Oslo.... and TGI Fridays is a bar?!

Well it is currently 4am here and I am wide awake... writing another blog haha, i guess that's what 6 cups of coffee will do to a person.  So I've spent the past 9 days enjoying the beautiful country of Norway....or I should narrow it down to the city of Oslo.  If you read any travel guide they will tell you that a visit to Norway is not complete without traveling to the coast and seeing the breathtaking views.. well i'm going to have to disagree and say this has been an incredible 9 days doing a whole lot of nothing!!

Sam moved to Oslo back in January to do a study abroad for the semester and she lives in an apartment place on the outskirts of Oslo.  Her lease ends in two days, so I was able to live here the whole time.  It sure was nice to be able to unpack and live out of a closet!!  This place is seriously incredible tho...in one direction you have Oslo City and like a two second walk from her front door is nature....mountains, woods, lakes, hiking, camping it is amazing.  here are a few photos of the area around here:

 these two pictures are the backyard

 the infamous Holmenkollen ski jump

 oslo in the background

this picture was taken at 2am from the balcony of the kitchen

Googlemap a map of the world....something i didnt realize was that norway is at the same level (is it latitude?) as alaska... so right now it doesnt get dark out...that picture above is about the darkest it gets here.  but norway also does not get the freezing cold temperatures that alaska (or even MN) gets...its quite a nice winter..still full of snow but not deadly temperatures.

our first night here we went for a 7km hike up the mountain that's conveniently located in her backyard and at the top you get an incredible view of the city as well as of the ski jump.  what a way to start off my time in oslo.  that night i met a bunch of sam's friends that also live in Kringsja, a 'student city' area.  We went to the lake (10 minute walk from the apartment) and had a grill out and enjoyed some choice beverages and a bonfire.

 the next day sam's family flew in to Oslo so we met up with them in the afternoon and spent that day and the following day walking around the city seeing the sights.  the opera house here is pretty unique...but quite blinding when its sunny out.

that night we went to Julie's parents house for dinner.  Julie is one of our really good friends from uni who is from Oslo but studies with us at the U of MN...her parents were so wonderful.  We enjoyed some delicious Paella (no its not norwegian, lol its a spanish dish) but SO good and drank loads of wine.

And as one could probably assume, we went out that night to a club in Oslo city. (sorry no photos)

On saturday Sam traveled to the western coast with her family to the city of Bergen.... so i had the next 6 days to fend for myself here in Oslo, which quite honestly was so easy.  Her friends here in Kringsja have been so much fun.  Stayed plenty busy hiking all around, hanging out at the lake, meeting all these europeans that live here, and of course partaking in the nightly drinking festivities.  That saturday evening we all went to the city to party at the good ol' TGI Fridays! hahaha....yep it is quite an epic bar by night.



It has been a bit sad around here though, because almost everyone has left by now.. and it's the same for all of these guys like it was for me during my final weeks in Sydney.  You have just had the most amazing 6 months of your life and made incredible friendships with so many people....and having to say goodbye and not knowing when/if you will ever see them again... so hard.  but hey ever since i came back from sydney, i had met up with friends from all over the states on two different occasions and decided to do this eurotrip so i could come visit some of them as well!  ...and skype and facebook make things a bit easier to cope with as well.  It is hard tho... and it's not something a person can truly understand unless they have been thru it.  yeah, studying abroad is perhaps the most incredible thing one can do, but it really rips into your heart....even makes those tough guys tear up.

well i hope you all have enjoyed all the pictures i have posted....not sure when i will get another chance to do that as i have been able to use people's computers here to upload them!  My time here in Oslo has been so relaxing... very much needed after seeing what will be coming up during the next two months =0

Sweden...

I reckon by the time I get home my diet will be 100% different.  England made me become a tea addict and in Sweden I just so happened to be introduced to Musli.. a granola type food that is amazing with yogurt and fresh fruit and most delicious for any meal/snack.. i may or may not have successfully eaten two boxes of musli within the past week =0  those of you with freaky stomachs BEWARE.. it is full of fiber and we all know that too much fiber does not settle well for some people ;)  bringing that up makes me think of the fact that I have been fortunate enough to handle all of the foods and beer i have consumed and thus far have not had any 'digestive' problems, to put it nicely.

anyways, enough about bowel movements and the like.  Sweden.  unfortunately we didnt have much time to spend in this fabulous country, we only spent a couple nights in stockholm, but what a wonderful city.  Our host was actually on vacation time and had a car so he drove us all around stockholm and the surrounding area.  For those of you who don't know, stockholm is made up of hundreds of islands...so it is kind of hard to navigate if you are not familiar with the area, but lucky for us we had a home-grown tour guide.  The area known as Old Town was so unique compared to other european cities, b/c all the buildings are the original ancient buildings ...they havent been destroyed from war like other european cities.  stockholm is also the city where the Nobel Prize is given out, got to see that building...pretty neat.

