Attack from a bee!

Okay well, I didn't exactly get attacked by a bee, but it wanted to! I could sense his hostility, you know. It flew in through my window just after I closed the curtains. It was the scariest looking thing I've ever seen, even though it was only 1 inch long. (That's still a pretty big bee if you ask me! Maybe it was one and a half inches.)

Weather Update

Well, the snow I talked about in the last post melted by that afternoon and I'm happy to inform you that Norway has officially entered the "warm" weather season. It was a blistering 51 degrees out today and I went to the store with sandals and a short sleeve shirt. I must really be accustomed to the cold weather because at home when it hits 65 degrees, I'm bundling up like its gonna snow. Going back to California will probably mess up my system now, whenever I hear its 50 out, I'm going to think its t-shirt and sandals weather. But knowing me I'll adjust to the 90 degree heat quickly and never want it to get any lower than that.

I Got My Hopes Up Too Soon

Leaves are finally starting to come back on the trees and I thought that I had seen the last reminants of winter, which to be honest I was getting a little tired of it being cold all the time...and then this happened: It's the 12th of April and I wake up to it snowing outside! Snowing! In the middle of April. It's 80 degrees at home and its snowing in Norway. Who would have ever thought? I know in previous posts I explained how much I like the snow, well I guess my true colors have finally shown...I'm all Californian! I like the idea of their being snow, but I like it even better if I can just visit it whenever I want to.

Lutherstadt Wittenberg and Eisenach

Nürnberg

Carcassonne and Dachau

Carcassonne is a city in the south of France, but it is also a Medieval City one mile from the train station. The Medieval City is a walled fortified town occupied from as early as 6th century B.C. Within the city walls besides the castle there are also several streets with restaurants, shops and hotels. Nowadays it is more of a tourist village than anything else because of all the tourist shops you can find there.

Pictures from Paris

Pictures from Edinburgh

Spring Break Update

Well, everything was going great until I missed my stop in Carcassonne (Sunday morning) and ended up in Narbonne (about 30-45 minutes east of Carcassonne). I made it back to Carcassonne and reserved train tickets from Carcassonne to Pisa, but platform 1 and 2 were right next to each other and I took the train from platform 2, not 1. Instead of going east toward Pisa, I went west to Toulouse and there was no way to get to Pisa that night or anywhere else for that matter, except Paris. However I wasn't able to get a connection to Munich (where I already had my hostel booked) until Tuesday morning. So, I waited for 10 hours in the Toulouse train station, took the night train back to Paris, paid $135 for a hotel (because all the hostels were booked) and took a train to Munich this morning. Now all is good and I can take the regional trains without making reservations (or worrying about them being all booked up). The only other change to the plan so far is I'm going to Dachau Concentration Camp in the morning so I could have more time there. I attempted to go to the Neuschanstein Castle tonight, but I was given the wrong info from one of the train attendants. He told me to take the train at 4:51pm and it was direct to Füssen (city where the castle is), but I ended up in Kempten (1.5 hrs by train from Füssen). Apparently "direct" actually meant change to a different train in Kaufbeuren. Oh well, I got a nice ride anyway. With all the train confusion I guess I forgot to mention something about the weather. Well, since I’m a lot further south than Norway I thought it was going to warm...at least 60 degrees…because the weather forecasts looked promising before I left. However, it’s been snowing, just a little though, not enough to anything major, but enough to make me wear 4 sweatshirts earlier today. Everything should go as planned from here on out (provided I take the right trains).

Carcassonne, a fortified midieval city

The Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower at Night

Euro Disney

Hello from Paris

Pictures from Copenhagen

Updated Spring Break Plans

Finalized Spring Break plans, assuming the train schedules work out the way I would like them to: (traveling will be in red and sightseeing will be in blue)

Sun. March 16:

Fly Oslo(12:25pm)-Edinbourgh(1:20pm)

afternoon/night in Edinbourgh

Mon. March 17:

Edinbourgh

Tue. March 18:

Edinbourgh

Edinbourgh(10:30pm)-London(March 19 7:43am)

Wed. March 19:

~2.5 hours in London

London(10:28am)-Paris(1:23pm)

afternoon/night in Paris

Thu. March 20:

