Booze Cruise 2011: Survival of the fittest

The past week has been awesome/insane.

Monday finished off with my first frisbee practice in the UK! Allie and I went to Battersea Park to play with the Iceni women's team - casually the premier club team in the UK and Europe. They hold open practices on Monday nights so we checked it out. It was so much fun! It was a skills session/scrimmage session so we spent the first half doing tactical drills and the second half scrimmaging. The girls on the actual team are so good at ultimate it is ridiculous. They were also super nice and there were a lot of girls there from a bunch of different teams. We are definitely going to attend again even though a single practice literally made me sore for 5 days. Perhaps I am a tad out of shape? Not worried.

Tuesday, this professional theatre critic came in to my theatre class to talk to us. As a writer myself, she was really inspiring to listen to and gave us a lot of insight regarding writing critical reviews about the theatre (which I do a lot of over here). I spoke with her one-on-one for a bit after and she told me to "just keep doing it" in regards to writing. I really enjoyed her talk.

We ventured to the Globe for class on Thursday for the first time! My initial reaction was that I still cannot believe I have an academic class on the stage of the Globe Theatre, so cool. Unfortunately, our new professor was sick so we got a tour of the Globe/Exhibition from this other really cool guy who works there. We toured the stage and backstage areas and learned more about the history. Shakespeare was killing it back in the day. We got out of class early and stopped by The Mulberry Bush for a pint with some people from class. This started off the night on a good note. That night, we hung out in the flats for a while and played some hot seat before venturing to a blues bar to hear some jams. Per usual, we finished the night at O'Neill's with literally 100 ND kids because all of the Dublin, Rome and Toledo study abroad kids came to London for the weekend. It was a good time.

Friday, I worked NBC 9-5 which was a questionable decision considering I was out until about 3am the night before. I struggled through work but luckily we have a weekly "Friday Feast" at NBC so I went out and bought/organized/ate a bunch of snacks all afternoon. I was dead tired upon return to the flats but mobilized enough to hang with Bridget (the 748 was together again!) and Tara and go out. We went to Piccadilly Institute, aka my second home. Something about the creepy eyes on the walls and naked mannequins on the ceiling really gets me. Best part of the night, besides the 50 plus ND kids there, was this little Indian man who felt the need to dance on the platform in the middle of our group. He was probably 40 or 50 years old and dancing alone to the beat. Funniest visual ever. Zack also managed to procure a nice floral hat at the Institute which was a memorable souvenir.

Saturday was the booze cruise! The booze cruise is an annual tradition for the people in the London program. We spent the day organizing life and preparing (some people were literally preparing for prom, it was crazy). Sarah, Tom and I indulged in some Grey's Anatomy then I met up with Tara and Allie at The Mulberry Bush for some pub food. I got fish and chips and a pint of Strongbow and it was delicious! Back at the flats, I decided to try my hand at bartending (that is kind of a joke but not really) and I somehow prepared some cocktails for myself and others that turned out really good.

Sidenote: I am really improving my skill set by living in London. For example, not only do I cook things now, I eat almost everything as well. I am now a huge fan of tomatoes, avocados, asparagus, onions, peppers, yogurt, nuts and many other foods I had never touched before. Bartending and DJing have also been recently added to this list.

Per usual, I served as DJ for my quad as we all got ready - it was a dresses and heels kind of night. Everyone looked so pretty and it was fun to get dressed up with everyone for once. We all gathered in various rooms and took some pictures and mobilized to the River Thames!

Quad 1

The booze cruise was awesome. The inside had a DJ and seating while the top level was open so you could sit outside and check out the scenery. The weather was also pretty ideal for late October. The entire night kind of blurred together but I have distinct memories of the following: Taking precious pictures with both quads, Collin's mohawk - epic, dancing to the song "Low" and getting low and being sore to this day, struggling up and down the stairs in my wedges, getting told I look like Mischa Barton for about the 20th time of my life, going under the London Bridge on the boat and realizing it was the first time I had seen that bridge since studying abroad this Fall, and raging post-cruise on the beach at some Halloween dubstep rave... good times.

