The Scotland Yard

‘You make kingdoms and castles on your own.’ -Stephan Jenkins

Day 1: Good morning Edinburgh and hello spring break! Well as of yesterday, I have officially started spring break and will be off on grand adventures for the next two weeks! I struggled away the past couple of days getting all of my midterms done (which included a 350 work essay all in Norwegian- by the end of it I thought my brain was going to explode!) all so I had the chance to leave a couple of days early and get my vacation started without a worry. Over break I’m headed off to Edinburgh, Scotland, Barcelona and Madrid, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal. Originally, to my mother’s dismay, I was going to tackle these four great cities alone, but then a few weeks before I left my friend Abbie decided to come along for the journey (which made my momma very happy). Lots of flights, hostels and other paperwork to keep track of, but I think we’ll be alright. Since we are flying a bunch of discount airlines, which only allow one carryon bag, I will be living the next two week all out of my little backpack. I have hands down become the greatest packer ever.

We left early yesterday morning (Wednesday the 20^th) to catch the 5.15 train out to Oslo, made a quick transfer and were at Rygge airport by 9 o’clock. Had a nice flight to London, a 4-hour layover, and finally made it up to Scotland by 6 o’clock or so. After catching a bus into the city center, we slowly wandered our way to the hostel we are staying at. Its call Castle Rock Hostel and is literally located right at the base of the castle. I can see it out of my window- so incredible! After dropping our things off and getting settled in, we off in search of a pub and some food. By suggestion of our hostel, we ended at ‘The Fiddler’s Arms’ with a nice pint and a huge plate of fish and chips. Round that off with some live music and it was a good night.

Because we booked separately, Abbie and I are staying in different rooms in the beast of a hostel (over 70 rooms!) and due to an unfortunate mixture of time-changes and loud roommates, I was up by 6.30 this morning and ready to go by, when Abbie and I had agreed not to meet until 9.00- so I had some time to kill. After a nice breakfast here at the hostel, we’ll be off on a walking tour this morning and then this afternoon, we’ll be meeting up with some of Abbie’s friends who study in Scotland. 

Rest of Day 1- We left and went on our free walking tour put on by Sandemans New Europe Tour Group. If you ever happen to be in a major city and they offer one of these tours- take it! It’s a free tour but the guides accept tips, so in other words to make sure they get some money, they work really hard to make the tour good, so you will give them tips! Our tour guide was really great and showed us around to many major spots in Edinburgh- like St. Guile’s Cathedral, Greyfriar’s Bobby and churchyard (where JK Rowling got many names for her characters) the Elephant House (where JK first started writing Harry Potter on napkins), the Castle, and many other buildings and places in between- including one a heart in the pavestone along the Royal Mile where you should never walk through unless you want a shoe full of spit- because it’s a tradition to spit there.

 

After the tour we joined some other people from the tour group and went and got some haggis to eat. Haggis is a traditional Scottish meal which is made by boiling a bunch of the unwanted cuts of sheep (heart, liver, brain, etc.) in a sheep’s stomach with a bunch of herbs and spices. This meat is then put over turnips and mashed potatoes. However since Scotland joined the EU they have to abide by their standards for food preparation, aka they are not legally allowed to make traditional haggis anymore. So now a days haggis is still made from the lesser cuts of sheep (like liver) but it can’t be prepared in the stomach. So that’s what we ate, and to be honest it didn’t taste half bad.

Afterwards, we joined two of our new friends- Torben and Sascha- two guys studying in England, but are originally from Germany- and headed over to the Scottish National Library to look around. Coolest thing there- Dolly the sheep and the first cloned mammal. Then we parted ways and Abbie and I went to meet up with one of her friends who is studying in Scotland for some coffee. It was a quick visit and then we headed back to the hostel to relax for a while. We ended up hanging out in one of the lobbies with some other people staying at the hostel and listen to records- like actual old school records on a record player. Later that night we then met up with another one of Abbie’s friends in Scotland for a drink and we listened to some nice live music. After her friend left, we stayed for a while and talked with some old Scottish men which was really funny, because although we were speaking English, I could barely understand a word they were saying to us… Finally we ended the night by meeting up with our two new German friends for some drinks and dancing.

