Russefeiring

In Norway there is an interesting "right of passage" that the high schoolers go through as their graduation ceremony. Part of me wishes that I had studied abroad here as a high school student instead of a college student (parts of russefeiring sound awful but most just sounds fun).

The kids that do this are called Russ ('roos') and as of a few days ago they're all running around town wearing awesome overalls & caps (color coded), driving buses and constantly partying, it's sometime referred to as: "truekersfylla" (the three week binge). The other night I got my first taste of what it means being an adult during this time. I was kept awake several hours listening to a party bus down the street! I've been intrigued by this tradition so I've done a bit of research into it since I see tons of these kids all over. It's very distinct from any other cultures graduation ceremony because of all the sex, alcohol, loud music and anything else.

First of all, it starts on April 26 and goes until May 17 (Norwegian Constitution Day).

Overalls:

The different colored overalls usually refers to your area of study but can also be determined by your school or area. The overalls are supposed to be worn everyday (without washing) until the end of russefeiring.

Red- general studies/math/physics/biology/history/literature/media/art/music/athletics (most common as I said before)

Black- vocational school

Blue- business administration

Green- agriculture (also can be orange - I haven't seen any of this in Oslo, probably because it's a city)

White- athletics/healthcare in some areas, and sometimes Christian Russ who choose not to drink

Ståkuka:

"noisy week" is the last week in April and there's a different theme for every day. Reminds me of Spirit Week back home:

Change gender day

Army day (includes water balloon & squirt gun fights vs other schools at the school & around town)

Pajama day

Hero day

Emo day

Business day

Russknuter / Knots:

The russ can earn knots and/or objects signaling different tasks or dares they've completed. From what I've read the group of knots seem to be later attached to their caps they get. This tends to be were Russ gets it's bad reputation from. Some things are illegal while others are just silly pranks. Some groups prefer not to join in and will form their own groups to hang out with and make they're own, all legal knots to earn, the biggest group is the Christian Russ. I found a list online of some tasks they may do to earn their knots. (The drinking age for beer & wine is 18 and most Russ are 18)

• Spending a night in a tree (earn a stick)
• Eating a Big Mac in 2 bites (earn a piece of the wrapping)
• Drinking a bottle of wine in 20 mins (earn cork)
• Crawling through super market while barking and biting customer's leg (earn dog biscuit)
• Spending a school day crawling on hands/knees (earns toy shoe)
• Spending the entire russ period sober (earn fizzy drink cork)
• Drinking 24 beers/24 hours (girls) 12hrs (boys)
• Have sex in the woods
• Have sex with 17 different people from May 1-17
• Put a for sale sign on Police Car
• Spending the night at a teachers house & making him/her breakfast - without being seen
• Go for a swim before May 1 (it's really cold here!)
• Ask random people in a mall if they can lend you a condom & get the condom
• Break up with a random 16 yr old in public
• Run over a local bridge or from school to center naked
• Sit on a round about with a sign that says "We'll drink if you honk"
• Host an aerobic class at the local pub and get at least 10 people to join in

Buses:

In the 90's a rule was formed that only non-russ participants could drive the russ vehicles to cut down on drinking & driving. In rich places (like Oslo) the students tend to invest in buses instead of cars or vans as in other areas. The vehicle is then painted the appropriate russ color and decorated in some way. The also put in crazy speaker systems and sometimes refurbish the inside to have a bar or beds. According to Wikipedia they can cost up to 2-6 thousand US dollars per person, and some a total of $400,000. 

Cards:

They make fake business cards with their picture and a quote. They tend to be lewd, funny and offensive. The russ trade with each other and hand them out to children. Some kids consider it an important activity and it ends May 17. Because of the offensive nature many parents were getting upset when their kids got them, so now many students make two sets, one for their friends and one for children.

May 17th:

This is the final day of russefeiring  and there is a ceremony where they recieve they're caps. They recieve a christening and receive a name from classmates that is then written on their cap. The finale of russefeiring is joining the national day parade in full outfit of overalls + cap

Video:

There is a reality TV show in Norway about Americans who come to Norway and do a bunch of tasks, if you win you get to meet your Norwegian family and learn about your heritage. One of the episodes has them competing in a russefering (some of them are in their 40's!) 

