10:30 Sunset, or Day 12 in Bergen, Norway

I woke up at 4am this morning. On a train. Surrounded by snow. I wondered why it was so bright out.

After ten minutes of marveling at it (and a much nicer ten minutes watching it retreat back up the mountain as we went downhill), I was back asleep. Apparently, Alisa wasn't quite so lucky and got a bit less beauty sleep.

We arrived at the station in Bergen, Norway, at 6:30am. I had a stomachache, and our hostel reception desk didn't open until 9am, so we got our tickets for the next few days from the counter and sat and read at a coffee shop.

Our only day in Bergen, today was a shopping adventure, as well as this awesome fort. We visited Rosencratz's Tower (an awesome wind-y maze of a thing), spied on little children who were being cute, and threatened to push each other off the tall retaining wall.

After that morning, we had a luscious, sumptuous lunch of mussels. The bowls were huge, and our shells filled up a bucket (and then some).

We rolled ourselves out into the sunshine (yes! it happens!) and back to the hostel for an afternoon of repacking for our harried next few days and recovering from our red-eye train (which had nothing to do with sleeping and everything to do with reading).

We went out again at 8pm, trying to find some food and to go up the funicular to catch the sunset.

It's a good thing the sun sets late, because between the bookstore and getting dinner, it was 10pm when we got up the mountain.

And wow was it spectacular! We watched for an hour as it dipped below the tree-lined horizon across the bay. I took a picture for a boys' choir, then an Italian guy took a picture of us. Afterward, we started chatting with a different Italian and his escort, a member of the board of tourism.

We compared travels, gushed about Norway, and learned a bit from each of them. By the time we were headed back down the mountain, Alisa had developed a little crush on the Italian. Sorry, Erik, new country, new boys!

And we saw the mayor. The tourist board officer, she pointed him out to us before we walked a few blocks together towards our hostel.

Magical Train, or Day 11 in Stockholm, Olso, and eventually Bergen

I was able to post this thanks to magical train Internet.

We checked out of the boat hotel this morning. (Rygerfjord, for those that might be thinking, hey, I'll be in Stockholm, what's that boat hotel Corinne stayed at?) We walked our stuff up and down a few sets of stairs and over a few bridges to central station. (Yay for packing light!) Thankfully, not rush hour, so we could move and not be swept up by the human riptide.

We deposited our suitcases and headed to the Riddarholmkirkan (church of the city hall island, I think). The kings and queens and royal families had been buried here from the 1600s to 1950. (Now I think they have some more picturesque spot out in the countryside.) It was our first church in Stockholm (that wasn't attached to a palace), and we were commenting that it isn't nearly as ornate as the Catholic ones other places in Europe. Also, graves everywhere.

We next wandered by the Slottsholmen (Royal Palace) and saw the changing of the guard. Blue uniforms with shiny silver helmets marched around, sometimes leading horses, sometimes riding them, sometimes playing an instrument, sometimes actually relieving another guard.

Next to the palace was the coin musuem (technically the museum of the economy, but most of it was coins). We saw the biggest coin in the world (a plate of copper), a Nobel medal (actually, quite a few), and a lot of text in Swedish. It is good it was free on Mondays!

We wandered for the last time around Gamla Stan. There was an incident involving not enough cash (which was solved by finding a coin on the ground), and some grocery buying for the train trip, but mostly I was enjoying walking around in the nearly 70-degree weather with my jacket off (though I wasn't nearly warm enough for the shorts and strapless tops I saw some wearing.)

Our first train was mediocre at best. It was an older car, with more people, including one very shrieky three-year-old (and his sometimes waily little sister). There was a drug-sniffing dog at the border, but other than that, it was just six hours of sitting and wasting time.

We made use of our slight layover at Olso to figure out how we are going to our respective airports on Sunday. Alisa has a train to get to Guardemon (or whatever hers is called) and I have a 6:30am bus to get to my 9:55 flight to Edinburgh.

Now, just time to rest easy in our luxurious seats (we were too cheap to spring for the bed compartments) and be in Bergen in the morning!

BABIES, or Day 10 in Stockholm

Sunday. Not this morning. Definitely a gross drizzle followed us as we walked to the ferry to the island that has Skansen and the Vasa Ship Museum.

We walked through the abandoned stalls of a fair that was happening this weekend to the entrance to the museum. There were probably a couple tours groups with thirty or so in each waiting outside the museum. We got inside the museum and put our wet stuff away before it got miserably crowded.

The Vasa was a ship that set sail in 1628. It hadn't gotten far from its mooring when a squall tipped it. Because of its lack of ballast and thin design, water began coming in through the gunports and it sank.

Some three hundred years later, a historian and a diver began looking for the ship. They found it in 1959, and dug tunnels underneath it to run wires through so they could bring it to the surface. And I'm making this sound like this wasn't a ten-story-tall ship that could hold hundreds of people and was tons heavy.

