Oslo

August 2, 2013

The overnight ferry was definitely an experience. The Asians and their tax free shopping craze was definitely worth the price of admission. After we dropped our bags in a room only big enough for one and actually sleeps four, we toured the boat and got the lay of the land. We snagged the coveted couch spot for embarking and watching the Oslo skyline fade away into ocean abyss. During our time on the ferry, I was fortunate/unfortunate enough to meet 4 young Danish people who were employed on the boat, but had the day off to go to a wedding. They had the hook up to boat life, so we stayed with them… or actually one in particular, Jonas, stayed with us and NEVER left. We picked him up at the piano bar and could not shake him until we had to sleep. He entertained us with talk of politics and the Danish way of life. We determined that conservatives in Denmark are liberals in America and after some free champagne we decided that dancing was the only thing left to do on the boat before bed. The band was great and we boogied down and then crashed hard in the bunker. The boat was not fun to sleep on, I am not going to lie… but it got us from point A to point B with beautiful views along the way. When we got to Oslo, we went directly to the Hotel Guardsmaden via taxi. 

The Hotel Guardsmaden has Jana Combs (my mother) written all over it. Everything is their own organic products: shampoo, sheets, breakfast, towels, etc. They even have a relaxing organic spa in the basement. When we got to our room everyone wanted a nap, due to the rough night at sea. Our restful morning led to a hungry late lunch at ‘Bit’ and it lifted us out of our sea travel slums and into a wonderful mood. This make-your-own salad and sandwich coffee shop had our stomachs very happy and gave us the energy to walk down to the pier. Oslo is not the most ‘poppin’ city, so we just walked up and down the pier and then went back to the hotel for siesta number two of the day. For our nighttime activities, we decided to go crazy and do a plain ole dinner and a movie. However, if you talk to the bank of daddy, it was a crazy night because dinner at Restaurant Larson and a 3D Monsters University viewing at the Coliseum wound up to be $200+ that night. After our long day of napping and watching movies, we were plum exhausted and decided to go to the hotel sauna and pamper ourselves before bed.


August 3, 2013

Godn Morgn from Addison’s mama: Jana. I have the privilege of writing our (easy) day #2 in Oslo. The breakfast at the hotel was organic and yummy… lots of jams, jellies, breads, teas, fruit and veggies. Delish!

Armed with an ominous weather forecast that predicted rain by noon, we were out the door by 10am and hopped on the tram outside our hotel to arrive quickly at Froggoner Park. About the time that we located the entrance to the park, it started raining… just a drizzle, but once we found the correct path to the Vigelande sculpture park it was more than misting. It wasn’t even 11am; I wasn’t thrilled with this weather prediction discrepancy. So we paused under some trees and enjoyed Alexa serenading us with her potential AU SINGERS audition songs until the worst of the rain passed. We strolled to the top of the sculpture park for some pretty views and photo ops, followed with a robust ‘discussion’ of whether or not Dad should get an updated wedding ring this year. It started raining again, about the time we made it back to the tram; and it continued all of the way home. It was just now approaching lunchtime so the girls headed back to the room and Mom & Dad decided to grab a pizza at the nearby Pizza/Bowling Alley. However, upon arrival, we quickly noted that even with an unlocked door, and despite having operating hours listed on a sign that corresponded well to our arrival, the pizza shop wasn’t open for business. We decided to head to the Kiwi Grocery one (still raining) block away where we grabbed sliced turkey, chicken salad, cheese, crackers and cookies then took them to the hotel for a bedroom picnic. An important insertion is that there are no TV’s in this boutique-y hotel: there are only iMacs. So for our makeshift picnic we loaded up the iMac with some T. Swift on YouTube & sang along as we enjoyed our lunch. Next, we grabbed the cookies and moved to our connecting bedroom for our afternoon event: the movie we downloaded from iTunes on the iMac, ADMISSION, with Tina Fey. After that eventful and obviously tiring afternoon, we nestled in for a little siesta followed by much discussion about whether or not to watch another movie or head to dinner. Since the “100% precipitation” wasn’t evident from our window, we opted for dinner out on the town. A quick internet search revealed a well-reviewed spot right down on the Akre Brygge so we hit the trail on foot, passing several other appealing options along the way, including 2 connecting Thai food restaurants. We arrived at the Akre Brygge a little ahead of our hunger level so we paused on the steps of the dock to chat for a moment about how we really didn’t want to go to the previously mentioned well-reviewed restaurant, and that we’d now just head back to the Thai options.  So we checked out the seemingly empty YaYa’s Thai Beach Bungalow, where we headed underground and into back to a room that was surprisingly filled with people and also with unusual, eclectic décor (and no windows): Christmas lights, neon, fake palm trees, and piped in rainforest sounds. It was fantastic; a unique find, even though the food was just ok. We walked back to the room and couldn’t agree on a movie so all of the girls went on an Ellen DeGeneres video run where we laughed out loud at the Here And Now skit… we’ll never think of the 6 airplane peanuts or public restrooms & toilet paper the same again!

