December 12
Had my Genetics exam this morning.... no, nope, lets not talk about it.... moving right along... Jess is here! :D I met her at Oslo S, but she didn't get in until about 1 in the morning and so we just went home and had a quick snack before we crashed for the night. I still can't believe she is actually here!?! I can't wait to show her around and use her as an excuse to do some last minute sight seeing before I head home in 9 days. :/ I have so much planned for us and I cant wait to get started!
December 13
After getting of to an early start, I scheduled out the day so that we would hit all of downtown Oslo and make the most of what little daylight we had. We started off by looking at the tiger statue and then going over to the Opera House to climb the roof and for Jess to stick her finger in the Oslo Fjord. :) (Hence the title). We wandered down Karl Johans Gate and got to the Oslo Cathedral just in time to see mass getting out. There were a bunch of choir girls in white robes with red ribbons, so it was cool to see. We looked at the Parliament building and City Hall and then when we went past the Nobel Peace Center, Jess saw that it was free admission and so we decided to go in and check it out. I hadn't gotten around to going here yet, and so it was new to me too! The induction ceremony for the new laureates was this past Thursday and so the main exhibition was about Kailash Satvarthi and Malala Yousafzai. It was neat to hear their stories and all about the work they have done with saving children and promoting education rights for everyone. I am glad that Jess caught the sign for free entry and that we were able to check it out! Next, we walked along the harbor to a sculpture museum to look around, but we got cold pretty quickly and headed back towards city hall to do some souvenir shopping. We ate lunch on the palace lawn while we watched the changing of the guards and then grabbed some coffee to warm up. I don't really think Jess was ready for Oslo winter and it must have been a big shock, coming from warm Barcelona! ;) Just wait till we get back home to Ohio! After we thawed out a little, we walked through the Julemarked and even sampled some Whale and got Reindeer sausage to try later! We booked it to Akershus Fortress just in time to see the sunset. This is my favorite place in the city, so I was glad that I got to share it with her. Once it started getting dark out, we headed to the metro and took line 1 to the end. I did some research and the Northern Lights were supposed to be pretty active this weekend, enough that you could see them from the horizon of Oslo, but we needed to get away from the city lights. We went up to the end of the line and once we were further out, WE SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!!!! :D I couldn't believe it! They were a green glowing light from farther north and had a bit of orange sprinkled throughout. They weren't nearly as bright or vibrant as most pictures (we were in Oslo after all), but we were so lucky that the conditions and weather were nice enough to see them! We got cold pretty quickly because there was snow that high up and so we took the metro down until we got to the Holmenkollen line, where we had a minor run in with the control, but luckily got away. The control are security guards/cops that randomly go on the metro to make sure that people have activated tickets. The transportation system here is such an honors system that it is rare to see them and this was my first time getting checked. I have gone a whole week without a ticket before and had been fine, so I got Jess a single ticket and didn't have her activate it, so that she could play a dumb tourist if anything did happen. :) Of course it would be the one time we actually were checked though... I got off first and he checked my monthly card and luckily he didn't check hers, not wanting to hold up the metro. Phew! That was a close one! The fines aren't tooo bad, but still annoying, but we got away with it! After heading home, we had some Grandiosa frozen pizza (the unofficial food of Norway), reindeer, and beer while we then watched for the Geminids meteor shower that also happened to be occurring that night! It would have been better if we were away from the lights more, but neither of us wanted to go back out in the cold... We saw a few of them anyways! Today was very full of activities, but we got all of downtown done in less than a day! :)
December 14
We got most of what we wanted to do done yesterday, and so today was an easier day. We took the buss and tram to the Vigeland sculpture instilation in Frogner Park, which was also something that I still needed to do. It was VERY cold and the park would have been a lot prettier in Spring or Fall, but the sculptures were pretty cool and we even saw the famous crying baby one, although I expected it to be a lot bigger... After that, we grabbed some coffee and then headed up to Sognsvann to walk around the lake. This is my favorite place in Oslo, maybe even Norway and it was neat to share it with her. She helped me with a few picture ideas and then helped me throw my destroyed Converse into a tree off the path. Now a little piece of me will be in Norway forever. :) The cold kept draining our camera batteries and so eventually we made it around the lake and headed home. We stopped at REMA 1000 to get some traditional Norwegian food for her to try: Norwegian Brown Cheese, shrimp snack, lefse rull, lefsegodt, and kransekakestenger (can only be described as bread chewing gum?). We sampled everything while watching the parent trap and warming up from being outside all day. Once it grew later, she packed everything up and after one last wander through the Julemarked, it was time for Jess to catch the train to the airport. :( While I had a lot of fun getting to show her around Oslo, I feel like it was also a sad trip. All either if us could really think about was how our study abroad experiences were coming to a close and how we would be home in less than 9 days. While we are both excited to be home in time for Christmas and see out friends and families, I think we both have loved studying abroad and travelling together, so it is sad to see it come to and end so soon. We will just have to plan more trips in the future! :D Thank you so much for coming Jess and I hope you had fun!