Day 2- After a quick breakfast, we headed out for a cold and windy day around Edinburgh. We first headed up the castle, which gave a really nice view over the city. Unfortunately, we’re just a couple of poor college kids and 15 pounds was way too much to spend to tour inside the castle, so we just looked around outside and warmed up in the gift shop! Next we made our way down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace- the place where the Queen stays when she comes to visit. Eventually we wandered our way over to Prince’s Street and did some shopping. Probably the worst decision we made our entire trip so far, seeing as our bags are already completely stuffed and we cannot have more than one bag as a carry on for any of our flights, as in even our purses have to fit in our bags. Thank-you Ryanair. Looks like my pockets will be stuffed with the couple of new pair of jeans I got!

We then headed up to get tickets for the Scotch Whiskey Experience- the tour started at 5.10, which gave us a little over an hour to fill our empty stomachs (seeing as we skipped lunch to shop). So we made our way out and found a nice pub real close with some cheap food. We found a spot and then made our way up to the bar to order some food. But we were then asked for some ID and as we happily got out our licenses (this is still a fun thing to do, being newly legal and everything) but sadly we were turned away because the bar only accepted passports and UK driver’s licenses. So we made our way to the next pub we found- took a quick look at the menu and then headed in to place our order. Again we were turned away- they stopped selling food at 3. So once again we were out searching and finally came upon a diner. We headed upstairs and were given a seat right away. By this time, it was about 4.20, so we had about 45 minutes till we needed to leave for the tour. Upon seating we had our choices picked out in 3 minutes, but… our order wasn’t taken for another 10 minutes…and our food didn’t come for another 20 minutes… leaving us 10 minutes to eat and run to the tour. I have never scarfed down a burger that fast- I think I could have made it into Guinness Book of World Records. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to eat my fries, so I literally grabbed a hand full and we sprinted out of the restaurant to our tour- just making it in time and munching our fries in the process.

The Scotch Whiskey Experience tour started with a short ‘ride’ around which taught us whiskey is made. To be honest don’t asked me, because I was lost from the start of it. However, I do know that the longer it ages the darker the color it will be. In Scotland there are 4 major different types of whiskey- the Highlands (which has a vanilla flavor), the Lowlands (a citrus flavor), Speyside (a banana flavor) and Islays (a smoky flavor). However, after a nice taste test- I can tell you they all taste the same. We even got to see the biggest whiskey collection in the world- over 3,400 bottles of it!

From there we dropped our afternoon purchases off at the hostel and then headed down for another, slightly freezing, tour of the city. This time it was a night tour explaining all of Edinburgh’s creepy history- including stories of vampirism, cannibalism, body snatchers, among many others. My personal favorite was a couple who couldn’t afford making a living in the city during the 16^th century, so decided to move into a cave and prey off of people passing by on the road. Not only would they steal their things but they would also then eat the people. They had a bunch of child, who then had child among themselves- So basically it was a whole giant incestuous cult of cannibals- slightly disturbing.

Afterwards we headed over to a pub that our tour guide promoted, which was really good, because we got 25% off of all of our drinks. We hung around there for a while, listened to a live band playing, and then headed back to the hostel to pack up and try to sleep a little before we were up and off to catch our flight down to Madrid- leaving all of the snow and cold weather behind us! So long Scotland- it’s been good!

Ace of Spades

"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." - Robert Southey

This past week I was fortunate enough to have my very own guest- all the way from the States! My friend, Amanda (Ace) came and spent an entire week- well 6 days more or less- with me. Ace and I met at Sugar Creek two summers ago and after becoming closer this summer, she decided in August that she would be coming and visiting me. In early November she had found really cheap tickets for a round trip and the plans were set. Unlike most of my other trips- for some reason, this trip had all of its hiccups in the weeks leading up to Ace’s arrival. At camp this summer, there were two international staff members from Slovakia- Jan and Roman- and we also met their friend Barbara, who goes to school with them, but was spending the summer in Chicago. We decided to spend a couple of days of Ace’s visit in Martin, Slovakia with them. Ace also wanted to make the most of her week in Europe and see as many countries and places as possible. In addition to Slovakia, some of the ideas we threw around were- Scotland, France, Poland, Hungry, as well as a couple of different places in Norway. It was a big agenda to fit into a week starting late Saturday night and ending very early Friday morning. After some talking and negotiating, and lots of checking of time schedules and flight prices, we finally had it narrowed down to a day and a half in both Poland and Slovakia and then the rest of the time in Norway. After talking with our Slovak friends, we found out that, although Martin is near Krakow, Poland (where we were planning on going), there was no train linking the two. So instead, we would have to go from Krakow to Bratislava (Slovakia’s capital) and then to Martin. Unfortunately- come time to buy our train tickets- my card kept getting denied. I discovered too, that it wasn’t my bank denying it, but the company selling the tickets. We got concerned it was a scam and decided against it. Then it came time for us to decide whether we risk it and fly to Poland and hope once we are there we could figure out how to get into Slovakia or just cut out the Poland part of our trip. I have a few friends here in Norway that have traveled to Poland, and they informed me that very few Polish speak a lot of English and so if they didn’t know exact what they wanted, it was difficult to get around. So Ace and I decided to just stick with Slovakia. Given that at this time in the game plan it was only a week and a half or so until Ace arrived, I was getting pretty nervous if we would be able to pull it off or not. We contacted our Slovak friends, asking them what days would be best for us to come, and they said any- they would even meet us in Bratislava and we could stay at their parents’ house in order to spend more time with them. So after some ticket searching (which is extremely difficult because of the limited number of flights in and out or Bratislava) we found some departing Oslo Monday night, we would then have a night layover in London and arrive in Bratislava Tuesday morning. We would then fly directly from Bratislava into Oslo late Wednesday evening- it would be a short but sweet trip.