Night night – an early morning train to the fjords is coming SOON!

August 4, 2013

A rushed but yummy organic breakfast #2 started our day at 7am with a 7:15 taxi arrival to take us to the central train station. It’s Sunday, so there’s not a lot of activity, or people around to assist us tourists who are a bit confused as to where to go for this tour package we purchased to see the beautiful Norwegian Fjords. We managed to locate a helpful person who got us in the right direction after some of us stored our luggage in a locker.  We were on the last car of the long train, and quickly learned that they offered wifi onboard. Then more quickly learned that the views out the windows as we traveled superseded anything we could view on a handheld screen (although Alexa did manage to blog a few days from Copenhagen, Dad couldn’t stop snapping iPad pictures – lovely vistas surrounded us the entire train ride.

At first we strolled thru picturesque towns and quaint villages, and then rolling green hills and trees, followed by climbing so high in elevation that the lush green vistas were replaced with rock formations and distant snowcapped mountains. We had about an hour stop in (chilly) Myrdol at a cute little depot where we grabbed a quick bite and took a few pictures of the surrounding beauty. We then boarded the Flam Railway that descended from this 966m height all the way to the bottom of the valley. It took 20 years to build and was completed in 1940. We passed waterfalls and rivers and more beautiful views before arriving in Flam, a harbor town (complete with a Holland Cruise Ship currently in the harbor) that looked a bit touristy, but still maintained its charm. 

We snapped a few photos, grabbed some French fries for the road and then boarded the Expressboat to Bergen – scoring the last available window table seats.  The fjords were unlike anything we’d ever seen. We took a million pictures, and even when it started raining we braved the elements to try to capture their beauty. Each little port we visited was calling to us to hop off and stay a while, but we were headed to Bergen so we stayed onboard – all 5 hours’ worth! We sailed thru the Sonjge Fjord (Norway’s deepest and narrowest fjord) and the views were remarkable, but one time it was simply raining so hard we resorted to a game of LIFE on Addison’s phone (mom won!). We decided that the fjords, if this stunning in the rain, would have to be even more amazing on a pretty day. We got a few sandwiches from the shop and finally made it to Bergen, where, you guessed it: it was raining.We took the quick walk to the First Hotel Marin where we were introduced to the biggest, quietest most wonderful room yet! We grabbed dinner at the next door Mexican restaurant, Casa de Toro ~ where Addison ordered a chocolate sundae for dinner. Mom had vertigo issues where she felt like she was still on the boat – yuck! Long train rides, long boat rides… we were done for the day!

