Let the Learning Begin.

Traveling is a learning experience. Here are a few tips we learned in only our first few days in Europe:

1. Be sure to know the times the sun rises and sets: plan accordingly.
2. Do not wear heels, no matter how small or cute the heel is.
3. Traveling overnight on a train is extremely efficient, however uncomfortable it may be.
4. Do not eat street-vended sausages.

We arrived back in Oslo, with little rest. Bright lights + loud people + old sausages = no sleep.

After unlocking our luggage, we headed out to explore Oslo itself and the Viking Museum.

Oslo is a beautiful city and easily accessible with public transportation. We initially planned on seeing Vigeland Sculpture Park when we arrived back in town. After a few wrong trolleys, we finally found the park. However, considering it was 6am and did not appear too safe, we boarded yet another trolley in pursuit of breakfast.

We found a cute cafe and settled in. After choosing our am goodies and some much needed coffee, Jeff attempted to pay.

'Please head down the street to an atm and we'll hold this food for you.'

Two hours later, after a lesson in Norwegian banking and etiquette, consumed with fear that we would we boarding the next plane home, we come to find out that banks only allow you to withdraw a certain amount each day. In the US, that's easy to determine. In Norwegian krone, it's a littler harder.

After our little run in with the bank, we skipped out on our cafe.
Come on, you know they didn't save our food for almost three hours!!
Anyways, we boarded a bus and headed over to the Viking Museum. Interestingly, the group of people who sat with us were British, as well. Jeff and the older Brit of the group were like two little boys, explaining to each other that since childhood they had wanted to see this museum. I was waiting to see if they skipped to the entrance.

The museum was amazing, though not very big. The clean lines of the building allowed all the attention to be drawn on the ships, showcasing their detailed artwork.

Realizing the time and when our train was departing for Copenhagen, we knew we had to head back to the train station immediately.
'The bus back to the station comes every fifteen minutes,' the lady at the admission counter informed us.
Jeff and I exchanged worried looks and headed outside. There was a bus... leaving!!
We ran, we ran like we never ran before, we ran like we had had a good night sleep, like I wasn't wearing heels and it wasn't sleeting.

Back at the train station, we boarded the train and headed for Copenhagen, Denmark.

After a rather boring trip and a 5-minute layover in Sweden, we arrived at our destination around 9ish at night. Here's where our travel companion, fear decided to throw in his two-cents.
We had vague directions, no map and the bus turned us away because our money was too large, he didn't have change. After another hour of pacing and harassing the Danish, we finally were able to board the appropriate bus and head to our inn.

We jumped off the bus and realized we were in a residential section of the city, streets with few lights and lined with apartment buildings and beggars. We followed our emailed directions and were led to a dilapidated apartment building. 'Jeff, let's go. PLEASE. Let's go, now.' We were buzzed inside and greeted on the stairwell by a rather tall, thin lady who directed us up the stairs into her apartment, filled with Christmas decorations and children. She waved us through the apartment and opened a door on the other side of the room. We were staying, for two nights, in a bedroom, in her apartment. When I read inn on the Copenhagen travel website, this was not what I imagined. We shared her kitchen and bathroom with her, her children and two other boarders.
We will be forever haunted by the smell of the unusual food cooking and the grimy bathroom, but hell, we had free internet!

We skyped home that night: 'How's your trip?'
After exchanging looks, 'Fine.'