Way Overdue: Spain, Easter, Most of the Month of April, and Exams!

Wow, my last post was like a month ago, which is totally crazy to me. I somehow have neglected my blog for an entire month, and for that I apologize. I’m clearly not responsible enough for this! And seriously, how did a month go by?! Yikes.

Spain

So anyway, as I mentioned in my last blog post, I spent nine awesome days in Spain! In lieu of a super detailed account, I am going to just give some highlights of my favorite experiences in each city. My (900+) photos on FB should be able to fill you in on any other details that you might want to know. Otherwise leave me a comment and I’ll probably respond to it within the next month ;).

Days 1-3: Barcelona

Barcelona was great—such a beautiful city in a beautiful location; right on the Mediterranean Sea. One of the things that I forgot about Barcelona is that it is Catalonia, so Catalyn is the main language that is spoken there. Speaking Spanish usually ended up with people responding to me in English, which ended up being a recurring theme during my trip. *sigh*

These are the highlights from my time there (not really in any particular order):

• La Sagrada Família; seriously the coolest church I’ll probably ever see. Massive and awe-inspiring. This was my favorite attraction in all of Barcelona, and among the top things that I have seen in any of my traveling.
• La Catedral; beautiful cathedral
• Museu Picasso; art museum for Pablo Picasso—I enjoyed it, but art museums aren’t my favorite
• Montjuïc; very cool park on the hillside—very great views of the sunset and of Barcelona’s cityscape
• Hiking on the hillside by a castle; great views of the sea and of the city
• Església De Santa Maria Del Mar; another cool church
• La Boqueria; HUGE marketplace off of La Rambla (below); I went here for lunch one day and realized how rusty my Spanish skills were
• La Rambla; very long pedestrian street with shops, cafes, etc.
• Walking along the waterfront and beaches
• Getting my first-ever haircut by someone other than my mom (who is a cosmetologist); not as scary as I had expected and it was desperately needed, haha

Days 4-6: Madrid

On the morning of Day 4, I took the AVE (high-speed train) from Barcelona to Madrid. The train ride itself was a trip highlight for me because I love trains and infrastructure, so I was nerding out a little bit, haha. The train’s top speed was 306km/h (190mph!!!), and it only took 2 hours and 45 minutes to travel the 621km (386miles) from Barcelona to Madrid. Mind. Blown. Rail travel in Europe is fantastic! And it was very cool to see the scenery change throughout the journey.

Highlights from my time in Madrid (some of the descriptions were copied from a tourism website; plagiarism is unintentional):

• Plaza Mayor; very cool enclosed plaza with cafes and unique architecture
• Templo de Debod; An authentic 2nd Century BC Egyptian temple in the middle of Madrid; the temple was closing when I got there, but I caught a great view of a beautiful sunset, so no complaints on my end!
• Casa de Campo; HUGE park right to the east of Madrid; I spent an afternoon hiking here, which was a very welcome break from the urban scenery that I had been seeing; great views of the mountains that are near Madrid and some very cool nature
• Madrid Cathedral. Very beautiful cathedral right across from the royal palace; lots of natural light and very serene
• Plaza de Oriente. Beautiful square located in front of the Royal Palace.
• Royal Palace. Huge royal palace (apparently the biggest in Europe), very interesting to see, although royal palaces all seem very similar to me at this point, haha; awesome collection historical of weapons and armor in the armory
• The Rastro Flea Market; GIANT market in the streets of Madrid; I remember learning about this in high school Spanish class, so I figured I would check it out; so many different vendors, I almost couldn’t believe it; I didn’t end up buying anything (I’m not a big souvenir guy), but it was cool to see so many people enjoying the Sunday morning in this market
• Parque del Buen Retiro; park right in the middle of the city; I liked it, but it was super crowded and dirty when I went in the daytime—it was more enjoyable at night (I’m probably just a park snob)
• Gran Vía. Long pedestrian street near the hostel I stayed in; lots of shops and cafes
• Randomly meeting another American (not uncommon at all) in my hostel and going out with her for a night of tapas and drinks! Part of the fun of solo traveling is meeting new people, and I’m glad that I had a chance to meet new people that way. Later that night, we ran into a girl from Minnesota and a guy from Wisconsin in the same bar within 5 minutes of each other. That was a little bizarre—it’s a small world!
• Hanging out with my friend Chloe and her family! This was a definite highlight of my time in Madrid. My friend Chloe is studying abroad in Seville and her family was coming to visit her, so she was meeting them in Madrid. So we met up the day before they got there and hung out. It was so nice to see a friend from home, and we had a lot of fun exploring Madrid. Her family arrived the next day and they were kind enough to let me do some more touring of Madrid with them. They even bought me churros and (a steak!) dinner—talk about generous people! 🙂 Her family reminded me a lot of my own family, which was very welcome, even though it made me pretty homesick!