Next came our plans for the rest of our time in Norway. At Sugar Creek, one of the kids Ace worked with this summer, Daniel, actually has an aunt and uncle who run a Bed and Breakfast in Oslo. We were able to get the name of their place and I sent an emailing asking if there was a room available. Due to our trip to Slovakia and the timing of the Ace’s flights in and out of Norway, we decided it would be easiest to just spend our time in Oslo, instead of heading back to Bø. So it would be a total of 4 nights in Oslo and 3 abroad. At this point in time, it was the Tuesday before Ace arrived and life was great and our time was planned and life was good…and then it all fell apart….

Wednesday night we got an email from our Slovakian friends saying they could no longer come to Bratislava to see us because they had school and as of Thursday night, I still hadn’t heard a definite answer from the B&B in Oslo if we could stay there or not. To say the least, I was stressed. As of Friday morning- the day before Ace arrived- I did not know where we would be sleeping Saturday through Thursday night, expect for Monday (only because we would be spending that in the airport). To add to the stress, given the time different, it was difficult to get constant communication with Ace to make decisions as to what we should do and I still had classes on top of that, along with a broken computer. And on Friday, I had an all-day ski excursion with my friluftsliv class to Morgedal. I was feeling like a failure of a host. I got back to school on Friday around 5 o’clock and I was determined not to leave until I had this all figured out. Thankfully things started to fall into place- the B&B got back to me and we had a spot to stay and Ace and I decided (as much as we were frustrated with the guys) to take our chances with the Slovakian trains and make our way out from Bratislava to Martin to see them.

So come Saturday morning- I was off on the 11 o’clock train to Oslo to wait for Ace’s 4.30 arrival for our week full of uncertainty and adventure. Thankfully there were not any major issues on our travels. After navigating our way around the Oslo metro we made our way to the B&B around 6.30 and after meeting our host (Daniel’s aunt, because his uncle was in the States) we made our way to the grocery store to pick up a few things and then Ace crashed- exhausted after traveling so much. The next morning, breakfast was served at 8 o’clock. We were able to talk some more with our host- Marta- and discovered she was originally from Poland, but also has US citizenship and now she and her husband Roy (a Norwegian and US citizen) spend their time jumping between their houses in Norway, Poland and the States. Marta is a very outgoing and wonderful woman. She seems to know a lot of many things and loves to talk about all of her experiences in every place she’s lived- especially the differences between the States and Norway. There was never a dull moment at breakfast. Over the four nights we were there, there were only other guests two of the nights. Sunday morning there was a young couple from Germany there and then Thursday morning there was a Norwegian man staying there.

Sunday we spent the day wandering around Oslo. We made stops at Vigeland’s Park and then up to Holmenkollen, where there were actually ski races going on, so that was quite nice to see. In the late afternoon and early evening we made our way back to the B&B for some supper and had a nice little talk with Marta, before it was time for bed again. Monday morning we were up and packed- ready to head off to Slovakia. After some breakfast we made our way down to Oslo city center and had a look around the fortress. We were also fortunate enough to find a gluten-free bakery. Ace can’t have gluten, so it is always tricky to find her something good to eat. Soon it was time to catch our train to Rygge airport and then our flight to London. On the flight over there were some young parents sitting next to us with their infant son- one of the cutest fattest babies I have ever seen. After talking with the father for a while, I learned the baby’s name was Henry and he had just turned four months. He was coming back from visiting his great-grandmother in Moss, Norway. I then became the luckiest girl on the plane, because the father then offered to let me hold Henry for a while. Three of the things college students miss the most (besides home cooking) are pets, grandparents and babies. So I was the happiest college kid while holding Henry.