The museum talked about the restoration of the ship, the life and times of Sweden when the ship was being built, and even about the skeletons of the thirteen people (out of thirty or so) found.

We had some delicious shrimp smorgasbords from the restaurant  (we might call them open-faced sandwiches), then went out into the sun to find Skansen.

Oh, Skansen. The delight of my Sunday. They make you pay a bit to get in ($17), but they deliver. We were a bit disappointed at first when the houses that made up this outdoor, open-air (though I kept accidentally calling it the "outdoor air" museum) were closed. We found one that was open, and went inside to find the postmaster's wife (of the 1800s, of course), who gave us fire-oven baked cookies. That got our juices flowing.

We travelled from building to building. We happened to be at the chapel just in time for a youth choir singing madrigals. We wandered more, hid from a slight cloudburst, then watching folkdancing in the field where people were trying to walk on stilts.

This is going to be a hard story to relate, but the best part of the day was when the children's folk dance group was doing a dance where the four boys, of about 6 to 10 years old, sat on a bench and the girls danced then were introduced to one of the boys and sat on his lap.

One of the boys, either the clown of the group or just obstinate, wasn't finding this much to his pleasure. The girl went to sit on his lap, and he opened his legs. She was clearly experienced at this trickery, because she spent the whole rest of the dance smiling cheerfully as he tried to buck her off his lap. Alisa and I were in tears in the audience.

Additionally, the Swedish have a foot fetish, because quite a few of the dances involved partners tapping toes together.

Skansen also delivered in the animal section. We heard it had a collection of Scandinavian animals, but didn't chalk it up to much. However, not only did they have an extensive collection of farm and wild animals, they also had BABY ANIMALS.

We saw baby owls, baby goats, baby reindeer, baby ducks, baby bears, baby sheep, baby wolverines, baby geese, baby moose, baby bison, baby chickens, and I very well might be missing some. Spring! I love it! (Except for the random chilliness...)

In fact, I think those were practically all the animals they had there. Only the otter, the wolves and lynx (which we didn't see, so there could have been babies), the seals and the cows were babyless.

One thing we did find littered around the park, though, were pacifiers. What? After a couple that seemed purposefully placed, including a bag with a note, it was clearly a trend. Youngsters from all over Sweden make their trek to Skansen to "give" the baby animals their pacifiers now that they are big enough to not need them anymore. I think it's an adorable ritual (though not sure I'd pay to get my kid to Skansen when it reaches that age).

We wandered around the park for a few hours before taking our ferry back. (More boats for Corinne!)

We had dinner in some nondescript place with Viking in the name (and got pizzas with curry and kebab) (two different pizzas, in case you were wondering.) Back aboard the hotel ship, I found the only two English books on the boat. One was a book from the 50s about some sea adventure. The other was a 900-page romance vampire thriller. There was a reason (right around page 158, when there were seven men and one woman, and most of these men were vampires and shapeshifters, and the thriller portion had one scene thus far) that this book had been left behind.

Tomorrow, my blogging is going to get thrown off schedule because of an overnight train (in fact, over eleven hours on a train tomorrow). You'll probably hear from me in two days, but I may try to post our arrival in the morning. Last night in my awesome boat hotel...

Royal Bobbleheads, or Day 9 in Stockholm

It is the day of the Stockholm Marathon! We've had a marathon every weekend for a month now. We decided to get out of the city and see the palace that the Swedish Royals actually live in (as opposed to the one yesterday, where they just work).

First was a boat to the island that it's on. We arrived five minutes after the boat left, and, because their server was down, were told to wait to buy our tickets until right before the next boat came in an hour. We sat along the pier (stone wall) for about half an hour. A crowd was at the ticket counter, so we decided to try our luck again. The server was still down, so they sent us to the nearest ATM (a five minute walk) fifteen minutes before the next boat left. Thankfully, we made it in time, or else Alisa would've given them a piece of her mind.

The location of the palace is superb, right along the water, with vast gardens in the back. We got nondescript (and slightly intelligible) tours of Drottningholm (the palace) and the Chinese Palace, where the royals would come during summer afternoons. It wasn't quite as big, but still three times the size of Alisa's house.

The inside was as it would have been in the 1760s, when the perception of Chinese art and decoration was much different. The tour guide was even saying that Europeans would send their designs to be made in China. (Actually, that sounds like what they still do.)

In a few of the rooms were really creepy porcelain dolls, and the tour guide said that their heads would nod if touched. Makes you wonder... how long ago were bobbleheads invented?

We got off the boat back in Stockholm (with our world still rocking a bit, but that has been happening ever since we checked into our floating hotel). I really enjoy Swedish design, and so we walked to one of the stores they suggested, DesignTorget.

