Copenhagen, Denmark

Denmark was absolutely beautiful. And significantly less expensive. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but because of the exchange rate, things would cost the same amount of Norwegian Kroners as Danish Kroners, but American Dollars were worth more in Denmark. 

Adam and I headed to our hostel, which was very nice and only a short walk away from some the downtown area and a subway station. 

(Our hostel is on the left, note the ridiculously

blue sky)

The day was young, Adam and I decided to split up so he could do a biking tour and I could see the most photographed statue in the world, The Little Mermaid. I took the subway one stop and walked over to the harbor. The statue was pretty much what I expected it to be, just a bronze mermaid. I think the thrill of it was knowing that I was there seeing it in person and not just a photo. 

Speaking of which

After the mermaid I headed to this fortress that was pretty famous in Copenhagen's history, and walked around for a while.

(It is still used for military purposes today)

The city of Copenhagen had pretty remarkable weather while we were there. There are lots of rivers and canals running through the city, which meant that boat tours were also probable here. I had had enough of boat tours after turning into a popsicle in Norway though, so I decided to pass. I chose instead to walk through a few parks.

(The boats for the tours were everywhere)

(I sat for a while by this pond, it reminds me

of a painting I have in my room in the states)

Adam and I met up again in the evening and walked around the downtown area and then called it a night. But not before seeing some amusing things.

(This was funny, because it's just "probably"

the best beer in town)

(This was a pretty awesome thermometer, 

on the corner of a building)

The next morning I went to Christiania. Wow. It was pretty amazing. Christiania is this small section of the city that broke away from the government and is now called the Free State of Christiania. Unfortunately, due to some recent legal issues, photography is no longer allowed inside. Basically it was a living embodiment of what the world would be like if the hippy movement hadn't died down. There was graffiti everywhere, lots of little booths where you could find clothes, jewelry, drug paraphernalia etc.

I spent the morning there and then headed to Riz Raz, a restaurant that for about 10$ has a vegetarian/vegan lunch buffet. Naturally I ate lunch there, and then spent the rest of the evening walking around town. Around 8 or so, Adam and I met up, because we had to change hostels for the night. For that night we were staying in the Copenhagen Youth Airport Hostel which as its name would suggest is right next to the airport. 

However, the airport is not exactly in the city. We took a subway, a bus, and walked for about 15 minutes to get there. Only to find out that bed linen was not included, which is pretty typical in Scandinavia. It wasn't the greatest hostel. It was founded by two guys in their early thirties who basically bought a house and turned it into a hostel. But, our train the next morning was early, so it didn't really matter as long as we had a place to stay. 

We woke up early, showered and headed back to the Copenhagen train station, where we would catch a 6 hour train to Stockholm Sweden. 

Oslo, Norway

Foreword: I know, I know, you're all very disappointed in me. It's been FAR too long since I've updated. I'd like to say it's because I've been super-busy, which is true.. but I've also just fallen victim to the ultra-relaxed German way of life. So here goes.

To fly to Norway, I booked a flight with Ryanair, which is a VERY cheap airline. The only problem with that is that you have to fly out of obscure little small-town airports. So in order to get to the airport called Frankfurt-Hahn, I first took a train to Frankfurt am Main which is where the super-big international airport is. From this airport I took a bus. Then I took a donkey through a jungle to find the treasure-map that would lead me to the airport. Then I had to ford a river with only a swiss-army knife and some dental-floss to make a raft. I then had to barter a few of my belongings to get a native guide to take me the rest of the way. Ok, so really I just had to take a bus to the airport, but nonetheless it was complicated.

The flight was short, only an hour or so, which was such a silly feeling. In America, an hour long flight doesn't seem to get you that far, but here I could fly to Norway in an hour. Amazing. I arrived in Oslo and met up with Adam my traveling buddy. I'm still not sure how he did it, he'd already been traveling for a while, England, Ireland, Scotland. The two of us took a shuttle to catch a train into the city itself. 

Our Hostel was really nice, and very centrally located. We stayed in a room with a few other people, mostly other foreigners.

