Copenhagen and Oslo

We managed to get by the next day in Copenhagen without any coffee. We stayed awake pretty much all night, watching a lovely sunrise from the train. By the time we got to the apartment we stayed in, it was time for lunch, so we ventured out in search of something reasonably priced. Of course we found more falafel! To be exact, we ate falafel pizza sandwiches from pizza house...these were exactly the same as doner kebaps. We found a bench outside of a park to sit on, then went for a walk. At this point, Colleen realized she no longer had her phone and our searching was unsuccessful. So, we got to see what the police system is like in Denmark. It turns out that smart phones are stolen quite frequently in the city, and the police were friendly albeit unhelpful. By this time, it was too late to really explore so we decided that the time had come to start running again. We went for a painful 3 mile run along the back of the zoo.

The next day, we wandered and explored the city. We walked along Nyhavn, the major harbor, which can be described as the scenery that comes to mind when you hear the word 'Denmark.'

Continuing through the shopping district (which was too pricey to even look at), we stumbled across another street performer. This one was unique because instead of breakdancing or playing music, he was juggling fire.

We found Rosenburg Castle, which was surrounded by a moat and botanical gardens. Inside is a museum, dungeon, mausoleum and other attractions, but again we did not go in due to the prices. We did enjoy the scenery, though.

Our walk took us to the Royal Palace, which consists of a main square and four architecturally identical buildings surrounding it. (Maybe they aren't exactly identical, but they looked the same to us.) Just beyond the square was another beautiful church that we poked our heads in.

On the way back, we bought some cheap salads from a grocery store and sat by one of the five "lakes" in the city. We would consider these to be ponds, but they provided a perfect picnic spot regardless. On our way back to the apartment, we discovered an amazing little store that sold fresh juice, smoothies and sandwiches. Of course we had to splurge on smoothies, and thankfully they were worth the price! Later, we decided to run along the "lakes" for a little more scenery than the backside of the zoo.

Early the next morning, we made our way to the train station to continue on to Oslo. Of course, there was another train strike. All of these little obstacles have made us very thankful to have had our Eurail passes! By the time we made it to Oslo, it was 10 pm. The first thing we noticed is that it was still light outside! In Norway, there is much more sunlight during the summer than we are used to. It never really gets dark because the sun doesn't really set...it just moves behind a mountain eventually.

Anyway, we woke up the next morning thankful that we only had to stay in our hostel for one night. It was not the cleanest or friendliest place we have stayed, but it did the job. We walked about 6 miles to explore the city. Just a few blocks away was the Oslo Cathedral, and a few blocks from there was a gorgeous harbor with mountains in the distance. Here we stopped to walk into the gift shop for the Nobel Peace Center. We didn't get to see the actual exhibit because you had to buy tickets, but at least the gift shop was cool.

The next stop was Akershus Festning, which is a military fortress. We got to explore most of it, take more scenic pictures and take one with one of the silent guards. He probably didn't like us very much.

Continuing on our journey, we saw the Parliament building from afar because it was under construction. We also stopped for lunch at 7-11 due to Norwegian prices. We were able to stomach the yogurt and granola, but the pastry concoction with spinach and feta was too disgusting for us to handle.

Our walk led us to Vigeland, a sculpture garden. It seemed to be a very popular place, with a lot of picture-snapping tourists and locals hanging out in the park. The granite sculptures were all of people, and we cannot imagine how long it must have taken to make them all.

By the time we got back to the hostel, we had just enough time to pick up our luggage and head back to the train station for our last train ride in Europe! It took us to the airport, where we boarded a very tiny plane with 25 other people on board and took it to the smallest airport we have ever seen.

We are now in Ørsta, which is on the west coast of Norway. It is absolutely amazing!