After walking around the city, our host drove us around to the smaller towns that surrounded stockholm...an incredible drive.  It was so scenic and since it is all islands that make up the country, we had to drive onto a ferry numerous times to transfer to another landmass.  On Tuesday morning we woke up a bit early compared to the norm (yes, 7:15 is early for us) and caught a train to Oslo!

My Danes are crazier than yours

Well the next few days were quite possibly my favorite to date.  As you may or may not know on my way back to the states from australia, I was in New Zealand for a couple weeks.  During my time there, I met 3 crazy Danish girls, so naturally I had to see them again!  We caught the train from Berlin up to a small town in Denmark just past the German border... we had to switch trains on the way and for those of you keen on a good story ask me about the train station in Padborg... some things i just cannot blog about for the world to read, but if you're lucky i'll give you a good laugh.

Mette and Lonna met us at the final train station!!!  Lonna was on crutches and had a leg brace on...when i asked her what happened she said it was from partying and when i asked her how it happened she couldnt tell me b/c she didnt remember!  ahhh and this is why we are friends =)  for the next three nights we stayed at Lonna's house which was awesome because she lives on a dairy farm so i felt right at home.  We got the tour around her place and saw all of her cows, horses, chickens, and rabbits.  That night her mom cooked us dinner... it was so great to have a home cooked meal!  Her parents were so good to us, they were such sweethearts and fed us like crazy.  the first night there some of their girlfriends came over and we all hung out for the evening..  later that night Nanna (the third dane i met in NZ) also came over, SO great to see them all again.

The next day the five of us took a little road trip to the west coast of Denmark to the beach.. was so funny the road all of a sudden ends and u have to drive on the sand the rest of the way to the ocean.  we didnt spend too long there, bc the weather wasnt the best...but Lonna managed to get into the drivers seat and tear shit up on the beach! lol, crazy driver.  Then we went to the small town of Ribe and climbed to the top of one of the churches which gave us a killer view of the city and surrounding area...even Lonna made it up all those stairs on her crutches...gotta give it to her, she is one tough cookie.  ohh before i forget.. as we were driving along, sam and i saw some animals out in a pasture and asked the girls what they were...b/c they looked familiar but different.  turns out they were pigs...but not just any normal pig, nope they dont grow them small in denmark... they were like the size of a cow!! it was unreal how giant these delicious cheeseburger topping animals were!

That night Lonna's mom made us delicous home-made lasagna and then we went into town and played bingo for the evening!  unfortunately by the end of the night, i was down 30 DKK and a cake slice fatter...but it was loads of fun!

Well now we are at Friday morning... hung around Lonna's all morning and made some salads.  Then we headed out for a road trip to GERMANY! ha just cant get away from there... lol but we went there to stock up on alcohol b/c it is crazy expensive all over in Scandinavia and germany was like a 45 minute drive from where they live.  talk about stockin up....we had a whole shopping cart full of bottles of everything you can imagine haha!  that night the town had a dj b/c it was there little town festival...so before going to the party we went to one of their girlfriend's house and pregamed and had a cookout. had so much to drink, those danes make the craziest shot concoctions and will not take no for an answer when they offer you one... so ninety million shots later we all dipped out to head to the party.  It was so much fun there.. they had a strip tease that night too.  First was the male stripper and all of us girls were sitting together and i was in the front of the group and apparently everybody pointed at me (which i was unaware of) so the old man stripper came and grabbed me and did his little strip tease on me yewwwww.  haha he was older and not so good looking.  When the girl did her little strip tease show she came over to where all of us girls were standing and grabbed samantha to try to get her out there for her performance, but sam yanked her arm back and ran away haha...and yes, i got that one recorded on randi's camera!  the whole night was absolutely fantastic until the time came when i had to say goodbye to Nanna..... everyone knows i am terrible with goodbyes so i will let you all picture how that went down.

Saturday morning was a rough one..we meant to catch the train that left at 8:45 so we could have ample time in copenhagen, but as you can imagine we epically failed at catching that one...but we eventually caught the 10:30am train which wasnt too bad considering our condition.  I was able to sleep the whole train ride, but some of us (ahem, sam) had an upset stomach and spent a portion of the train ride with the porcelain God.