Planning Trips

What my brain does..

I'm a planner..

Before I go anywhere I get directions to/from anywhere we want to go, and I make a list of things to do each day. And I'm currently in the process of planning my trip to Paris

Being in Europe in a way has taught me to be more relaxed with my plans. People just aren't as concerned with strict plans, I know many people who miss planes/trains or even buy plane tickets for the wrong days, and it just doesn't seem to be a big deal for anybody. American's are the only ones who show up at airports 2+ hours before our flights, and we're also the only ones who stress about having a "plan". I'm not exactly sure why that is, must have something to do with our high speed culture.

My first few trips went fairly smoothly. But of course, being in a foreign land traveling to other foreign lands I have made several planning errors and also wished I had panned better before going.

On my way back from Bergen for instance, I bought train tickets to return to Oslo for the night after I was on the train. Luckily train's are easy to just show up and buy tickets for so I just had to pay for a high priced last minute seat.

The next problem arose in Venice, though it wasn't completely our fault. The buses don't label the names of stops so we missed our stop and rode the bus to the end, then the bus driver kicked us off and told us to ask another bus driver. This driver was much nicer and actually stood up and waved to us when we were at our stop.

Easter Service

Like I mentioned in a previous post, in Rome we forgot to write down directions to our hostel. But thanks to technology Kyle came to our rescue. In this city is my first regret. We left Rome the day before Easter. And although I am not Catholic I would have loved to go to the huge public Easter service in the Vatican. It would have been amazing.

The reason we didn't have Easter in Rome was because we thought it would be fun to have it in Greece. However, that was another failed plan. Greece is Orthodox, which means their Easter is one week later than our Easter. So in the end, we didn't exactly have a Easter.

Grand National 2012

Finally, my most recent trip to London. Everything went smoothly, I only wish we could have spent one more day. On the Tube they give out free newspapers so, dorky me glad to see a newspaper in English, grabbed one and I found out that the Grand National was Saturday (the day we were leaving). The Grand National is like England's Kentucky Derby. It's a huge steeplechase race. (A steeplechase is basically a horse race with jumps). This would have been spectacular to see! But alas, I didn't find out about it until Friday and I already had my flight back to Norway.

Of course I can't complain too much, I have had some pretty amazing trips! If I could do it again though, I would have spent Easter in Rome, gone to another Italian city (Florence maybe) and then been in Greece for  their Easter. The events of these trips have made me very diligent in my planning for Paris. I've been researching festivals/events and anything else that may be happening so we don't miss anything. I'm also trying to learn a bit (tiny tiny bit) of French before Monday. For some reason I can't seem to remember any of the French we learned in 6th grade, every other Friday in our humanities class.. Hopefully I won't make too many "faux pas" on this next adventure

Au Revoir!

A Bit of R&R

Recovery & Reflections


This last trip gave me a brief look into the cultures of both Southern & Western Europe, both of which were very different from themselves, from Northern Europe and back home in the States.

-Even though both Italy & Greece are part of Southern Europe and had many similarities, they were surprisingly different from each other. In Italy we ate tons of pasta and pizza (which, for the record is NOT that much different than American pizza) but in Greece, not very far away, neither option was available except at high priced tourist restaurants (we ate gyros instead!). People were very friendly and were more than willing to point us in the right direction or strike up random conversations (about anything at all). However, in shops they continually bug you, asking what you want, and following you around, that may be the Italian thing but it really made me not want to shop there anymore.

-England was the most similar to home I've seen yet. (They even had diet coke!!) The people were friendly if you approached them, but they rarely approached you. In shops & restaurants they left you alone (thank god!). London felt very fast paced and city like, everyone was in a rush to be somewhere. I heard that it was least European-like city and was similar to New York. But as someone who's never been to NY I can't give any comparisons. (And don't call anyone from England European, they don't like it).

-I've learned (shocker) that many Europeans aren't too fond of Americans. They were never outright rude to us, but we definitely stood out for being American and speaking English. A few times we convinced people that we were from Norway (not a complete lie, we did come from there) and we spoke Norwegian in order to avoid the attention English got us.

