Day 59: Goodbye, fall break.

(This is for Saturday 25 October)

From Fall Break - Barcelona

This is the view from our hostel room. Well, actually the view through our little balcony/sun room area. Amazing. What a sight to wake up to.

We walked toward the beach again as a group and spent a lot of time just relaxing and soaking in the sun and sea before having to head back to foggy London.



Two of the guys felt the need to buy bathing suits since it was actually hot (not just warm) out again, and they ended up with matching neon green swim trunks from the local Spar. Classy.

Anyway, after an obligatory group jumping photo (thanks to a tripod I am borrowing - lifesaver!), we all decided to head to lunch.



While walking back to Las Ramblas, Kelly and I told everyone about the restaurant we'd eaten at the other night, but that we weren't really sure where it was. Eventually though, we found it. It really was a miracle we stumbled upon it again, and it was the perfect farewell meal. The sandwiches were amazing and cheap, and everyone got sangria, a milkshake, or a smoothie. I really felt like I was able to 'splurge' a little bit here, and Barcelona felt more like a vacation in certain ways because of that.



When lunch was over, Kelly and I parted ways from the group to go see some of the Olympics things while everyone else covered some of what we'd done the day before.



We ended up going past the National Gallery to get to it, and ended up with an amazing view of the city. If we'd had more time/money in Barcelona I would have loved to go up in some of the surrounding mountain area; it was absolutely beautiful.



After seeing one of the main stadiums taken over by some children's TV show/concert (which seemed like some kind of Olympics blasphemy), we headed back down past the Venetian towers to meet up with everyone at the hostel.



We all reluctantly headed to the metro to take us to our bus for the airport and said goodbye to Barcelona and to the most amazing fall break.

Day 58: Gaudí's Barcelona

(This is for Friday 24 October)

Friday we slept in a bit more than I would have liked to, but that's the consequence of basically missing a night of sleep. As soon as I was up though, I was up, and Kelly and I decided to hit every touristy thing we could on our maps. We saw a lot of Antoni Gaudí's architecture, which was really impressive to see, though I am not personally the biggest fan of the style, though you can't argue against the genius and creativity behind it.

From Fall Break - Barcelona

Anyway, it was a perfect day out, and I was actually hot in a t-shirt, which is amazing. We lucked out with weather again. Walking around the streets of Barcelona reminded me of Santa Barbara, Mexico, and Italy all at the same time. Mom and Dad, other than the whole Spanish thing, I think you'd love it here. And I haven't even gotten to the bit about "the water" yet.

We stopped inside a small church in between the touristy things.



There were only a couple of people here, but I witnessed one of the most personal moments I've seen, and it was so inspiring and touching that I just have to share it here. There was an older man who was praying at a large crucifix statue toward the back of the church, and after he finished praying, he kissed the feet of Jesus. So powerful, no matter what your own beliefs are.

After more of our walk through the city, we decided to stop in a small produce market for apples. We each took two apples and when we went inside, there was a large line to purchase them. We weren't really sure how it worked, and kind of stood around looking confused for a bit. Some of the people who worked there started talking to us, but we had absolutely no idea what they were saying. We thought maybe they were telling us we could just take the apples, but we weren't completely sure and besides, we wanted to pay for them anyway. Eventually one of the men working there just pointed at the apples and then gave us a thumbs up. Somehow, this made the final connection that yes, we could leave with our apples without paying, that it was a gift from them to us. We waved and said "gracias" and "thank you" probably more times than however many cents our apples were worth, and left with two apples and a large smile each. You can't put a price on that.



One of the highlights of the Gaudí architecture for me was the most famous, as well, the Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction for over 125 years. We purchased tickets to go inside the church and the Gaudí museum, both of which were just astonishing. Definitely check out my Barcelona album for more pictures.



Eventually, we made our way through the Olympic Village to the sea! We walked along the beach for a while and then sat down at a nice spot where we wouldn't leave with sand in our back pockets.



By the way, I might mention that my trail of clumsiness continues. While walking in the water, I'd always end up too far out and would get my rolled up jeans wet and sand on my legs. One time when I was trying to brush off the sand from my legs and out of my jeans, an even larger wave came up and soaked me up to my belt. Yep, imagine that, me being a klutz.

We headed back to the hostel right before the rain really started coming down and headed out with the group to a tapas restaurant. Tapas is seriously ingenious and the way that I would always like to dine; basically, you order different appetizer-type dishes in a group, so you get a variety of foods. I can never decide what I want to eat anyway, and appetizers always sound better to me than main courses. Perfect. So tasty.




When dinner was finished, we got some wine and cheese and headed down to Port Vell to sit up on the docks and look out at the sea at night. It was a perfect last night to an amazing fall break.