Quad 2

Anyways, it was super fun and most everyone survived. Definitely one of the best nights in London yet. On Sunday, I spent most of the day skyping people and then got people together to go to Chipotle for dinner. There is one in London about 25 minutes from the flats and it was so totally worth it. I had never been so happy for a Chipotle burrito...even though it cost a ridiculous amount. Being in Chipotle made me feel like I was back in America.

Speaking of America, after over two months living in Europe, I have realized there are a select few things I miss about the United States. They are as follows:

The U.S. dollar, Irish football season, tailgating, the grotto at ND, my family, my puppies, Taco Bell, the rest of Club 26, ND frisbee and House Ponader, Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks (they are non-existent here), having constant Internet on my iPhone (helpless, I know), working out regularly, my personal hair straightener, and a few other things I am surely forgetting.

This week will be full of more NBC, frisbee, theatre and Globe followed by the weekend in Barcelona with a ton of people! Adios!

Gelato, crepes and stroopwafel

Fall break has come and gone. I would consider it a mediocre fall break... just kidding. It was awesome! So much fun with some of the best people I know.

Fall break started off with a few nights in London to kick off our "vacation." I realize this entire semester is a vacation but whatever. Thursday night, we participated in a Will Ferrell power hour and headed to this ritzy jazz club. It was very classy with extremely expensive drinks, dim lighting and live jazz music. We spent our life savings on drinks to fit in with the crowd and spent the night hanging out there. It was a good mix up from our usual destination of O'Neill's on Thursdays.

Will arrived on Friday and we took him around London! We walked around some of the general sights and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. London has been having seriously awesome weather lately it is great. After checking out the South Bank, Big Ben, Parliament, etc. we eventually landed upon Harrod's, the largest department store in London. It has tons of floors and sells everything from cheese and sushi to wedding dresses and Christmas trees. We explored around there and Jon ripped his pants while attempting to slide down the railing of the stairs. Fail. Harrod's also looks awesome from the outside at night when they light up the entire building. Afterwards, Collin, Allie and I swung by Primark again (our favorite cheap store) for some last minute goodies before fall break. Allie and I shopped separately and somehow managed to purchase the exact same gold shirt... not real life. Collin also bought four pairs of underwear for all the boys that have the British flag on the back of them. Classic.

Friday night, we had a Mexican fiesta dinner complete with fajitas, chips and guac and a singular giant margarita that we made in the giant martini glass. It was delicious. We then headed downtown and got roped into this club called Rumba by some promoter. It was a little sketchy but we definitely managed to have a good time. We also decided to indulge in shots of absinthe this night. Apparently absinthe is illegal in the U.S. so naturally it is the cool thing to do in Europe. It tastes like a mixture of black liquorice and gasoline. Nearly unbearable to drink. I think my throat was burning for ten minutes.

Giant marg!

Saturday morning, I got up fairly early to meet up with Crystal at Victoria Station since she was in London for the weekend. We walked around in the sunny weather, got some lunch and hit up Hyde Park, perfect relaxed morning. Crystal then came back to my flat and watched me frantically pack for my trip. Never again will I save my packing until one hour before departure. Love you Crys!

