Norway/Sweden/Denmark 2019

Thursday, August 22

We left Logan after work and drove straight to the Sheraton without eating. I didn’t eat all day because I had a lot to do before we left so I was starving. When we got to the Sheraton, Tyler was there with his car already and we all hopped in our car and Brett took us to the airport. Once we got to the airport and checked our bags, we went through security and then went to the Sky Club. The food was real food it was just finger food but that was all we had time for unfortunately. Plus we’re cheap ha once we ate something real quick, we went to our gate. Jeff and I got upgraded to first class for the flight and that was great! It was a super quick flight. Once we landed we met Steve at baggage claim so we could ride home with him. He conveniently landed around the same time as us so we were able to catch a ride with him and not Uber! Once we got to Steve and Wendy’s house, we ate sandwiches and talked with everyone. Grandma and grandpa happened to be there at the same time so it was nice seeing them! Then we went to bed. 

Friday, August 23

I slept horribly. It was super hot and I was nervous ha we had to wake up at 3:45am in order to get to our flight in time. Tyler was on a different flight than us so he got to sleep in a little bit longer. Once we got through security we went and got Jamba and sat at our gate. Then we boarded our flight to JFK. I slept almost the whole flight. Once we landed in JFK we had like a 9 hour layover so we were debating leaving the airport and going into the city but we decided it wasn’t worth the cost or the time or the stress. So instead we wandered around for forever looking for decent food. We really wanted to go to this ramen place but it was in terminal five and we were in terminal four and we weren’t sure if they would let us go through security in terminal five so we ended up just choosing a place in our terminal. It was pretty good but very expensive! After we ate we went to the Sky Club and chilled for the rest of our layover. Finally our flight started boarding so we headed to our gate. On our way to the gate we got some Jamba and when we were at Jamba I got a notification that I got upgraded to Delta One but Jeff hadn’t yet. So we boarded and Jeff still didn’t get upgraded. I spent the whole boarding process waiting to see if he would get upgraded but he never did. I felt so bad that he wasn’t up there but I couldn’t do anything so I enjoyed it :) I watched a movie, ate dinner, slept, ate breakfast, slept. It was amazing. 

Saturday, August 25

Then we landed. Tyler’s flight landed just before ours so we met at baggage claim. Customs was SO EASY. The man was super nice! Then we took the train to our Airbnb. We got there about an hour and a half before we could check in so we left our bags at a store called Tourist Point and we went and found food. We ate at a steakhouse and I got chicken and these amazing fries! Once we were done eating we went and checked in to the Airbnb. The Airbnb was pretty cool! It was basically completely white when accents of gold and black. They had the coolest light fixtures! You could pull a string and it would close and you could pull another string and it would open. Sounds stupid but it was so cool haha We were so tired but I knew if we took a nap, it would cause major jet lag so after looking through our Airbnb, we left. It’s always “fun” trying to figure out public transportation when you first get to a new place. Usually we pick it up fairly quickly but Copenhagen took us a little longer. We got on the wrong train so we had to get off on the next stop and take the train going the opposite direction. We tried to buy a city pass but our cards wouldn’t work. Luckily we didn’t buy it though because it was the wrong thing to buy haha I would recommend downloading the Mobilbilletter app. You can type in where you’re going and it will tell you what trains to take and you can buy the tickets directly from the app. It seemed as though public transportation in Copenhagen ran off of the honor code though because our tickets never got checked. Anyway, we finally got on the right train and we went to the colorful buildings on the pier and walked around. I LOVE colorful buildings. I don’t know why. I’m just always drawn to them. The first thing I noticed about Copenhagen was the amount of bikes. SO MANY BIKES EVERYWHERE. After walking around the Harbour for a while, we started walking to the Little Mermaid statue. On the way there we saw a ton of jelly fish in the water. Like right where people were swimming! We thought they were trash floating in the water but they were definitely jellyfish. We also saw city hall and some fun parks on the way. At the Little Mermaid, we were people watching and people are so inconsiderate of other people just to get a good picture! People were surrounding the statue to get a picture and this girl thinks it’s a good idea to walk out to the statue on the rocks and try to get on the statue. On her way, she falls straight into the water. She laughs and gets up and continues on to the statue. She tries to climb the statue but can’t so she just poses next to it for like three minutes. Meanwhile everyone is waiting for her to move so they can take their pictures. It was so annoying! Once we took some pictures without her in them, we continued on wandering around the city. We walked through this beautiful park and we saw a sign that said Hunde Skal Holdes I Snor and we got such a kick out of it haha we would say HUNDE! Skal. Hold on. I snore. Haha it could be that we were running on very little sleep but it was hilarious to us haha we kept wandering through the streets, making our way towards the Round Tower. We walked to the top of the Round Tower and got a great view of the city. On the way down we stopped in the different rooms that had art and artifacts from when they built the tower and then we left to find food. We made our way to the Tivoli Food Hall because it was by our Airbnb and I read that it had great food options in it. Jeff had great luck and got a poke bowl but Tyler went to a place that had run out of everything that he wanted so he just picked the last thing they had and I tried four different places before I found a place that hadn’t run out of what I wanted. So I got a margherita pizza. After eating, we walked to our Airbnb and then went to bed at like 9pm haha

