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| We each had a good sized locker to store valuables |
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| A bit messy....we were getting ready to leave |
Showing posts with label Bergen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bergen. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Marken Gjestehus
Marken Gjestehus was our hostel in Bergen, Norway and we loved it! Here are a few pictures of the room we stayed in. It was a 10 bed female dorm, people came and left every day.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Trapped in a Lobby
Udara & I are in Paris, we got in around 2PM (Europe time!). Already I'm loving Paris and we have only gone to the grocery store, even the groceries are better in France (Sorry Ina, Malene, Katrine, Anne
Grete, Sondre & anyone else reading from Norway) it's the truth! They have chocolate infused everything. It's legit.
While we are on hold THANKFULLY someone opened the door!!! Woooohoooo! I wanted to give that lady the hugest hug ever...but I didn't wanna freak her out so I decided against it.
Good thing, when the operator came back online she said that there wasn't anyone to come open the door to help us until 9AM.
Grete, Sondre & anyone else reading from Norway) it's the truth! They have chocolate infused everything. It's legit.
And of course, as seems to be the trend, our travel plans did not come without bumps. This morning Ina & Sondre came to pick us up to go to the airport at 7:45 to catch our flight at 10:40. Udara and I left right on time, had everything packed up and started walking towards the lobby to take the elevator down with our suitcase. Before we entered the lobby, we dropped our key cards in the key card return for when the lobby is not open. (It opens at 9AM). We walked into the lobby and pressed the elevator button. Pressed it again. Still nothing, it is an older elevator so I just started pressing it a bunch of times. Well, guess we aren't taking the elevator today. Stairs it is. But wait! You need a key card to get out of the lobby and to the stairs. Great. We are trapped in the hostel lobby while Ina & Sondre are waiting for us and we have a flight to catch!
We texted Ina to see if she could come in from the outside. Sondre tried but you still need a key card to get in from the outside.
Meanwhile any time anyone walked by the door I knocked loudly on it hoping someone would open it!
No luck.
Udara sees a 'emergency security' phone on the wall. Its a 50/50 shot that this phone is about to make a call to the local police and create a whole scene. So we take the chance, talk to the operator and she puts us on hold while she finds more information about our situation.
(meanwhile I'm still banging on the door)While we are on hold THANKFULLY someone opened the door!!! Woooohoooo! I wanted to give that lady the hugest hug ever...but I didn't wanna freak her out so I decided against it.
Good thing, when the operator came back online she said that there wasn't anyone to come open the door to help us until 9AM.
After we got out of the lobby we lugged our backpacks and suitcase down four flights of stairs.
BUT WE MADE IT! (thankfully with no further complications)
Exploring the city tonight before dinner :)
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| We are trapped :( |
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Redneck Santa
After a lazy rainy morning Udara & I began to wander the city again in the late afternoon. The rain cleared up so we took the opportunity for some more exploring. I don't think I have explored the ins and outs of one city so much before!!!
We ended up by the wharf/fisherman's market/Bryggen again, this time walking through the shops.
It is interesting walking around the shops in Bryggen because they are all tilting to one side. There are restoration regulations because the buildings are a historic site so not much can be done to change the outside of the buildings. This makes the stairs (and the rest of the buildings) tilt slightly to the side (they don't seem very sturdy.) It makes for interesting pictures though!
One store that we went in to was a year round Christmas store. Most of the store had cute Christmasy things then we came across this.
I ended up having good ol' McD's for dinner. I'm looking forward to cheap food that isn't a sandwich or fast food when we go to other countries!!! Paris tomorrow, staying with Udara's aunt, uncle & cousins...I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!
We ended up by the wharf/fisherman's market/Bryggen again, this time walking through the shops.
It is interesting walking around the shops in Bryggen because they are all tilting to one side. There are restoration regulations because the buildings are a historic site so not much can be done to change the outside of the buildings. This makes the stairs (and the rest of the buildings) tilt slightly to the side (they don't seem very sturdy.) It makes for interesting pictures though!
One store that we went in to was a year round Christmas store. Most of the store had cute Christmasy things then we came across this.
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| Drunken redneck Santa drinking unknown concauction. |
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Bachelor Party Extravaganza
Yesterday Udara & I walked around Bergen and ended up around the wharf area/Bryggen again. We ended up having Indian food for dinner (When we couldn't find the Norwegian food restaurant we walked all over the place to find.) Oh well! That's what we get for attempting to make plans on this trip. No plans = complete adventure and no disappointments. Yesterday we also started a project which will hopefully turn out (If it does I will post it a few weeks after we come home) Hope so, it will be pretty cool if it does!