Saturday night, we flew to Rome! We got in around dinner time, took a bus to the city center, and found Tara in the main station there. Tara was a perfect tour guide and led us immediately to our apartment. The apartment was such a good call. It had three rooms, a loft, a bathroom and a kitchen. It was also a pretty good deal compared to a hostel or hotel. We paid the man who rented it out to us and immediately decided to do the unthinkable: more absinthe. After two shots I was struggling. However, we mobilized and headed into the city with Tara for a night on the town. It was really late so we ate some slices of pizza from a little food place that was open. We then went to this plaza with a ton of cool bars, entering none other than an establishment called "Classy in the front, Sloppy in the back." It was just that. We made out way to the back to find all of Notre Dame: London kids, Rome kids, you name it. There were about 30 of us in this bar. We all managed to get roses (I still don't know how) and had a lot of fun fooling around with those. Unfortunately, because of the riots in Rome they had to shut down the bar early. Lame. We eventually made our way back to the apartment and Allie and I engaged in some general debauchery while the boys went on an unsuccessful venture around the city for food until 5am.

So many roses

Rome was wonderful. The weather was beautiful everyday and there are historic buildings/ruins around every corner. On day one, Zack, Allie and I toured the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. This was after we ate gelato for breakfast. I got gelato five times in Rome. There is a gelato place on every corner, it is hard to resist. In Rome, you pay tour guides a little extra and they give you a tour and let you skip the entire line, good deal, so we took advantage of that while at the Colosseum. The Colosseum is way more massive than I expected and I learned a lot about its history during the tour. The Romans pretty much hung out there all day, ate free food, drank free wine and watched gladiators and other cool stuff while the slaves did everything for them. The ruins of Palatine Hill, which was a former Roman palace, still had some of the original marble used in the palace and at the top there was a beautiful view overlooking the city.

Not a bad view

We eventually met up with the rest of our group plus Tara and walked around the city with a jug of wine in tow. We took pretty pictures in front of the sunset and eventually found our way to both the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. We made wishes in front of the Trevi and threw coins in the water. This night, we also had the best pizza EVER. Tara led us to what is known as the "best pizza place in Rome" and it was. We indulged in pizza and wine and went to an Irish pub called Scholars with some other ND kids that night. Scholars appears to be the O'Neill's of Rome. It was karaoke night so naturally there was some singing. We then went back to the bar from the night before and made friends with the bartender Lucas. We convinced him to give us 5 shots for 10 euro, so prime. The night ended with gelato and more roses courtesy of Jon.

On Monday, Zack, Allie and I ventured to a grocery store to bring food back to the apartment. We bought some eggs, cereal, bread, meat and cheese along with a gratuitous amount of wine. They sell bottles of wine in Rome for one euro, what else are you going to do? They also sell wine in giant 5-liter jugs. We bought one jug for 8 euros and named him Lazio. I carried Lazio all the way back to the apartment and let me say it was a struggle. We also bought some Lemincello (lemon-flavored alcohol) which Roman people are clearly obsessed with because it is everywhere. After rounding up the troops, Zack, Allie, Will, Collin and I found the Spanish Steps. We chilled there for a while because it was a really pretty day. We made our way to check out the inside of the Pantheon and picked up some gelato. I got a strawberry/lemon combination that was my favorite of the entire trip. The whole group met up once again and we found an island along the river where we stuffed trinkets into a wine bottle and let is float down the river. So profound. Before this, we also stumbled upon some ruins that were overrun with cats! It was so weird. Rome has a weird cat fetish.

We found this nice restaurant on the other side of the river that had a good deal on food with a bunch of courses. I had some bruschetta, salmon ravioli and wine which was all very good. Our dinner took about 2 hours because the Italians actually enjoy their meals unlike Americans, but we definitely were not used to the extended amount of meal time. We headed back to the apartment late that night and drank Lazio along with many other things... let's just say it was a good night.

Tuesday, we were very cultured with our trip to the Vatican. We paid for a tour once again and got to see the Vatican museum, the gardens, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Until my trip to Italy I thought the Sistine Chapel was actually the Sixteenth Chapel so everyone made fun of me about that for the entire trip. The museum was full of endless sculptures and all the ceilings were unbelievable. The Sistine Chapel has all the epic paintings by Michelangelo in it and it is the personal chapel to the pope, no big deal. It is kinda like the Mona Lisa, Stonehenge, etc. in that it is nearly underwhelming when you see it but it's something you just have to see. The basilica, on the other hand, was absolutely gorgeous and is the most grandiose church I have ever seen. After our time at the Vatican, most of us walked around for a bit and found some markets where we bought bracelets and gummies. We ate dinner near the Pantheon and made it back to our apartment for our early flight to Paris. We searched far and wide for some champagne to finish off our time in Rome, which we eventually found, and prepared for Paris.