I still have 2 more trips to Western Europe, another in the UK (Edinburgh) and the other in Paris. I can't wait to see how these places are different as well.

As I've mentioned before I had some pretty sore feet. But I needed some recovering from other parts of traveling too.

1) Laundry: I used my school backpack on my trip.. needless to say I was severly limited in what I could bring. I only had 3 bottoms & 6 tops to get me through everything, so my clothes were feeling pretty gross! By the last few days all I wanted was a washer & dryer and some clean clothes.

2) Showering: A shower that was (and stayed) hot and one that didn't make me feel dirtier by just standing in it was also on the list of necessary actions when back home. Hostel showers are just plain dirty!

3) Sleeping: lets just say hostels don't have the nicest beds. I was more than ready to stop sleeping on bunk beds (that felt like a board of wood) and to have real pillows & blankets. Also sleeping alone! My last morning in London I woke up to a very stinky room, when I sat up I saw that 5 guys were my roommates in the 6 bedroom dorm room and I don't know what it is, but somehow multiple guys (let alone 5!!) sleeping in a room causes noxious smells.

4) Pausing: I loved traveling, more than anything, but it is so nice to spend time doing nothing after so much time on the go-go-go! I'm definitely tired (for the moment) of traveling.

5) Food: eating out every meal is EXPENSIVE! A few places we stayed had free breakfast or we bought bread & nutella, but it all adds up! It's nice to be back and be able to eat whenever and how ever much I want.

Now that I've been back for a few days things are starting to pick up again. I literally sat on my butt, watched TV, and relaxed non-stop for a few days. I feel so lazy but at least I'm caught up on every How I Met Your Mother (don't worry I'd already seen most episodes). I've also begun planning my Parisian trip which is in 10 days!

London: The Fairest of Them All

I finished my wonderful Spring Break with a bang! 

Off to Hogwarts!

London was the perfect finale! Once again I fell in love with the city I was most recently in. But this time it was more than falling in love with a vacation spot.. I feel like I could live in London! (sorry for the novel & history lesson that follows below)

After spending a long evening/night (15 hours) sitting on my butt at the Oslo Airport (with an awesome seat right by an outlet for my comp) I arrived in London!! I was instantly in love. Breakfast was wonderful, amazing Starbucks, and I could read every sign and understand everybody (usually)!

Our hostel was above a bar/restaurant where we got free breakfast and 10% off all drinks and food, it was great! After checking in we started exploring from Hyde Park (one of the largest Royal Parks). From there we wandered to Buckingham Palace! It was huge and gorgeous of course. Then we went by St. James Park, the oldest of the Royal Parks that's surrounded by 3 palaces. From there we went to Trafalgar Square and went into the National Museum and saw tons of gorgeous paintings. We then wandered into London's China Town and had McDonalds for lunch (score!!) and saw tons of shows being advertised. I wish I could have been able to see one, Wicked or Lion King would have been my top choices. 

We then joined a free tour guide at Green Park! This park got it's name because King Charles II would visit daily to pick flowers for his prostitute mistress, but when the Queen found out she had the park stripped off all flowers so it was only green (preventing his daily adventures). These days it is now covered in wild tulips, but remains the only Royal Park that doesn't have planned and organised flower beds. Then we went back to Buckingham Palace, past Clarence House (where the Crown Prince & Queen's Mother traditionally live) and then to St. James Palace (The Queen's official place of residency). We then got a history lesson of the red carpet road away from Buckingham Palace (The Queen apparently loves the James Bond movies). Then we went to Trafalgar Square, and we learned that it used to have the most pigeons in one area, until people got upset at how much pigeon poop was on the statue of the man who won the naval battle in the Napoleonic Wars. So they trained hawks to eat pigeons only in that square.. after some epic pigeon kills it raised some animal right concerns. So they just stopped providing pigeon food for tourists to feed to pigeons (funny how that works). After that we saw the square where many Gentleman clubs are, they just recently started allowing women to join.. YAY! From there we went to Westminster. We saw the gorgeous Abbey, where most Royal weddings are, Big Ben (which is actually just the name of the bell, not the tower (named clock Tower) ) and the Palace, now the seat of Parliament. Speaking of which, we went to Downing Street where the Prime Minister typically lives. We learned more fun facts, including the light posts around central London are decorated in honor of a King's girlfriend who refused his proposal (I forgot which King), how when Cromwell overthrew King Charles and beheaded him his son (King Charles II) put a black mark on the clock across from Parliament at the hour he was killed. After King Charles II got control again Parliament put a statue of Cromwell in front of Westminster as a reminder to Royalty of where the power lies. We ended our educational tour by going through a small neighborhood where we saw blocked up windows, for over a hundred years there was a window tax, the number of windows you had decided how much you paid in that tax. It also had old signs showing to bomb shelters from the Blitz. The tour officially ended in Westminster yard, a private yard for a private school (behind the Abbey) where they claim soccer was invented.

