No way, it's Norway

I've had mixed feelings about going to Norway. For several years now there have been two places I've always wanted to visit, Norway and South Korea. They both seemed like they would never happen any time soon and to think that I'm actually going to be in Norway is hard to comprehend. Norway will also be my first non-English speaking country, which makes it scarier to leave Edinburgh. I want to stay for another week in Scotland, I'm not ready to leave. And I don't think I'm ready for Norway because I speak zero Norwegian and I'm not as prepared as I was for Edinburgh. And then there's the whole 'what if it's not what I dreamed it would be' feeling.

With all that in my head and the time I spent with Maria arguing a case for Denmark while she pushed for the Czech Republic, I had a bad nights sleep. We had to get up at 5 to catch transportation to the airport. Once we said farewell to the Hotel Ritz we tried to board a tram.The ticket booth wouldn't work or we were too stupid to figure it out and we wasted 20 minutes. We ended up grabbing a taxi. It cost 20 pounds.

Getting checked in gave me major anxiety because it was confusing and we didn't have boarding passes. Everything went fine though and we got our passes and got through security. We had a layover in Copenhagen. On the flight there, 2 girls sat behind us. It must have been their first time on a plane and they hadn't learned plane etiquette yet because those bitches were annoying. But they were having fun and laughing and you shouldn't yell at someone because their laugh is annoying. The flight was about an hour and a half and I read A Clash of Kings the whole way.

Then we were in Copenhagen Denmark! Just the airport, but still a new country! For the rest of this trip, I'll be 8 hours ahead of home. They stamped my passport! Now I have 2 stamps, one from here and one from Ireland. Maria bought a lunch of sandwiches and Pringles for us. I owe her like 35 or 40 pounds now. Our flight to Oslo was on time and we boarded around noon. I fell asleep on the flight and woke up in time to see Norway from above.

Where's the fjords?!

We got our suitcases back (I always worry they'll lose mine) and exchanged money. Currently 1 American dollar is worth 7.77 Norwegian Krone. I got 1,500 krones, less than $200. Then we did something stupid and awful and I considered not mentioning it because that will help me to forget and repress it.

I wasn't thinking and Maria wanted to get a taxi. We got in one and drove to our hostel (I'm staying in a hostel by the way, more on that later). It cost 1,400 krones. I about threw up. It was about a 40 minute drive from the airport to the hostel and we fucked up so bad by taking a taxi. I don't know what we were thinking. We fucked up so bad, I should have known it would be ridiculous.

Maria was decently miserable and that all went to hell when she saw the Sentrum Hostel. I knew at best the hostel would be like college dorming with dozens of young, independent travelers like us. At worst it would be full of druggies and perverts. We walked in, it wasn't ideal, and she turns to me in barely an audible voice and says "Can we go?" And I felt really bad because she was scared and not okay with everything that had just happened. I made us check in and see the room. Then we each texted our moms because after that taxi ride and seeing our hostel, we could barely afford to live in the slums of Norway.

My mom made me feel better. She is such a cheerleader to me. I was so angry at Maria and I for getting in a taxi and paying so much. My mom I guess felt guilty because she was a big advocate for hostels when I was deciding whether or not to stay in one that she put $200 in my account as a gift to make up for the awful morning we had. Lack of sleep makes me emotional and I got choked up and had to pretend to stare outside so Maria wouldn't see me cry. I won't take the money because I'm too proud that I've financed 100% of this trip by myself, but that was too kind of her.

While I was being a weeping devotchka, Maria was making plans to get us out of here. She wanted to leave Norway, skip Sweden and Denmark (they all use some form of the krone and her reasoning was that if it's expensive in Norway, it'll be expensive there too) and go straight to the Czech Republic for a week until it was time to go to Germany to meet our school group. A lot of that depended on whether or not we could get refunds for the places we booked. She started emailing our future hostel and hotels to cancel our reservations without telling me. It's a big mess. Neither of us is happy with the other. I'm so pissed off with everything.

