On the road...again

Well, after a few days in Oslo, it was time to pack up the bus and head for Sweden.  Sounded good to me.

Our home away from home

After a quick study tour stop at a church just outside of Oslo, the gang and I prepared for a 5 hour bus ride from Oslo to a "midway point" of our trip to Stockholm.  Along the way we saw amazing countryside as we passed into the country of Sweden, a large number of Volvos, countless ABBA CDs at the rest stop we stopped at for lunch, and more blonde haired people I have seen.  SWEEEEEDEN.

We did stop at an art museum right before we hit the bed and breakfast, and we were all quite surprised with the art that was on display.  All watercolors-very cool.  We all got a bit more carried away with the surrounding area that the museum was located; on the banks of an old dam and waterfall, with an old ass bridge crossing it.  Obviously we focused more of our attention there.  The sun was out, the water was nice, it was warm...it just felt...really nice.

That's right...the salmon colored T-shirt made the trip.

Later in the trip we were told that the place we were staying for the night; a bed and breakfast type place, was an old sheriff's home from the 17th century, and the rooms we were staying in used to be the jail cells of that town of Sunne, Sweden.  When we got to the bed and breakfast, we were somewhat speechless...it was absolutely, and remotely, beautiful.  It was something out of a Disney cartoon or something.  Rolling green hills, cows in the distant, a lake and sauna.  Very nice.

Now the Swedes have an interesting summer tradition, where they all sit in really really hot saunas for as long as possible, and then, almost without a word spoken, just get up and run outside and jump in a lake...so guess what we did?  We sweated our asses off to the point where we almost couldn't breathe, and sprinted outside and jumped in the cold lake.  Very refreshing, and we repeated this process over and over again.  No pictures were permitted in the sauna due to previous study abroad trips and "inappropriate" conduct in the saunas with cameras...so here, you'll have to use your imagination.

Norway...

We spent 3 days in and around Oslo, Norway.  When we signed up for this study abroad program, we were told that we should expect it to be intense, and I think we found out why.  The classes aren't that intense, the studio is intense but it's fun.  The schedule; that's the intense part.  We're up at 7AM, everyday, and on the move, sketching and taking pictures and being on study tours or guided tours.  It's great!  But it catches up with you.

Norway was no different.  Norway is a quiet, somewhat isolated city in Norway, with a great topography and amazing scenery.  The locals are mostly away on their vacation ( a 6 week tradition held throughout most of Europe, and an ideal I'd like to promote back in the states), so it has been fairly quiet around Norway.

We saw ancient Norway, the remains of a 12th century fortress and old castles.  We saw new Norway through the Opera House, and the insane Ski Jump high above the city of Oslo.

It is hard to rate or judge a city simply based on a couple days, midweek in July.  Oslo seems like an awesome city with great history and, from what we've learned, a fairly interesting future ahead.  Our packed schedule gave us little time outside of school to explore the city we called home for a few nights. Oslo, I'm afraid I don't know enough about you to give you an accurate rating, so please except my "B-".  No time to dwell though...we need to get our Swerve On in Sweden.

Norway, Day One: Struggle

Struggle.

See previous post.

Running on about an hour of sleep, we had to deboard the ship at 9AM.  FML.  Breakfast was a necessity but a production all in itself.  Shaun Lynch made it to breakfast for a brief amount of time before he was over it, and decided to excuse himself from the table.  Nothing better than drinking the night/morning before, getting no sleep, and having to wait in crowded, hot areas, carrying your bags, waiting to get off the boat.  FML.

We weren't the only ones hurting...it seemed a majority of our classmates were looking a bit rough this morning.  You know, blank stares, no smiling, wearing sunglasses, even though it was cloudy and raining.  No big deal though, we only had an all day walking tour of Oslo.

We dropped our stuff off at our hotel in Oslo, and prepared to walk around and explore yet another foreign city.  We walked by a castle and looked at some pretty cool buildings.