After our tour ended we found the James Bond headquarters (in the movies) and then we wandered along the River Thames and saw Somerset, many bridges and ended at the Tower of London & Tower Bridge! Dinner was a traditional Fish & Chips meal. YUM! It was filling and amazing of course!

Royal Guards 

Thursday we started by going to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone, the famous stone that taught modern historians to read hieroglyphs. We didn't have much time but we quickly saw some Egyptian and Greek statues too! It was kinda like being in Greece again. They have a complete reconstruction of the Greek Parthenon (which the Greeks aren't too happy about). Then we rushed to the Changing of the Guards, and it was A LOT busier than we thought it would be!! From a distance the only thing I could see was the horse guards when they went by. But it was still cool! Then we went over to Shakespeare's Globe & Tate's Museum across the Millennium Bridge, the bridge used in Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince (destroyed by Death Eaters). Then we took the oh so amazing Tube (metro) up to King's Cross and I went through Platform 9 & 3/4 (I so knew it was real!! I'm actually on my way to Hogwarts right now.. nbd). We then got hit by a massive rainstorm! At first I really enjoyed it, I actually do miss the rain! When it got stronger we hid in a cafe and had lunch until it blew over. We then wandered into Regent's Park. It's a gorgeous gorgeous place! I loved the pretty flower beds and Queen Mary's Garden was a pretty rose heaven! Then we got over to Abbey Road! I got a typical Beatles Abbey Road picture of course! It was a really fun day of seeing and doing traditional touristy things in London, after all that's why we were there! I particularly loved the Harry Potter sites! Dinner was in our hostel's restaurant where I got the worlds smallest glass of wine!

Friday morning I explored the remaining stuff in London by myself... as lonely as it may sound I really enjoyed it! I started over in Notting Hill, thanks to the movie I wanted to go see the neighborhood.. it was quite Posh! I found my way to a cute street market, the Portobello Street Market. I then went into a cute little cafe were I drank tea and wrote a few postcards home. My one remaining destination I really wanted to see was the former site of Greenwich Palace and to see the marker of where King Henry VIII & Queen Elizabeth were born. This part of London isn't on the tourist map though so I had an interesting time finding my way, eventually after several Tube connections, a double decker bus ride (thanks to the pity of the driver I got it for free) and plenty of walking I found the Old Royal Naval College (on Greenwich Palace's old grounds) but there was a movie filming so I wasn't allowed to do anything but walk around the perimeter.. kind of a bittersweet thing! I got to see a movie being filmed (according to google it may be the next James Bond film) but I couldn't see the plaque I wanted! I then crossed the street to the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House & The Royal Observatory! It's the site of the Prime Meridian (division of East & West) with a longitude of O' and the official length of British measurements. I went to this place mainly for the sake of the astronomy nerds in my life (Kyle & my dad mainly). It had some pretty massive telescopes, info on black holes, but sadly I didn't go into either the Observatory or the Planetarium because they cost too much! But the gift shop had some pretty cool space stuff in it! After that I found my way back to main London (I may have snuck onto a bus) and went into Somerset House which is now an art gallery. From there I went to Kensington Palace, the old home of Princess Diana, and before her the "country" home of Royalty that was outside of the city so they could get fresh air! (now it's in one of the main parts). I then went back to the Tower of London & Tower Bridge so I could explore them further in the daylight. From the many books I've read about medieval London I always thought the Tower of London would be a tower.. it's not, it's just a really big castle. I saw Traitor's gate, the place Queen Anne Boleyn was supposed to have entered from. If I had paid to go inside I could have seen the dungeons & crown jewels! (alas, I am too cheap to do that)