Sunday, August 25

We slept until check out at 11am and then we packed up and took the train to the airport. We checked our bags for free for our flight later and then we ate breakfast at Burger King. After eating, we hopped on the train to Malmö, Sweden. We took the train to the city center and then we got off and started wandering around. We walked through Gamla Staden (old town) and saw St. Petri Cathedral. Then we walked through Stortorget (the square), Jakob Nilsgatan (the cutest street ever) and Slottstradgarden (a garden) on the way to the windmill. After walking around the windmill we chilled in the grass for a while. Then we walked past the Malmöhus Slott (the castle) and we went to find food. We wanted to eat Swedish meatballs so after getting souvenirs we looked online and the only place to go was Bullen. So we walked there and we ate veal meatballs. They were delicious! After we ate we walked back through the square and went to the train station and took the train back to the airport. We got to the airport pretty early so we wanted to find somewhere to sit but there were no seats! They also didn’t have our gate posted so we just wandered through the stores and chose seats in the B gates. We sat there for quite a while before our gate was posted and of course our gate was back in D so we had walked the opposite direction haha once we got to the gate, we boarded pretty quickly and we took Scandinavian Airlines to Bergen. The flight wasn’t long but our flight had been slightly delayed so we didn’t get in until close to 1am. Then we had to buy tickets to take the Flybus into Bergen’s city center. It only took about 20 minutes to get to the city center and we got off and our Airbnb was fairly close. The keys were in a lockbox so we grabbed those and then as we walked forward, this WAY loud alarm started going off and I started getting sprayed with water. It was so confusing! We backed up real quick and saw that the door was right before where the alarm was set so we quickly went through that door. It was terrifying haha once we got inside our Airbnb we read the binder and it said to not go in there between 11pm-7am haha whoops! When we finally went to bed it was like 3am. 