Made it to Copenhagen, all hungover and ready to... well frankly do nothing.  We sat in the Mcdonalds in the train station for a good amount of time b/c there was free wifi and we had no idea where we were going to stay that night... eventually settled on the City Public Hostel... what we though was going to be a complete dump was actually very nice and only a ten minute walk from the station, score!  So what to say about Copenhagen... well my fellow pot smoking friends, you have all heard of amsterdam, but let me enlighten your lives and inform you about the small village-like place in Copenhagen known as Christiania.  A village of like 800 people, Christiania kind of sanctioned off from Copenhagen by the free-spirited all natural people... more commonly known as hippies.  i'm not going to say pot is completely legal there, but it is.  the gov't is trying to fight this and make it illegal, but the citizens of the country do not care, so the govt is losing this battle.  you are also not allowed to take pictures in this village place, idk why but the locals will take your camera if you do.  so you walk into this place and the main street is called Pusher street...not what you picture when u think of a street...its more like an area haha.  all over there are booths set up with people selling pot...more pot than you have ever seen.  they have big gallonlike jugs FULL of pot and there was hundreds of flavors.  It was nuts! and totally normal there...just go and buy some, roll a joint and hang out.  so for all of you out there who are planning on visiting europe and making amsterdam a must, i highly recommend christiania as well, it is so different from anything i have ever seen.

On sunday sam and i decided we had better see a sight or two while in copenhagen so we ventured up to the infamous Little Mermaid statue ... note to travelers:  DO NOT waste your time going to this hahah the statue is like the size of me, covered in bird crap, and just ridiculously overrated.  but we did go to a Nazi museum which detailed denmark's involvement or lack thereof in WW2.  Pretty neat.   Late that afternoon we had to catch a train to make it to the great country of SWEDEN!

Denmark overall:  NUTS!

(ps...check out my older blogs, i finally have a computer to upload some photos!)

Never have I ever.... ohhh Germany!

Wow, lately I've realized how good I am at falling behind on several things:  keeping my journal, checking my bank account, and if you are one of the unlucky souls that follows this.. you will notice blogging as well.  So I left you last time with quite the great impression of Frankfurt.... long story short, when we googled 'must do things in frankfurt' one of the responses said 'find the train station to go somewheres else.'  =)  haha

After Frankfurt we ventured to southern Germany to the wonderful city of Munich where the infamous Oktoberfest takes place every year.  Our couchsurfing host in Munich lived at home with his parents in a suburb right outside of the city.  Such a wonderful family!! Ever since being in Australia, I have become quite the techno/house nerd... turns out our host, Lukas is into that as well.  Felix Krocher was playing that night at a club in the city and he made plans for us to go meet up with some of his buddies and eventually make our way to the show.  Around 4pm that day we started mixing some drinks at his house and had some dinner.  He told us that Felix probably would start around 5 and last until 10ish... straight away I was like wow thats pretty early, will we even make it there in time to see him?  Nope he definitely meant that Felix would start at 5AM!  ....welcome to europe randi, get your head in the game.  That night turned out to be such a blast... met a bunch of his buddies who were all loads of fun.  A lot of them could barely speak english, but it made everything that much more fun and interesting.  Felix ended up playing early - and by early i mean he came on around 3am.  Finally ended the night around 6am and made our way back to sleep most the day away.

(heads up, this might possibly be the worst blog to date but i am suffering from a massive hangover and the fire alarm wont stop going off)

Our second night in Munich Sam and I actually went downtown to go explore like a normal person would.  We ended up making it as far as the Hofbrauhaus, one of the most popular beer drinking halls in Munich.  Once we saw the steins (giant glass of beer), our hearts were captured =)  but on a serious note, it was really cool...loads of crazy Germans were there singing, eating, drinking the HB.

After a 7 hour train ride the next day, we finally made it to BERLIN!  ...and yes i did see the exact window michael jackson held his child out of =D  success.  We got to Berlin on a Sunday night and all weekend there was a Festival of Cultures going on.. so we got to partake in the festivities all sunday evening.  They had a parade that had started at noon and lasted until after 9pm!  It was the most incredible parade ever.... it consisted of giant 'floats' that had the tunes cranked and a bunch of people on the float dancing and partying haha...oh those Germans.  But straight away we met two German guys while at the ATM and hung out with them for the rest of the night.  The whole downtown area was closed to traffic and was packed full of people...for those of you who are familiar with the scene in madison during Mifflin, it is similar to that only a way bigger area and possibly even more nuts.  But is that German beer ever delicious!  and of course we had a currywurts that evening...its like a hot dog/brat with some type of goulash sauce.  hard to explain, just google image a picture of it!  At the end of the night we had to catch the metro back to our hosts house and we were a bit far from the nearest station, but the guys we were with had bicycles so sam and i rode on the back of them while they drove through all the traffic!  it might be one of those 'you had to have been there moments' to get a laugh out of it...