That evening to save money we decided to stay out late, eat some dinner and head to the airport to sleep instead of paying for another night in our hostel just to wake up really early. As fun as staying in an airport 2 times in the last 4 nights is, I'm glad to be done with that!

London was so amazing! I could have easily spent weeks there! If I was rich I would have gone into every attraction! I love history, particularly medieval English history (revolving around the War of Roses & the Tudors) so I was in my version of heaven. It was great! On top of all my history lessons I was around English again! (after Italy & Greece, where they don't know much English, it was fantastic). Although they're silly and drive on the wrong side of the road (I may have almost died several times from looking the wrong way) I loved every bit of it! Between the city and the airport were gorgeous horse farms (less than 30 mins away) and just outside of the main parts were pretty little suburb neighborhoods. I wish I could have stayed one more day, Saturday was the Grand National, a huge steeplechase (simply put, a horse race with jumps) and it would have been so cool to be there! (it's kinda like the Kentucky Derby of England). But I am extremely happy with the trip I had!

My spring break was FANTASTIC!! I went to southern Europe and powered through Italy in a week, then I relaxed for a few days on a Greek island, which was perfect planning to recover my feet for the final part in London. I can't believe I was able to go and see so many places and do so many things! Although it was so much fun I am really glad to be back in Oslo. I am so tired of living out of a backpack, I constantly felt dirty, gross and tired. And finally my feet... I feel completely fine from the ankles up, which is a bit surprising, but my feet have honestly never hurt so bad in my life! Oh well.. I guess I can't really complain after my journey :)

Big Ben & Westminster Palace

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace at night

Just doing my duty

Regent's Park

It's all Greek to me

Indeed it is!

Chania Port Lighthouse

I originally considered that phrase just to mean that something was a foreign language. Now I truly understand the real meaning of it. Much to our surprise the written language of Greek is still with "ancient" Greek symbols ( θπδφγξψβαλ ) I'm not sure why we thought they wouldn't still use that alphabet. But, It was my first time in a place were I could figure out nothing by signs.

Of course by now I've traveled to many countries that don't speak English, but they all have similar alphabet styles that allowed us to guess/figure out things. For example: Bus, that's a pretty universal word give or take an extra "s's" on the end of the word. But in Greece, we literally couldn't read (or guess) a word.

That said. 

It was truly an amazing end to our trip! (not the end of my whole trip, but the end of Ali & my adventure). When we got into Greece it was gorgeous sunshine and blaring heat, just what we were looking for! We discovered that by luck we had chosen the worlds best hotel! I'm not even joking when I say that. It is a family run business that's hard to describe, George the main guy is extremely friendly and helpful. He gave us maps and introduced us to other girls to arrange stuff together, and generally had the best customer service ever. Then we met his brother who was trying to be a "baller" we think he learned English from watching the NBA. He was hilarious, asking when we were going to "bounce" and saying "aight". Then we met "Pappa eyebrows" our name for their dad. He's the handyman of the place and has, no joke, 3inch eyebrows off of his face. Priceless. On top of it all is their mom who is just confused and follows everyone around. They were all so funny and helpful!

Our first non-hotel experience with Greeks was on our way to the grocery store. We saw a field of goats and a woman started talking to us. She reminded me of a character on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and she told us the story about her goats. She said she got a goat for her wedding and then her children loved it but when she "go to cut it neck, my children.. they cry and cry and cry, so.... I no cut (with a shake of her head) and then.. she got preg!! and now.. now I have 3 goats" and on and on the story went. This apparently happened for 15 years until she had too many goats and started giving them away. This woman was hilarious and so nice! As soon as she heard it was just us two girls in Greece she was concerned and gave us a lecture on keeping our money close and being safe. Every Greek we met was beyond nice. 