(Adam in our hostel room)

We decided to go out and see if we could find a cheap beer somewhere. So as I'm making sure that all of my important belongings will be safe, I noticed something was missing. Oh nothing important... just my United States Passport. No big deal right?

So, in a panic, I call the airport where we were to see if they'd found anything. 

Nope.

We went back to the train station.

Nope.

I decided that there wasn't much more I could do about it this late in the evening. I figured as long as I didn't get arrested before making it to the U.S. Embassy when they opened the next morning, everything would be fine. And really, how likely is it that I would get arrested my first night in Norway. Pretty unlikely, except that oh.. there was a big riot happening..

(This was about two blocks from our hostel)

Apparently there's a seemingly large population of Sri Lankens in Scandinavia, and the protest was in hopes that Scandinavian countries would start sending a little more money to the aid of the Sri Lankens. Adam and I watched from a distance and then headed to find some dinner. Now, let me just say, if you're looking for a cheap place to travel, avoid Norway. It was VERY expensive, and a little difficult to figure out because of the exchange rate. Eventually, Adam and I decided on a charming little restaurant called...

(Dolly Dimple's, what else?)

After dinner and on our way past the riot, I received a call. My passport had been found.

Oh. thank. god.

The next morning, I took the hour-and-forty-five minute train back to the airport, picked up my Passport, and took another hour-and-forty-five minute train back to the city. The man who was checking tickets had not only been working on the train to the airport, but had also been working the night before. He saw me and just said.. "Are you just riding back and forth?" I explained the situation, and he just smiled and said "Don't worry about a ticket," So at the very least I saved some money because he let me ride back without a ticket.

The day mostly spent, Adam and I headed towards the Akershus castle. We walked around the grounds for a while, which was pretty neat, but we didn't get to go inside.

(View of the Akershus from the outside)

After dinner, we decided to head back to the hostel for a little R&R before heading out to find a bar in the evening. Well... a little R&R turned into a good nights sleep. We woke the next morning, refreshed, having gone to sleep around 7:30 the night before.

It was our last day in Oslo so we spent the morning on a guided boat-tour of the Fjord. Aside from being absolutely gorgeous, it was also absolutely frigid. Norway in April is like Michigan in November, plus rain. Because of the weather, the boat tour wasn't the most popular attraction, so we ended up just sharing the boat with a seemingly obnoxious couple from Great Britain. 

(Wrapped in Blankets on the boat tour)

(The tour guide thought I was funny because 

of the amount of blankets I wanted: 4)

(A light house that can be rented out for parties)

After the tour we walked around and found lunch before checking out of our hostel and collecting our bags.

(On some of the trash-cans there was some 

unusual signage. I'm pretty sure this

one means that you can either throw out paper

or dogs... strange)

When Adam and I first started talking about this trip, he had mentioned that he found a pretty cool way to get from Norway to Denmark. He called it an over-night ferry. From the sounds of it, I just assumed it was a large iron barge that had rooms for sleeping. I assumed we would just check in, get sent to our rooms and have a rather boring but peaceful night of sleep while we made our way to Copenhagen.

Then Adam sent me the link to the website. My first impression was that it looked bigger than I'd imagined. Then I noticed that there was a bar on board. And a swimming pool, several hot tubs, a duty-free store, a night club, a ton of cafés, and a movie theatre.

"Adam... we're going on a cruise..."

And sure enough we were. We we're going to spend the night in The Pearl of Scandinavia. It was pretty fantastic.

We boarded The Pearl and found our room, which was teeny-teeny-tiny. I know what I'm about to say next will be a little obnoxious.. but I didn't manage to take any pictures of the inside of the ship. Let me just say it was a sight. Adam and I hit the duty-free store to buy some... supplies (drinks) and hit the deck. We sat and watched Norway pass us by. After dark hit, we ran to our room, quickly changed and hit the hot tubs. Which is where we spent most of the rest of the night.

The next morning we woke up to find ourselves in Copenhagen Denmark.