Soon enough it was time to land. The night in London went by quickly. Ace and I grabbed some dinner and then found a place to make camp for the night. Next thing we knew it was 4.30 and time to check in and get ready to board our 6.15 flight. After a nice 2 hour nap onboard we touched down in Bratislava, Slovakia. We had to catch a train to Zalina, where our friend Barbara would meet us and travel with us the rest of the way to Martin. In so we had to find our way from the airport to the train station. I had printed off some information online about a bus 61 which would take us directly from the airport to the main station, but we wanted to check with the information desk to make sure- which turned out to be a very unhelpful experience. One of the women was helping another man, whom I had over head was trying to get to a neighboring city. The women was being very rude and saying that, since he had to change buses, the women said it was too difficult for him and said she didn’t know how he could get there. While this was going on, I stepped up the other information women and asked her how get to the main bus station- she proceeded to give me the same directions they were giving the man (how I needed to make a transfer) and that it was too difficult for us and left it at that. All I have to say, is that if you plan on getting a job at any kind of help desk- please make sure you understand that you are going to have to help people, so be prepared. Ace and I just decided to try it ourselves and just took bus 61 in, which got us to the main train station no problem. Only hiccup was, we didn’t know where to buy tickets so we just hopped on (later we found out from our Slovak friends that if we had gotten caught without a ticket, we each would have been fined 50 euro).

We got our train ticket without a glitch and after a couple of hours- we were on our way off to Martin. Barbara found us in Zalina right away and with her help we got another train and then bus into Martin. We met Jan and Roman at the coffee shop where Jan was working. Thankfully it was not busy so he was able to talk with us often. We were also joined by Jan’s younger sister and brother later on in the evening. They took us to dinner at one of their favorite local restaurant and we had the Slovakian nation dish- halušky, which is potatoes prepared in a certain way, covered in some kind of white sauce, along with chives and bacon sprinkled on top. Once our food came, we realized they had only ordered food for us and we asked why they weren’t eating. They explained to us how lunch is their big meal so they were not hungry, but they knew how supper is our big meal, so wanted to make sure we had something to eat- it was very sweet of them. We then spent some time at the coffee shop, waiting for Jan to finish working and then we all headed out for some drinks. Afterwards we had a nice walk around their town, where they should us some important buildings, their school, their church and other places and finally we made our way back to their apartment. We stayed up talking for a while but eventually everyone fell asleep. The guys had to be up early the next morning for classes. Right before they left we woke up and said our goodbyes. We then got ready ourselves and Barbara and her friend took us into Zalina to pick up our train back to Bratislava for our flight. So although we spent more time in the airport/bus station or on the plane/train, it was still worth it to see them all. It was almost like we had just left camp last week- it felt like no time had passed at all.

We got back to our B&B around 10.30 and crashed, but we were up nice and early for breakfast Thursday morning at 8 o’clock. We had a pretty lazy day then- we wandered around Oslo through the morning and afternoon for Ace to get some souvenirs. I even got a new sweater for 354 NOK, which was on sale from originally 1,163 NOK, all because one of the buttons came off. Good thing I have a wonderfully Grandma who sews like magic! We came back up to our B&B for some food, and spent the rest of the day wandering around the area by our B&B and hanging out.

This morning it was early to rise- we were up by 5.30 for breakfast at 6.15. Ace had a flight that left at 10.00 and I had a train to catch at 7.25. We were packed and on the metro by 6.45 and after a quick farewell (we both had trains to catch) we were on our separate ways. In so our time together was short but sweet. I feel so very fortunate to have had Ace come all the way over from the States to spend some time with me here and I think she had a good time as well. I do know she was especially happy to get some more stamps in her passport if anything J

Now I have only a few short weeks and an extremely long to-do list before its Spring Break and I’m off on my next adventure to Scotland, Spain and Portugal. And, as of tomorrow, it is only 2 short months until my Mom will be here, so lots of planning to do before then and only 2 months and 16 days before I land in the States- Ahh! Scary thought!

Sending all of my love back home to you all- hugs and kisses!