Our first evening we walked along the sandy beaches and enjoyed the sun. It was pretty great. We ended the day with delicious gyros and fries! (for really cheap too!). And because I brought my computer and we got connection to the world in our room, I spent the night catching up on life in the real world. 

The next day we slept in (the first time in a week!) and then spent the day slowly walking through the tiny town of Chania (or Xania or Hania) and walking around the beach. It was so nice to have such a small area to explore after powering through 2 huge cities in a week. I did sadly get sunburned though, shocker! That night we were pretty crazy party animals, we curled up in my bed and watched, Water for Elephants, Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy & Mirror Mirror (the last was pretty terrible though FYI). 

Elafonisi Beach

For Monday morning we had arranged with our roommates in the hostel to rent a car, (luckily they're from Italy & Greece, since neither of us have an international license) and drive to Elafonisi beach, one of the most gorgeous beaches in Crete! Before we left a woman from Canada was checking in so we invited her to come along as well. It was a fun road trip. We went through an impressive gorge and saw hundreds of sheep and goats that free range. Sadly the day had off and on rain storms, so we weren't able to see everything. But nonetheless it was still stunning. I didn't realize Crete would have so many mountains and be so hilly. Aside from looking at the scenery we were amazed at how the "large" highway through the island would become a tiny little road that wound around neighborhoods. Also, there are some pretty crazy drivers on those little mountain roads. I'm just glad I wasn't the one driving. We stopped along the way at a tiny Greek Monastery. It was cool to see, but frankly I've seen enough churches for awhile! Afterwards we went to lunch at a tiny legit Greek restaurant. We joked that as soon as we ordered is when they started cooking, but that may have been true. The food was delicious! We got a true taste of Greek hospitality when we got after lunch shots (homemade) and biscuits and some sort of candied fruit w/ yogurt for desert! These after lunch treats are free because it's just traditional to give these things to guests! A few more minutes down the road and was the beach. It is amazing! supposedly you can walk all the way across to an island. But since the day was cold and off and on rain we didn't attempt that, and were satisfied with just walking along the sand and picking pretty shells. The sand here was a bright pink which with the deep blue water was breathtaking! By time we got back to Chania we were all pretty tired. So that night Ali and I watched Clash of the Titans while finishing up the food we couldn't bring back. Needless to say, we are insane party animals who should probably bring it down a few notches... 

I truly loved Greece! The people are so wonderful and helpful and it was great to spend a few days resting our exhausted feet! We were also surprised at the number of cats and dogs around (countless). We constantly got little friends that followed us! It was pretty fun to see animals! Because it was so early in the year I never got the guts to go more ankle deep in the water, so I sadly didn't get to swim in the Mediterranean Sea, but that's just another reason so I can go back some day! Even though Crete is a short plane ride from Rome (2 hrs) and is also considered Southern Europe, the culture and people here were vastly different and it was incredible to see and experience.

I am now in the Oslo airport where I get to sit until my flight to London tomorrow morning at 7. I could easily have gone home, but I decided to save money by not taking a extra round trip of the airport bus just for a few hrs back home. I am excited to go to the UK but I will definitely be ready to not travel for a few weeks once I'm back. Living out of a backpack and getting mediocre showers for 2 weeks is a tiring way to live. I look forward to a nice hot shower and clean clothes even though my experiences are nothing short of amazing.

My Roman Holiday

In the Colosseum

Rome is officially my current favorite city... (though I seem to say that after every city)

Lets see if I can describe our trip in Rome without writing a novel

When we got off the train into Rome we were immediately overwhelmed! First of all we forgot to copy our directions to the hostel the last time we had wifi (sometime in Venice), so we literally had no idea where to go, we tried McDonalds who claimed they had wifi but McDonald's in Rome is a complete chaotic explosion, people everywhere.. it was nuts and the wifi didn't work. Finally I texted Kyle to login to my email and pull up the directions and then text me what it said. Thank god he had just woken up for work and that I get a few international texts every month!!!

