Well I’m a bit overdue on my weekly blog update, but I actually have a good excuse. HOMEWORK! That’s right, this week I finally cracked open one of the overpriced Norwegian textbooks that mom and pop’s credit card so kindly bought for me. Granted, after spending 10 minutes attempting to get back into scholarly mode I realized that my social and cultural education is far more important here, and I promptly closed those books and got back to experiencing Norway firsthand rather than simply reading about it. Reading is so last semester… and I’m trying to discard of my American habits and walk like a Norwegian instead. So we’re all in agreeance that passing classes is irrelevant, yes? Good! (Calm down Mom, you know I’ll end up reading every last page assigned and making your money spent worthwhile…. I’ll just wait ‘til the night before the final exam to do it! Blame Papa Sonny, his genes made me this way!!!)
Well now that I’ve provided and subsequently nullified my excuse for not updating this thing, I guess I should get down to explaining what I’ve been doing to pass the time throughout my extended homework denial! Last weekend some friends and I went on a weekend cruise to København (AKA Copenhagen, for the Americans in the audience). It was absolutely amazing—my first time on a cruise ship, my first time to Danmark, all you can eat buffets and cheap alcohol. HEAVEN! The boat departed from Oslo at 17.00, and despite our best efforts, we ended up having to make a run for it with our bags, and literally jumped aboard just as they were about to close the doors and pull away from the harbor. I felt just like Jack Dawson in Titanic… in fact I began quoting Titanic lines as we sprinted aboard. Much to the dismay of all of my shipmates, I realized that I still in fact have 90% of the dialogue memorized from that marvelous film (that I watched 17 times in theaters and hundreds if not thousands times more on VHS/DVD, but who’s counting?), so naturally I continued to quote the movie for the entirety of our cruise. =) It was truly my finest hour.
Photo of our cruise ship
All aboard (though not all pictured)!
Goodbye Oslo!
After settling into our 2 rather cozy *cough* CRAMPED *cough* 4-person cabins, we immediately hustled off to the duty free store to buy as much cheap food/drink as we could carry! Of course by cheap I simply mean, comparable to American prices (eh, maybe a tad bit more expensive), but Norway has changed my conception of “cheap” and “costly”. As a result of this deception, I ended up buying A LOT OF STUFF which, despite the momentary thrill, left me with a sense of deep buyer’s remorse and an empty wallet. Perhaps I will begin to do more homework these days—a free (or pre-paid, refer back: costly books) way to pass the time!
Anyhoo—the time spent on the boat that night was fantastic. The buffet dinner was surprisingly good, (I shocked those Danes and Norwegians by showing them that Americans take the phrase “all you can eat” quite literally), and I decided to channel my inner bear and eat everything I could get my hands on. Hibernating for winter, you understand ;)
After that we had a makeshift vorspiel in one of our tiny cabins, & went to the ship’s bars.
Along the way we met some crazy Norwegians—including this creep of a man who apparently, is Momma Pooler’s facebook friend.
You sure know how to pick them, mommy!
The next day, we begrudgingly woke up at 8 am sharp to jump off the ship at 9 and soak up as much time in København as we possibly could. You only have an 8 hour window off the boat, and then it departs again at 17.00 back to Oslo. We decided there was no time for pride, and instead embraced our inner tourists, hopping on one of those embarrassing double decker tour buses to cover as much ground as possible in a short amount of time. It was actually pretty cool—the English narrator explained a lot about the city’s history and even had some good jokes… then again I’m notoriously easily-amused. Still it was a good time, and we got to jump off at places of interest to walk around, take photos etc., and then we could hop on the next bus and continue with our sightseeing.
I uploaded a bunch of photos to a new flickr set (and a few new ones to the Norway set, as well)—I’ll add comments later.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41623197@N05/sets/72157622314009457/
Luckily for us it was a BEAUTIFUL day, so it was an amazing time. I was actually quite surprised at how enamored I was with København. I have every desire to travel absolutely everywhere, but there was nothing about Danmark that specifically appealed to me (other than its close proximity to Norway). As it turns out—it is an absolutely beautiful city… amazing architecture, history, sights, and people. There’s something about it that seems much more historical than Oslo… I don’t know how to explain it. You just get the sense that things are more preserved there, and I immediately felt like I was in a whole new world. Probably the biggest difference between Danmark and Norge is the fact that Danmark is totally flat, whereas Norge is quite mountainous. I think that latter is preferable, but it was pretty cool to see people riding around on their bikes EVERYWHERE. Bikes outnumber cars like 50:1, whereas in Oslo people take public transportation or walk for the most part… and cars still outnumber bikes here.