St. Peter's Basilica

We took a cab to the airport in the morning that turned out to be the fastest cab ride in history. This dude was going over 100mph, talk about efficient. We flew into Paris Beuvais which is basically rural France, haha. It was this tiny airport in the middle of nowhere so we took a fairly long bus ride into the heart of Paris. The flight was 15 euros though, so I can't complain. We checked into the Hotel des Olympidades, which is perhaps the sketchiest hotel I have ever experienced, and hit the town. We picked up baguettes, cheese, meat and wine immediately headed to Sacre Couer because our hotel was in the Montmartre area and we were only about 20 minutes from the church itself. We feasted on the steps of Sacre Couer looking out onto the entire city which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. There was an old man playing violin next to us which set the mood even further. We also checked out the inside of the church since it was free (I forgot how pretty it is from when I checked it out last time I went to Paris).

We took a long walk into the heart of the city and hit the main tourist areas, including Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. We picked up more baguettes/cheese/meat (story of our lives) as well as champagne to pop in front of the Eiffel Tower that night. We waited until the tower sparkled and then drank some champagne out in front. We then got some crepes, mine was nutella and strawberry and was absolutely phenomenal. Paris was much colder than expected so we headed back to the hotel since we were so cold. Collin, Allie and I fell asleep for a bit while the others headed to Clin's Bar right across the street. To our surprise, when we went to join them, we found ourselves locked inside the hotel room. That's right, INSIDE. Apparently when you take the key and lock the outside there is no way to exit the room. This is how sketchy this place was. Collin waved miscellaneous items out the window in hopes and gaining their attention and we had a good laugh about the whole situation. After an hour or two, we caught the group's attention and escaped from Hotel des Olympidades to join the group at Clin's Bar. Once there, we had a few drinks and closed the bar...not surprised. The boys were messing with some Italian dude and were speaking a mixture of English, Spanish, Italian and French the entire night. We left and bought some items at a convenience store near the hotel (things are open very late in Paris, unlike Rome), Collin got iced (per usual) and we had a mini hotel party.

Louvre

On our second day in Paris, we took the metro to the Champs-Elysees and walked around the Arc de Triomphe. We took some scenic pictures and eventually made our way to the Eiffel Tower to go to the top. Beforehand, we picked up more crepes, this time mine was ham and cheese with fries in the middle, and it was the most delicious and filling dinner ever. Climbing the Eiffel is officially my favorite thing ever in Paris. We went up just as it was getting dark and took the lifts all the way to the top. The view at night is spectacular. We took a lot of pictures and I made my way to the Champagne Bar, obviously. Ten euros per glass never tasted so good. Five orders of champagne equated to fifty euros, which we later equated to fifty bottles of champagne since you can find it in Paris for one euro a bottle.... Crazy stuff! The tower sparkled as we were sipping our champagne which was perfect timing, and it also sparkled as we walked down the metal leg of the tower. The Eiffel Tower never gets old. That night, we found Jon and Caroline at a Mexican restaurant called Fajitas, shared some excellent nachos and ate another crepe (standard) before going back to the hotel. We formed a line of 7 walking through the streets of Paris and refused to unlock arms which proved to be very fun.