Viko 2013

'Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures' -Ceasr Chavez

Well this past week or so I have spent in Bø, but they have been filled with many adventures- some not so wonderful. Here at Telemark University, every Feburary for 10 days the students host 'Viko' which is comparable to a Homecoming week. It is basically time for a bunch of different student run activites aimed at breaking the winter time blues. This year Viko ran from Feb. 14th until the 24th. I missed the beginning of it because of my trip to Italy, but I was able to participate in some of the activities this past week and was even involved in 'hosting' one of them. Some of the Viko activites I missed were various concerts, a talent show, different speakers, etc., but here are some of the ones I participated in....

I went to my first Viko activity on Tuesday night, which was an taco/pizza buffet at one our our local restuarants. It was only 70 NOK, so super cheap for Norwegain standards (actually about 12 USD- I try to avoid converting- it is just too painful). Since being over here, the one type of food I crave the most is Mexican food, so to say the least I loaded up on tacos. I went with a group of US students after we were done planning for 'International Day'.

On Wednesday, it was 'International Day'. All of the international students got together with others from their home countries and made a poster, food, presentation, etc. showing off their home and culture. Members from the community and school then came from 2-4 in the afternoon to our different stands set up in the foyer of the school to learn about everyone. Most coutnries had food/ drink, photos, facts, costumes, and some even performed music, dances or cultural traditions for everyone. It really was a contest between the countries and at the end we all voted for our favorite. We Americans realized we really didn't stand a chance because we do not really have any special cultural traditions and those that we do have- everyone already knows. But we did make a stand and had some visitors- really I think it was just for the food :) My friends from Kurdistan won and Lithuania took second.

On Friday we had our second excurison for my skiing class. It was slightly dissapointing because our excursion was the same loop that I do almost daily with my friend Meg, but it was fun going with a larger group and all skiing together. Tune (my professor) also talked to us about the biathlon and we played some more games with our skis on, which is always an adventure.

On Saturday, for Viko, there was a 'sledging' competition at the school. There is a pretty big sledding hill on the side of the school and so students can make teams and enter a sled or 'sledge' as they call it. They take turns racing them down the hill and have to race to hit a bell and whoever does it the fastest wins. There were only about 8 teams, but so many people came together to watch. Some of the sledges they raced down on were so terrifying- you could not pay me $100USD to go down in one! There were so many wooden things attached to skis and some guys even went down in a shopping cart. Thankfully, although they were there, the Red Cross was not needed. Afterwards there was an 'afterski' part at school, which was pretty much everyone sitting around talking and dancing to music. It was based off from the tradition of people getting together after a long day of skiing and having a party.

Other than Viko, my life hasn't been too exciting. Unfortunately on this past Monday or Tuesday, my computer completely crashed, like took 2 hours to turn on and then only worked in 'Safe Mode'. So I took it into our tech support at school and they had no idea what was wrong with it. The only suggestion I got was to reboot it to factor mode. After talking with my brother, we decided it was the best idea. So I first headed to my bookstore and bought a jumpdrive and filled that, along with the two I already had, with all of my pictures and important files I had on my computer. Then I completely wiped it down to factor mode. It took a while, but I finally got it working (mostly). I had some problems getting connected to the internet until today, but think I have it. I am rocking it 90's styles with Internet Explorer, so its testing my patience, but at least it works. My mom can relax a little bit too now, because I can skype, so I still have some connection to the world back home. I think my computer had just had enough of the power coversion and connecting to all the foregin internet connections and gave up. I had been warned this would most likely happened, so I am happy it will last me at least for the next three months and I am looking at the bright side that this is one less thing I have to pack to bring home!

This weekend, my friend from the States, Amanda (Ace), comes to visit me for about 5 days and so I'll be spending the week in Oslo and taking a trip down to Slovakia to visit some of our other camp friends- so I am very excited to see some familar faces. And today marks exactly 3 months till I board a plane for home... I simply cannot believe it is already the end of Feburary and I still have so much more I want to do! Ahh!!
Wish you all the best- hugs and kisses!

Et tu, Brute?

‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ -Julius Caesar

Good morning Italy! This next week, because many of the other students are away on a field trip for their friluftsliv classes, most of my classes were canceled. So instead of hanging around and wasting a perfectly wonderful week, my friend Abbie and I headed down here to Italy. With some mighty fine organizational skills I inherited from my momma, I booked up flights, trains and hostels so we are able to see 4 cities in about 6 days- Milan (Tuesday), Venice (Wednesday), Florence (Thursday) and finally Rome (Friday, Saturday, and leave on Sunday). To make it a little easier on myself- I’ll break down my blogging into city by city.