Day 57: Barcelona

(This is for Thursday 23 October)

Thursday we arrived in Barcelona by mid-afternoon, I think. We were all pretty exhausted from only getting sleep on the plane and buses, so we took our first siesta before getting ready to head out for dinner. Kelly and I were the first ones up and ready and headed to Catalunya Square, about a two minute walk from the hostel (which, by the way, was nice enough that I'd almost recommended it for our family, Mom included). The fountains were lit up, and there were so many people around. I soon felt like Barcelona was a city I could live in because of the more emphasized community feel and, of course, siesta time. London is so fast-paced and materialistic that you've got to go against the grain in order to slow down, and Barcelona felt like quite the opposite.

From Fall Break - Barcelona

Kelly and I walked down the main road there, Las Ramblas, and decided to head off to the back roads a bit to find some good, cheap food. We ended up with quite a find - Cafe Mirinda. It was still pretty close to a larger road but was in this back open area and had a great atmosphere. It seemed like the kind of place where I'd go to eat if I lived in Barcelona and was also probably the first time I'd been to a restaurant where most of the people eating there seemed to be 20-somethings. We ended up getting I think 1.60 Euro sandwiches (I got brie and ham), which were amazing, tortilla espanya (Spanish omelette), and a sangria-lemonade mix. Quite the deal, and so tasty. I'd definitely recommend the place to anyone heading to Barcelona.



Still exhausted from traveling, we headed back to the hostel and slept quite well, actually using the sheets they provided.

Day 56: Frankfurt

(This is for Wednesday 22 October)

After waking up, we found out the pound and the Euro dropped immensely, of course one day after I withdrew what I hoped to be all the money I'd need for Frankfurt and Barcelona. Kind of funny timing though, since the European Central Bank is located in Frankfurt.

Anyway, we decided to head to Römerberg, the old central square of Frankfurt. On the way we passed by the aforementioned ECB, where the Euro was proudly displayed.

From Fall Break - Frankfurt

Römerberg was so pretty and had the feel of your classic old German city.



I forgot to mention earlier, but I had some fun over break attempting to pronounce words in different languages... this was especially great in Norway, where I had no idea how to even begin saying most of the words. In Germany I tried to hone my harsh German accent to no avail. I am pretty hopeless when it comes to any kind of accent, and when you add the factor of doing it in another language, I sound like a distorted guitar in human form.

After a bit of time exploring around the square, I met up with my friend Linda, who I'd worked with back home in Minneapolis a while ago. She's been living in Germany for I believe almost a year now, so it was great to see someone who could translate for me and who knew more about the area. We walked around for a while and ended up at the history museum, which was much more interesting with a translator because there was very little English anywhere.



I'll admit, I wasn't especially looking forward to Frankfurt but ended up having a great time with my expectations greatly exceeded. The Main River was actually pretty to walk along, and the skyline of Frankfurt seemed more familiar and American than other European cities. There's something about having a body of water or main natural feature in a city that I like... I guess that would explain the places I've lived so far: Minneapolis - Mississippi, Notre Dame - the lakes, Denver - mountains, London - Thames. Oh, and though I haven't lived there, Chicago has Lake Michigan, which I love. I think it might be partially a navigational thing (I always orient myself in relation to these features), but also partially a water/nature thing. Bodies of water just have this clearing effect on the mind, where your thoughts can just catch the breeze and head out with the current or among the clouds. I think most people who've experienced living in a city like that would agree, and I personally can only imagine the somewhat cluttered feeling a city without a river or anything might be like. Heck, even South Bend has a river.

Anyway, after the history museum we headed toward some of the apple wine area. Linda explained how apple wine is pretty big in certain regions, so we found a cute restaurant for an authentic German meal. I had bratwurst and sauerkraut and tried some of the apple wine as well. I'm pretty sure German food is my least favorite of the places we've been so far, but the apple fritter type dessert was still amazing.



Linda left soon after dinner, and I met up with the group again and later headed back to the hostel again. Our flight to Barcelona was actually in the middle of the night, so we hung out in the common space/bar of the hostel. It was pretty fun, too; they had a guitar hanging on the wall and a piano off to the side, so one of the guys in the group and I ended up jamming, him on guitar and myself on piano. I've definitely become a lot more comfortable with piano than I used to be, perhaps even more than guitar. After the jam session, we exchanged travel stories with other people in the hostel long enough for us to kill time before heading out to our bus for the airport.

Day 55: Oslo to Frankfurt

(This is for Tuesday 21 October)

We decided to get up fairly early on Tuesday so we could walk around before catching the train to the airport for our flight into Frankfurt. I ended up heading with four other people to a hill we'd heard had a good view of the city. We brought all our stuff with us and headed through a lot of the city and finally found the trail the lady at the hostel had told us about.