Paris (Euro Disney)

Fri. March21:

Paris

Sat. March 22:

Paris

Paris(10:56pm)-Carcassonne(March 23 7:39am) (near the Spanish border)

Sun. March 23:

~5 hours in Carcassonne

Carcassonne(12:52pm)-Marseille(4:39pm) (coast of France)

~1 hour in Marseille

Marseille(5:34pm)-Pisa, Italy(March 24 5:25am)

Mon. March 24:

~6 hours in Pisa

Pisa(11:44am)-Milan(3:50pm)

~1/2 hour in Milan

Milan(4:25pm)-Bern, Switzerland(7:54)

~2 hours in Bern

Bern(10:04pm)-Frankfurt, Germany(March 25 3:08am)

Tue. March 25:

~3.5 hours in Frankfurt

Frankfurt(6:35am)-Koblenz(8:10am) (train ride along the Rhine River)

~1.5 hours in Koblenz

Koblenz(9:48am)-Munich(2:31pm)

Munich(2:39pm)-Dachau(3:10pm)

~2 hours in Concentration camp(plus however long I want to tour the city)

night in Munich

Wed. March 26:

Munich(6:51am)-Füssen(7:52am) right on the Austrian border
~5 hours at Neuschanstein Castle and surrounding area

Füssen(1:06pm)-Munich(3:07pm)

Munich(3:16pm)-Nuremberg(4:23pm)

night in Nuremberg

Thu. March 27:

Nuremberg

Fri. March 28:

Nuremberg(5:21am)-Wittenberg(9:20am)

day/night in Wittenberg (most likely stay night in Berlin)

Sat. March 29:

Wittenberg(7:36am)-Eisenach(9:51am)

day in Eisenach and Wartberg Castle

Eisenach(2:06pm)-Berlin(5:00pm)

~6 hours in Berlin

Berlin(11:15pm)-Malmö, Sweden(March 30 8:00am)

Sun. March 30:

Malmö-Gothenborg(12:20pm)

~5 hours in Gothenborg

Gothenborg(5:45pm)-Oslo(9:45pm)

Then I'll be back home, have a day to rest and start with classes again on Tuesday!

Fun fact of the day

I haven't had much time to sit down and post about Copenhagen because I've been finalizing spring break plans and working on a mandatory assignment for my math class. Anyway, I was talking to my dad today and he reminded me to set my clock forward tonight, BUT European countries don't start Day Light Savings until March 30th. So until the 30th I'll be only 8 hrs ahead of all you in CA, 7 hrs ahead of those in the Mountain time zone, 6 hrs for those in Central time zone and 5 hrs for those on the East coast. Basically I'll be one hour closer to you for the next 3 weeks.

Silly Norwegians

Well, yesterday before my math class started one of the other students commented on how "very hot" the weather was outside. The high yesterday was only 43 degrees so when I heard him say this I couldn't help but start laughing. Since I've pretty much gotten used to the coldness here, it did seem a bit warm yesterday, but definitely not "very hot." I can only wait to hear what he says the weather is like in the summer...maybe I'll hear "it's scorching" or something to that affect.

Skiing Again!

I went skiing again today with two girls from Australia and one from Wisconsin. I think I’m getting better, though I still have trouble with balance and going down hills. I fell more this time, but they were all intentional because we went down quite a few hills that were too steep for me and one fall I bent my pole a bit, so hopefully I’ll be able to bend it back. Also, we were going down one hill that wasn’t steep at all, but the snow was a little choppy because it’s been melting, so I ended up doing the splits down the hill and then lost my balance in the end. Even though the splits were pretty scary, it was fun once it was over and done with.

BOO NASA!!

It is currently 4:57AM on Thursday morning and me and my friend Nick, from Minnesota, just got back from Sognsvann Lake where we attempted to see the lunar eclipse. NASA predicted that it would be visable in North America and in Europe, but aparently because Norway is so far north they forgot that it was part of Europe too. So, I'm blaming NASA for my lack of a lunar eclipse, even though it was a bit cloudy we should have been able to a glow in the sky because the clouds weren't that thick. Hope you took pictures of it for me in North America.