Our host in Berlin was so awesome, he took off of work that Monday to show us around the city.  Monday we literally drove to all ends of the city on a food frenzy so we could have the best sushi, ice cream, kebab and beer in the city.  we had a slow start to the morning, so our food travels took up most of the day.  but that evening we went out to a few different bars, i reckon to make sure we washed that food down properly.  In Berlin they have so many beach bars that are right along the rivers, so much fun.

Our last full day in Berlin we finally did a free walking tour.  before the tour sam and i decided to get a cup of joe from starbucks to help wake us up (god forbid we had to be there at 11am).  And as luck would have it, the top of sams coffee popped off when she was drinking it and it spilled all down her yellow dress!  haha!  But the tour was pretty legit, we saw the Brandenburg gate, a holocaust memorial, where MJ decided to hang his little one out, and also got to see Hitlers bunker.  That was pretty neat- consisted of a parking lot and a small patch of grass...haha you would never know it was his bunker b/c there is nothing there that marks it or says anything- some things just dont need to be advertised and rightly so.  That night sam, our host Norman and I all went to a show at the Friedrichstadt Palast (the theatre with the largest stage in europe) for the YMA show... SUCH a great show!  it was kind of like Cirque de soleil but twelve times better.. so many acrobatics and crazy stunts it was unreal.  After the show we bought a couple bottles of wine and walked along the river that goes thru the city and reminisced with Norman, it was such a great night and Berlin is a gorgeous city!

Overall, Germany was amazing....would LOVE to be there for Oktoberfest.  Those Germans are nuts ...after visiting both Ireland and Germany I have a deeper appreciation of my heritage and have learned quite a bit about myself..... such as the fact that I will probably die from liver failure, going back to the states and drinking crap beer will be devastating, and that it is possible for this girl to keep up with some real professional drinkers!

In Brugge... You will find lifes greatest pleasures

Yep that title sums it up... Beer, waffles and chocolate! Haha. Brugge is a small town of 20k people located on the western side of Belgium. Lovely little place which may only have one hostel...when we were trying to find it, every person knew exactly what we were talkin about... Ahh the lovely hostel called Snuffle =) best hostel ever with a happy hour from 9-10pm with 1 euro beer! Muy bueno! Met gals from Ireland, Australia and Canada that night and after happy hour headed to another bar... But the beer was more expensive and not many people were there so sam and I headed back to Snuffle and met some guys from Texas and had a few more drinks. When we finally head up to our room to go to bed, we found some dear soul sound asleep in my bed haha! After talkin to the guy at the desk he gave me a key to stay in a new room, but when we went to check it out, it was smelly and unknown territory... So sam and I decided to do what we had been doin the past few nights at romains... Shared her bed. The next morning we were the last ones to wake up and it didn't click until later that day that the other people in our hostel room must have thought we were complete lesbos! Sorry gents, but were not.

So we had the whole day to venture Brugge. We rented bikes and after taking all the wrong turns goin the opposite direction we intended to go, as luck would have it, we end up at the local brewery. Well some would call it fate, others common sense, we went in for a tour and beer =) that day we also delighted our tastebuds with a waffle with strawberries and ice cream as well as sausages!

We then decided to bike our way over to damme, the next town to the east of Brugge. Such a lovely bike ride along the riverside. There was absolutely nothing in this town mind a church, graveyard and an old population. Haha but on our way back we noticed a pasture full of bunnies... Live, very real, hopping bunnies! Unfortunately when we ditched our bikes and went into the pasture, the bunnies didn't think we were as cute as we thought they were so they scattered. Continuing our journey onward back to Brugge, my chain decided to break off so I had to hold onto sAms bike while she pedaled for the both of us.. Wasn't so bad until we got back into town on the cobblestone roads which were bumpy as all hell and in turn might have caused us to hit a car or two... But whose counting?

After our lovely adventurous day we made dinner (and yes, bread, butter n ham makes a sufficient dinner) and then prepared for yet night number two of happy hour. We then ventured out into the city again, enjoyed some drinks at another bar and as we were walkin to the next, saw some random building with crazy lights goin off inside... Turned out to be an epic club that we danced the night away in!