I made the executive decision to stay in Norway. I also made Maria leave the hostel and come explore the city with me. We found the train station we'll be taking to Sweden, so that's good, and we got our eurail passes activated.

We stopped by a touristy store because I thought it would cheer Maria up. I got 2 postcards and the clerk was very nice and we got to talking about Norway and money and stuff. They had trolls in the store.

He invited me to drinks under the bridge. I considered.

Then we had a drink at a cafe. I had a green smoothie and it was delicious.

Hot damn I am a healthy eater.

Next, we went to some of the free places I had picked out to visit. First up, the Royal Palace of Oslo. It was kind of a walk and I took pictures to pass the time. I had been very worried about the whole not speaking Norwegian thing. Turns out I don't pay attention to much anyways and the signs are easy enough to decipher. Well, most are.

"Don't do drugs" or "Join the drama club"?

A reminder to pick up after your dog.

Norway is seriously pretty. There are trees everywhere once you get a little outside of the city the air smelled so fresh and sweet with flowers.

Passing by houses you could smell their lavender plants and it was really nice. Oh and we finally made it to the Royal house.

Suns out guns out

The weather was the nicest it had been this whole Euro trip. It was warn and sunny and I loved it. We got lost a few times and had to open the map. On two separate occasions, a stranger asked if we needed help and they gave us directions. People were just really nice and it makes you happy and feel welcome to be here.

We left to find a park of naked statues. That sounds like a crazy person sentence. Vigeland Park is a train wreck. Basically it's the worlds largest sculpture park, all made by the same crazy guy, filled with naked sculptures of people doing normal things or weird things. I don't know what else to say. It wasn't offensive. It wasn't sexual. It wasn't beautiful.

This multiplied by 300

You just walk around looking at the sculptures. Some were in movement, some were just standing, some were with other people, some were giving piggyback rides, some attacking another statue. It was... interesting. I came across one particular statue and almost died because I recognized it.

Just like with Lilith at the Met I knew about this statue and hadn't made the connection that it would be here. Had I known, I would have sought it out instead of stumble upon it.

Years ago I read an article by cracked.com about the top # of crazy sculptures in the world. This statue made that list. Here is me with said statue.

It's a statue of a man fighting off babies. I have no context on symbolism or anything. Amazing isn't it.

Once you got past the rows of naked statues, you would be greeted with pretty sights of flowers and water fountains. I like to think of it as a palate cleanse for the next dish of crazy you were about to be served.

Ah, so cleansing!

Because up on the hill was another thing I don't really have words for. It's this tall monument type design, but it's of bodies. Real Hannibal Lecter stuff.

Gods be good.

So weird. But not creepy. I would have liked it to be creepy. Or even beautiful, because I don't think this is beautiful. It's just... interesting.

We left the park and passed by some astronomy or maybe astrology (I didn't do well in school okay?!) thing and I wonder what it does.

Maybe it's a sun dial. I don't know! I took my picture with the ram though, since I'm an Aries.

Having so much fun at the naked sculpture park

Then we left for good. Except not really, because Maria got turned around and we went the wrong way. We had to double back and walk through the naked sculpture park again and it's just not something you need to see twice.

Get away from me!

We walked and walked and walked. I was in charge of the map this time and it turns out I'm not as silly as I thought I was when it comes to directions.

Clearly we're on Brisk-eby-vein street.

On the way back to the hostel we passed by Parliament.

I don't know enough about politics to say something clever.

We also ended up stopping for dinner. It's about 8:00 (we had been walking for 4 hours and had clocked over 10 miles). Several months ago, Maria and I had agreed to go out of our comfort zone when it came to trying new foods. We vowed to never go to any McDonalds or Starbucks while we were abroad.  We weren't about to break that promise.

So we went to Subway. I had a sandwich and BBQ chips. They don't have ranch to put on the sandwiches and the BBQ chips taste weaker than our American ones but I ate it all. It cost nearly 80 Norwegian krones, or 10 dollars.

Back at the hostel, we got used to our new living space.

...At least we're not sharing a bed.