Milano- Our flight heading out to Milan left just early enough that we had yet another wonderful night in the Rygge airport. (Un)fortunately, the early train out got into Rygge at 8.50 and our plane took off at 9.45, so we were just on the border, but that would have been cutting it way too close. So come 8.30 Monday night, Abbie and I hoped on a train to Oslo and then to Rygge. Like before, our train got into Rygge too late, so no shuttle bus was waiting for us. This time, we knew where to walk and didn’t get lost so we were able to get to the airport in a half an hour or so. We even found a really nice little corner to huddle up in and I was lucky enough to get roughly 6 hours of sleep. Eight o’clock came and we were up and packing everything up, checking in, going through security, and camping out at our gate. Everything was going great, despite a little confusion at the security gate when the guard looked at my boarding pass and commented how she “never saw that one before.” From experience I thought she was talking about my last name, until she started asking me if it was a state, then I got confused. One quick glance at my boarding pass in her hand, I realized that I had accidently had check “United States Minor Outlying Islands” instead of just “United States of America”. Thankfully at visa check Europeans don’t know their US geography, like we don’t know our European geography, so no penalty was paid and I was able to white lie my way through just fine. At around 9.00, right before boarding was supposed to start, an announcement was made over the loud speakers that our flight would be delayed and more information would be given at 9.45. So we waited. 9.45 comes around and another announcement was made, that unfortunately the plane was just leaving Milan due to snow, so we would be delayed until 11.15…So, we waited. Come 11.45, we finally start boarding. It wasn’t until 12.30 that our flight finally got off of the ground.

The flight went just fine and we landed just before 3, caught a bus and got into Milan city center at about quarter to 5- about 4 hours after we expected to get there. Next we located the subway system to navigate our way to our hostel. Thankfully those extra hours in the airport gave us time to look up the Milan metro system and find multiple routes to hostel, unfortunately to the untrained hear, most Italian ‘P’ names sound the same. So long story short- we ended up going in the opposite direction we needed and were about 4k’s away from our hostel. Being the poor college kids we are, we didn’t want to buy another metro pass once we figured out what we did, so we walked. Which is pretty difficult without a map. After many pop’s in and out of metro stops to look at their map, a really nice pharmacist, and another two hours or so, we finally made it to the steps of our hostel.

Exhausted, starving and smelling, we unloaded our things and made our way out to find food. Surprisingly, there is very little open in Milan on a Tuesday night for food. After quite a walk, we found a pizzeria and ordered our first slices of true Italian pizza. We have decided our experience in this pizzeria was Milan trying to pay us for our terrible experience so far. 1^st- our so called ‘pieces’ of pizza turned out to be a full-fledged 12 inch pizza each for only 5 euro- Score! And trust me, we had no problem finishing the whole thing by ourselves. 2^nd- While going to the bathroom Abbie found 50 euros on the ground- Double Score! Looks like we’ll be having a nice Valentine’s Day dinner in Florence!

By the time we were done with dinner, it was 9 o’clock and with all of our mishaps, it was time to just call it quits and head to bed. Plus a nice 5.15 wakeup call would come earlier than we wanted.  So all of the wonders of Milan, like the Duomo and the Last Supper, will have to remain a mystery to us- they were eaten up by our 3 hour flight delay.