Wednesday we hopped on the train and pointed her east to Frankfurt Germany... Land of.. Of ..a financial district and the infamous frankfurter? Haha we didn't reAlly do anything noteworthy while in ff but we got to witness a strike and drink the apflwein!

Until next time... Remember you stay warmer when you share, chains are overrated anywyas, and to venture into the unknown!

And so it begins... Sam and randi reunite!

Well this past week has been full of surprises, accomplishments and incidents we may never speak of again. After arriving in Paris with a whopping two hours of sleep from the plane ride (let me tell you, that food tray makes a damn good pillow in times of need!) I was off to locate my hostel. Was a beautiful day- finally summer weather for this girl! And I was carrying my backpack which is equivalent to the size of a small person, er well, myself ha! Found the metro station and as I was getting on the metro, the doors closed...right on my bag. I thought my eurotrip along with my life had ended right there but thanks to some 15 year old girl who yanked me in, Europe will receive more of my cash flow.

Spent the day walkin around and hanging out by the sacre ceour, where there were heaps of little performances goin on by people trying to make a buck. Stayed in a lovely hostel that night known as the woodstock hostel, nothin too fancy but in a nice location. The next morning I met two english guys at my hostel and we went on a free walking tour of Paris- best thing ever. The tour guides do an excellent job bc they get paid by tips. Finally met up with sam and romain (the guy who hosted us for the next three nights) that evening! Romain was so awesome- we were his first couchsurfer, ha poor guy! His flat was so nice and clean and he had the most amazing coffee ever! Our first night together we met some of his friends by the Eiffel tower and had a picnic and drank beer and wine all night while watching the light show every hour at the Eiffel tower! How lovely! ... I don't think many people can say that they have peed in a park while looking up at the Eiffel tower haha but hey when u gotta go, you gotta go... When in Paris my friends!

The next day sam and I spent walking around the city taking ridiculous pictures holding the Eiffel tower and all that other jazz. That night one of romains friends had a party at his flat so we had an awesome time meeting other Paris natives and stayin out till 5am!

Our last full day in Paris was the first Sunday of the month which means free museum day! Lol so we went to the louvre (AKa the worlds biggest museum) and were enlightened with the presence of the Mona Lisa amongst several other famous art like things. That evening was probably the best one in Paris, romain had some mates over and they cooked us some salmon pasta and we drank wine and beer all night while playing wii! Now how many people can say they had an epic wii battle all night while in Paris?! ...also found out sam is definitely a way better pong teammate than wii teammate ;)

So our last day in Paris we made wonderful baguettes for lunch and then romain brought us to the train station. Unfortunately it was rush hr and by the time we were four blocks away, we had ten minutes until our train left so we had to run the most deadliest 4 blocks of my life. Godspeed my friends... We somehow made it with 3 minutes to spare! Note to self: start exercising on this trip...lifting a bottle from the table to my mouth is not going to be sufficient for the entire summer.

Not ready to leave Galway

Yep, Galway has officially stolen my heart. Although the weather in Ireland isn't necessarily ideal, everything else about it is. The people are awesome, the scenery is beautiful, life is great, and the beer is cold.

Galway is the third largest City in Ireland with about 75000 including the suburb area, but if feels like such a small place. My first day I spent wandering around the streets and getting a feel for the city. Also snuck in a peak of hangover 2- if you haven't seen it, it's awesome!

Tuesday I took a day trip to the cliffs of moher, wow! Incredible landscape, it was recently voted one of the top four wonders of the world. That night at my hostel I met a couple American girls who are travelin Ireland workin on organic farms, real nice girls. It is so popular here to go to a pub any night o the week and watch live music. We started at one pub that had An excellent duo who were playin whatever we requested, so much fun. Bar closed at midnight so we made our way a far trek... Across the road to a pub that was open I'll 2. Had such a great night talkin with some local Irish man.

Wednesday I did another day trip with two canadians and a French girl to connemara and cong. Wow some more incredible things to see!!! Wednesday night we went out again to a pub and listened to some live music.

Galway truely stole my heart in the little time I was here. hopefully I can switch some things around and get back to this city. It's almost 1am now and time for me to head to the bus sation to catch my bus to the Dublin airport. Flight leaves for Paris at 6am!!! Won't be gettin much sleep tonight, but hey welcome to Europe! Until my next post, live life for what it's worth, talk to someone you don't know everyday you'll be surprised how much you can learn! Ciao!