From Fall Break - Norway

The clouds were looking to be a bit stormy but held out for us to get up to a lookout point where there was a restaurant. The view was just beautiful and made me wish I could live in a city like Oslo and go on runs like that. The air was so clean (especially compared with London's pollution) and crisp that when you breathed in, it felt like the equivalent of a fresh glass of ice water for your lungs.



Oh, just to point out something fun, the train station in Oslo had these things called "travelators". They're like moving walkways on an incline and for some reason really intrigued everyone in our group. Fun stuff.



After a train to the Oslo airport, a plane to the Frankfurt airport, and then a bus into Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt on Main, the river running through), we finally arrived at the main train station in Frankfurt.

From Fall Break - Frankfurt

We soon found that our hostel was even closer than we thought - basically across the road from where that picture was taken and down about two buildings.



Another great hostel - we had another room to ourselves. I learned this was probably the best perk of having such a large group (ten, much larger than I'd hoped to have). It really worked out well, though, because with ten people we were able to split off into smaller groups based on what each person wanted to do. In the more ideal size of about 2-4 people, it's tougher to compromise because you're mostly forced to do everything with everyone.

After using the Norwegian Kroner (~15 Kroner = 1 USD when we were there... apparently it is now about 6 Kroner to the dollar, yikes) for a few days, it was refreshing to know we'd be using the Euro the rest of our journey. Also, Oslo is known according to some lists to be the most expensive city in the world. Yes, even more so than London. Also, in addition to a more favorable exchange rate Frankfurt had cheaper prices for things in general. We found the cheapest gelato I've ever seen - 80¢ Euro for one scoop.

Day 54: Bergen to Oslo

(This is for Monday 20 October)

Sadly, as soon as we woke up on Monday we had to turn around and head right back to Oslo. We got up early enough to be packed by the time we headed to the 7.00 am breakfast, which consisted of fish and some odd Norwegian things. We had to leave quickly though to make our bus back to central Bergen. It was too bad that it was mostly dark still, so we really didn't get to see much of Bergen. I think that's the one thing I would have changed about break, but we did book the fjord tour after arranging flights so we didn't have as much time to stay in Bergen.

We got on the train back to Oslo at 7.58 and arrived around 2.30 pm or so. We walked around the city a bit and settled back into the hostel for a while and then headed out in search of an authentic (but cheap) Norwegian meal. One of the booklets at the hostel mentioned a smaller place that "most tourist guides would never dream of listing", or something to that extent, and so we figured it would be the perfect place to go to. It was actually on one of the main roads in the city but was upstairs from a more touristy looking restaurant. We headed upstairs and found a sweet place where I don't think a single person was under about 60 years old. Our waiter even described one of the dishes as "for old people". The first thing we saw walking in was this cute coat check:

From Fall Break - Norway

Love the handwritten numbers. Kelly and I split the "Beef Snack" which was beef, potatoes, and veggies. Such good, homey food... I also tried some fish someone else got and actually liked it! Cute place, good food.

After dinner we ended up going to this small bar/club/café called Mir that has live music on the weekends and airplane seats along with normal chairs. It was pretty cool and "hip" without any snobby hipster feel to it. There was a great selection of local beers I did not drink because (I'm not sure I've mentioned this yet, actually) I was on antibiotics throughout most of the trip, and the bartender was happy to recommend the cheapest one to us.



There weren't many people there, it being a Monday night, and we ended up playing some foosball even.



Anyway, it was a nice relaxing night to top off a travel day, and I was looking forward even more to the rest of break at this point.

Day 53: Oslo to Bergen

(This is for Sunday 19 Oct. I know, I'm horrible!)

Okay, so I am finally going to update you all on Fall Break! I'm sorry it's been so long... I just really wanted to get the details of break instead of just saying "Oh, we went from point A to point B and it was pretty."

So on Sunday we got up to head to the train station for our "Norway in a Nutshell tour" at 8.05 and got onto our train for the next however many hours. I had a nice little bag of snacks from the grocery store at the train station, my camera, lenses, spare battery, tripod, and iPod, so I was ready to go.

From Fall Break - Norway

Heading out from the station we went past the outskirts of Oslo, and it being earlier in the day we got to see a lot of towns in the mist.