Oslo is an interesting city, and my impressions of it are still being formed.  It was extremely quiet in the city compared to Copenhagen, it was bleak and rainy, but the landscape is amazing and we got a tour of the Oslo Opera House which is just mind blowing.

We explored the National Museum of Contemporary Art and an architecture museum.  All in all, the walking around, the sketching and picture taking, in the end, helped us all feel better from the previous night's events.

The sun doesn't like to set here either.

Needless to say, while we enjoyed what we saw and experienced today, we were all looking forward to calling it an early night tonight to gear up for tomorrow's adventure.

From Norway, this is me signing off for the night.

How did we get here???

Well, we have successfully made it to Oslo, Norway.

For those regulars following, you know that Shaun and myself had the pleasure of taking an overnight ferry from Copenhagen, through the North Sea, along the coast of Sweden up to Norway.  Well, the "ferry" turned out to be more of a cruise...bars, restaurants, casino, bars, dance club, games, bars.  I had the foresight to purchase some tall cans of Tuborg Guld before leaving for the cruise to avoid the ridiculously priced beers.  Winning.

Once through customs and once we found our rooms, it was time to do what everyone does when they're on a boat...drink and be merry.  Led by the charge of our Danish studio instructor, Bo (who was dressed in tight white Euro-pants and a blue and white striped shirt - think Cabin Boy-) we proceeded to drink and take in the awesome sights of sailing up the sound, with Denmark to our west, and Sweden to our east.

Oh hey Denmark, didn't see you there.

Sweden.  See you in a couple days.

It was an unreal experience and Bo was quick to point out landmarks along the way.  Then, it was time to hit the duty free shop.  Good things and bad things eventually came from this first trip to duty free, where everything was significantly cheaper, especially the alcohol.

First, I was "Iced" by a one, Mr. Shaun Lynch.  Damn it.

Fail.

Karma's a bitch though because not much later, his sunglasses were literally ripped off his shirt and swept away to the North Sea by strong winds on deck.

Fail.

We drank and explored the boat and prepped for our buffet dinner around 9.  The wind was constantly howling and it made for some nice photo ops.

I'd say we were all feeling pretty good at dinner time.  For those of you who know me well enough, you know that I have in the past been a pretty selective eater...since travelling that has changed, and last night was no different.  Fish, to shrimp, to meatballs, to pork, and (naturally) chicken wings!  I dominated at least 15 wings.

Now, my words cannot begin to describe the way the rest of the night went, but I'll try.  Rolling around with 6 packs, we explored more of the boat, continued to get to know each other, some swimming in the pool, and eventually we scouted out the night club, which Bo was really pushing for us to experience.  Now when we got there, we ran into 2 of our other classmates, who, were the only 2 dancing on the dance floor...but they were tearing it up.  That's what happens when 2 people punish 4 bottles of wine.

You'll notice there's no more photo documentation of the evening from this point.  At some point I made a power move, and sensing what direction the night might be heading, decided to put my camera away just to be safe.

After feeling out the place, we didn't feel it was a fun atmosphere so we left the club only to find about 8 of our other classmates sitting on the main staircase right out front, just drinking and talking...so we partook, naturally.  This is where the night starts to run together a bit (oh, it's well after midnight at this point).  I run into Shaun again for the first time in awhile so we catch up.  Seems he was move makin' as I expected.  Bottles of Fisk and Vodka made their rounds (thank you duty free) and we all, young and old, male and females, just started ripping swigs from the bottle as we tried to decide what to do next.  Then we heard a relatively new song coming from the club so we peaked our heads in only to see it's packed and the dance floor is going off.  No words were said, no eye contact was made, we all just instinctively made a B-Line for the dance floor to begin to dance our asses off.  For what felt like days we danced up a storm.  I know personally I was swing dancing like a madman, and when LMFAO's Party Anthem came on, we all just went nuts.  Eventually we all began to tire out (or so we thought) and one by one we dropped and decided to leave the club and go up on the top deck to get some air (and yes, the sun only set for about an hour, so it was nice and bright).