Monday, August 26

We slept in until 11am again and then we got up and took the Flybus back to the airport to get our rental car. We rented from Hertz and we got a hybrid Toyota Corolla. Once we got the car we drove it to Bryggen and parked it at the Radisson for the rest of the day. After parking we walked around the harbour, buying souvenirs, taking in the colorful buildings. We went to a hot dog place and Jeff and I shared the reindeer sausage (it came with lingonberry jam and toasted onions on it) and the chili cheese sausage (ketchup and toasted onions). Both were delicious!! After we ate we took the tram up to Mt Fløyen and overlooked Bergen. It was beautiful! And the weather was amazing! While we were up there we saw six mountain goats as well. We also saw a red squirrel and this couple from England was freaking out about it haha apparently red squirrels are very rare in England because the gray squirrels (rats with bushy tails as they called them) were taking over! It was enjoyable talking to them ha then we took pictures by this giant troll statue and Tyler got ice cream and we took the tram back down. Once we were back in the city we walked around the harbour, Jeff got some fish cakes, we tried whale sausage and moose sausage, and then we went to the Magic Ice Bar. They gave us warm ponchos and gloves and then we went in. Everything was made of ice. The tables, the benches, the cups. They had ice sculptures and things frozen in ice blocks. It was really cool! Then we got drinks from the bar for free with entrance (virgin drinks, mom) and we drank out of ice cups. It was fun! After enjoying that, we left and while we were trying to find food, we sat on the dock. We ended up eating at Egon Restaurant and I got a chicken sandwich that was amazing! After dinner we walked around the shops some more and then we went out on the harbour to watch the sunset. We decided to do a time lapse of the sun setting and it was hilarious how much time we wasted sitting there haha we sat there until it was dark haha Jeff did a time lapse one direction while Tyler did one facing another direction and I was sent around the harbour to take pictures haha after that we headed back to the Airbnb. We stopped at a grocery store and got some breakfast and lunch food for the next day and then we watched The Office and went to bed. 

Tuesday, August 27

We headed out around 10am, picked up the car, and left for Gudvangen. It was about a two and a half hour drive and I was nervous about driving in Norway but it wasn’t bad at all. The drive was beautiful! The little cities on the fjords, the tunnels through the mountains, the fjords themselves, man it was amazing. Once we got to Gudvangen we had an hour and a half to waste before our kayaking tour so we walked through the Viking souvenir shop to kill time. We bought necklaces with the letter S on them (for Struthers) and in Old Norse it stands for sun and it looks like a backwards z. I also bought a shirt with a Viking on it and in Old Norse it says Valley of the Vikings Gudvangen. It’s pretty cool. Then we went to meet for our kayaking tour. Tyler and I shared a double kayak and Jeff had a single. We were in a group with a family from Boston and a couple of guys from Taiwan. After the guide Hio told us about kayaking, we got into the water. Tyler was nervous because he hates open water. It freaks him out. So when our guide was telling us that whales and seals have been sighted, he did not love that haha I did though! These kayaks were cool because they had pedals for steering. I was in the back of the kayak so I was the one steering and it made it so easy! We kayaked along the Nærøyfjord and it was amazing. The weather was beautiful as well! Waterfalls were everywhere. We stopped halfway through to eat lunch in a little clearing and Hio made us chicken burritos. They were delicious! Then we started kayaking again. Once we reached a certain point, we crossed the fjord and went back. It was gorgeous! And so much fun! When we got back, Tyler pulled a prank on me and it was so not funny. He made it seem like he dropped the dry box full of our phones, wallets, and car keys into the water. I lost it on him. I was so pissed. Then he said he was kidding and he handed the box to me and I slapped him in the back of the head haha after cleaning up our gear, we paid to go into the Viking village that was by the souvenir shop. We shot arrows at apples and fake animals and Jeff actually hit an apple! It was awesome! Then we started on the tour. We learned that Viking actually means pirate and we learned about the history of Vikings. We learned that they built their ships in a way that allows them to travel on top of the water and it will travel down more narrow rivers than other ships. We learned about the gods they believed in and the games they played. We also saw the blacksmiths making weapons and learned about their armor and weapons. It was such a cool tour! We also threw axes. Which was way fun! We were all able to stick the axes in the wood. After the tour, we went and found our Airbnb which was just down the road. Gudvangen is not actually a city. It’s barely anything! There were like two houses there. We stayed in this shabby little cabin-house thing but it didn’t have the cabin feel. It felt like a dorm room. We slept on bunk beds ha after dropping off our stuff, we drove to Flåm for dinner. I got meatballs again and they were absolutely delicious. They gave us bread with this butter that had pickles mixed in with it and it was so good. Such a good meal. Then we went back to the Airbnb and went to bed. Happy Anniversary to us! Ha