After we got our directions we found our way to the hostel which is also owned by the owners of a little Italian restaurant where we got free breakfast & 10% off other meals. Score! The hostel was also very clean (unlike the Venice hostel) except our beds where like a brick.

Since we arrived by 1pm we spent that day exploring fountains, churches, ruins and random streets and places around our hostel. We found the Fountain of Trevi, a super famous and the largest fountain in Rome. And of course we threw coins into it, which ensures that we will return to Rome some day. We also found "the big white building", we later learned it was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It's this HUGE white building, with a constant guard, covered in statues and typical Roman architecture. Wandering behind it we found the Ancient Rome ruins which lead to the Colosseum. Since the sun was setting and we had dinner plans we decided to not explore further yet. That night Ali & I met up with her brother's girlfriend who is studying in Rome for a few weeks at a Catholic campus. We got a delicious free dinner and then went into town where we found a local college bar decorated in US college banners!! I saw UW and CU, but sadly no CSU, but Ali's school UND was there!

The next day we went back to the Ancient Rome area and actually paid an entrance fee for something! (a rare thing for us cheap travelers) We figured the Colosseum was worth 12 euros. After thoroughly exploring ruins and churches alike we met up again with our friends from Oslo (the ones we met up with in Venice) for lunch and then we spent the rest of the day with them sitting by a river, sun bathing and drinking wine. For dinner that night we met up with their host (they were couch surfing instead of using hostels) who took us to a local bar where we got a drink + unlimited food for extremely cheap! It was really nice to spend the second half of the day relaxing and eating/drinking. Since we've arrived in Italy a week ago it's been go-go-go and we were starting to ache and get exhausted!

Thursday we went to Vatican City (Maundy Thursday, great timing!). On the way though we stopped by the Castel Sant' Angelo (Angels & Demons anyone?). It was a cool, perfectly round castle, with of course the expected angel statue on top! At the Vatican we went into St. Peters Basilica which was HUGE and gorgeous and then headed over to the Vatican Museum where we literally saw thousands and thousands of statues and paintings. All of the walls and ceilings where covered with these stunning paintings, there was a hall of tapestries woven into amazing pictures, a hall of maps that are still used to study ancient cities and the statues where from Ancient Greek and Roman times through more current, there was even an Egyptian pottery section and finally modern/contemporary art. According to a tour guide (who we may have followed/eavesdropped on) it would take 20 years to look at each art item individually because of how many there where. We ended in the Sistine Chapel where pictures where not allowed and yet everybody took them.. so I did too! After seeing so much art we were kind of sick of it and ready to be done by the end, (it took 2 hrs to see it all!). But it was still extremely impressive! I wish I could paint even 1/2 as good as any of the art we saw. Though sometimes I wonder if future art analysts will wonder what happened in the 21st century to make our art digress so much (I'm not a huge contemp art fan). After the museum we got the worlds BEST gelatto! You chose the size/price cone you want and then get as many scopes as you want for no extra charge + whip cream! ( I definitely got 3 scoops!) On top of the amazing amounts you get for much lower prices than other places in town, it really did taste the best and have the coolest flavors! (I highly recommend Old Bridge Gelattoria in the Vatican for anyone that visits)

By Friday we only had one main thing left to see, the Pantheon. The funny thing was that neither of us actually knew what it was. Turns out it's another church. This day our feet hurt so bad! We were literally in so much pain we had to take many breaks to just sit. We had powered through so much of this huge city in 3 days that we by Friday we were worn out and just spent the day wandering, eating and shopping. Apparently in Rome though you can't sit at a random fountain's park bench to eat McDonalds (yes we had that twice in Rome, it's cheap!), we tried to enjoy a quite lunch in a plaza but got chased off by a angry police woman. We found several cute and peaceful parks we wandered through and a couple local Italian neighborhoods that were absolutely stunning! We found one park that overlooked the whole city. It was cool to see all the statues that adorn the top of many of the buildings. That night we just packed in early and watched The Help on my computer. We are some pretty wild party girls.