August 5, 2013

Breakfast was good then we packed up, checked out, stored our luggage then headed to the Floibanen aka the funicular that takes people to the top of Bergen. We weren’t scared of the 100% precipitation prediction and when we arrived the views from the top were flawless, lovely and vast: we could see the whole city as well as the harbor and Norwegian Sea. Nothing but blue skies… but just about the time we completed our photo ops, the rain started. So we ducked quickly in to a gift shop then decide to just brave it and hike down to the city. The hiking path we chose was mostly covered with trees and verdant foliage so we were protected from the rain for our hour long hike; but upon our arrival in to town we quickly realized: “100% precipitation” had come to fruition! We peeked at the old town, which would be lovely if not for the rain, then grabbed some items from the grocery store to carry onboard this evening’s long train ride home. We stopped for lunch at Café Sze Chuan, because who doesn’t want to eat Chinese food in a Norwegian harbor town? Since no outdoor activities were eminent, we headed out to find some ice cream. Instead, we stumbled upon Kaffemisjonen, a fabulous ‘off the beaten path’ coffee shop that made homemade hot chocolate (yum for mom & Addison!).  After warming up there we found a break in the rain to return to the hotel to grab our luggage then headed to the central train station to board for the 5 hour ride back to Oslo. Norway is a beautiful country, filled with amazingly picturesque views, but it sure takes a long time to get where you’re going! We arrived at 10:30, ready for bed but all caught up on blogs and fruit ninja high scores.

August 6, 2013

It’s our last day abroad! Oslo is a great city, but at this point in our journey we were over the rain and city life. Our Best Western hotel offered a filling breakfast and no sooner than we were dressed and down the Karl Johans main street towards the Royal Palace… then, you guessed it, it started raining. We ducked in to the Cathedral, built in the late 1600’s with beautiful mosaic tile ceiling and a rich history of restorations thru the years. We decided to brave it down the Karl Johans, with rain intensity increasing all the while, only to discover upon arrival at the under renovation Palace that they only let you in at certain times. With a guide. And a ticket. None of which we had, so we bailed out of line and headed back down the Karl Jahans, in the rain. After drying off and warming up back in the hotel room, the girls stayed behind for a break while Mom & Dad went to the Opera House for a guided, behind-the-scenes tour of this unique, water- front venue. It was completed in 2008 and is an architectural wonder, as the roof of the building angles to ground level creating a large plaza inviting pedestrians to walk up and enjoy the panoramic views of the city and the sea.  We all gathered again and headed out to dinner, al fresco, at the Cathedral Restaurant. Yup, you read correctly: al fresco! No rain… well, a little pop up shower right smack dab in the middle of dinner, but we were covered by table umbrellas and a shade tree. We all walked down to the large TIGER sculpture outside the main train station then over to show the girls the exterior of the opera house where we sat by the water and finished up our (Norwegian version of) Nutella for dessert . We went back to the hotel to get all packed up and ready for early morning departure…

August 7, 2013

When you’re chasing the sun as you change time zones, it makes for one REALLY long day. It started with departure from our hotel at 4am in Oslo. We walked to the main train station where we caught the shuttle to the airport. We took a 2 hour flight to Amsterdam where exited the airport, took the metro to down town and caught our final canal tour at 10am. Amsterdam was interesting when viewed from the water, but honestly, the canals aren’t nearly as nice as the others we’ve seen. Not even close – the waters are polluted and dirty, and there’s just seemingly an overall lack of pride in the city. But we had a snack, spent all of Addison’s remaining Euros in a convenience store then headed back to the airport… where we received our only passport stamp of the entire trip. Three other countries visited for days on end where they hardly even looked at our passports, much less stamp them…but we stop in Amsterdam for 5 hours and look what happens! We boarded for our last 10 hour flight of the journey and said good bye to many days filled with memories and moment to cherish.

Adjo!

Farvel!

Vaarwel… United States, here we come!

PS: Thanks for letting me be a guest writer on your blog, Addison! Love, Mom

There is nothing more exciting than FINALLY getting home from a 7 week European adventure. Don't get me wrong... I would not have changed my summer for anything! I learned and grew so much over my time away. It was amazing to see and experience 5 different countries and cultures, and to actually live somewhere other than Atlanta or Auburn for an extended period of time. But when you are away from something, some place, or someone that you love, you appreciate it so much more than when you have it available to you  everyday. I was so glad to see Scott Norrell at the Atlanta international airport after our 2 hour flight, our 5 hour layover/boat tour of Amsterdam, and our 10 hour flight over the Atlantic Ocean. 