Venezia- Our train left Milan Central Station at 7.05 this morning (Wednesday) and would arrive at Venice at 9.30. It would take about 45 minutes to walk to the train station from the hostel, so we were up by 5.15- getting ready, packing and we were out the door by 5.45. Fortunately we made it to the train station by 6.30 and were able to check with a ticket office and make sure the tickets we got offline were legitimate. We were able to board by 6.45 or so and I was lucky enough that the ticket I bought was 1^st class baby! Abbie had bought up the last economy price ticket and so I bought the next cheapest one, which somehow put me in first class. We boarded and I was feeling pretty high class- I got extra legroom, a cushionier chair and part way through the ride they would come through and give me a hot beverage and newspaper. I was sitting there soaking it all up, feeling a little out of place- sitting by a bunch of business men and women with their briefcase, while I was rocking my hiking boots and overstuffed traveling backpack- waiting for the train to depart. I glanced at my watch and it was about 7.25, so we were already 20 minutes late from our departure time. At that moment an employee got on our train and started speaking Italian. The moment he stopped, everyone in the train stood up, put on their coats and started to get off. I frantically looked for the person closest to my age (guessing they would most likely speak English). I found two girls who explained to me that the train was broken and we needed to switch to platform 13. I followed them off and instantly started to freak-out about Abbie. I knew she was sitting in car 4, but there were crowds of people coming off of the train and literally running to platform 13, all pushing me that way. I started running over there with them, all the while searching for Abbie. At platform 13- people were jumping on the train like it was going to leave any minute. I felt like I was faced with the biggest dilemma in my entire life- to get on the train or to stay off? I wasn’t sure if Abbie was already on or if she was waiting someplace else. I kept jumping on and off the train searching for her, meanwhile people were still sprinting to get on the train. At that moment an announcement came over the loudspeaker saying train 13 would soon depart. I then proceeded to whip out my emergence phone and call her… but what good is an emergency phone when it doesn’t work? None at all I tell you. I jump on and then jump off again, still not having made up my mind whether to stay or leave. When across the many tracks I saw her bright pink flowery purse. I have never felt such relief. I didn’t care who heard- I yelled her name at the top of my lungs, and because she didn’t know where the voice was coming from I yelled it again. I felt like I was in some movie scene. She was there walking along and, after I yelled at her to run, she booked it. We found the conductor of 13 who told us just to find any empty seat. We took off down the platform jumped into one of the back cars and grabbed the first two seats we found.

After talking awhile, I found out the whole 15 minutes I was off and frantically searching for her, she hadn’t even been told what was going on. She had just found out the train was broken and that we could either stay on the train or switch to train 13, but we would then have to make a transfer. When she said this we both started to worry a little because I hadn’t heard about the transfer and she didn’t remember where it was that we needed to get off. At the first stop when many people are starting to get off, I stop a gentleman leaving next to me, and ask him if this is where I need to get off to make the transfer and it wasn’t. So Abbie and I sat put, worrying our little heads off about when to get off. We decided to move seats so we could sit next to each other and closer to our luggage. We ended up sitting across from a middle-aged man working on his laptop. He had sitting next to him a magazine with all of the routes of the trains. He not only let us borrow it, but proceeded to ask us what stop we are looking for. After we explain our situation, we lets us know what stop we need and that he will let us know when to get off. He starts talking to us about what we are doing here in Italy, and tells us all the great spots to go and see. He even translates some of the announcements for us. When we are about to get off, he gives us his business card to e-mail him if we have any questions at all. He is definitely going to get a thank-you e-mail. I’ve met so many great and helpful people on all of my travels and never have really gotten to thank them, so I am really happy I can thank him. Best part- his name is Fabio :)

We made our transfer with no problem and made it into Venice by 10.30 or so. Needless to say I didn’t get the nap I was planning on and Abbie and I have now made an emergence plan for the possible next time that might happen. But on the good hand, the moment I stepped of the train I finally felt like I was in Italy. I’ll give Milan the benefit of the doubt, because we didn’t get to see anything really, but it was really not all that amazing. Venice instantly captured my heart. The canals and the water and the buildings are incredible. It’s just what I imagined. Venice has always been one city in the world I’ve always want to go and see, and it has surpassed my expectations.

Our hostel is amazing- its right on the water, only 10 minutes from the station, and we have our own room and bathroom! We dropped our things off, got checked in and freshened up and then headed out. We spent all afternoon wandering the streets, taking photos, shopping, eating food, looking at old buildings, touring churches and the such. I wish we could have taken a gondola ride, but 80 euros is just too expensive for college kids. Instead, we settled with some gelato. We headed back to our hostel for a much needed break (where I am now) and soon we’ll head out for some good pasta and slowly make our way back for some solid sleep before we are up early again for a train to Florence!

We made our way out around 8 for some dinner and a nice walk around Venice. I am so glad I was there with Abbie, because after dark, Venice is a little creepy. I think because the roads are so tiny and so close, there are next to no street lights, which makes walking around at night a little scary. We made our way to the Bridge of Sighs (one of the oldest bridges in Venice build in the 1600’s) and stopped for a nice lasagna dinner and then off to bed.