Champagne atop the Eiffel Tower

The next morning, we woke up very early for our train to Amsterdam. We made mimosas for the train and watched the sunrise. We arrived in Amsterdam around 11am and navigated towards our hostel. We took the tram all the way there but then realized we could not check in until 2pm, buzz kill. So we lugged around our bags and drank some champagne in one of the parks. The parks there were very pretty and full of dogs, my kind of place. Amsterdam itself is also quite scenic. There are a series of canals around the city, lots of great food vendors and bikers everywhere. I have never seen so many people ride bikes... the bikes paths were nearly as wide as the road.

We eventually checked into our hostel turned hotel (there were not enough spots in the hostel so they just put us in the hotel, win!) and walked around the city. We checked out the "I Amsterdam" sign which is a tourist must-do and ate some food. Then Allie and I went off on our own to find my roommate Abbie. We somehow located her downtown and went to a pub with her and bunch of other ND kids. Allie and I were getting pretty tired so we ordered caffeine instead of alcohol, ideal. We eventually met back up with the boys and made our way to the Red Light District... talk about weird. So weird. Prostitutes just chilling in the windows left and right with tourists everywhere snapping pictures. It is so totally opposite from America it is ridiculous. The night, we went to a cafe/bar and chilled to some good music and games of pool. We stayed out late enough to catch the last tram at 12:40 back to the hotel.

For our final day of fall break, we checked out and ventured to the Heineken brewery for a tour. It was pretty cool and now I know exactly how beer is made. We went to the tour around noon without eating, so the only issue was the large amount of beer we were forced to consume for breakfast. We (meaning the girls) struggled through our half-pints and eventually walked to an outdoor market filled with food, clothing and other miscellaneous items. We bought freshly-made stroopwafels, these thin waffles filled with caramel that are to die for and sampled some other free food. Our final day in Amsterdam was gorgeous with completely blue skies, we really lucked out on the weather. We bought some kebabs in the city, which were also delicious, before taking the tram towards the airport. We eventually made it back to London late Saturday night and were very glad to be back. I was beginning to miss some of the luxuries we have here in London plus the idea of my own bed was starting to become very appealing.

Heineken tour

The trip was quite a success. I very much loved all three cities and they all had something different to offer. We took literally all forms of transportation possible over the past 8 days. I am looking forward to a more relaxed academic week, plus Allie and I are going to go to the UK women's ultimate practice tonight which should be awesome! It's good to be back home in London.

Roller Disco, Paul McCartney's house and papers galore

It's been a while since I've blogged with annoying papers in the way. They actually make us do work here...sometimes.

Here is a bit of a recap of the past 10 days...

Monday: I worked the late shift at NBC and was in the newsroom when the Amanda Knox verdict was read. She won the appeal case and was let free which is a big deal. The reporters and producers were freaking out prior to the verdict, it was actually hilarious. The phones were ringing off the hook and people were actually running around. Very cool experience.

Tuesday: Good day! Went to lunch in the Parliament offices with one of the Parliament interns. They give you intense photo ID badges and you basically go through airport security prior to entering... They confiscated Zack's whistle for an hour. A professional stage designer talked to our theatre class, and I saw the production of The Veil at the National Theatre that night. It was a little spooky but not too great. Afterwards, Allie and I hit up The Mulberry Bush and Princess of Whales, two of my favorite pubs I have decided. We had an excellent life chat for a few hours and Princess of Whales is super close and open until midnight which is ideal. Most pubs close at 11pm which has been hard for us to get used to considering a lot of college students don't go out until 10 or 11 in the states.

Wednesday: Odd jobs at NBC, finished the night off with gratuitous amounts of champagne and the movie Brink (old school Disney channel original movie). Can't complain!

Thursday: I tried to take a picture of the white board after my theology class for fun but couldn't quite do so inconspicuously. The entire board was full of illegible scribbles. Classic theology. Also, Allison's parents were in town for the week so we went out to a delicious dinner with them at this restaurant on South Bank! We all ordered cocktails and I drank a cosmopolitan and felt like one of the girls from Sex and the City.