Rome was amazing. It's hard to describe the city exactly. The atmosphere in parts was very city-ish but in other parts it felt like a small town. Overall it was huge! There is no way we covered even half of the full city, we just got to explore the center part and all the main tourists areas. It was extremely warm and I even burned one day. As beautiful as Venice was, it is extremely touristy, and while Rome obviously has parts that are touristy as well, it was easier for us to find areas away from it all and get to see true Italy. I only disliked two things. 1) we found out that unless you go somewhere very expensive all the food is frozen, not quite what I was hoping for. 2) The men are kinda gross, we've never felt so objectified in our lives. They openly stare, whistle etc to any girl that walks by (even to women with their husbands!). Other than these things, which I was able to ignore, it was great! Rome is a city I could never live in (I'm not a city girl by any means) but I know that I definitely want to go back!

We left Rome on a perfect day, it was stormy and rainy this morning. And now I'm in Greece soaking up even warmer sun and the beach! I can't believe this is real sometimes

Italian countryside 

Fountain of Trevi

UW banner

Colosseum

St. Peters Basilica

Hall of Maps + Ceiling paintings

Old Bridge Gellatoria!!

Beautiful Venice

Ali & I eating ice cream in a park

I’m writing this from my “lovely” hostel common room.

Even though the hostel experience left something to be wanted this city has been nothing short of spectacular!

When we got off our plane into some town outside of Venice, we were immediately thrown into massive confusion and crowds. Our airport-bus dropped us off at the bus station but our directions from the hostel said to start from the train station... getting from A to B was confusing madness as the buses we took didn’t announce when a stop is approaching or the name of the stop (needless to say we missed our stop at least once). Eventually we found our way to the hostel, which is a bit away from the main part of town

Sunday morning we set off to find our way to actual Venice. This was also a difficult and confusing journey to figure out so once we got there we were very happy. Before, when I thought of Venice I figured only a small part of the city would be the picturesque parts you see on brochures and pictures. However, literally the whole city is these islands and canals. Bridges and tiny narrow streets are the town.

I’m pretty sure we took pictures of every canal and picture only to realize later they are all the same. But nonetheless they are all gorgeous. At times I felt like I was in a dream. I can’t believe I am able to just fly to Italy for Easter Break and spend several days in such a beautiful place.

That evening we met up with some friends that are also studying in Oslo. It was Amy’s birthday and we spent it eating Italian food and drinking Italian wine (perfect huh?) We made a interesting but very fun group of all native English speakers but with so many different accents and dialects. We had British, Australian, Canadian and 3 Americans and it was just a lot of fun eating and being in a large loud group. Once we split up again to go back to our respective hostels we found out that Venice at night is like a large dark labyrinth. It’s a crazy maze system with such high buildings you can get very disoriented quickly (and a bit freaked out).

Yesterday we met back up with the other girls for breakfast and a little bit of site seeing before they had to catch their train to Rome. Afterwards Ali & I visited a park at the edge of an island and explored the reminder  of Venice. Our feet were sore from walking on so much cobblestone though so we slowly meandered and took frequent stops at cafés to eat pastries, drink tea and sit in the sun. We almost fell asleep on a dock over the canal at one point. The amount of sweets we consumed is sickening but amazing. I have had so much pizza, croissants, and other itialian sweets and yet my trip is only just beginning!

When we were told Southern European cultural was very different from Northern & Western European they weren't kidding. People here are a lot more forward and pressing than we Americans are used to. Especially traveling as two American girls we get lots of notice just by talking as we go through town. This past day though we decided to speak in Norwegian to try and not stand out with our English. We decided our language was a "Englnorsk" since we had to throw random English words conversations (we're not quite fluent in Norwegian yet). Overall though we were surprised at how much Norwegian we could actually speak when we tried. When you pass shops or restaurants there were people waiting to convince you to come inside, and yet that actually made me less likely to go in. Also the men are very obvious in their observation of women, it made us feel a bit awkward but we're pretty good at ignoring it.

Today is our good-bye to this gorgeous city and a train ride through the Italian countryside to our next destination.. Rome (I'll be able to say "when in Rome:" now)

Gondalas going through a canal

Canal

Mask Shop

Rialto Bridge- most famous in Venice