Copenhagen

July 28, 2013

Hello blog world! This is Alexa, also known as Addison’s little sister. We are currently on a very long train ride and I decided to finally take Addison up on her offer, or rather plea, for me to write some blog posts about our trip. So I’m just going to pick up right where she left off. Just wanted to let you know that Addison isn’t crazy and referring to herself in the third person in the subsequent posts. Well, she is crazy, but for other reasons…I digress.

After a short 2 hour flight from Stockholm to Copenhagen wherein Mom napped, I finished reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, which I highly recommend by the way, and Addison and Dad did something involving electronics. Side note: I believe Addison was playing Candy Crush, which she is extremely addicted to.  After our arrival in Copenhagen, we walked to our apartment (#10 and situated right next to a shoe store called “Naked”). The apartment we rented was a very nice two bedroom, one bath right in the heart of the city with a nice open living room and a small kitchen. We unpacked, freshened up, blah blah blah, and headed out to explore the city square known as the Stroget and find some food. We decided on a cute bistro place called Café Norden that had delicious food. Mom had the most beautiful salad I think I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Right next to Café Norden was a little crepe stand and the worker looked like he could have been a Backstreet boy. I had been craving a Nutella crepe the entire trip and since it was so easily within our grasp, we went over to Backstreet Crepe Boy and ordered two Nutella crepes. Gathering from past experiences, I did not believe that one could mess up a Nutella crepe. But unfortunately, it was probably the worst Nutella crepe I’ve ever had. Backstreet boys know how to produce mediocre records, but apparently they do not have very good crepe making skills. The Nutella to crepe ratio was way off; we totally got ripped off on the Nutella front. I’m not bitter at all. ANYWAYS, after our crepe adventure we walked around the city for a little while, picked up some breakfast items at the grocery store, and returned to our apartment to retire for the evening. This is about the time we discovered that our apartment’s location in the center of the city meant that sleeping would be extremely difficult due to raucous ruffians (oh, the alliteration!) who stay up to the wee hours of the morning drinking and singing at the top of their lungs just to spite us for being Americans as well as menacing motorcyclists who rev their engines at the exact moment they passed by our windows. UGH! Not very fun. But it is what it is, I guess. We lived to not sleep another day.

July 29, 2013

Bright and early Monday morning we walked to a youth hostel and purchased Copenhagen cards, which are essentially the same as Stockholm cards, just a different city (and country, if you didn’t know). Next, we went down to the harbor and took a boat tour of the canal. Our tour guide was a cute bearded man who spoke English, Danish, and German whilst giving us a hilariously entertaining tour of Nyhavn (Noo – hown) which literally translated means new harbor even though ironically it is one of the oldest harbors. We saw most of the city’s landmarks such as the Opera house, the Playhouse/Theatre, the residences of the Queen and Crown Prince, the Navy shipyard, and the famous statue of The Little Mermaid which was created by native Dane Hans Christian Anderson. One interesting story our tour guide told us was about how during the reign of some King Christian (there were 10 or so) there was a serious lack of clean drinking water so the Navy built a brew house to make and store a bunch of beer that they would be able to drink since the water within the beer had been pasteurized. Apparently the King ordered enough rationed beer be on hand for to equate to each soldier having 31 liters of beer a day! Must have been really rough on the liver. Overall the canal tour was an hour of peaceful sailing around Copenhagen’s beauty and we learned and laughed a lot. Two thumbs up! After disembarking from the boat, we went off in search of sustenance and I spotted a sign saying “Rooftop Café” so we investigated and ultimately ate lunch there. The rooftop café was at the top of the Post and Tele museum, which was a very odd museum that seemed quite boring to me but may have been directed towards fun for small children. Our lunch was tasty but the service wasn’t the greatest and Addison was resting her head on the table in protest for the majority of the time we were waiting for our food – which was a long time. She was a grumpy gus until we got some food in her and we discussed how her eating habits resemble a diabetic’s in some ways. She must intake a certain amount of carbohydrates every couple of hours or she crashes. Hard. Alas, our food was finally served and Addison returned to her normal state. Hooray! We made our way to the Round Tower, which was very close to our lunch spot and climbed to the top. Most of the way up was not stairs, however, but a cobblestone ramp because when it was built the King wanted to be able to ride up the tower on his horse and ring the bells. It was a pretty view of the city and once we made our way back down the ramp we returned to our apartment for a siesta.