Friday: I caught up on life, bought groceries, cooked a nice dinner, did laundry, etc. Gotta be a real person sometimes. Went to Ye Olde Chesire Cheese and Princess of Whales with the boys on Friday night. The pub scene seriously does not get old.

Saturday: Jamie, one of our rectors, took a bunch of us to a rugby game! We took the tube all the way to Richmond, which was about an hour away, and enjoyed some classic English rugby. Jamie helped explain the rules to us and he got super into it which was funny to watch. I kinda sorta understand rugby now. The thighs on these men were unbelievable... some were bigger than my whole body I swear. Rugby is officially the dirtiest, manliest, most aggressive sport I have ever seen. Multiple injuries throughout the game. And blood. After the game we headed home and prepared for a fun night. The boys cooked up a feast and we decided on the London Roller Disco for the night. Ideal decision. I finally got to wear clothes I am used to wearing out at ND (for instance, neon shirts, backwards hats, fanny packs, etc.). We all dressed up ridiculous and fit in perfectly. There were people in full disco costumes, afros, tutus and overall brightly colored things. It is basically a club on roller skates. They played 70s and 80s hits and we danced/skated for the night. There were a select few wipe outs but everyone survived the skating fiasco. For extremely drunk people the roller disco is definitely a hazard, I must say. I definitely would be down to go back there again sometime, with a new and awesome outfit of course.

Roller Disco, whaddup neon

Sunday: Wrote 2 of my 4 papers I had due this week. Lame.

Monday: Awesome day at work! I went out on a live shoot in front of Paul McCartney's house for the Today Show. He just got married and we were reporting on the wedding the night before. There were paparazzi all outside his house and a bunch of cute older men holding little point-and-shoot cameras just hoping to get a glimpse of the legend. He didn't ever come out, but the shoot was awesome. He lives in a ritzy area in northern London. Michele Kosinski was on the scene (the main London NBC correspondent) for the live shot. (For the full story on that experience, ask me personally. It was quite a hoot). I was holding the lighting scaffolding for the shoot, casual intern job, standing one foot away from our reporter. I was nearly on the Today Show... NEARLY. It is so funny to me since I remember watching the Today Show in high school and dreaming to work there one day, and on Monday I literally WAS working for the Today Show. So cool! After work I scoped out a new, giant grocery store on a search for margarita mix (mission accomplished) and navigated the tube home from work. I was literally all over London on Monday and really felt like a true Londoner for one of the first times. I am learning the art of assimilation!

NBC shoot

Tuesday: Went to classes and saw a performance of No Naughty Bits at the Hampstead Theatre. It was a Monty Python-esque thing so it was pretty funny and had an interesting message on TV censorship so I enjoyed it. We were also in the third row which was really neat.

I am now done with this intense week of school and Rome, Paris and Amsterdam await! My next blog post should be epic to say the least. Fall break is certainly going to be a memorable one. I cannot believe my semester here is halfway over. I knew it was going to go fast, but not this fast. There are so many things I still want and need to do while I'm over here, it worries me that I won't be able to get to them all in 4 months! That's the beauty of London. Even if I lived here forever, I still wouldn't be able to see all that is worth seeing.

Things to look forward to:

-FALL BREAK! Rome, Paris, Amsterdam

-Booze Cruise in London with many visitors

-Barcelona for quad reunion!

-Prague, Czech Republic

-My family coming the week of Thanksgiving!

-Acting in the Globe Theatre

-Playing frisbee with the UK women’s team

-Lion King and other musicals

-More NBC

-More weekly theatre

-More bozo weekends!

-MORE LONDON! I'm never leaving.

That awkward moment when you can't eat in Norway because it's too expensive

This next post is going to be an epic one.

First, some more tame items…

Tuesday night, I saw The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket which was right next to school downtown. The lead role was played by Ralph Fiennes aka Lord Voldemort. I didn’t read the play prior to the performance so it was a little confusing. Mostly I just closed my eyes and pretended like I was watching Harry Potter, haha. The theatre itself was super cool though.