Days 7-8: Seville

I also took the AVE to Seville (Sevilla in Spanish). Not as fast as the one from Barcelona to Madrid, but still faster than any other train in the United States. (*cries*) I should mention here that I was in Seville at the height of Semana Santa (Holy Week). For Holy Week, different brotherhood organizations from local churches organize MASSIVE processions in the street with wooden floats of Mary and Jesus (carried by people). The processions are a very important cultural tradition for Spanish people, and it was really interesting to see them from an outside perspective. Although to be totally honest, I got a little annoyed by the processions when I was trying to go specific places. The streets of Seville are super narrow and very confusing, and I would often walk down a street and run into another street that was either packed with people or closed off due to the celebrations. But it was still a good time in Seville!

Highlights of Seville:

• Plaza de España; huge plaza with a fountain, canals, and really cool architecture; I went on a walking tour that stopped through here, and I wish that I had gone back here to see more of it!
• Maria Luisa Park very cool urban park (apparently the only park near the city center) near the plaze
• Las Setas; very weird honeycomb/waffle shaped sculpture/awning/observation deck (look at my photos—it’s impossible to explain without seeing picture of it); very cool views of Seville and the surrounding area from the top of it!
• Real Alcázar de Sevilla; I almost didn’t go here because I have been to a lot of royal palaces throughout my travels and many of them seem really similar to me, but I decided to go here after the recommendation of another American traveler who I met in Spain; This place was incredible! So much unique architecture, massive gardens, ponds, etc. It was a definite highlight of Seville. I spent almost an entire afternoon here, and it was well worth the admission price (student discounts FTW!).

Day 9: Málaga

I took a train from Seville to Málaga early in the morning on the 9^th day. It was still dark when I finally got to the train station (after getting lost in the streets of Seville for a worrisome amount of time—almost missed my train!). Only having one day in Málaga (and not knowing much of anything about the city), I planned on using the day for relaxing and hanging out at the beach. And that is exactly what I did. I spent most of the afternoon at the beach. I swam in the ocean for the first time ever (for about 5 minutes, because the water was super cold). But I mostly laid out on the beach and enjoyed the day, even though it got cloudy and was cooler than in Madrid or Seville (both of which were HOT, especially coming from Norway). My Irish skin burned to a crisp when I fell asleep on the beach (even though it was cloudy—darn solar radiation!), which was not fun at all. Yes, I had sunscreen, but I couldn’t reach my back so I didn’t bother applying it. Solo traveler probs, I guess. *sigh* After my time at the beach was up, I went back to the hostel and walked around the city a bit. I went to a very cool castle/garden at the top of a very tall hill, which offered some great views of the city and the sea. I wanted to go into the castle, but I had somehow left my wallet at the hostel, so I couldn’t get in. Oh, well! I spent the evening relaxing and getting ready for my long day of traveling back to Oslo the next day, which went off without issue.

Easter

I spent Easter by myself in Oslo. A lot of the day I spent on Hangouts calls talking with my family; I even got to experience a bit of the annual Schwarz Family Croquet Game/Fight, which was highly entertaining. It was fun to talk to my family, but video chat isn’t the same as being there. And I definitely missed out on some great food. I went to Easter Mass in Oslo (which was in English) that night and it ended up being a pretty uneventful day.