Our evening adventure was conquering the amusement park called Tivoli Gardens for several hours. We purchased green wristbands that allowed us to ride any ride an infinite number of times. First, we rode on the swings that are super high up and gave us a wonderful breeze and view. Next, we rode the newest ride in Tivoli called Akila that flipped and spun us all around and was a little too fast for Dad’s taste. Our whole family also rode a rollercoaster called The Odin Express that went around the track three whole times and Addison and I were in the front row of the rollercoaster, which is always a blast. We rode another rollercoaster called The Demon twice because it was fun and the line was shorter the second time, when Addison and I were able to ride in the front row again.  Addison and I rode a ride called The Dragon that spun us and rocked us back and forth so fast. The entire time we were screaming about how we weren’t going to physically be able to have children after this ride. Finally, Addison and I waited in line for 45 minutes for a ride called Vertigo, but dad chickened out so Mom and Dad had drinks & dessert beside the ride as they waiting for us. It was definitely the most unique ride in the park; essentially a biplane holding four people that spun so fast and in every possible direction. It was absolutely, certifiably insane and we loved every second of it. Definitely worth the wait.  Sadly, our adventures at Tivoli came to an end and we went back to the apartment to not sleep some more.

July 30, 2013

Our next morning in Copenhagen began early in the morning when we strolled towards the Palace grounds and ducked into the chapel/sanctuary area of a beautiful church named Trinity Church (like the important one in National Treasure where everything is buried, but sadly not that one). There was nothing particularly special I remember about this church. It was not very large and not as ornate as many of the other churches we had previously visited, but at the same time that also allowed it to have a more understated and down-to-earth quality that cannot be underestimated. After a quick look around the church, we continued on our path to Christiansborg Palace and explored the various elaborate rooms that we were given access to. This palace was unique in the respect of its history; the actual structure we visited was constructed fairly recently, in the last century or so. The grounds we visited had previously been the home of two former palaces that both burned down due to stoves overheating and catching fire. Apparently the second time it burned down, the fire had started underneath the Great Hall within secret passages beneath the floor and when the firemen arrived they were not aware of these passages and therefore were not able to locate where the fire originated. I guess the phrase “Secrets, secrets are no fun!” applies to royalty too! Although the palace was definitely beautiful, but lacked the WOW factor of other palaces, one example being Stockholm, because it was built so recently. Granted, there were a few things they were able to save from the fire that were incorporated into the current structure, but it just wasn’t the same. After exploring the palace, we tried to visit the ruins of the old palace but they were closed and Addison was not happy.

Instead, we went to the nearby Theatre Museum that showed the history of Danish theatre from the 18^th century to the present. They let you onto the actual old court stage and had costumes and set designs of previous productions. It wasn’t a very lengthy museum, but it was a pretty cool stop for a theatre geek like me! At this point it was lunch time so we stopped by a nearby café and grabbed some sandwiches. We happened to sit down at a table outside next to a woman with her two week old baby and her mother. Somehow, we struck up a conversation with them (I think my dad commented on how precious the baby was) and realized that they were from our hometown and that the woman had graduated from a nearby private school and the University of Georgia, where she met her husband. Her husband worked for a large shipping company and they had lived in Copenhagen for two years. We had a very long conversation with both of them, and eventually her father as well, when he showed up; it was a really cool unexpected connection with home. We went to Denmark’s National Museum after lunch and honestly, it sucked rocks. There were a lot of rocks in the museum, if that gives you any indication of how bad it was. We made it through one of four floors before ditching and going back to our apartment to rest. The plan was to siesta and than go explore more and perhaps kayak but things didn’t really go according to plan. Mom and I had been feeling pretty gross for the past couple of days – sore throats, stuffy noses, etc. and that afternoon we hit the wall, so to speak. We all were exhausted and decided to have a night in. Addison and Mom went to the grocery store and picked up pasta and we ate dinner at the apartment, played cards for a while, and then watched a movie called Vicki Christina Barcelona. Scarlett Johansson was one of the two main characters (Christina) who were best friends with opposite viewpoints on love that spent the summer in Barcelona together. They met a mysterious, passionate painter and many love triangles ensued, some of which also included the painter’s former wife who was portrayed by Penelope Cruz. The movie kind of ended exactly where it started, with a whole bunch of drama in between. It wasn’t amazing or terrible so it worked perfectly for us in our pathetic state. When the credits rolled, so did our eyes, right into the back of our heads…