Between that and the department store we went into afterwards, I want to outfit my apartment in Swedish design. Sadly, I'm only bringing back coat hooks. Darn luggage (well, how much I'm willing to carry) restrictions.

We treated ourselves to a fancy meal aboard yet another ship. Alisa had the "Swedish fish" (perch) and I had a reindeer steak. Yum yum Rudolph.

Finished up the night relaxing on the boat, listening to the Swedes on board raucously playing Mafia. 

The Royal Dance Party, or Day 8 in Stockholm

We spent most of the morning trying to walk to Stockholm Central Station (ending up in a dead end loading dock instead) then buying our tickets to Bergen for Monday night. We have a 3:30 to 9:30 train to Oslo, then a 11:40 to 6:50 am train to Bergen. We didn't splurge for the berths, so we'll see how much rest we get. (By the naps we can take, I'm thinking we'll be tired but fine.)

This afternoon was shopping along the pedestrian streets in Old Town (which is also an island), before spending a few hours taking really interesting tours of the Kungliga Slottet, or Royal Palace.

While we were shopping, I wanted to get something to eat, but I apparently get hunger decision paralysis and start shutting down when presented with too many options (or any options at all, really). That and the sticker shock had me sitting in the "glass" (ice cream) shop for ten minutes while internal debates raged. I ended up getting a muffin with ice cream, and I've already forgotten how much it cost (not quite true, and my credit card hasn't forgotten).

But on to the palace. We went into the Royal Gift Shop where we bought our Royal (student) Tickets, and paid for the Royal Loo (I don't feel so bad about the student ticket). We were in time to see the tour of the Royal Apartments.

If you've been reading along with all the palaces we've visited, you might have an idea about what happened to this one. In the 1690s, there was... a fire! The new wing had just been built in the square, French Baroque style, and the fire missed it, just destroying the old part.

Our guide said that the fire was well-documented because of the trials that happened afterward. The guards that were stationed to watch for fires were at a pub and in the kitchen. Instead, they smelled the smoke and began trying to rescue what they could from the flames.

In the process, they threw books out of the third floor library. The only casualty in the fire? A man who had a book dropped on his head. Books can be deadly.

We also saw the Royal Ballroom (or something). In 1999, over New Years, they had a discotheque in there. To see if the floor (and ceilings of the rooms below) were strong enough, they had the guards come in and jump on cue.

That was only the first of our intriguing tours of the Royal Palace and its different sections. We peeked into the Treasury (sparkly) and the chapel (regal) by ourselves, but caught up to the tour of the Museum of Antiquities.

Our tour guide entertained us for an hour talking about a dozen Roman and Greek statues. The king who collected them (and the collectors that sold them to him) wanted full sets, and when only pieces of statues were found, the other pieces were added (or, in the case of some of the heads, modified).

We were on our feet all day, so we decided to bask in the sun before heading to Medatraplatsen (again, a rough approximation) for some people-watching. We ended up sitting next to some soccer fans, who told us about the game that was happening a few blocks away. We heard a few cheers from the normally staid Swedish, and continued to sit and watch as it began to pour.

Thankfully, by the time we decides to migrate for dinner, it had slowed to a trickle. We followed a suggestion by Frommers to eat at Garlic & Shots. We found a very crowded bar, put our name on the list, and waited for a table.

My "chili" was a bit more like pulled pork plus nachos, but it was delicious regardless. The burgers looked delicious as well (and by the fact that Alisa ate it up, I would assume they were). Less garlicky than I would assume with a name like Garlic & Shots, but still an experience.

We walked back to our boat hotel as the sun was setting (at 9:30pm). We are enjoying the evenings of relaxing and reading or television. More touring tomorrow!

I'M ON A BOAT, or Day 7 in Gothenburg and Stockholm, Sweden

For those that thought the countryside of Sweden was just acres of trees... we were partially right.

Before the train trip at noon, Alisa and I pried ourselves out of bed to go back into Gothenburg before we had to check out at 11.  We first went to the Fiskekirka (fish church).

Both of us assumed this building that we saw on the boat tour with Erik yesterday (oh, Erik...) was going to be a fish market, smelling awful with hawkers and fish everywhere.

Sadly (happily?), it was much more civilized, more like a mall than a market. We looked at the cases of seafood and fish, and made our way back for some window shopping before our tram back to the hotel (then back out to catch the train). Pretty sure Alisa was looking back the whole time to see if Erik was around.

The train was uneventful. Five hours of napping, with a bit of planning and puzzling.

We got to Stockholm Central Station in the middle of rush hour. It was very over stimulating. We got the T-bana, and walked to our hotel.

By the way, OUR HOTEL IS A BOAT. It's awesome. I love it. I was nearly rocked into another nap, but we got back in gear after creating a rough plan of our four days here.