Firenze- Because our hostel in Venice was so close to the train station, we got to sleep in a bit. Well, until 7.30 that is… But it was a really relaxing and beautiful walk over the bridges and water over to the station. We made it on the train and to Florence with no problem at all. We got in around 10.40 and then we set off to find the hostel and from this experience- I have decided never to trust GoogleMaps again in my life. Normally hostels are really good at giving you directions from main arrival points- airports, bus stations or train stations- but for some reason this hostel only gave us directions from the Duomo (a main tourist spot), but we didn’t know how to get there. So thankfully, I noticed this before we left Norway and had printed off directions to the hostel from the train station off line. According to the directions it would take us about 23 minutes to get there. After about 15 minutes of walking around and trying to find the street it said to turn left on, we went back to the train station and found a giant map on the wall. We found where we were supposed to go- it wasn’t left, it was right…So after that mishap happened, we were off and found our way no problem…Well, until we reached the hostel. It was at the bottom of the a big compartment building… only the name of the hostel- Danny- didn’t match the one on my sheet… GoogleMaps had led us about 1 ½ miles to the wrong hostel…After some looking I located the right address in my papers, but problem was, we didn’t know where this street was. So we started walking back towards the train station. After about 20 minutes we passed a park with a map on a board, we sat there and tried to figure it out, but the map didn’t have the street we needed on it. So I just gave in and went and bought a map from a street vender. Thankfully we found where we needed to go and it wasn’t too far from where we were. After about a 10 minute walk we found our hostel and got all settled in. We got organized and then headed out to see the sights of Florence- the statues, bridges, buildings and plazas. We walked around the Duomo and even took a tour of the crypt in the basement where they had found the ancient remains of the Santa Reparata cathedral. While we were walking towards the water to cross over and see Michelangelo’s Plaza, we stumbled across a large crowd of people gathering in a random plaza, so naturally we went to check out what was going on. After talking with some people we found out that there was going to be a flash mob with the “One Billion Rising” campaign. It took place all over the world on the 14^th and was aimed at raising awareness for domestic violence. Afterwards we wandered towards the bridge and hung out in the sunshine for a long time. It’s been a while since we’ve seen such warm weather. On that note- it was strange walking around in just a zip-up while everyone else was running around in winter coats. In fact, a street vender tried to sell me a coat, because I ‘was the only one without one and its cold’. Eventually we wandered back to the hostel to rest and look up a nice restaurant for dinner. In the evening we headed out for dinner- Italian sausage, wine, parmesan and spinach stuffed ravioli and a cake for dessert. We slowly made our way back to the hostel and stopped for some more gelato on the way- you can never have too much gelato!

Roma- The train ride to Rome and finding our hostel was the easiest of them all- for the first time this trip nothing went wrong! In fact the hostel we stayed at was my favorite of them all- the staff was super helpful and, not only did we get free breakfast, but we also got a free pasta and wine supper both nights! On Friday when we got there, after getting settled in, we decided to go and see the Vatican City and then work our way back from there. We hoped on the metro (super easy because Rome only has 2 lines) and started at the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. I was even super sneaky and got a picture of the ceiling and the hands of God and Adam part of it- which wasn’t allowed. We then made our way to Saint Peter’s Basilica, saw where St. Peter, the first pope of the Catholic church, is buried. After a quick stop for some food we stopped along some more sights- the Angel’s Bridge, the Pantheon, and other various monuments. We finished the afternoon with some shopping along the main road and then headed back to the hostel for our free dinner. We were quite exhausted after dinner, so we spend the night in the hostel hanging out with the other girls in our room.

        Saturday was quite a wonderful day- possibly my favorite. We got up and started the day with a visit to the Trevi Fountain and made a wish. Next we wandered our way down to the Coliseum, Roman Forum and the Palatino. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, but then slowly made our way through the Palatino then Roman Forum and saved the Coliseum for last. We spent about 3 hours there, but I felt as if I could spend 3 days there! I loved it- so many things to look at, so much history and so many stories. It was truly incredible. Afterwards we grabbed some gelato and headed back to our hostel to rest a bit. We then made our way back out to do some more shopping and got more gelato of course! A quick stop back the hostel for dinner and then we headed back out to see the Coliseum at night. We finished our trip with some bruschetta and Italian cake for dessert :)

We flew back at 11.30 and finally made it back to Bø at 7.30 last night… It was a really wonderful trip. All of the cities (with the exception of Milan) were amazing. Highly recommend them to you all. It was sad coming back to Norway though, because I realize my time here is nearing the end. Now it’s only about 3 months till I head home- May 25^th. I bought my ticket back to the States last week…I know these next few months are going to pass quickly- too quickly I think! But I am excited to see you all back at home- Lots of love to you all!