July 31, 2013

Since we had rested up the afternoon/night before, we were ready to go Wednesday morning. We started off in the Kings garden, which had beautiful open green spaces and park benches, flora and fauna, etc. Then we went to the SMK Museum (Statens Museum for Kunst) which is the national gallery of Demark that contains the largest collection of Danish and International art from the early Renaissance to contemporary art. There were many sections of the museum and we visited most of them. Each section was interesting in its own right. There were very beautiful landscapes, portraits of the rich and paintings of everyday town life. One of my favorite parts of the museum was a large room with giant canvases portraying scenes from the Bible and from mythology. We went into the modern art section of the building and I was the only one who was interested in it at all, so we left pretty quickly. Overall, it was a great museum with a ton of artwork and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who travels to Copenhagen. Right after the SMK Museum we went to Rosenborg Castle for a little while, which was built in the 1600s as a country palace for King Christian IV. In the 1800s it was opened as a museum showing the royal family’s history. My favorite parts about the castle were the amazing plaster work in the ceilings – it boggles my mind how people can carve sculptures into a ceiling and have it survive over many centuries – as well as the many exquisite clocks that we saw; they were truly breathtaking. We went back to our apartment for lunch and a mini-siesta before heading to Christiana. Basically this hippy colony asked Denmark for independence and Denmark said alright, why not? So within Christiana anything goes, pretty much. They sell weed on stalls in the street like most places would sell fruit. It’s a very unique place, to say the least. We walked through Christiana just looking at everything and then were on our way once again (Mom was a tad uncomfortable).

We climbed that!

After our short detour into hippie-town, we went to Vor Frelsers Kirke (Church of Our Savior). But we didn’t go inside the church per usual. Instead we climbed up the black and gold spire of the church that was built by court architect Laurits de Thurah during the 1700s. The weird thing is that the stairs go on for infinity. There is an observation spot near the top of the spire and then there are more stairs leading to the tippy-top. The stairs get smaller and smaller until it is so tiny most people cannot go any further, so they just go back down. It was a stunning view on the top of the spire and we took a bunch of pictures like typical tourists. Next, we went on another boat tour of the canal from a different spot. It was different than our first boat tour because 1. It was at night so the lighting/temperature was much different and 2. Our tour guide wasn’t funny this time. Dad, Addison and I were joking about how our tour guide must only be including funny tidbits in Danish that just didn’t have the same effect in English. The tour was peaceful and nice and afterwards we found a Mexican restaurant to eat at called Mama Rosa. My burrito was way too spicy, but I survived and than we walked home and stopped for ice cream on the way – the lemon was scrumditiliumptious!