One of the coolest things we did was go see the changing of the guards at the royal palace. I’ve seen this in Oslo too, but I just can’t get enough of watching little Scandinavian boys (who all look like they are underage, btw) march around and try to act all stoic and important. I just can’t get enough of it—it’s so antiquated and ridiculous. I could laugh at them all the live long day (and I often do)! Unfortunately, my bad karma finally caught up with me in Danmark. My friends and I decided it would be fun to be those obnoxious tourists that go pose by the guards as they are forced to stand still/be quiet/be their statuesque selves more or less. Well when it was my turn to stand by two of the guards, apparently I got a bit too close. Immediately, I heard one of the guards whisper under his breath in English (step back, you’re too close).
Before I had a chance to react, the other guard whipped out his assault rifle and pounded the cobblestone floor twice… which thundered across the courtyard making a noise that sounded an awful lot like a gunshot to my ears. Being the easily startled creature that I am, I screamed at the top of my lungs and bolted. I sprinted far far away before my mind caught up with me and I realized that the guard had not fired his weapon at me, he had merely been issuing a rather strong warning. Point taken, and then some! When I turned around I found each and every one of my friends rolling on the ground laughing. My friend Elena even peed her pants a little. To add to my embarrassment, everyone in the courtyard was staring at me, and I noticed that even the two guards that I had attempted to pose with were unable to stifle their laughter. So much for being living statues, jerks! It was quite a moment; I never cease to humiliate myself, no matter where I go. Although I ran away before anyone was able to capture it on camera, I do have a photo of the creepy guard that banged his rifle at me.
Now that’s the face of a guard who means business!
Still, I don’t know who these guys are trying to fool…. They clearly aren’t badass. If they were, why do they need policemen there to "guard" the royal guards?
Heh.
After some more sightseeing, the last item on our agenda was a Danish theme park. I’m still not so clear on why we went, but apparently our cruise tickets got us in free, so we decided to pop in for a few rides. Instead, Becky, Robin, David and I only went on one ride, for we came across a young girls’ dancing troupe that we were utterly captivated by. Some of their ridiculous moves really put Sue's Performing Stars to shame (if you can imagine such a thing). It was single handedly the best moment of my trip. They whipped out jump ropes in their routine and everything. Hilarity ensued!
So yeah, I spent a full hour in Danmark watching that. Jealous?
After creepily watching little girls dance around we hopped back on the boat, and the rest of the night was pretty much a repeat of the one before. Me quoting Titanic, buffet, bars. We docked in Oslo at 9 am, scrambled back home—and that was my weekend in Danmark!
This week has been pretty uneventful. My beloved Eirik had his tonsils removed on the Friday I left for the cruise, so ever since I’ve been back I have pretty much just been at his house every day to watch movies with him and eat lots and lots of ice cream. Well, he’s actually sick of ice cream now, but I continue to eat lots for him—I know he appreciates the moral support! Next week and possibly the one after I am going to go live with him, just ‘cause. His apartment is super nice, centrally located downtown, and although I love my roommates, I wouldn’t mind a break from them and our shared living quarters!
Yesterday (Thursday), I went to the relatives again and had a traditional Norwegian meal, Fårikål. http://www.matprat.no/oppskrift.aspx?artid=7241 . It looks pretty gross but it tastes very delicious. Eirik is teaching me how to make it this week… so if that works out (it probably won’t since I can’t cook at all) then you can all come over and eat like a Norwegian with me when I get back. I bet it tastes even better with diet coke to wash it down! ;-) After dinner we went down to the river for the annual festival that goes on there. Lisbet, Jørgen and Silje all left pretty early on, but Eirk & I stayed and walked around the whole thing because it was really pretty/cool (despite being very very crowded). As I walked under the dimly lit trees and bright evening stars, past the string quartet playing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, strolling down a candlelit path while holding the hand of a handsome man, I thought—it just doesn’t get more romantic than this. Then I remembered that the boy’s hand I was holding belonged to my loveable yet unavoidably gay fourth cousin, and the moment was gone as quickly as it had arrived. So no worries, those of you who foolishly predicted I would move to Norway, fall in love and never come back. Eirik is the only Norwegian man in my life, and although we would make some highly attractive babies (even if they did have 6 fingers or 3 eyes), such a thing will never come to pass!
But damn, we are pretty. Must run in the family ;) Speaking of which: BONUS SKYPE SHOTS!
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