I was starving (I guess the banana and drink yogurt didn't tide me over for lunch as well as Alisa's ciabatta and goat cheese), and so
we headed into the Old Town (Galmar Stan might be how you say it in Swedish).

Alisa and I have been learning all about each others likes and dislikes this trip. Her likes and my dislikes are: potatoes, olives, caramel, coffee, and Coke. My likes and her dislikes are: bananas and marshmallows. Anyway, for dinner, we got (appropriately), Swedish meatballs and salmon (as two different dishes, mind you). It was listed as inexpensive in the guidebook, but at $25 a piece, it is going to be a costly few days.

Now excuse me as I go to sleep IN MY SUPER AWESOME BOAT HOTEL. 

IKEA Spotting, or Day 6 in Copenhagen and Gothenburg, Sweden

We spotted our first IKEA in Sweden on our train ride from Copenhagen to Gothenburg. When we were booking these tickets, the agent told us that Gothenburg was beautiful and one of his favorite cities.

We definitely got to see more of the Swedish countryside on our travels to Gothenburg, and I love it. There were ocean views with kitesurfers and windsurfers. There were cute cottages with stone fences holding horses and cattle. And that was just during the short time I was awake!

We started off for where our hotel was according to the only map that would load on my phone the other day. It was right in the middle of a park, and we started getting a bit suspicious as we approached.

I decided to check at the tourist information center we passed, and was sad to learn that our hotel was a tram ride away. After getting a very cold Alisa from where I left her with the luggage, we bought our 24-hour pass (2 hours longer than we needed it, since we have tickets to Stockholm at noon tomorrow) and hopped on the tram for a 10-minute ride.

We got to the hotel, spent a few minutes strategizing our plan for the day, and quickly hopped a tram back into the central square.

First was a design museum that I wanted to see (and we got in for free because we were under 25!) It had lots of cool, random, designed things. My favorites were the chairs from the '20s to the present, and some of the crazy jewelry and lamps. We actually saw a horse lamp (like a full-size horse with a lampshade over its ears) that I saw later today on a balcony. And as the guidebook said, one of the few museums to display an Absolut vodka bottle.

We walked back to the main square to get a burger and tickets for a boat tour on the Padden boats. ("Padden" is the Swedish word for toad, because they lie low in the water.) But today, with the wind and high tide, they didn't lie quite low enough. They couldn't take their usual tour route  because the bridges on one side were too low, and the route they did take, we had to get down on the floor to avoid getting hit in the head.

We got sprayed with the cold river/harbor water once we got out of the canals. And got to see the once-biggest port in Scandinavia! (And I think it might still be... I forget. Not the part we saw, but up a bit further on a canal, not the river.)

Anyway, we got back, super cold (though super in love with our blonde-haired, soft-spoken guide, Erik... if only ever third guy wasn't named Erik around here.) On our speed tour through Gothenburg, our next stop was the Botanical Gardens.

Alisa took me on quite a hike, up some cliffs in the largest park in northern Europe. We ended up leaving the botanical part, circling around, and re-entering the park to finish up seeing the bamboo, rhododendrons, and rock garden with a majestic (if man-made) waterfall.

After all that walking and wind, we went to a restaurant recommended as cheap and Swedish. It was an adorable coffeehouse-type atmosphere, and the food (which was pasta-based, though mine had a bit of curry flare and hers had some goat cheese or something) was supposedly Swedish. A few desserts later (yum fair trade truffles), we were warmed up enough to head back to the hotel so we could rise early tomorrow. Our last (and only morning) in Gothenburg. 

That's Some Mad Bling, or Day 5 in Copenhagen

Our last full day trying to be reasonable in the most expensive city in the world. We've definitely changed perspectives (a $20 meal is a good deal, and any alcohol that's less than $8... well, it doesn't exist. )

This morning we had an earlier start because we both wanted to take showers in the shared shower. We got in before the 9am traffic jam, so had some time to make it over to the botanical gardens across the Old City. There was a very steamy Palm House filled with a field trip full of children, so we dodges around the waist-high beasts to see titles of plants we couldn't understand.

As we were walking out of the grounds, the cloudy and cold day gave us a bit of sun (and hope!). We got to Rosenborg Slot (palace) across the street for a rather small palace experience. Only four floors high, and each maybe 50x20 yards, it was the summer home for (the prolific) Christian IV. He had a long reign, but he was also definitely the builder king.

The palace had all of the rooms decked out, but the treasury underneath was really where all the shiny things were. The christening stuff was at another palace, since it was used in April for the twins of the Princess. But the crowns and crown jewels... as Alisa said, "That's some max bling."

The grounds were teeming with more schoolkids (of a more annoying middle school variety), when we headed toward Nyhavn (New Harbor) for a more relaxing bit of touring.

