Oslicante Part 1: Oslo

Before exams in Edinburgh, they give you a reading week where you don't have class or exams. A WHOLE WEEK. So naturally, Sasha, my friend Zach and I decided to take a trip. Zach wanted to go to Scandinavia and Sasha wanted to go to Spain so we found a 15 euro flight from Oslo to Alicante, Spain and made a plan. We arrived in Oslo on a Tuesday afternoon but it was already dark because it gets dark around 3:30 in Oslo.

The start of a great trip:

The first night, we basically just walked around downtown and got Mexican food at a place called Mucho Mas. Despite the name meaning "much more" in Spanish, it was a very good albeit overpriced burrito.

The next day we decided to take the metro/train outside of downtown up the mountain to see the whole city. The view was incredible! Downtown Oslo is would be down the mountain to the left in this picture.

Then we preceded to walk around this neighborhood, called Holmenkollen. We saw the Olympic ski jump stadium, a very Norwegian church and a large Viking sculpture.

After that, Zach really wanted to go to the Folkemuseum which was is essentially an outdoor Norwegian history museum. It is organized like an old Norwegian village. 

After having lunch at a nearby cafe, it was nearing sunset and we wanted to see the Vigeland sculptures in Frogner Park. If you do anything is Oslo, you should see these sculptures at sunset because it is amazing!

(The pond was icing over at the beginning of December)

At this point, we were slightly exhausted from doing Oslo in basically one day so we went to the Christmas markets, got some mulled wine and got dinner at a very nice place kind of near the Grunerløkka neighborhood. 

The next day, we saw the opera house, a building Oslo is known for, before heading to the airport for Alicante!

Family Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, my family came to visit. It was kind of weird not having a proper Thanksgiving but nonetheless very eventful and fun. On the first day, I showed my family around Edinburgh and then, for dinner, we went to a Spanish tapas restaurant, Cafe Andulaz.

The next day I had class while my family took a tour of the city but then we met up afterwards to go to Edinburgh Castle. This was probably good because otherwise I would have never dished out 15 pounds to see yet another castle but the Edinburgh one was particularly amazing because of the view. You can see all of Old and New Town from the top.

On Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), my dad rented a car and we went to Stirling Castle and Linlithgow Palace. Stirling Castle was really cool and there was a tour while Linlithgow was in ruins but still awesome and somewhat maze-like. The pictures from Stirling are first and then Linlithgow. 

It wasn't windy at all. 

That night we went to Spoon with my family from Aberdeen. One of my favorite things about my family's visit (besides their presence) was all of the good food we ate. The night before, we went to one of my favorite bars/pubs in Edinburgh, The Southern, which was equally delicious. 

The last day we went to the National Museum which is free but I had strangely never been. Then, per the suggestion of one of my family members, we went to see the Royal Yacht. I was just expecting a large boat but I was quite wrong. The yacht was the size of a small cruise ship. Located in Leith (slightly outside Edinburgh), the ship contained rooms for all of the royal family and crew along with lots of other [albeit frivolous] fancy rooms. I wanted to take the fam to Arthur's Seat as well but no one had the proper shoe ware. 

That night we went to the Indian Calvary Club which was some of the best Indian food I've ever had (besides my other favorite, 10 to 10 in Delhi, also in Edinburgh). Sasha came with us and there was so much food that me and Sasha had more than enough for another meal the next day. 

All in all I think it was a great trip and it made me feel like an Edinburgh local even though I am clearly not. 

London

Having been to London two times before, I really didn't need to go. But I had a free place to stay with a friend from UNC and I am in the UK so I saw no real reason not to. The first day, Sasha and I did all the touristy things because she had never been.

After that, we walked along the South Bank and found a market to eat at. I got an amazing chicken shawarma wrap from a Mediterranean stand. 

Then we went to a Christmas market nearby. We saw this guy playing a tribute to Lou Reed. 

The next day I got to meet up with some friends from camp and so Sasha, my friend from UNC, Bridget, and a few of my friends from camp all got to hang out. So many friends. We went to Borough Market for food (my favorite market in London, not that I've been to all of them but whatever it is amazing) and then did some walking and went to Brick Lane, an area of London know for it's Indian food and graffiti. 

That night, we found out that Ellie Goulding was playing at a club for SIX POUNDS (a deal if I might say so myself) and despite our tiredness, we got ourselves together and went and it was amazing!

Berlin

About a month ago (sorry I'm awful) I went to Berlin. I must say Berlin is not the prettiest city I might have seen but it was so interesting. Two of my friends are studying abroad there for a year so I hung out with them. I stayed with my friend who lives in a house in a sort of suburb where she rents a room.