We got back to trying to find a place to stay from the 4th to the 7th. It was hard and emotions were high. I Skyped with my mom and felt better. Every hour that passes seems to bring new developments.

I finished writing about today, then I wrote some postcards. One is for my mom, and one is for my dad.

'Thanks for raising me to be awesome. Love, Calla'

After running around Oslo, I don't think things in Norway are that much more expensive than any big city. It's just a really lovely place. I already wish we had more time. If we had several more days we would go to Alesund, a seaside town several hours away.

But I am happy enough in Oslo.

Edinburgh!

Slept in until 8:00. The sun was so bright it woke me up. Maria and I got ready and left at 9 to find breakfast on the streets. We stopped by a few places before taking a chance on Le Cafe Bleu. It was small and there was a giant Scottish teddy bear inside.

He's over 30 years old the owner said

I ordered a spicy chicken panini and a strong latte. The guy running the place was cool and friendly. We chatted it up and talked about Scotland not going independent and how he was bummed about that. And when he gave us our food he was like "If you don't like it I'll make you anything else!", lil sweetheart. But the food was good!

Breakfast

I can't remember the price but right after we left we walked by the crepe stand from yesterday and I got a dark chocolate coconut crepe. While the guy made it Maria went off to take a picture of some rock with a plaque on it. The guy making it saw her and was like "I've lived here for three years and have never read that sign."

Side note: people here are very attractive. Dublin didn't have a lot of handsome and beautiful people, but they were more rocker-ish types and that made them sort of attractive. But the Scots are physically attractive. That must be why I'm so stunning.

We had a general idea of where we wanted to go cause I made a list of things to see. We passed by a cute boutique and went inside. I had 80 pounds I wouldn't be using for the rest of this trip. I bought a dress for 50.

A finer lass you will never see.

They had a lot of fun shirts I wanted to buy Camin and Ian but I am only rich in good looks and my love for them has a limit and thy name is price tag. So I got my dress and left.

We went to the National Library of Scotland. I didn't know what they would have but they had 2 exhibits to look at. One was full of boring old papers and the other was dark and kinda creepy. I was set up like an old room with fake windows that displayed the streets turning day to night with a full moon.

It was a room full of costumes dedicated to old people like Conan Doyle, Walter Scott, Darwin, Lord Bryon, Richard Ford, Duke of Argyll, I don't know, it seemed random and I only recognized Conan and Darwin. Something funny happened, besides Maria and I there was a mother and son. They were reading about something when suddenly they started looking around like bombs were being dropped overhead. Then they went back to normal and started reading again. It was totally random and hilarious. I went back to reading too when some weird sounds came from a speaker overhead. They were super creepy and sounded like a person but no real words were coming out, just sounds I think a ghost would make. I realized that that was what the mother and son were freaking out over. I asked Maria if she heard the sound and she said no.

Outside there was a guy playing a bagpipe in front of some building.

Then we went to St Giles Cathedral because it was one of the free places I knew about. I was down to 30 pounds.

Dog playing catch in front

It was a 3 pound charge to take pictures inside. So I didn't take any pictures! But trust me, it looked like a cathedral.

Maria and I went to a touristy store and I picked up some stuff for Ian and Camin. I got a magnet, 3 postcards, and 2 singing mini bagpipes with the Clan Cameron and Clan McKay on it. I was going to get Ian a Clan Cameron one too but then I thought of how odd that would be to give your brother a gift with your other brothers name on it. Actually, that would have been really funny. I should have done that.

Next I had us go to the Edinburgh Anatomical Museum. We had trouble finding it and passed by the coffee shop where J.K Rowling wrote bits of Harry Potter. We also passed a dog statue that everyone was taking their picture with so I took a picture too to fit in.

I knew the museum was part of the University of Edinburgh so we went there. And it wasn't there! We stopped for drinks and free wifi at some coffee place and I had a peach tea.

The cost of wifi

We found directions to the museums and Maria led the way. And we found it! The Anatomical Museum is home to old anatomy stuff they used to teach the uni students back in the 1800's. We were asked to only take pictures on the bottom floor.