Most of the Month of April

So it’s almost the end of April, which is totally crazy (I’m going home in like a month!). I have spent most of April finishing up readings for classes and getting organized for exams (which start tomorrow/technically today—shit!). I’ve also been running a lot more, ramping up for this summer. (The trails of Oslo have destroyed my trail running shoes. And my huge feet mean that I am making do with what I have for the rest of time here, because I haven’t seen my size in any stores.) And I would be lying if I didn’t say that my Netflix addiction has been out in full force—thankfully I have managed to tone it down now that I am entering into the beginning of the end…

Exams

My exams begin in about 9 hours (yikes!). I have a take-home exam that becomes available tomorrow, which I have two weeks to complete. And then a few days before that exam is due, I have a written exam (on May 6^th). And my last exam is a paper that is due on May 18^th (although I want to finish it before then). So right now is really the beginning of the end, as I will be spending most of my remaining time in Norway on my exams (which make up all of my grade, so the need to do well is very real). Not really sure when I will be updating my blog next, but I will make an effort (for real this time).

As always, thanks for reading!

-TJS

Copenhagen and Berlin

Well, shit. It’s definitely been much more than a week since I last posted. It turns out that traveling almost constantly while being a student is harder than it sounds. (I’ll try to post once a week from here on out, but don’t take it personally if I forget! I’ll keep doing bi-weekly posts at the bare minimum.) I’ve been spending most of the time that I’ve not been traveling over the past three weeks catching up on readings and working on assignments, doing summer internship hunting/interviewing, and trying to get settled back into things here in Oslo. (As I basically have been all over the place for the past few weeks.) Since my last post, I have been in Denmark, Sweden (only for 3 hours, but I’m counting it anyway!), and Germany with my sister, Laura. It was so great to have her over here in Europe with me, and I am so blessed that she was able to visit and travel with me! I have been feeling very homesick lately, and she helped me feel much better in that regard (at least temporarily). I just recently uploaded my pictures of Copenhagen (with a few pictures from the brief amount of time we spent in Sweden, haha) and Berlin to Facebook. Links are my Photos page! I’m not going to be as detailed with travel descriptions for this post because I have new episodes of “House of Cards” to watch on Netflix yet. 😉 Also, Laura promised that she would write a guest blog post, which I am sure will be more detailed and engaging than what I have to say. Look forward to that soon!

17 February 2015-21 February 2015: Copenhagen, Denmark!

Laura got to Copenhagen one day before I did, so she was able to get familiarized with the city a little quicker than I was. After being a total idiot on several fronts in the airport (I somehow ended up going through passport control twice when I didn’t need to go through it at all and then I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the airport, haha), I finally got myself a ticket to the central train station to meet Laura and head to the hotel.

My initial impressions of Copenhagen were that it is very similar to Oslo, albeit much busier and much grimier. Also, there were bikes EVERYWHERE! I loved that aspect the most. So many bikes! It was fantastic. We actually decided to rent bikes for two days while we were there so that we could explore the city better and not have to rely on the public transportation (which I found very disappointing and very expensive compared to Oslo). Biking around the city was definitely a highlight of the trip. Copenhagen has excellent cycling infrastructure (makes Minneapolis/St. Paul look like a total joke), and it was great to have the freedom to bike around. I contacted my buddy Alex who had studied abroad in Copenhagen for some advice on what to see, and he asked a girl he knew who was from there for some suggestions; she sent a huge list, so it was awesome to have some local insight into what to see!

Highlights:

• Biking around
• Seeing the Danish crown jewels in the treasury and the surrounding palace
• The Round Tower (a tower on a church that had a very cool observation deck)
• Having to run to find an ATM after learning that the restaurant we just ate at didn’t accept cards
• Amagerfælled, a really cool park that we biked through
• The Danish Museum, which was overwhelming with history
• Taking the train across the sea to Malmö, Sweden for dinner and the most expensive drink I have ever purchased (on accident—I don’t want to talk about how much it was, ugh!)
• Kastellet, a really unique star-shaped fortress