August 1, 2013

On our last half-day in Copenhagen we wanted to make sure to fit in everything we wanted to do so we rushed over to the Zoologisk Have (The Zoo) and hit all the highlights: lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) …also leopards, seals, polar bears, monkeys, and elephants. Right when we got there we went to the lion exhibit and saw two female lionesses and one male lion along with two BABY LIONS. They were so flipping adorable playing with each other and following after their mom. At one point the mom picked a baby up by biting its neck and carrying it and it was so cute I thought I was going to pass out. I wanted to stay at the lion exhibit the whole time because it was so cool but little did I know there were BABY TIGERS too! So. Much. Happiness. We weren’t as close up to the tigers as we were to the lions but there were about six tiger babies and they were positively precious and wonderful in every way. As an Auburn family, we all absolutely loved the tigers and were barely able to pull ourselves away to look at a few other things before we left. We saw a couple of leopards lounging and they were gorgeous – can you tell we love big cats? The other really awesome zoo sighting was of the polar bear. They had just built a new polar bear exhibit that allowed you to see underwater when the polar bear was swimming and it was incredible. He was humongous; I think his paws were probably the size of my face. Next, we raced over to the Carlsberg Brewery which is Denmark’s classic exported beer. I’m not an expert on alcoholic beverages and certainly not on beer because generally I find the taste of beer similar to that of trash, but surprisingly I was not bored at all! The information presented was all pretty fascinating and they let us try different beers, including the original Carlsberg recipe you can’t get anywhere else – not bad tasting, which is a glowing recommendation in my book. We ate lunch at the Carlsberg Brewery and then went back to our apartment to fetch our belongings and board an overnight ferry to Oslo, Norway. That is where I must leave you, because I only agreed to write Copenhagen and I’m sneakily not counting the overnight ferry because technically we had already left Copenhagen at that point. Muhaha. It’s been grand folks. To whoever is reading this, if anyone, hopefully you have enjoyed my sister-overtaking-blog for the time being and continue reading even though sadly you will have to read Addison’s writing again. Just kidding! Sort of…alright, I’m done. Really. Starting now. Now? Meh. K BYEEEEEE

-Lex

Stolkholm

Travel Day 2 – July 25, 2013

            We woke up early to have breakfast with Jake and Abby before we departed for the airport. We went to a Cappuccino Bar and got yummy smoothies, chocolate croissants, and hot beverages. Before we knew it we were saying our last goodbyes and heading to our flights on a taxi. Since my flight was in a different terminal than Kelsey and Alex, we parted ways after check in and then started my European adventure part two. My SAS flight got delayed an hour… typical… that would happen that the first time flying by myself and having to meet my family in another country. Even though I was a little panicked, it all worked out okay and my family was waiting for me when I got off the plane. We got our luggage and our Stockholm cards (card with transportation and entrance to many tourist attractions included) and hit the metro to get to the hotel. We dropped our luggage off at the Best Western Kom Hotel (off of the Rådmansgatan tram stop) and hit the Stockholm streets. The Combs family doesn’t waste any time when there are sights to see and memories to make. We had dinner and toured the Fotographia first. The shrimp sandwich, grilled chicken, and Greek salad were all incredibly delicious and way overpriced… not unlike all of the food for the rest of our trip we have come to find out. The Fotographia was an incredible photography exhibit that had everything from nude photos to pictures of the streets of Bombay. There were slow motion videos of different things dropping in the water and videos of burning of records while it was playing on a record player. The artists that were featured are Helmut Newton, Motohiko Odani, and Håkan Elofsson. On our way home, we walked through the streets of Old Town and stopped in Café Kåkbrinken for a Swedish waffle with ice cream on top. At the ice cream shop I had the pleasure of meeting an alumnae Alpha Chi Omega; it’s true… we are sisters all over the world. Dad and I ended our night with a couple of beers at the Limerick Irish Pub that was a block from our hotel. It felt like being home in Ireland again.

July 26, 2013

            We woke up for our first full day in Scandinavia and had the most amazing and delicious hotel breakfast you could imagine. There was a huge buffet with everything you could ever want for breakfast and a personal touch screen coffee machine. Breakfast was the best meal of our day, every single day! We started our Stockholm adventures with a free walking city tour. A group of young guys started this free tour group to bring in extra money (they work only on tips) and it has gotten rave reviews on the travel sites. We learned all of the crazy stories about the Royal family, the ‘Vomit’ Bar, the high taxes, Stockholm syndrome, the Oaks War, how Stockholm is the city built on garbage, the Nobel Prize, and how the Swedes love Obama. Our tour guide Jon was a hilarious, gay man who enjoyed talking and had a cute picture book to go along with his stories. We walked through the King’s Gardens and finished the tour at the palace just in time for the changing of the guards. We decided to have lunch in the Nobel Museum area at a place called Café Sten Sture. They had a really good deal of bread, drinks, and a entre for 80 kr. We explored the neighboring Deutschen St. Gertruds Kirche before heading to the famous Vasa Museum. 