Today (First day of June already?!??) We met up with Anne Grete (Ina's mom) and Malene (Ina's middle sister) in Bergen. I'm glad they were able to make it down!! (Sorry for all the ridiculous snapchats everyone) We went to Peppes Pizza for lunch, yum! But on the way to lunch is when we stumbled across a bachelor party. The groom-to-be was dressed in a very extravagantly ridiculous outfit (wish we got a picture), he asked us to be a part of a sort of scavanger hunt by being in a large group picture. So we are now in a picture with two groups of random strangers. The picture when Katrine came to visit with the Asian couple and now the bachelor party. Ina says that this doesn't happen in Bergen often...i'm not so sure....
Laptop battery is about to die, i'll post more pictures tomorrow! Off to Paris on Monday, I can't wait to practice my French :)
Today (First day of June already?!??) We met up with Anne Grete (Ina's mom) and Malene (Ina's middle sister) in Bergen. I'm glad they were able to make it down!! (Sorry for all the ridiculous snapchats everyone) We went to Peppes Pizza for lunch, yum! But on the way to lunch is when we stumbled across a bachelor party. The groom-to-be was dressed in a very extravagantly ridiculous outfit (wish we got a picture), he asked us to be a part of a sort of scavanger hunt by being in a large group picture. So we are now in a picture with two groups of random strangers. The picture when Katrine came to visit with the Asian couple and now the bachelor party. Ina says that this doesn't happen in Bergen often...i'm not so sure....
Laptop battery is about to die, i'll post more pictures tomorrow! Off to Paris on Monday, I can't wait to practice my French :)
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Are we famous?
Second day exploring Bergen today. We met up with Ina & Katrine and went to Bryggen and the fish market. While we were waiting to cross the street to go get something to eat, a middle-aged asian woman walked up to all of us and pointed at her husband who had a camera. At first we thought she wanted us to take a picture of them. It took a while to figure it out because she didn't speak a word of English or Norwegian but we soon found out that nope, she wanted to take a picture with us. So we took a picture with some random lady....then we figured why not? and we took a picture with her and her husband. Probably the funnies part of the day. Why did she want to take a picture with us do you ask? We have no idea....most likely guess is that she thought we were famous, or crazy looking.
After our random picture incident and lunch we walked around the area some more and ended up at Bergen's fortress. Udara and I were amazed by it and had a fun time looking around and taking pictures. We all talked about the fact that awe towards a place or event or anything really is subjective to how you grew up and where you are from. Seeing someone else experience something for the first time that you see all the time really helps you to see your surroundings in a new way. This is exactly how I felt showing Ina around places in California, it makes you appreciate what is around you!
More exploring of Bergen tomorrow! Maybe some hiking? Who knows!
After our random picture incident and lunch we walked around the area some more and ended up at Bergen's fortress. Udara and I were amazed by it and had a fun time looking around and taking pictures. We all talked about the fact that awe towards a place or event or anything really is subjective to how you grew up and where you are from. Seeing someone else experience something for the first time that you see all the time really helps you to see your surroundings in a new way. This is exactly how I felt showing Ina around places in California, it makes you appreciate what is around you!
More exploring of Bergen tomorrow! Maybe some hiking? Who knows!
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| Fortress...legit door! |
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| Part of the fortress |
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| Taking pictchaaaaz |
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| Our new tourist friends ;) (I'm cracking up) |
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| Walkway to the fortress |
Finally in Norway!!!
The wait is over, after over a year of planning and waiting the summer we have been hoping would come faster is finally here. Udara and I are off on our adventure. This first post will be a long one because I have some catching up to do!
Summer was kicked off with my cousin Melissa & Luke's wedding in Colorado. It has been a while since I have been to a state outside California so it was a nice change! Always fun seeing the CO Georges too. (I guess CO George/Fraizers now!) The morning after the wedding the family left our hotel at 5:30AM CO time (4:30AM CA) to go to the Denver airport to start my day of travel. Once at the LAX airport we met up with Udara at the American Airlines terminal only to find out that our flight was United, at the terminal our flight from Denver had landed in. First bump in the road! We had a quick flight to San Francisco, after we finally got into the air. We were delayed about 30 minutes on the ground waiting in the plane on the runway to take off. (Bump #2) This delay caused us to have 15 minutes to make our next flight, 10 after we got off the flight and spoke to the United clerk to hold the flight. On our way to our gate we asked an airport officer where our gate was and guess what?? Bump #3! It was his first day and he had no idea. We were those girls...running across the airport frantically looking at the signs to figure it out. I guess eventually everyone is in that position sometime or another. But we made it, barely. They were about to call our names when we (speed/sped) walked to the gate, last ones there for the flight. But, that did mean we didn't have to wait around in the terminal for our next flight! So we were off to Copenhagen, and I was hitting my halfway mark for travel, about 13 hours in out of my eventual 27. Once to Copenhagen we found our gate to Bergen and went through passport security without a problem. Finally landed in Bergen aaaand, bump #4, Udara's bag is missing. They still haven't found it.