21 February 2015-24 February 2015: Back to Oslo for School, Then Back to Traveling

Laura heads to Berlin while I head back to Oslo for reading and classes. (She had more fun than I did.) After class on Tuesday, I head to the airport and fly to Berlin. As part of my ongoing theme of being an idiot in airports, I naturally somehow buy a 35EUR public transit pass on accident for my 3.5 days in Berlin. (Man, I’m scared to check my online banking—traveling is so expensive! Especially when you’re as stupid as I am.) After a brief stressful period wherein my phone (which had my directions on it) almost died in a country where I can speak like 5 phrases in the native language (one of which is asshole-ish and another is part of a family joke that would be weird to explain), I managed to find Laura and meet up with her at a Vietnamese restaurant. After eating, we went to a grocery store, where I consequentially FREAKED OUT at how inexpensive everything was. Norway is a super expensive country, so I loved being in Germany, which was the cheapest country that I have been to so far.

25 February 2015-28 February 2015: Berlin, Germany!

After an uncomfortable night’s sleep in our bizarre hotel/hostel, we got to work in exploring Berlin. (Seriously, our hotel was weird and frustrating in many ways. It was cheap, so it was super popular among German teenagers on field trips, so that was really strange. And there was no WiFi in the room, which was so annoying.) As Laura had already been there for almost 3 full days before me, we had prioritized attractions/places to visit to maximize our remaining time together. Laura is really directionally-savvy, and she had a great understanding of the new places we were in during the time we spent traveling, which saved a lot of time. We spent much of our time on my first full day there at the Jewish Museum, which outlines Jewish history in Germany and Europe from its beginnings to the present. I found much of the museum to be incredibly sobering (like much of Berlin’s history), as Jewish peoples in Germany were decimated by the Holocaust. Berlin has such an interesting history, and I am glad that I was able to get to see a decent amount of it through museums and historic sites (although there is so much to see there that it would be impossible to see it all).

My second full day was spend walking around through the Tiergarten (an awesome and huge park near the city center and the capitol), visiting more historic sites and museums, and GOING TO THE DECEMBERISTS IN CONCERT!!! Ever since I knew that I was going to be in Europe during The Decemberists’ 2015 European Tour, I had planned on seeing them in concert. They are one of my favorite bands and I actually was able to talk Laura (who also loves them and introduced them to me) into changing her trip dates to align for when they were going to be in Berlin. Unfortunately, we both somehow were expecting the other person to buy the tickets and the concert sold out by the time that I finally went to buy the tickets. After months of Craigslist-searching, Facebook event posting, and whining, we realized that the situation might be hopeless. We decided to go to the venue before the show started to try to get some last-minute tickets. After standing around like desperate idiots for over an hour and another frantic ATM run on my part (which was much more intense and panicky than in Denmark, lol), we managed to get two tickets to the show! We were literally freaking out to the point that it weirded out the men who had sold the tickets to us, but we didn’t care. We got into the show and enjoyed the hell out of it! It was my favorite part of the trip, and it was one of the best concerts that I have ever been to. The next morning I said goodbye to Laura (:(), who headed back home to Minnesota, and explored some more of Berlin by myself.

Highlights:

• The beautiful weather! (At one point is was 50F/10C, which felt incredible! Not that Oslo is cold compared to MN, but warm weather is so invigorating after winter)
• The Tiergarten (We had a picnic there and I also went for a run there the evening that Laura left, which was very cool!)
• The Jewish Museum
• The Topography of Terrors (exhibit/museum on the atrocities committed by the Nazi SS)
• Berlin Victory Column (cool statue/observatory with a great view of the city)
• Brandenburg Gate
• The Decemberists!!!
• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (and the museum, which was heart-wrenching)
• All of the history that I was able to experience and learn about
• Downloading the series finale (:() of “Parks and Recreation” on my phone in a McDonald’s because the hotel WiFi was awful
• How cheap everything was compared to Oslo

It was a great time traveling with Laura, and Copenhagen and Berlin are very cool cities that I am glad to have been able to experience! As I mentioned, Laura promised a guest post to my blog, so look for that soon!