Wednesday, August 28

We woke up at 8am in order to catch our fjord cruise from Gudvangen to Flåm. We got on board and it was freezing on the cruise ha the wind was piercing. But it was amazing. We saw all of the little towns on the fjord and we saw where two fjords meet into one. We saw tons of waterfalls. Once we got to Flåm we tried to take a bus to an overlook but it was sold out. We didn’t know how to spend our time in Flåm so we changed our 1:30pm cruise back to Gudvangen to 11am. It was so lucky we did because Tyler had left his backpack on the first cruise which held his passport. And luckily we took the same boat back! Before we boarded we bought some food from the bakery and I finally had a cinnamon bun. It was SO GOOD!! I couldn’t believe I had waited so long to have one. I loved it. On the cruise back we did the same things but it was so beautiful still! Once we got back to Gudvangen we hopped in the car and drove to Odda to our next stop. This was another two and a half hours of driving. This drive took more concentration because the roads were much more narrow but it was a gorgeous drive nonetheless. More fjords. More waterfalls. So much beauty! We drove to where our Airbnb directions led us but after looking into it more we had passed it. But I had to pee so I found a bush and went and Jeff felt car sick so we took a minute. Then we hopped back in and drove back to the Airbnb. We had to park on the road and walk down through a gate to get to our Airbnb. It was a cabin RIGHT on the fjord. It had a dock and a canoe that we could use. The Airbnb itself was really dirty and kinda creepy. It had really old pictures of babies hanging on the walls. The bathroom was appalling. It was the grossest thing I’ve ever seen. It was basically a portable toilet that had been there for like fifty years. We never went to the bathroom in there. We either held it or went in the trees. So gross. Anyway, right when we got there we moved our stuff in and then we went to Odda to eat. We went to a very American restaurant and ate okay food and then we drove back to the Airbnb. Then Jeff and I took the canoe out. We had barely gotten anywhere when we look over and we could visibly see rain moving quickly towards us. So we hurried in and tied the boat off. Right when we got it tied off it started pouring. It was crazy cool to watch! It poured so hard. So we went inside and chilled then went to bed. 

Thursday, August 29

We woke up at 6:30am in order to get to the trailhead of Trolltunga on time. We had pre-purchased a parking pass in order to be able to park at the uppermost parking lot and we had to be there between 7-8am. We arrived at like 7:20am and drove past the check in point and parked. We started the hike at 7:45am. I was so nervous to hike Trolltunga. Parking at the upper parking lot shaved off like 8km round trip from the hike which was amazing. I don’t know why people would hike that part anyway. It’s literally the road we drove up. Anyway, the hike started out flat and it was beautiful. Moss covered rocks everywhere. Our weather luck had run out though. It was raining. So we got soaked. Then the stairs of death (as Tyler nicknamed them) started. It was straight uphill. I was dying. And it was pouring rain ha we finally made it to the next flat part. I know I’ve said this 1000 times but this hike was AMAZINGLY gorgeous. The moss covered rocks, the random ponds and lakes we passed, hiking down from the trail to see the fjord. WOW. The rain didn’t ruin anything about this hike and I was so happy about that. When we finally got to Trolltunga it was 11am, we got in line to take pictures right away. The pictures make the rock look much sketchier than when you’re actually on the rock. After we took our pictures we rested for a bit and ate the sandwiches we made the night before. Then the cloud cover came in and it was so eerie being up there. You could only see outlines of people. And then the rain came and so we started heading back around noon. About halfway through the sky cleared and it was only partly cloudy. The stairs of death were awful going down but we made it! We got back to the car around 2:45pm. After hiking, we went into Odda and got food. We were dead ha I had a couple of blisters forming already. I got this noodle dish and it wasn’t great and then Tyler spilled his Coke on it so I was done ha then we headed back to our car and drove to the Airbnb. Jeff and I watched Bachelor in Paradise and then we went to bed. 