Had my Genetics exam this morning.... no, nope, lets not talk about it.... moving right along... Jess is here! :D I met her at Oslo S, but she didn't get in until about 1 in the morning and so we just went home and had a quick snack before we crashed for the night. I still can't believe she is actually here!?! I can't wait to show her around and use her as an excuse to do some last minute sight seeing before I head home in 9 days. :/ I have so much planned for us and I cant wait to get started!
December 13
After getting of to an early start, I scheduled out the day so that we would hit all of downtown Oslo and make the most of what little daylight we had. We started off by looking at the tiger statue and then going over to the Opera House to climb the roof and for Jess to stick her finger in the Oslo Fjord. :) (Hence the title). We wandered down Karl Johans Gate and got to the Oslo Cathedral just in time to see mass getting out. There were a bunch of choir girls in white robes with red ribbons, so it was cool to see. We looked at the Parliament building and City Hall and then when we went past the Nobel Peace Center, Jess saw that it was free admission and so we decided to go in and check it out. I hadn't gotten around to going here yet, and so it was new to me too! The induction ceremony for the new laureates was this past Thursday and so the main exhibition was about Kailash Satvarthi and Malala Yousafzai. It was neat to hear their stories and all about the work they have done with saving children and promoting education rights for everyone. I am glad that Jess caught the sign for free entry and that we were able to check it out! Next, we walked along the harbor to a sculpture museum to look around, but we got cold pretty quickly and headed back towards city hall to do some souvenir shopping. We ate lunch on the palace lawn while we watched the changing of the guards and then grabbed some coffee to warm up. I don't really think Jess was ready for Oslo winter and it must have been a big shock, coming from warm Barcelona! ;) Just wait till we get back home to Ohio! After we thawed out a little, we walked through the Julemarked and even sampled some Whale and got Reindeer sausage to try later! We booked it to Akershus Fortress just in time to see the sunset. This is my favorite place in the city, so I was glad that I got to share it with her. Once it started getting dark out, we headed to the metro and took line 1 to the end. I did some research and the Northern Lights were supposed to be pretty active this weekend, enough that you could see them from the horizon of Oslo, but we needed to get away from the city lights. We went up to the end of the line and once we were further out, WE SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!!!! :D I couldn't believe it! They were a green glowing light from farther north and had a bit of orange sprinkled throughout. They weren't nearly as bright or vibrant as most pictures (we were in Oslo after all), but we were so lucky that the conditions and weather were nice enough to see them! We got cold pretty quickly because there was snow that high up and so we took the metro down until we got to the Holmenkollen line, where we had a minor run in with the control, but luckily got away. The control are security guards/cops that randomly go on the metro to make sure that people have activated tickets. The transportation system here is such an honors system that it is rare to see them and this was my first time getting checked. I have gone a whole week without a ticket before and had been fine, so I got Jess a single ticket and didn't have her activate it, so that she could play a dumb tourist if anything did happen. :) Of course it would be the one time we actually were checked though... I got off first and he checked my monthly card and luckily he didn't check hers, not wanting to hold up the metro. Phew! That was a close one! The fines aren't tooo bad, but still annoying, but we got away with it! After heading home, we had some Grandiosa frozen pizza (the unofficial food of Norway), reindeer, and beer while we then watched for the Geminids meteor shower that also happened to be occurring that night! It would have been better if we were away from the lights more, but neither of us wanted to go back out in the cold... We saw a few of them anyways! Today was very full of activities, but we got all of downtown done in less than a day! :)
December 14
We got most of what we wanted to do done yesterday, and so today was an easier day. We took the buss and tram to the Vigeland sculpture instilation in Frogner Park, which was also something that I still needed to do. It was VERY cold and the park would have been a lot prettier in Spring or Fall, but the sculptures were pretty cool and we even saw the famous crying baby one, although I expected it to be a lot bigger... After that, we grabbed some coffee and then headed up to Sognsvann to walk around the lake. This is my favorite place in Oslo, maybe even Norway and it was neat to share it with her. She helped me with a few picture ideas and then helped me throw my destroyed Converse into a tree off the path. Now a little piece of me will be in Norway forever. :) The cold kept draining our camera batteries and so eventually we made it around the lake and headed home. We stopped at REMA 1000 to get some traditional Norwegian food for her to try: Norwegian Brown Cheese, shrimp snack, lefse rull, lefsegodt, and kransekakestenger (can only be described as bread chewing gum?). We sampled everything while watching the parent trap and warming up from being outside all day. Once it grew later, she packed everything up and after one last wander through the Julemarked, it was time for Jess to catch the train to the airport. :( While I had a lot of fun getting to show her around Oslo, I feel like it was also a sad trip. All either if us could really think about was how our study abroad experiences were coming to a close and how we would be home in less than 9 days. While we are both excited to be home in time for Christmas and see out friends and families, I think we both have loved studying abroad and travelling together, so it is sad to see it come to and end so soon. We will just have to plan more trips in the future! :D Thank you so much for coming Jess and I hope you had fun!