On Wednesday, I had my most favorite day of work yet. I met with one of the producers who was looking to do a story on Kate Middleton. The media is definitely obsessed with the royal family. We have so many archived tapes that involve the royal wedding it is actually ridiculous. Anyways, she asked me to go out with a camera crew and ask people throughout London what they wanted to see the Duchess of Cambridge do next. I had a great time! It is a bit intimidating to stand out on the street with a camera man and a giant microphone bugging people to talk to you, and I definitely experienced rejection more than I thought. It was also funny how some people refused to talk to me based on my affiliation with NBC. It made me wonder if NBC has a negative stereotype in the UK. I got a variety of answers from men and women, young and old. The women were definitely more enthusiastic about Kate and mentioned that they would like to see her hold a job, not get bogged down by the media, try to be her own person, etc. Most people had a very positive opinion of her which was nice to see. I was so surprised that they let me conduct all of these interviews myself! When I found the camera man he literally asked me “So what are we doing?” It was nice to be put in a position that takes a lot of responsibility for a change. I enjoy talking with people and interviewing is one of my favorite journalistic things to do.

Wednesday night, Allie and I attempted to go out to a foam party but ended up walking around London and coming back to the flats to drink wine instead. We then left ridiculous videos for our frisbee team back home. Too much fun.

Thursday, classes were successful and I am really beginning to enjoy my Shakespeare class. Zack made a great dinner and I organized my life for Norway.

Now, Norway… aka THE MOST EPIC WEEKEND OF MY LIFE.

I awoke at 3am Friday morning to start the travelling process, standard. We walked to Victoria and took the bus to London Stansted. We took off successfully and arrived in Oslo around 11am. The first thing we did was exchange money. Norway is probably the most expensive country I have ever been too. A standard dinner at a restaurant was the equivalent of $40 or $50 and a drink at the grocery store was $8 or $10. It was absurd. I have no idea how people live there.

We only booked a hostel for the first night so we were completely flying by the seat of our pants the entire trip. First, we went to this place called the DNT. They gave us some hiking suggestions and checked into the lodging options up north. As it turns out, it was some huge hiking weekend for the Norwegians so everything was booked. The woman also told us quote: “There is nothing dangerous in all of Norway” so we could camp anywhere and it would be fine. Too funny. We jokingly brought up the idea of a tent (totally joking) and this lady told us that there was a place nearby that gave out free tents to young people to encourage them to get out into nature. This place was literally closing as she was giving us directions, so we illegally rode the underground to make it on time and knocked on the door of the tent place. It was closed. We were doomed and had nowhere to stay. As we knocked on the door for kicks and giggles, this man, who we now know as Bengkt, opens the door and questions us. He leads us to a sketchy warehouse of camping gear, asks how old we are and where we are from. Apparently, the camping gear is reserved for people living in Oslo but he must have sensed our desperation. We got two free tents in exchange for 200 kroner (Norwegian currency that I jokingly called Coronas all weekend) that he promised to give back to us if we brought the tents back. It was unreal. No sleeping bags, no nothing, just tents. Oh and we did purchase a compass and map for a ridiculous amount of money at the DNT. We were ready for an adventure.

That night, we went out to dinner at this place called Sara’s Café where we spent our life savings on one dinner. We were ravenous though and the food was really good. We then walked around some of the city. We climbed atop the Opera House just as the sun was setting on a beautiful, clear night. We took pictures and continued walking towards the city centre. In our attempts to buy beverages, we learned that they do not sell real alcohol anywhere except for in two stores in Norway. Classic. We ended up buying some cider and heading back to the hostel since we were super tired. Our hostel was offering a pub crawl but instead, we practiced setting up our tents, drank some cider and passed out at 10pm. We were all super tired so the 12 hours of sleep was ideal.