Friday, August 30

We slept in until 11am and then we slowly made our way to Stavanger. It was about a three and a half hour drive. We made quite a few stops though. We stopped and Latefoss and Langfoss waterfalls and we stopped at a grocery store and got food. I got another cinnamon bun and it was amazing. We also got a bunch of different candies that were delicious. When we were just outside of Stavanger, we had to take a car ferry. On this one we bought tickets before being able to board. Once we parked on the ferry, we got out and went upstairs to view the surroundings. It was SO WAVY. We could barely walk. Jeff and I went outside (Tyler didn’t because he hated it) and it was so windy. Then they made an announcement that we’d be there in five minutes so we went back to our car and drove off once we got to land. There was a ton of traffic in Stavanger but eventually we made it to our Airbnb. This Airbnb was a studio loft and it was very quaint and cool. Once we unloaded our stuff we walked into town to get food. We ate at a place called Døgnvill Burger but there was a wait. So we got on the list and walked around town. We went to Øvre Holmegate (a very colorful road) and to the harbour and saw a ton of street art. Then we headed back to the restaurant and ordered and it was absolutely delicious. I got the chicken sandwich and onion rings and man it was good. Food is EXPENSIVE in Norway. I honestly don’t even know how much money we dropped just on food. After we ate we walked back to the Airbnb. We watched Modern Family for a while and then we went to bed. 

Saturday, August 31

We woke up at 10am and headed to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock). We had to take another car ferry and we bought breakfast there. We had bacon wrapped hot dogs and they were amazing. Once we arrived, we had to park in the lower parking lot and we had to pay to park there. Once we paid we headed out. There were more stairs of death and I struggled because I was still tired from Trolltunga ha the closer we got to the top, the windier it got. Once we actually got there, the wind was NUTS. I tried to put my hair in a ponytail and it literally blew me over while I was attempting to do that. I went to the top first for pictures and it was honestly terrifying. I seriously thought someone was going to be blown off of the cliff. The wind slightly died down when I was up there so I took a jumping picture but it was so scary haha we saw someone lose their lens cap and I saw a jacket almost blow off of the cliff but it got caught on a rock and they were able to grab it. It was so crazy up there! After we took pictures we went down where the wind died down and sat and ate some trail mix. Tyler’s cap of his water bottle was broken and the wind blew it off so he couldn’t open his water bottle at all ha it was pretty funny. Then we headed back down and drove back to Stavanger. Once we got back, we changed and then went to dinner. We wanted to go to Noodle Noodle but when we got there they said they could put us on a list and call us if anything opened up but they were full at the moment. So we wandered around and tried to find other food but everywhere was booked solid. Luckily they called us right when we were about to get Burger King ha so we ate at Noodle Noodle. We got some really good gyoza and I got pad Thai. After eating we headed back to the Airbnb and we watched Modern Family again until we went to bed. 

Sunday, September 1

We slept in until 11am and then we started the drive to Bergen. We had to take three car ferries to get back so we got food on one again. The drive took about four and a half hours. It was really pretty! But uneventful. I drove the entire time we were in Norway because I was nervous. I didn’t pay for an additional driver and the insurance was questionable. I’m fairly controlling while traveling. Whoops. We got gas and then went to the airport. We were pretty early so we ate at the airport and then chilled at the gate for a while. Then we took the flight to Copenhagen. Once we landed, we grabbed our luggage, ate at Burger King, and took the train to our hotel. It was late and a guy was walking the same way as us and it kind of freaked us out but we parted ways at the hotel luckily. Once we got in we went straight to bed around 11pm. 

Monday, September 2

We had to catch the 4:16am train to the airport so we were up early. I was stressing about getting the bags checked because we had to book our flight plan on two separate itineraries and I didn’t want to have to leave to baggage claim in Vegas and check the bag again and go through security. The layover was fairly tight as it was. But they were able to check the bag through to Salt Lake which was amazing. Our first flight was to Paris and I passed out hard. We even got upgraded to business class but I was out. Then we walked for forever through the Paris airport and parted ways with Tyler (he was on a different flight). Then we boarded the nine hour flight to Minneapolis. Minneapolis was a disaster. We took two hours to go through customs, re-check our bag, go through security, and board. It was horrible. But we made it on time for our next flight to Vegas. Then we flew to SLC and drove home! Great trip!!