I might go to Tromsø, Norway tomorrow (the uncertainty stems from an ongoing logistical disaster that I don’t want to talk about) for the weekend, so I might have that to report on next time. Otherwise, I will be writing about time spent in Oslo for next time. As always, thanks for reading!

-TJS

Exploring Norway with My Sister!

Hello everyone! For once I am not kidding when I say that this is going to be a quick post. I’m leaving for the airport in 7 hours and I haven’t packed anything yet, so it would irresponsible for me to do otherwise. Naturally, I made up for my written brevity with an insane amount of pictures on Facebook. So, without further ado:

My sister Laura came to Norway to visit me, as I mentioned at the end of my last blog post! After meeting her at the train station on Wednesday, I managed to force her into overcoming her jetlag by doing tourist things throughout Oslo for the day. After I showed her UiO’s campus, we explored Vigelandsparken (a really interesting sculpture park), went to the Viking Ship Museum, explored Akershus (an old fortress), walked on the roof of the Oslo Opera House, and more. I finally let Laura go to bed at 8:30PM; she had been awake for like 30+ hours, so props to her!

On Thursday we went on a fjord cruise at Nærøyfjord, located near the Bergen Railway. What an incredible day! The railway from Oslo to Bergen runs through a mountainous region of Norway, so the scenery is amazing. It made the 5 hour train ride seem to go by much quicker (although the train was so comfortable that it didn’t really matter anyway). We took a bus from Voss to Flam (the railway which we were supposed from Myrdal to take had technical issues, unfortunately) where the fjord tour began. I am not exaggerating when I say that the fjord landscape is the most beautiful natural landscape I have ever seen. It felt almost magical–my inner nature lover and environmentalist were losing it over the mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and jagged rock faces. Look at my pictures, but the pictures don’t do it justice. If you ever get the opportunity to do a fjord cruise, DO IT! Simply incredible.

After the fjord cruise ended (much too soon for our liking), we headed back to Voss on a bus to catch the train to Bergen. We checked into our hostel and ate some dinner and had some drinks at a local pub. We went to bed early, ready to explore our few hours Bergen the next morning.

We spent the morning exploring Bergen. Situated on the edge of the mountains on Norway’s west coast, Bergen is beautiful. We took the Fløibanen (a train thingy) up the mountain to catch a few of the city from the mountainside. Great views! We went down from the mountain and used our remaining time to explore a fortress, check out some shops, and buy some fresh fish from a super friendly fisherman at the Bergen Fish Market. We even got to sample whale meat! We only had until noon before we headed back to Oslo on the Bergen Railway, but we managed to see a decent amount of sites in Bergen and it was great time.

On Saturday we went sledding at a toboggan run (Korketrekkeren) in Oslo, which was fantastic. The run is 2km long and descends 255m. Both ends are near subway stops, so you can just ride the subway back to the top! It was so much fun, but felt incredibly dangerous (and as someone with a history of sledding accidents, I was slightly concerned). But we managed to escape with only some bruises and soreness the next day. Totally worth it!

On Sunday we went to the National Gallery and the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design. I enjoyed both, although art museums aren’t my favorite. We saw several paintings by Edvard Munch, one of Norway’s most famous painters, which was really cool. The design museum had a ridiculous amount of chairs on display–evidently chairs are a common thing to redesign. I also took Laura to Sognsvann, a local lake with skiing and walking trails. It’s one of my favorite places in Olso, so it was cool to be able to show that to her!

Earlier today (technically yesterday because now it’s after midnight *sigh*), Laura flew to Copenhagen, where she is continuing her northern European adventure. Having class today, I stuck around in Oslo to get some stuff done (obviously I procrastinated on all of it, and here we are!). Because it’s “winter reading week”, I have tomorrow and the rest of the week off, which is great for being able to explore Copenhagen (I’m there until Saturday morning). I better start packing. I have to leave for the airport in 6.5 hours now and I need to at least attempt to sleep! Another update about Denmark’s adventures after Saturday! Thanks for reading!

-TJS

Days 0-1: Traveling, Exhaustion, and More!