The English couple that we met yesterday suggested a canal tour, and it was sunny enough to warrant one, so we toodled around the numerous canals. We had seen a lot of the sights before, but it was refreshing to take transport instead of walking everywhere.

It is our last day in Copenhagen, so I wanted to try to see Radhus again (last time, it was closed or something). We walked in, and it told us to get tickets, so we asked the staff at the ticket office. There was an astronomic clock we could see for $2, or something about a tour the next day at 11am. We asked which one we could do, and they said we could only do one. So we got the clock ticket, and went into the room across the way for... a very large clock in a room.

I mean, it's impressive that it's accurate within a second every 300 years. But it really wasn't worth $2.

A nap and we decided to finish our list and head to Christiania (on my request) and the JazzHouse.

Christiania was started when homeless and young people started squatting and stopped paying taxes. So now there's a community that doesn't pay taxes and is ok with marijuana (though not hard drugs... or cameras, apparently).

Getting away from the tourist center, we had one of the cheapest and best meals yet. A pizza that wasn't salty (so I think that last one was just because of the restaurant) and some kabobs (meat on a stick). However, Alisa didn't take a picture of it, so I have no idea how we'll remember it!

I forgot to mention that on our walk to Christiania, we tried out this drinking in public thing. We had our cans of Carlsberg ("probably the best beer in town"), and walked with them. In broad daylight. It was super weird.

Anyway, our last stop of the night (and in Copenhagen!) was JazzHouse. It was a loud, moody bar with a fog machine, lights, and DJs mixing some techno beats. I loved it.

A bit more American and British comedy, and it's bedtime here in Europe! Off the two blocks to the train station in the morning, headed for Gothenburg!

Get The To A Nunnery : Day 4 in Copenhagen

Though we got in earlier than normal last night, we were still up quite a bit past midnight planning for today and tomorrow, our final days in Copenhagen before heading for Gothenburg on Wednesday.

We decided today was our day trip day, and the Castle of Elsinore, as featured in Hamlet, was a short train ride away.

We got our train cards and accurately punched them, and headed to Helsingor. It is right across the sound from Sweden, and it has been the place where we've had the most "trouble" with English. (We had to point for our treats this afternoon at a grocery store's bakery.)

We grabbed a map at the tourist information center, and headed for Kornborg Slot (the castle's actual name.) We quickly joined up with a tour that tried to tie together Hamlet and the castle as much as possible.

The sad part is, Hamlet doesn't really exist (though an "Amlet" might), and he definitely did not live in this castle. (They were separated by a couple hundred years.) Shakespeare might have heard of or visited Frederick the Second when he was around, but the castle was fairly new at that point.

Though the castle was new, having a fort guarding the entrance into Northern Europe was anything but. Good old Bishop Absalon came up to Helsingor (we're guessing after he got kicked out of Copenhagen). Whoever had the channel could enforce the "sound dues," and get money from the traders going by.

Now, what have we learned about anything awesome in Denmark? It burns down. So in 1629, it caught on fire. The next king rebuilt it, but it is much simpler than it would have been. No garnished ceilings or fully tapestried walls.

After peeking around the royal apartments and the small cathedral, we took a brief (thankfully) tour inside the casements. I'm not sure I've ever really known what a casement was, but it's like a basement for soldiers, I believe.

We first went to an antechamber where there was a statue of Holger Danske, the legend of Denmark. It is said that when Denmark is attacked, he will wake up and protect it. (Didn't really work during the occupation by Germany, but there was a resistance movement called the Holger Danske that donated the statue that we saw.)

We kept going down, and we kept getting colder. The tour guide told us that it was 4 degrees and got down to -5 in the winter. That translates to cold and really cold in Fahrenheit.

We had a batch of disappointments after leaving the castle. The nunnery (ok, church with a monastery attached, but taking some creative license here) was closed Mondays. The other palace was closed indefinitely (darn scaffolding). There was a pretty park and a pretty overlook that made things better.

We tried herring the other day. Not too bad, but pretty salty. And it must be a trend (or we ended up at a really bad restaurant), because the pizzas we had for lunch were practically inedible.

However, a stroll down their pedestrian mall, and some rum balls (I think), and we were feeling good and ready to head back to Copenhagen.

After an hour or so of having our brains leak out our ears watching MTV in the hotel room, we were back on the streets of Copenhagen (though not in the sense of all the women we see on the corners near our hotel - but don't worry, it's perfectly safe). We headed to the Library Bar, in a posh hotel by the train station.

I enjoy talking to people, and having Alisa around is nice, but half the fun of traveling is having one-night-stand conversations with strangers. So I walked over to an old English couple and started a conversation. They invited us to join their table, and a few hours later, we said our goodbyes. They said they'd meet us at breakfast, and that's when we broke it to them that we were staying in a hotel in a far different budget... We still had a 7-11 trip to finish up our night.