But, even though we had to jump through a few hoops to get here, WE MADE IT! Ina & Sondre picked us up at the airport, I can't believe it has been two years since Ina and I have seen each other, two years too long!!! We arrived at Marken Gjesthuse as I hit the 27th hour.
Two days ago (our arrival day/Tuesday) we used an elevator with a gate for the first time, that was cool :) Marken is a really good hostel, a good first hostel I hear as most have told me that this is very nice. We were pretty tired so we settled in & went right to sleep.
Today we wandered around Bergen with nowhere in particular in mind. We stumbled upon Johanneskirken(church), Bergen's city park & a museum of religious history at a university (which we got into free with Udara's student ID) There was one interesting exhibit called 'animals you wouldn't want to see in real life.' Freaky. After our day of exploring we walked to Ina and Sondre's apartment (where we got buzzed in, we are from Lake Forest its exciting, OK?) then to Nygårdsparken for a BBQ, chicken & shrimp skewers, corn, salad, & potato salad. Good stuff! We walked back to our hostel at 9:30 PM and it was still light out, weird (and convenient) that we can walk home late and still see everything around us!
Summer was kicked off with my cousin Melissa & Luke's wedding in Colorado. It has been a while since I have been to a state outside California so it was a nice change! Always fun seeing the CO Georges too. (I guess CO George/Fraizers now!) The morning after the wedding the family left our hotel at 5:30AM CO time (4:30AM CA) to go to the Denver airport to start my day of travel. Once at the LAX airport we met up with Udara at the American Airlines terminal only to find out that our flight was United, at the terminal our flight from Denver had landed in. First bump in the road! We had a quick flight to San Francisco, after we finally got into the air. We were delayed about 30 minutes on the ground waiting in the plane on the runway to take off. (Bump #2) This delay caused us to have 15 minutes to make our next flight, 10 after we got off the flight and spoke to the United clerk to hold the flight. On our way to our gate we asked an airport officer where our gate was and guess what?? Bump #3! It was his first day and he had no idea. We were those girls...running across the airport frantically looking at the signs to figure it out. I guess eventually everyone is in that position sometime or another. But we made it, barely. They were about to call our names when we (speed/sped) walked to the gate, last ones there for the flight. But, that did mean we didn't have to wait around in the terminal for our next flight! So we were off to Copenhagen, and I was hitting my halfway mark for travel, about 13 hours in out of my eventual 27. Once to Copenhagen we found our gate to Bergen and went through passport security without a problem. Finally landed in Bergen aaaand, bump #4, Udara's bag is missing. They still haven't found it.
But, even though we had to jump through a few hoops to get here, WE MADE IT! Ina & Sondre picked us up at the airport, I can't believe it has been two years since Ina and I have seen each other, two years too long!!! We arrived at Marken Gjesthuse as I hit the 27th hour.
Two days ago (our arrival day/Tuesday) we used an elevator with a gate for the first time, that was cool :) Marken is a really good hostel, a good first hostel I hear as most have told me that this is very nice. We were pretty tired so we settled in & went right to sleep.
Today we wandered around Bergen with nowhere in particular in mind. We stumbled upon Johanneskirken(church), Bergen's city park & a museum of religious history at a university (which we got into free with Udara's student ID) There was one interesting exhibit called 'animals you wouldn't want to see in real life.' Freaky. After our day of exploring we walked to Ina and Sondre's apartment (where we got buzzed in, we are from Lake Forest its exciting, OK?) then to Nygårdsparken for a BBQ, chicken & shrimp skewers, corn, salad, & potato salad. Good stuff! We walked back to our hostel at 9:30 PM and it was still light out, weird (and convenient) that we can walk home late and still see everything around us!
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| Udara at the steps to Johanneskirken |
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| Tulips at the Univeristy in Bergen, lots of blooming flowers |
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| University building |
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| As we walked through the museum, we saw normal religious relics, paintings, triptychs, etc......then.... |
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| This room came along, right after the room about Lutheranism. What? -_- |
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| Bergen City Park, amazing blue skies & blooming flowers |
The link to Udara's blog is: http://udarable.weebly.com/1/category/all/1.html
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