Well, I made it to Oslo! I’m writing this from my room in the Sogn Student Village near the University of Oslo’s Blindern campus. I am an idiot in that I didn’t have enough willpower to stay awake until a normal bedtime for Oslo’s timezone, which is 7 hours ahead of Minnesota. So I collapsed into bed around 7PM (or I should probably say 19:00—Norway uses 24-hour time) and woke up around 2AM. And naturally, I couldn’t fall back asleep, so bring on the jetlag! I have been up for five hours now (it’s 7:30AM on Tuesday now—technically the second day, but this post is about Day 1), and I figured that I should probably do something other than watch TV shows on my laptop, haha, so here we are.

I said goodbye to my family at MSP Airport on Sunday afternoon after we had an awesome brunch together in St. Paul. If you know me well at all, you’ll know that I have an incredibly close-knit (and large!) family. My parents and siblings are my best friends, and I love them to death. That is probably the thing that I am dreading the most about this entire experience: being away from my family for almost five months. It will be tough, and I know that there are going to be times when I get very homesick, but I plan on communicating regularly with them to avoid this. And my sister Laura is going to visit me in about a month, which is really exciting!

So anyway, after I said farewell to my family, I flew to Paris. I thankfully got a free upgrade to economy comfort (free drinks! 😉 ) from an awesome flight attendant, which was much needed. I barely had enough legroom as it was, so I feel like my normal economy ticket probably would have been miserable. The flight to Paris was pretty uneventful. Watched some TV on my laptop, part of Divergent, started a new book (Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed), and slept for maybe 20 minutes, haha. I had a very short connection of 1 hour and 10 minutes in Paris Charles-De-Gaulle Airport, which I have been stressing about for months (seriously, months). I lucked out in that my flight from MSP arrived 20 minutes earlier than scheduled. I also was near the front of the plane, so I was able to get off of the plane and run to security before everyone else on my flight, which saved a lot of time. I managed to get to the waiting room at the terminal I was flying out of almost an hour before I needed to. And then my flight to Oslo was delayed by 35 minutes anyway, so I ended up with plenty of extra time. All that stressing over nothing. Typical.

After landing in Oslo, I immediately purchased some alcohol in the airport (hey, alcohol is super expensive in Norway and duty-free in the airport is the cheapest—don’t judge), picked up my luggage, got some Norwegian Kroner from an ATM, and purchased a train ticket to the Oslo Central Station. I knew that the public transit was going to be good, but I was blown away by how nice everything was. The express train to the city center was hella fast and it was so smooth that it felt like it wasn’t even moving.

After getting to the train station (which is also crazy-nice) I found the meet-and-greet people from the University of Oslo. We waited awhile for some more new international students to show up before we took off on the metro to campus to check in and get our room keys. I met other students from throughout Europe, one from Australia, and one from Chicago, which was really cool. We all commiserated in being exhausted and ready to stop carrying our heavy luggage everywhere with us. (Seriously. I had like 80 pounds of stuff total throughout a huge duffle bag and my two backpacks, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is a disaster to be carrying for several kilometers.)

The walk to the Sogn Student Village is uphill, which I didn’t realize from my Google Maps creeping. By the time I finally got to my apartment (or “flat”, as it would be called), I was drenched in sweat, which was gross, since I had already been traveling for 12 hours, and totally exhausted. I took a shower right away, got somewhat settled into my room (somewhat is being liberal—my stuff is strewn everywhere), and pretty much went to bed immediately, which I am sure that I will be regretting by the end of today.

I haven’t met my flatmates yet, but I think that they are all girls, which will be a kind of new experience. (My sisters are family, so that only kind of counts in my mind.) They probably think that I’m super weird because I just took a shower and went to bed without making any kind of attempt to introduce myself to them, but that was kind of weird to do and I’m not really sure why I did that either. (Note that I haven’t seen any of them—I didn’t see them and then not introduce myself. I’m not a total weirdo.) Whatever, exhaustion makes a person do stupid things.

So anyway, that was my first day(-ish) in Norway. I have orientation starting at 10:30 with a Welcome Ceremony, and I’m excited to get that underway! More soon (with pictures).

-TJS