History Repeats Itself : Day 3 in Copenhagen

Copenhagen doesn't learn from its mistakes. We attempted to go to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek first thing this morning, only to find that our guide was an hour off for opening times. So instead we went to the Christiansborg Palace and grounds, where we heard history repeat itself.

The palace itself isn't very old. About one hundred years at this point. However, there has been a palace there since the 1300s, when Abbot Absalon (who our hotel is named after) put up a wall and stuck a building inside. However, his was destroyed after a battle, and the victors put up their own castle. That one was torn down for a bigger, better palace in the 1700s.

But, less than a century after it was built, a fire was discovered from sparks from a stove into dirty pipes. Hours later, the entire palace was in flames.

So they rebuilt, as they should. They took precautions, such as adding more fire stations and adding iron doors. However, about 50 years later (mid to late 1800s), a fire was discovered, and, hours and half a century later, the castle was again burnt to the ground.

So we visited the third and most recent palace, which also houses the Parliament, horse stables, the Royal Reception room, ruins from previous castles, and a church that in 1990, had the roof burnt off from a stray firework.

After, we went to see the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, and got in this time. It had a casting of "The Thinker" by Rodin, the "14-Year-Old Dancer" by Degas, and a bunch of naked and loving couples. There was also a really pretty palm garden in the middle.

We found a great cafe to have a $16 lox sandwich (which is almost cheap) and then had a bit of a nap. (Yay vacation!)

We finished up the night with a stroll on the Stroget, and are actually in before midnight!

As for more about Denmark, there are some things they do well. They are very good at feeding people after a drink or two (mmm, falafel). They are not very good at telling people about crossing the street. You get a green, then after a bit of beeping that I don't understand, you get a red. We've had to scurry across a couple times.

Additionally, today was the Copenhagen Marathon! Last week, the Pittsburgh Marathon was on my graduation day. We read that if they finished in under six hours, they got a medal. We saw a few in the bar we were at tonight.

It's still being a nice, relaxing vacation.

Tivoli, My Happiest Place on Earth : Day 2

So today. We woke up this morning, shrugging off the last of our jetlag (though an afternoon naptime might still be the norm). The delicious buffet breakfast included meats and cheeses along with yogurts and pastries... We're going to be spoiled.

We tried getting into Radhus (the town hall) today, but it seemed that a private engagement shut it down. So we meandered through the flea market and marching and dancing exhibition in the 'platz' outside, and began roaming the side streets.

We glanced at Christianborg (and the 'slot' there, palace for you that forgot) from across the canal after seeing some old houses and churches (like, 16th century old).

I wanted to make sure we were in Tivoli for the Marching Boy's Band concert at 2, so we paid for our entrance to my new happiest place on earth.

The Tivoli Gardens was described as part amusement park, part botanical garden, part beer garden by our guide. I would agree. We've meandered past outdoor cafes with drinking Danes (and probably others joining suit), fountains, roller coasters, and patches of grass perfect for napping.

And we did make it to the concert. But underneath our sunglasses, pretty sure our eyes were closed despite the marching music.

So we found a grassy area to sit for a bit. Then we went to a beergarden where we played "count the blondes" and "admire the children." And Alisa's quote of the day: "You can't talk when I'm about to do something epic."

We saw a pantomime, then found another grassy area (this time with chairs) and had some hotdogs and "pomme frites" (French fries). Then we started getting really cold. So we slept again. 

So I had looked up a schedule of events, and there was a concert at 21:30 and a light show at 23:45, so we basically kept being cold, wandering, and eating between being entertained.

The concert was good. Quite a few dancing Danes this time. Nabiha was the singer, and, while she sang totally in English, we had no idea what she was saying otherwise.

And we also couldn't tell which songs (if any) were hers and which were covers. She did "Black and Gold", by Sam Sparro, and one called "Internet Love" that I might have heard before.

The light show wasn't anything impressive, and the heart waffle with "soft ice" (soft-serve ice cream, but a bit lighter, almost Cool Whip tasting) was yummy, but I'm probably too excited for the delicious breakfast buffet tomorrow. 

Retake : Day 1 (with more style this time)

So I realize I have been slightly enigmatic and incoherent in my posts. I made the decision to only bring my iPhone on the trip, since my laptop's weight-to-usefulness ratio is steadily declining. Thus I have been typing away on my touchscreen (since we're too lazy to find an Internet cafe). This (and the hotel's slightly weak wi-fi) can also explain the lack of pictures.

So, in an effort to make this more coherent, I'll start back at yesterday. We left our hotel at 4:30 after our nap (and it was still sunny as ever... Gotta love those Northern latitudes) and started along a wonderfully long pedestrian route. We stopped for some crepes with banana and Nutella, before continuing on through the small bunches of well-dressed, mostly blonde, tall, and skinny Danes (and the under-dressed, bag-toting, photographing tourists like ourselves).