Whale jaw in the background

Upstairs was a large room with rows and rows of body parts and old anatomy toys. The had jars of some animals but mostly body parts. There was a preserved body that had been shot up with mercury and other yummy fluids. It was blackened and gross and his penis was still there.

It wasn't creepy as I had hoped but I liked it. It was free. We left and went for a walk to go to Nelson's Monument. We could see it from the streets of Edinburgh.

I'm going to climb you.

We had to walk up some steep stairs and then we were at this park. The Nelson Monument was built in the 1800's and is named after me. It is also named after this guy Admiral Horatio Nelson who died leading his fleet to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It cost 4 pounds a person to climb which is expensive but I've wanted to do this since I decided to go to Scotland.

Does this look like a penis or is it just me?

The climb was over 100 stairs (Maria counted) and it was tiring.

Just saw the 'Halfway there!' sign.

Then we were at the top! I soaked in the view. I could see everything from here! I hadn't realized we were so close to the sea. It was very windy and a little bit on the chilly side.

I climbed you.

I wrote one of my postcards. It seemed like a cool idea to write a letter from on top of the city. But it was very windy and then other people were at the top as well. I finished 1 postcard and packed the rest for later.

We were hungry for pasta and had been for the past couple days so we stopped at this place called Martons there was this Italian restaurant. I got 'fusilli norcina' and Maria got a this chicken pesto and we both ate half then switched and ate the other half. Both pastas were soo good. I ate really fast.

Pasta lunch.

Couldn't say which was better. We wanted ice cream and put our order in with our server and she took so long that we tried to get the bill. Then that took forever. I wrote my postcards while we waited, one for Ian, one for my dad, and one for my grandparents.

'Can you send me some money? Love, Calla'

We got ice cream after maybe 20 minutes since we ordered it. That's something different about the restaurants I've noticed. In America servers are tripping over themselves to make you happy and here we're not treated as nice. The ice cream was good.

Oreo ice cream you were not worth the wait

Maria had to pick up the bill because I didn't have enough pounds. It was 27 pounds for everything.

After a late lunch (we had lunch at 3) we went to the Scotts Monument.

It cost 4 pounds to go up the monument and I decided not to. We had a better view from the Nelson Monument. We walked around looking for a post office and couldn't find one. We did get some international stamps and that cost 10 pounds for 6 stamps.

We went back to our hotel and hung out at the bar. Maria has a step counter and we walked 7 miles today. I got yesterdays blog up and got part of today. We went out to find dinner and got fruit and sandwiches from a little store. I had to borrow more money. I owe Maria 25 pounds now. Our hotel told us where some post office boxes were so we left again to find them and it was a success.

Back to the hotel. Maria and I spent some time trying to find accommodations for the dates we were to spend in Berlin. We were going to stay with her friend in Berlin and she made it out to sound like it was a done deal. Turns out she didn't even have this fucking friends phone number, let alone address. Berlin is now out and we don't have anywhere to stay for those 2, maybe 3 days. It's very frustrating and we're trying to work out a new place to stay, possibly a new country to visit. Maria wants to ditch our original plan and go to the Czech Republic and I want to stay with it but find somewhere in Germany to go besides Berlin since we can't afford any place to stay there.

I went to bed at 1. I had an awesome day but a crappy ending to it. I still love our hotel and think it's neat. Maria thinks it's creepy.

Irish goodbyes and a Scottish hello

An Irish goodbye is when you leave quietly without saying googbye. It's like slipping out the back door without telling anyone. I'm kind of a huge fan of them and have been giving Irish goodbyes my whole life. I hate the act of saying goodbye.

Had to get up at 5. Have I mentioned it gets light out very ealy here? And the sun goes down very late too. Anyways, I popped a couple Tylenol and packed the rest of my stuff before going down to breakfast of muffins and bread.

Carbs everywhere.

Maria wanted to say goodbye to everyone and was bummed when she found out we wouldn't see most of them ever again. I explained to her we were giving them an Irish goodbye. She didn't get it so I explained what an Irish goodbye was and then she felt better about it. Our taxi arrived and we left.