It was absolutely gorgeous, and as our train moved ahead, we were able to see mountains, towns, farms, sheep, horses, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, tundra, snow, and frost (a list I made wall on the train). Also, as soon as we headed out from the station, I began to make a fjord playlist. For anyone who's curious, here are some of the albums I went through (I was in a full-album mood, not a shuffling one):
• Sigur Rós - með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (Icelandic translation: with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly.) Will be seeing them here in London soon for a concert grand finale! Almost all their music is in Icelandic and is very... different. Very pretty and emotional with a lot of build-ups into kind of fjordy atmospheric jams. Actually, I really have no idea how to describe their music.
• Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago. Justin Vernon is from Wisconsin and made this while living there by himself. Saw him and the band play before leaving Minneapolis at First Ave, and it was amazing. Great acoustic music with interesting percussion oftentimes. A lot of emotion.
• Califone - Roots & Crowns. Experimental indie folk type stuff, I guess. Good earthy stuff.
• Jeremy Messersmith - The Alcatraz Kid. Cute acoustic music from a guy based out of Minneapolis. Studied music at North Central.
• Phantom Planet - Raise the Dead. Something more upbeat for when I started to fall asleep. I (re)discovered this album, which I'd had since about May, right before break and realised how upbeat and happy it was for strolling along the way to class or just around London.
• Sigur Rós on shuffle

Enough about music, though...

In the bag of food I'd gotten, I had Müsli, raisins, Smarties (like M&Ms), and peanuts... a.k.a. the makings of trail mix! Being the ever so cost-efficient student I am, I mixed them in a plastic zip baggie I'd gotten at airport security. Very tasty and lasted me a good amount of time through the day.

As we passed by Finse, the highest station in Norway at 1222 metres, I realized not just how fortunate we were to be on this fjord trip, but also how it was the absolute perfect time of year for the tour. With the fall colors, we left weather probably in the high 50s in Oslo and were able to still see tundra and snowmen up higher (I think the snowman was at Finse, actually).



It's really crazy to think about how there are people who live in these remote towns where it seems that the only way to get in or out is by train. It even looked like people had to snowshoe or hike to get from their house to the train. Still, these quiet towns were so beautiful and serene. I could definitely see Adam living somewhere like this... he'd have all the land he wanted and small ski hills in his backyard.

In the afternoon, we switched trains at a station to get onto one specifically for the fjord tour. On the new train, the conductor would announce where we were and what we were passing. We slowed down for especially scenic bits and even stopped for about five or so minutes so that we could get out and take pictures at a magnificent waterfall.



This train ride was much shorter than the one to get to it, and we stopped at Flam for about an hour and a half before getting on the boat. Alex, Kelly and I decided to try to walk around more and explore while the rest of the group got lunch, and we found the perfect little point to take pictures at – there was even a little canoe in the water.



As if it couldn't be any more incredible, on the way back to the town we found an old turret type thing from WWII. We were walking up this grassy hill and saw this little doorway framed with concrete slabs that led into a small room inside of a hill. There were little openings overlooking the fjord that had raised parts in front for people to kneel at with their guns. After we left that we found another smaller one with no openings (probably to store ammo?) with a trench running between them. There were no markings showing that there was this little piece of history here even. Very cool.



We headed back and grabbed food before getting on the boat, where we found a bunch of open chairs on the back deck for our group of eight. I can't even describe how beautiful the boat cruise was; we went through the fjords (even the narrowest fjord in Norway at one point) and passed by the most picturesque towns with little sheep running around in the hills.

The highlight of the fjord tour (and probably all of Norway or even break) was when we saw dolphins jumping behind the boat. They were following us for a little while, and I sadly wasn't able to get any good shots, but the picture will stay in my memory forever. This was actually one of the main things that encouraged me to choose Norway for break (I don't think anyone else had even considered it before I basically forced everyone to get on board with the idea) - I'd read that a photographer whose work I like went on a fjord tour and saw dolphins and basically thought that would be amazing. I'm going to Oslo.

There were fjord tours in Oslo we could have also done for much cheaper, but I'm so glad we did the tour we did since we were at much more impressive fjords for a longer time and saw so much of the rest of Norway on the trains.

After the boat ride (which was finally freezing after the sun went down), we stopped in Gudvangen and got on a buss to Voss where we walked around for a bit before getting on a train to Bergen. Voss seemed like a cute little ski town, so it was nice to be able to walk around a place with a much different feel than Oslo or Flam.

When we finally arrived in Bergen it was sadly quite dark outside so we weren't able to see too much of the city. We made our way to a bus that took us up to our hostel, and on the way we were able to see the football (soccer) stadium there and the city lit up for the night.

This hostel was one of the nicest ones, especially since the four girls and the four guys each got rooms to ourselves (without any people outside our group). The people working there were so nice and happy to help.

I'm so glad we did the trip to Bergen, even though it was probably in place of a day of hiking (for me, at least). The weather also held up quite beautifully for us since the weather forecast had said it would be rainy/snowy. Actually, before leaving for break, all of the weather forecasts for each of the cities looked like rain while we were there and nice the days we weren't.

I'd definitely love to go back to Norway and other parts of Scandinavia sometime, but even if I don't get the chance this was quite the amazing tour.