My favorite part of Stockholm was this incredible museum built around the boat, Vasa. We took a guided tour and watched a movie about this boat that sunk on its maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbor in 1628. It was under the water for 333 years and was finally found, lifted, reconstructed and sailed to the place that it is today. With 98% of the boat being original, it was amazing to think how much work it would’ve taken to build a boat that massive and detailed. Besides marveling at the boat, there are great interactive activities and exhibits about life in the 17^th century. It was fascinating to learn about and my family was shocked that I would enjoy this museum so much. Ever since the Vasa Museum, I have been trying to get the whole family to go to more Viking museums… Team VIKING! We went to the Nordiska Museet and had a quick walk through of the museum due to time constraints. The museum was about Swedish historical culture with exhibits about everything from table settings to doll houses to traditional clothing to folk art. It was not some place I would enjoy spending a ton of time in, but it was easy to listen to the summaries of each room on the free audio guides and then move on.  We went on a beautiful Royal Boat Tour through the canals of Stockholm. It was beautiful to see the whole city from the water. The whole day, Alexa and I had a hankering for Mexican food, so we finally tracked down the Taco Bar in Old Town and ate there for dinner. The whole family was exhausted after our full day, so we stopped into the grocery store Coop by our apartment to grabs some cookies for dessert and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

July 27, 2013

          We hit the ground running after our delicious hotel breakfast and went to Riddarholmen Church aka the Swedish royal burial ground. The inside of the church was unlike anything I have ever seen. Most of the walls were covered with different coat of arms and there were random burials all over the floors. The Royal Palace and all of it’s wonders were next. We strolled through all of the chambers, the chapel, the museum, and the treasury. Everything was so beautiful and ornate inside the palace compared to the boring architecture of the outside. The crowns and jewels in the treasury were the best part, but could easity be overlooked because they were stored in the basement. 

For lunch we stopped into the fast food restaurant Max and were on our way to Skansen for the afternoon. We went to the town quarter first and saw the historical representations of houses throughout Swedish history. Mom and I went into the 1800’s house and talked to the kind actress who was knitting gloves. It wasn’t long before we found the bakery and bought a few sweet treats to take on our walk over to the other side of the park where the animals were. I had a blast seeing all of the animals and fish at the aquarium, and I even touched a snake! Some of our favorite animals were the rattlesnake, the Cuban baby alligators, the baboons, and the muskrats. It was a wide variety of smaller animals, but it was still a blast for a big kid like me. Mom and Alexa went to the hotel for a nap while Dad and I went to the Nobel Museum. It was inspiring to be in the place where so many great people have stood to receive the award. The museum was very interactive and interesting with two informational movies, touch screen stations with information on all the recipients of the decade, pictures and stories of peace movements around the world, and a movable track on the ceiling with pictures of all the recipients and a quote. It was very inspirational and interesting, but we had to leave for our fancy dinner on the pier. We went to Pontonen Sommar, a dock boat restaurant literally in the water. It was a beautiful night and the food was fabulous. My mouth was “exploding with flavor” while eating the chicken entrée. After dinner, we decided it was a perfect night to have drinks on our patio. I got Bulmer’s (my favorite Irish drink) for my family to try, and we spent the night laughing and reminiscing about our wonderful European adventure so far. It was a perfect last night in Stockholm.

July 28, 2013

We woke up mourning the fact that we had to leave the wonderful breakfasts at the Kom Hotel. We went to central station and stored our luggage and headed off to see City Hall. We had a guided tour of City Hall and learned all about the Nobel reception that is held there. We enjoyed the unlike art on all of the walls, especially in the gold room. But before we knew it, we were on the Armada Express going to the airport to fly to Copenhagen.