Our cab driver was cool. I kind of wish he had been our tour guide instead of that lady we had that one day. He talked about how shitty Catholics had it back in his youth and how corrupt the police were. The ride cost 20 pounds. I left his cab hating the British.

We arrived at Belfast International and it was seriously easy getting in. I stress airports, I don't know why. Everything was smooth as could be. I fell asleep on the flight and missed my first glimpse of Scotland as we flew into Edinburgh. I tried to take some selfies but I look gross. Every picture was a "yikes" and I had to delete it. I took a couple at the airport.

I'll be the judge of that.

We caught the bus and paid like 3 pounds to ride it to a stop near our hotel. I found our hotel, called Hotel Ritz and were able to check in early at 10. It looked unassuming and indistinguishable from the outside.

But inside? I LOVE THIS HOTEL. It's just so pretty. It just has so much character. We had another room key that was an actual key, was told curfew was at 11 (say what) and our room was on the third floor. There were no lifts. That was rough but I was so impressed by the hotels interior that it made me like it more.

There's plush carpet everywhere and classy wallpaper and high ceilings. It reminds me of a Wes Anderson movie. Our hotel room was nice I thought. It had these window I could climb onto and watch people walk below.

The shower had no water pressure but whatever. We had to leave to do laundry. Our front desk lady/bartender (a lot of hotels I've seen this trip have their front desk right next to the bar, or the front desk is the bar) gave us directions and we were off. It was a short walk and we had a lot of stinky clothes.

I had never been to a laundry place before. I'm learning and growing so much this trip. It cost like 5 pounds to do my laundry and it took almost an hour and a half. While we waited we got food across the street where they make the bread fresh everyday. I got a spicy chicken sandwich for 3.50 pounds.

Spicy chicken

It was really good and I was surprised by that. The portions were so small though. But I was so hungry I was down to eat a family size bowl of spaghetti so maybe it was normal size.

We got our laundry and went back to the hotel. It took us a while to get ready but then we left to go to Scotland's National Museum. On the way I got more food, a cheese and chicken panini. I was so hungry and I just wanted to chow down on a big meal but Maria didn't want to. I don't remember the price but I thought it was reasonable or else I wouldn't have got it.

A reasonably priced panini

It was a long-ish walk to the museum. Maria was really tired and wanted to nap but I wouldn't let her. We passed a lot of great scenery.

A very Scottish picture.

The National Museum of Scotland was closing in under 2 hours and that sucked. They had 7 floors and I wanted to do every one but instead I focused on strictly Scotland history.

Then why did you vote against independence

I found a nice souvenir for my Camin but couldn't find an employee to tell me the price.

Why won't they sell me this.

And I saw a clarsach which is a wire harp. Only 3 are surviving and 2 were here.

Clarsach

And I found a map of surnames and spotted mine and Ian's middle names and Camin's name.

And as per usual with me going to museums, I wished Cam and my dad were there. There was a botanical garden on the roof that we went to as well. I wasn't super into the gardens because we had a great view of Edinburgh.

We left to find an ice cream I wanted to visit. On the way we got distracted by a crepe food cart and I got a pear crepe and Maria had a dark chocolate and coconut. Hers was better. But mine was really good.

Pear crepe!

Then we tried finding an ice cream store I wanted to go to. It's called Mary's Milk Bar. We had a hell of a time trying to find it and passed it twice. Eventually we doubled back and were able to track the place down.

Found it.

I had a pistachio honey ice cream and it tasted like pistachio (which sounds obvious. But it really tasted like pistachio. Different flavor than the pistachio nut ice cream I enjoy back home).

We walked back to the hotel and I stayed in the bar where the wifi roams free. I hung out for a couple hours and went upstairs where Maria was sleeping. I read a book before deciding to go out by myself. Then I realized it was 10:30 and "curfew" was at 11. I don't know what curfew means, but whenever we leave the hotel we have to turn in our room key and then pick it up whenever we come back. It's weird but we had to do this at the hotel we spent 1 night in in Ireland. So I went back to the room and went to sleep. Lame.