shows in the great landscape.

So the three of us decided to go sit down and take the scenery in for awhile, just to grab a breather.

Anyway, I really don't have any time to describe anymore, but I can honestly say that, other than the horrible weather in the beginning, Sweden has been great! I love it!

And tomorrow, it's off to Norway!

A Profile of Stockholm

Stockholm. Absolutely beautiful city. Without a doubt, hands down, one of the most incredibly gorgeous cities I have yet been in.

The Swedish people are great. Very, very friendly and don't look down on you at all when you can't speak Swedish. Which doesn't sound like much, but compared to the French, the Swedish are saints.

The sights are really, really cool. So much ancient history scattered all throughout the city, which is spread across a whole set of islands. The ancient architecture is everywhere and makes everything photo worthy.

However, so far Stockholm has had one major flaw: the weather. First of all, it hasn't stopped raining since I got here, which is never a good thing. But it's even worse when the weather is hovering right around 50 degrees. Which isn't really all that cold, but when I'm used to the 115 degree weather of dry Madrid, I feel like I'm constantly freezing and wet. Yuck.

And to make it worse, stupid me, I didn't bring a single jacket or long-sleeved shirt. So today I had to break down and go buy some cover from the weather. And me, being the tight, money-saving budgeter I am, decided to only buy a jacket or an umbrella. So I went with the umbrella. Because I figured, "Hey, I can take the cold as long as I'm dry." Yet what I didn't factor in was that the wind in Stockholm whips the umbrellas around like pieces of tissue paper. And this is a common sight all throughout the city:

Umbrellas that have been trashed by the wind and discarded by their owners. So the umbrella helped a bit, but it really didn't provide all that much cover from the rain. Jordan was still freezing. So I broke down and went to an H&M, which are everywhere here, and got a jacket. The cool thing, though, is that since H&M is based out of Sweden, most of them still say Hennes & Mauritz, which is Swedish for His & Hers.

Anyway, after I finally got some cover from both my new jacket AND umbrella, I figured I could brave the weather to go do some sight-seeing. I didn't get to take too many pictures because of the rain, but here is one of them:

You can kind of tell the really cool architecture of the buildings from this, and you can definitely see that basically everything in the city is on the waterfront. Stockholm really is a city of islands and everything is fairly easily accessible.

You can also see that the weather is gray and gross. haha

So after a couple of hours of continuing to get soaked, I decided to make a beeline back for my hostel. Which, although I have nothing to do here but play on the Internet and read, it offers warmth and dryness, which is great. I can at least take a break every once in awhile to get some warmth back in me.

Yet if there is one thing I've learned while in Scandinavia, it's that the young Scandinavians LOVE their coffee houses. They are really everywhere, and if you really keep an eye out, you can see where the locals go and really find some cool places. So that is exactly what I did on my way home. Because what better way to warm yourself up than to start from the inside?

So I found this great place that had huge, delicious coffees (which coffee is something I really gained appreciation for while in Spain) and some great baked goods. So I got a mocha and big slice of Swedish apple pie. Mmmmmmmmmm........

Afterwards I finished my trek back to the hostel and now all my clothes are hanging to get the wetness out.

However, I am super-pumped, because it turns out that Anne is in Stockholm right now with her sister, so I get to see her TONIGHT! Woo! I'm meeting them for dinner and then the three of us are going to go sight-seeing tomorrow (weather permitting. which means it's doubtful. haha). So now I don't have to wait until Norway to see my favorite European girl!

Addition to the Denmark post

Okay, well, in my earlier post, I assured myself that it couldn't possibly be raining all through Sweden.

But like pretty much everything else that I ever assure myself on, I was horribly incorrect. I arrived into Stockholm with the open arms of a huge, soaking rain storm. So yay for getting completely soaked walking to the hostel. :)

The good news is that this hostel is incredible. Easily the nicest hostel I have stayed in yet. And they have free food for all of the people staying here, which is a HUGE plus in my book.

So anyway, just a bit more on my experience so far.

I really, really liked Copenhagen a lot. It was one of the most chill, laid-back places I have ever been. Of course, it's not quite as touristy as, say, Barcelona or Paris. But the atmosphere there was incredible. Everyone was so warm and welcoming and it was impossible to not feel at home.

Like I had previously mentioned, I've met some really incredible people along the way. My favorites in Copenhagen were Katarina the German, Joe the Canadian, and Karla the Australian. Each one of them was really cool and so much fun to hang out with. I've always been one to really enjoy meeting new people, and getting to meet them from all over the world and share this experience with them all has been great.

Another great thing about Copenhagen is that everything is so easily accessible. I never had to take a metro or bus and was easily able to walk everywhere from my hostel. Granted, I nearly wore myself out walking the entire city, but I figured I had such a short time there that I had to see it all.

So finally, I had to leave to go to Malmö (pronounced MAL-moo) in the south of Sweden. I actually got there pretty late and didn't have time to go out and see anything, but I wasn't too worried about it as one of my Swedish friends that I had just met told me that "Malmö is a.....hmmmm....how do you say? Oh yes, it's a shithole." Now imagine that with the most stereotypical Swedish accent you can think of and you've got it.