Atop the Opera House

Some side notes:

-Once again, every single person spoke English. I am beginning to see how influential America is on a global scale. Everything is translated in English and everyone knows what you are talking about. America is #winning.

-Norway has a cute tram that rides along the streets that reminded me of San Francisco.

-IT WAS SO EXPENSIVE. Oops I already mentioned that…

-Norway has this weird obsession with trolls. There were trolls everywhere…

We woke up on Saturday morning and began to prepare for our adventure! We repacked our bags appropriately and went to the grocery store. The store actually wasn’t too expensive but we bought the cheapest possible food consisting of bread, peanut butter, nutella, more bread, these weird crackers, more bread and hotdogs. And marshmallows and chocolate. That was our meals for the whole day. We also picked up some champagne at the singular government-controlled alcohol store in the country. Before we started hiking, my bag had my jacket, champagne, bread, water and more bread in it. We eventually found the route we needed to take (we took the underground to a bus leading to Skar, Norway which is up north). The bus ride was very scenic and luckily a bunch of other hikers were headed there too so it wasn’t like we were completely alone.

We got off in the middle of the wilderness, took out our map and started hiking. It was so fun and pretty! We hiked a few kilometres, leisurely taking pictures the whole way, and eventually found a really pretty lake. The water was super clear and it was amazing how silent it was. We hiked all the way around the lake, stopping by a dam, a spot where Allie found a casual knife (aka murder weapon) in the middle of the woods, and an island. We had to balance over all these logs to get to the island which was a complete obstacle course. We also came upon a cliff looking over the water and Allie once again found an unopened beer in the middle of the woods. She found so many things! We struggled to find a place to make camp because most people took the best spots already. Eventually, we found a spot. Allie and I put up the tents successfully (go us!) and the boys worked on the fire.

The lake

 The fire was a near failure but we got it going and managed to keep it going for five or six hours! We won the fire contest on the lake. (There were about 10 spots of light at the beginning and we were the only one left at 1am). This means we went on many wood runs for fire wood and tended to the fire like a small child. It kept us alive. We roasted our hot dogs and ate some food and I earned the name DJ Campfire Kelly for playing campfire-appropriate music on my iPhone for six straight hours. It was so much fun. We had some major bonding and I got to know my travelling partners a lot better. At 10:30pm, we decided to pop the bottles of champagne over the lake while playing “Like a G6.” So appropriate. A few hours of general debauchery went down (Alex tried to climb some trees, I was playing mad jams and falling in the pitch black woods, Sean shotgunned the beer Allie found, Matt was a literal fire-breather and kept the fire going, etc.) before we went to bed.

By bed, I mean I don’t know if we actually slept. It was frigid. We knew that camping with no sleeping bags or blankets was going to be a struggle. Luckily we packed 6 people into the 4-person tent so we were spooning like sardines for warmth. It was one of the funniest nights of my life. I had my linen from the hostel on top of me which actually did nothing, haha, but it did earn me the name “Linens and Things.” We were all pretty much awake the whole time and there was always someone making ridiculous comments. For instance, Matt’s “Guys, what are we doing?” in the middle of the night and me condemning the other camp sites for being lame and actually camping with sleeping bags. At 7am, we immediately got up and got out of there. We were all struggling to mobilize and we still had to hike back to the bus. It was rough to say the least. However, the camping experience was definitely worth it. We could have booked a hostel for the second night but that would have been way less exciting. I will probably never again find myself camping in the middle of the Norwegian wilderness.

Sunday, we basically just wanted to get home after the epic times on Saturday. We walked around the city a bit more but ended up going to the airport really early since it was extremely rainy. I was so happy to return to the currency that is the English pound, the expense in Oslo was only bearable for a couple of days.

Overall, Oslo was quite the experience. I am very glad I went and we have been enthusiastically telling our camping story to everyone we come across.

Motto of Norway 2011: “Just don’t think about it.”