surviving another country part two

ok.... where did i leave off? i believe it was sleeping for 12 hours... (btw: sleeping for 12 hours after being awake for nearly 24 was AMAZING!)

full day one: june 28

after sleeping for those glorious 12 hours we woke up and went downstairs to eat breakfast. breakfast in norway is a little different than here in america. they have open faced sandwiches: a slice of break with a multitude of choice for topping. there was salami, cheese, weird spread products in tubes with names we couldn't read, pickled haring. luckily this hotel has americans on a regular basis and knew that we don't like to have lunch for breakfast, so there was yogurt (btw: pear yogurt is INCREDIBLE. if you know where to find it in the states, please tell me) cereal, eggs, and bacon.

after showering and going though our "do we have everything?" check list (camera, kroners, key, water bottle, map) we made our way downstairs to ask for some direction. that is where we met, Maria, the fantastically helpful receptionist. she told us some things we should make sure to see and showed us how to get to our first destination: the travel information kiosk.

after the surprisingly short walk to the travel place, we purchased our Oslo Passes (they got us into many museums for free and on all the public transportation for free, too. we made our way to the ferry dock, hopped on and headed to the culture center and viking ship museum. we also got stranded on an island for an hour and explored a fortress. both we pretty awesome. especially the island... the geese very close. i was a little scared. the day ended with some great pizza at pepe's.

Here are some day one pictures:

i was the navigator. this was me trying to get my bearings after going to the Tourist information. not too boast too much, but i didn't get us lost once. and thanks R for following me so faithfully even when i was uncertain

R on the public ferry.

the pretty archway at the culture center.

norwegian stave church at the culture center.

one of the viking ships.

oslo fjord.

akershus fortress

the gubmo screen that played the world cup games

view from the island

surviving another country part one

i survived my first trip overseas... it was AMAZING!!!! my sister, R, and i went to norway for one of my high school buddy's (T) wedding. here are some of the high lights:

as R and i were sitting in the airport waiting for our first flight, i looked over and saw E, one of T's good friends. it was lovely to travel with someone who had been over sees before. we took the first picture of the trip together,




while waiting even longer and beginning to feel somewhat restless, this happened:


our flight took use to our one layover in ICELAND!!! we didn't see any volvanoes, or ash. generally, i don't say i was in a place if i was just in the airport. but when we landed in iceland, we had to walk outside to get from the airplane to the airport. so i'm going to say that i was in iceland. while in the airport we had to go through another security check... not fun after being up for many hours and sitting on a plane for 6 hours. we got our passport stamped and boarded the plane. we arrived safely in oslo, found the train to the city center, and got almost lost trying to find our hotel. after our 2 hour nap, we got advise from maria, the very friendly and helpful lady at the reception desk of the hotel. she gave us a map and showed us how to get to the water. here is what we discovered:






after a lovely but cold (air temperature) meal at a restaurant by the water we went back to the hotel and slept for 12hours. thank goodness that T told us to bring our eye masks because this is as dark as it ever got: the picture was taken at 11:30pm




to be continued...