It was particularly noticeable how much we stood out when a young woman walking by asked us (in English) where we were from.

We were both hesitant to answer, since she was peddling tea rose bags, but she was more interested in being our friends than selling us tea roses (thankfully). After a bit, we exchanged email addresses, and continued down the Stroget.

The rest of our afternoon/evening consisted of strolling, as we went by the Nyhavn ("new canal") to find public alcohol consumption everywhere. We went through the Amaliehaven and Amalienborg Slotsplads (a garden and a castle plaza). We deviated through Churchill Park, built in a pentagon around Kastellet (a fort complex). We went back out by the canal, and posed by the Little Mermaid (singing songs from the little known Hans Christian Anderson musical the whole way).

On our way back (at slightly dusky 10pm), we found a restaurant slightly within our budget range (less than $20 per entree) and raised a glass (outdoors, by a heater, on Stroget) to our tired feet.

One thing I love about travel is the reminisce travel experiences it brings up. Alisa talked about Italy, and the crazy number of people with dogs. I talked about Turkey and the crazy number of stray dogs.

 After we had finished the meal (but not before we finished the wine), two gentlemen asked about the heater. I invited them to have a drink and a chat, and our Minnesota friends began conversing away about their printing business and our travels.

So that is a clearer, more coherent version of what happened yesterday. 

Og : Day 1 (again) in Copenhagen

So we'll continue to talk about Day 1, since I didn't really mention anything beyond the fact we had landed. The flight here was good (for me), but Alisa had a crying baby that kept her up for most of the 7ish hours. Customs was no big, and we had pretty much figured out how to get to our hotel. The one hang-up was figuring out the PIN for credit cards (because apparently all of them have one.)

We checked into the hotel, and went around the corner in search of food. There was a bit of sticker shock ($25 for brunch?) but we ended up at a very sunny sidewalk cafe. Alisa couldn't keep her eyes open behind her sunglasses, so it was back to the hotel for a three-hour nap.

We woke up refreshed (though I was a bit sweaty) and headed down the 'storget' (I'm missing some accents and spelling it wrong, but it means 'stroll' and is a pedestrian street.) We were approached by a friendly Dane. She chatted us up, then we were given some hints for nightlife and such.

A long stroll to the Little Mermaid (and the super beautiful park that surrounds it) and we were foot-weary. It took some looking, but we found a place with meals for less than 100 DKK or about $20). A bottle of wine and two Minnesotaeans later, and we were back to the hotel. Still not knowing any Danish besides 'ya' (we think means 'yes') and 'og' which means 'and.'

Shrute Attack : Day 0 and 1

Alisa and I are in Copenhagen, to begin this post on a high note. Travel was easy thus far, and we haven't encountered anyone who doesn't speak English (which is good, because the guidebook doesn't give a lick of useful Danish). What seems like both this morning and weeks ago, though, was a bit difficult.

Alisa's cat Shrute apparently doesn't like me very much. For the few days I was at her house, he would alternate staring and stalking me. I am a threat (or he just remembers the last time I was around and decided to make him my lap-cat). So he'd been on edge all week, so when the pet carrier came out, so did the teeth.

I decided to stay out of the way at first, since we hadn't had a good history. However, an extra set of hands was potentially useful for holding open the cat carrier.

To keep a short story short, Alisa has open wounds and Shrute is going to be taken care of at the house for a bit.

Naptime! We have some Friday-nighting to do later!

Parsimonious: Urban Dare Pittsburgh

A few weeks ago, I saw on the CMU Explorer's d-list an e-mail about a Groupon for the Pittsburgh Urban Dare. I'm an Amazing Race aficionado (mostly in that I really want to be on it with my sister Valerie), and since this was described as "Amazing Race in a day," I was super excited.
I asked my adventure buddy, Danielle, if she wanted to do it with me, and it was an enthusiastic reply once she figured out what it was as well.
The competition started at a pub by Southside Works. Public transportation there is iffy, and we were on a bit of a time crunch, so we rode bikes down to the river and across the Hot Metal Bridge.