The good thing is that I met this really cool guy who was crazy similar to myself. He was from San Antonio, he studied in Alcala for a year during undergrad, and he had just finished spending a year in Madrid getting his MBA. So he and I had a ton to talk about, which was awesome. It was so cool to finally talk with someone from my part of the world. haha But he and I exchanged emails and will definitely be staying in touch.

So anyway, here I am now in Stockholm (after a nice, long 6 hour train ride from Malmö), but without much to do since it's still pouring outside. And I don't really have a ton of desire to go out in that mess. Especially since it's only around 16 degrees Celsius (60 fahrenheit). And after living in Spain where everyday it's around 42 degrees Celsius, well, it feels like it's freezing.

The only bad thing about Stockholm is that now that I'm so close to seeing Anne, it's all I want to do! Don't get me wrong, from what I've seen of the city, it looks incredible. So beautiful. But I'm so excited to see Anne that I don't want to wait anymore. All in due time I guess.

Even more exciting, only 11 days before I get home and see some of my favorite people in the world! (and I can honestly say that without exaggerating now, haha)

Well hey there Sweden

So the Denmark phase of Scandinavian Adventure 08 has come and gone. And now I've moved on to Sweden. However, I must say that the weather in Sweden has been much more uncooperative than in Denmark. And not necessarily meaning it's much colder, but much, much more rainy. Oh well, I'm about to head 6 hours to the north, so surely the weather can't be bad ALL over Sweden, right?

So anyway, I'm going to have to run fairly soon so that I can walk to the train station and catch my train for Stockholm, so I don't really have time for my usual commentary on each picture. But here are a few from Copenhagen, and I'll try to say a little about each.

Well, I would say this one is fairly self-explanatory. Lovely little welcome sign bringing me in to Denmark. This would also be the last english I would be seeing for a long, long time.

This is Nyhavn, Copenhagen's famous harbor area. It's really touristy these days, but it's still where all the fishing boats come dock when they come in from the Baltic.

This was the Changing of the Guard at the Danish Royal Palace. Pretty interesting, but Palaccio Real in Madrid is WAY better. :)

Oddly enough, one of the main places I was told to go was to this huge cemetary that people actually go sunbathe and hang out in. And hey, I ran into old Hans Christian Andersen (he wrote The Little Mermaid). And naturally, to fit in with the rest of Europe, his gravestone had grafitti on it. Of course.

This was a really cool looking old church in one of Copenhagen's many many parks. This is possibly the greenest city I have ever seen.

Denmark is awfully proud of The Little Mermaid, so there are little things about her or HC Andersen everywhere. This statue is one of their most famous monuments, though. It's the Little Mermaid waiting to be turned into a human.

Copenhagen has a really, really long pedestrian shopping area called Stroget which is kind of like Las Ramblas in Barcelona. It was a really cool area that I was able to pick up a couple of new books at for pretty cheap, which is surprising because NOTHING in Scandinavia is cheap.

Probably my favorite place to go pass some time was in King's Garden, where all the Danish go on summer days to lay in the grass and picnic, read, and sleep. I felt like a local everytime I took a book or my iPod there to hang out.

And here is a picture of the park.

And finally, I rode over by train from Copenhagen to Malmo, Sweden, where I still am currently. It was pretty cool because the bridge connecting the two is the longest bridge in the entire world. So that in and of itself was a cool experience.

But yeah, I have SO much more that I could say about Denmark, but no time to say it. Hopefully I'll have some time tonight in Stockholm (and an Internet connection) to maybe go a little more in depth.

For now, I'm heading to the train station with my new friend, who is from Texas oddly enough, to head up to Stockholm.

And The Adventure Begins

Well, here I am in Denmark starting the Scandinavian Adventure that I´ve been planning for so long. And I gotta admit, I kinda like it.

I don´t really have long to type because I´m on the community computer (which happens to have a Danish keyboard. NOT easy to type with) so I have to be really brief.

Things about Copenhagen:

1. The language is crazy. Anytime a street name has 15 letters in it, you´ve reached the level of crazy.

2. I assumed it would be cold here because it´s so far north. WRONG. It feels as hot here as it did in Spain, mainly because of the humidity.

3. I thought the exchange rate would help me out. 100€ = around 650 Danish kroner. WRONG again. This place is crazy expensive. One fanta cost me over 30 kroner. Sick.

4. Travelling alone is not scary at all. You meet so many incredible people in hostels that you´re never alone. Last night I went out with 2 Canadians, 3 Germans, and 1 Australian. Awesome.

5. Danish people are freaking gorgeous. For real. The women, the men, the children, they´re all BEAUTIFUL. I´ve seen more tall, blonde people the past couple of days than I have in my entire life, but that´s not even it. Something about their faces makes them incredible to look at. Almost everyone here could be a model. Kills the self esteem, but definitely fun to people watch.

Okay, I´ve gotta get off so the other kiddos can get a chance. But know that I´m alright and things are going great! Two-ish more days in Copenhagen, 4 days in Sweden, and then a week with Anne in Norway! And then home! The next two weeks are looking pretty great, even if I do miss Spain just a little bit. :)