I pause here to say that, perhaps the aforementioned doesn't seem too too crazy...basically just drinking and dancing and having a generally good time on a cruise to a foreign country with cool people.   It was a lot of fun and we spent all day today piecing the night together...I now press on.

After getting some air, we decide to hop a guardrail to explore the open part of the ship just in front of the ship's smoke stack...naturally.  We ended up dancing and posing for photos since the wind was ripping through there...it made for some funny pictures.  Next thing you know, a couple of us were scaling the ladder of the exhaust tower on top of the cruise ship.  Yes, that's right, climbing the ladder of an active cruiseliner's smokestack.  Windy. Rediculous. Worth it.

 Here I come

What a view

When we realized how high up our accomplished hike was, we all sort of were in shock.  It's at least 9 stories up off the face of the water.  Would I do it again?  Absolutely.



At breakfast, there was Bo.  In his thick Danish accent, "Ahah, yes.  The party crew?"  My response was (eyes glued to my plate of food) "Bo, you don't even know."

It was an awesome experience and it was definitely a great opportunity to get to know our studio instructor and classmates outside the school setting.

Taking a break from Copenhagen

The big study tour is upon us.

Great One Brandini and Timbo will be heading one way, while Shauny and myself will be going another way.  Great One and Timbo leave tomorrow morning at 7:30AM and set off on a bus trip from Copenhagen all the way to Stockholm, Sweden.  They bounce around there and eventually make it to Helsinki, Finland, then back to Copenhagen next Saturday.

Shaun and myself leave Copenhagen at 5PM tomorrow for a 14 hour ferry ride from Copenhagen to Oslo, Norway.  Should be awesome.  From Oslo, we explore Norway and eventually make our way to Stockholm, Sweden, and then back here to Copenhagen.  We're not sure why they split our studio groups up to go on different trips...but oh well.

Steve and Shaun's Route

Tim and Brandon's Route

Time to go get 2 more stamps in our passport...stay tuned for updates.

The North Sea isn't THAT cold

Today I found out how awesome it is to get around on a bike in Copenhagen.  They have their own bike lanes on just about every road and while it is pretty intense, and requires you to be very aware of what's going on, it's the best way to get around the city very quickly.

We biked, with our studio group, through the city and about 10 miles north along the coast, stopping along the way to check out the view and some impressive buildings.  We also stopped at a couple beaches and at a swimming "bath" where the Danes go swimming when the weather allows...guess who was the first one in the water?  Moi.

While it was quite cold, it wasn't as cold as I had expected and would even say it was warmer than the ocean in San Diego.  Oh yes I did.

If you squint, you can see Sweden on the horizon.

               Shaun and I after swimming in the North Sea

How do you celebrate the 4th of July in a foreign country???

...Act like you're not.  Admittedly it wasn't a traditional day to celebrate America's b-day, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.  We woke up early, got dressed up and headed to school to present our first studio project of the summer.  (We were broken down into small groups, assigned a famous building in Scandinavia and asked to produce a scaled model of it..completing it all in just a little over a weekend.  We all finished on time and were happy with the results.)

Then it was on to classes all afternoon until about 5.  Along with some of our classmates in the program, we decided on the most Americanized bar we could find to take over and let our patriotism out....the LA Bar.  We rolled in to the sweet sounds of Mr. Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".  Winning.  We all got a little silly but were up nice and early this morning for an all day study tour of northern Copenhagen.

We hit up 5 popular architectural sites, mostly places I cannot pronounce or even dare to try and spell on an English keyboard...so I'll just say we went to 2 churches, a furniture design shop, a co-housing complex (interesting, but not really photoworthy), and lastly an art museum called Louisiana which was a lot of fun and extremely interesting as well.

Tomorrow we are getting together with our final studio assignment groups.  The Great Brandini and TimboSlice have the pleasure of being in the same studio group, while LynchieBoy and myself have the same instructor.  Great One and Slice have a kayaking date with their teacher, and ShaUhn and I will be biking up the coast.