We got there a bit late, but got out team number (156) and listened to the instructions before the craziness to get the clue sheets. Here was the sheet of clues:

1. Jack Nicholson won the Academy Award for Best Actor in this 1975 film. Get your picture with the magic shop that has part of this film's title in its name.
2. The field is no longer there, but part of the outfield wall remains. Bill Mazeroski hit a home run over this wall to win the World Series in 1960. Go to there for your spellbound dare.
3. If you can't run with these, stay on the porch. Get your picture in front of the coffee house that goes by this name.
4. PHOTO HUNT: Get a picture of two people not in the race reenacting the famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Get a picture of three people doing see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. For photo hunt and bonus, you may not use the same person more than once.
5. He defeated Muhammed Ali in the fight of the century. Get your picture in front of the saloon that goes by his nickname.
6. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Get your picture in front of the cafe that goes by his name.
7. Nobody knew who Mel Gibson was until he appeared in this 1979 movie. If this picture were shot in Tijuana instead of Australia, maybe it would have been called this. Get your picture in front of the restaurant with this name.
8. Go to the park overlooking the river next to (a device for establishing a horizontal plane. It consists of a small glass tube containing alcohol or similar liquid and an air bubble.) (LI DIVIDED BY XVII) for your three-legged dare.
9. Get your picture with a neon sign that says Free Smells.
10. Since we are in Steel City, go to the Steelworkers Monument for your wheelbarrow dare.
11. Get your picture with a WWII torpedo.

5:00 Minute Bonus - Take a picture of a group of five people posed as if they were shooting a box and arrow.

The rules let you use whatever technology you wanted. Danielle began calling people, and I started surfing the web to start getting some clues (or checking our guesses) to the clues. The clues weren't in a sensible order for location, so that was part of the planning as well.

(If you want to try to solve these for yourself, I suggest stopping here. Good luck!)

So we began to piece things together. Once we got a few that were down Carson Street we took off (running) and began. However, we were stuck on the #11 with a torpedo. I suggested that we follow some people (since my guess was that there was a torpedo on the submarine downtown), and we ended up across the 10th Street bridge and going up the never-ending staircase to Duquesne University. We headed back into Oakland via bus (you were only allowed to use public transit) for some of the clues we knew about. By this time, we had found a picture of the torpedo with Pitt campus in the background, so we knew it was near where we were. It just took a friendly group of Pitt students to point us in the direction of Soldiers and Sailors Hall.

Our "spellbound" dare was adding up the numbers corresponding to the word on our Passport (which was parsimonious). We found a bus back to Southside to finish up our last couple clues, and ran in for our finish time at 2:04:27 (but with the 5:00 minute bonus). However, we had forgotten to run across the river for our final dare!

So, out we went again, and spent 18 more minutes getting across the bridge, chewing some bubble gum, and coming back. I was pretty exhausted, and my cross-country running partner Danielle was kind enough to let us walk for a bit. Our actual final time was 2:22:25.

They sent out everyone's times. By my count, there were 270 teams; our first (though incorrect) time put us at 47th. Our actual time would have put us in 95th. I'm still awesomely proud of us.

We found a place that had beer, ice cream, and outdoor seating, and celebrated our completion. My shoulders are sunburnt and my calves are still complaining (and we had to bike back up to CMU), but I would do it again in a heartbeat!

For the curious, here was our final submissions in the order we went to them in (and the answer to the clues): 

1. Jack Nicholson won the Academy Award for Best Actor in this 1975 film. Get your picture with the magic shop that has part of this film's title in its name. The Cuckoo's Next Magic Shop

5. He defeated Muhammed Ali in the fight of the century. Get your picture in front of the saloon that goes by his nickname. Smokin' Joes Saloon

4. PHOTO HUNT: Get a picture of two people not in the race reenacting the famous WWII photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Get a picture of three people doing see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
(Probably not proper to put strangers' pictures on the web, yeah?)
9. Get your picture with a neon sign that says Free Smells. Jimmy John's Sandwiches

7. Nobody know who Mel Gibson was until he appeared in this 1979 movie. If this picture were shot in Tijuana instead of Australia, maybe it would have been called this. Get your picture in front of the restaurant with this name. Med Mex

5:00 Minute Bonus - Take a picture of a group of five people posed as if they were shooting a box and arrow.
(These were the same great Pitt students that tracked down that torpedo for us!)
6. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Get your picture in front of the cafe that goes by his name. Hemingway's Cafe

2. The field is no longer there, but part of the outfield wall remains. Bill Mazeroski hit a home run over this wall to win the World Series in 1960. Go to there for your spellbound dare. Behind Schenley Plaza
11. Get your picture with a WWII torpedo. Soldiers and Sailors Hall (which was having the non-Pittsburgh Pitt student's graduation that day)

3. If you can't run with these, stay on the porch. Get your picture in front of the coffee house that goes by this name. Big Dog Coffee

10. Since we are in Steel City, go to the Steelworkers Monument for your wheelbarrow dare. Steelworkers Monument at Tunnel Park

 8. Go to the park overlooking the river next to (a device for establishing a horizontal plane. It consists of a small glass tube containing alcohol or similar liquid and an air bubble.) (LI DIVIDED BY XVII) for your three-legged dare. Park at Level Three (this is the one we missed)

I was pretty happy with how well I know Pittsburgh by the end of this. And pretty impressed with how well I kept up with my peppy little partner!