The first picture is my friend's house and the second is the TV Tower, a sort of Eiffel Tower of Berlin if you will (that is a stretch). The third is the Bradenburg gate, which divided East and West Berlin. I was only in Berlin for a day (two nights) so I mainly just walked around and hung out with my friends. One of the most amazing things about Berlin was how cheap the food and drinks were. A bottle of wine was around 2.50 euros and you could get beer for less than a euro if you wanted. And I never paid more than five euros for a meal. I found this kind of surprising for a city, especially compared to other big cities (COUGH COUGH PARIS, where I was malnourished). 

I knew the one thing I wanted to do in Berlin was go to the Berlin Wall. Most of the wall is destroyed, obviously, but there is one part that has been preserved called the East Side Gallery, which has lots of graffiti on it. 

The first one is really famous and I really just liked the second one. There is lots of writing over the graffiti now but there are people who periodically come back to restore the originals and cover up the writing. 

Another thing I really liked about Berlin was the transportation. I know that is nerdy but it is AMAZING there. They have two train systems (U Bahn and S Bahn), the tram and the bus. So many options. Here is one of the S Bahn trains. U Bahn is the metro (underground) and S Bahn is the above ground train. 

I really liked Berlin and I recommend going. It was incredibly interesting and lively but don't expect the beauty of Munich or Freiburg. 

Paris

Two weekends ago, Sasha and I went on a casual weekend trip to Paris. We got there on Friday night and the place we were staying was near the Arc de Triomphe.

It was okay I guess. The next day was full of activity. In the morning, Sasha and I went to go see one of her family friends who is an artist who lives in the Montmartre district in Paris. We went to the gallery that shows his work. One day he decided he wanted to be an artists and America wasn't really cutting it for him so he moved to Paris not knowing any French and now is a very successful artist. Isn't that so cool? After that we went to a Tibetan restaurant for lunch which was really good. Basically like putting Chinese and Indian food together so I mean obviously it was good. 

We did a bit of thrift shopping and then decided to go to Sacre Coeur, which is technically a church but we didn't go in the church and instead just walked around the area. There was this awesome band from England playing music. They even played Wagon Wheel.  

Once it started getting late, we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower at night. We decided wine and cheese were necessary. 

Once the wine and cheese were finished, we decided to walk up it! I highly recommend this because it is way cheaper than taking the elevator and also the line is incredibly shorter. When we were waiting in line, a mother asked me and Sasha to watch her kids and they were an absolute delight. The littlest one, of only six years, was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen. 

LOOK AT THIS VIEW. 

The next day we did a lot of walking around. First, we went to the MOMA in Paris because it was free. I wanted to go to the Centre Pompidou but it was 14 euros and I mean that is just so much food I just couldn't. Afterwards, we mainly just walked around the Seine and on the bridges and such. 

That night, we went to the Jim Haynes dinner. Basically, everyone is invited to dinner, you just have to email him far enough in advance. It was fantastic! The meal, chicken curry, lentils, rice, green beans, tzatziki sauce and, of course, wine, was amazing and there were so many interesting people to talk to. I even met someone who had just graduated from UNC. I highly recommend this to anyone going to Paris because it honestly was great. 

We went home on Monday. They plan was to get back at 5 in the afternoon but our flight got delayed for five hours so we didn't get home until around 11:30. It is one thing to stay five hours at Charles De Gaulle but five hours at Paris Beauvais is a whole other story. Thanks RyanAir. 

HARRY POTTER CASTLE

Two weekends ago, I had the joyous experience of visiting the castle where the first two Harry Potter films were made otherwise known as Alnwick Castle because it is near the town of Alnwick in England.

Although it doesn't look like it right in that picture, do you remember the scene where Madam Houch was teaching a young Harry Potter and his fellow first years how to ride a broomstick. Or possibly the scene where Oliver Wood is teaching Harry how to play Quidditch? Let me refresh your memory. 

Notice the castles in the background. Now look at this picture:

IT IS THE SAME ARCHITECTURE. So, for any of you Harry Potter fans reading this, isn't that COOL? Honestly, this was my main reason for attending but the castle was also really cool. It is still inhabited by the royal family from Northumberland in northeast England so people actually live here. 

The castle also had this cool treehouse thing which had a swinging bridge and was just generally very pretty. All in all the castle was cool but I couldn't help wondering how much it would be oh-so-annoying to live in this castle and have hundreds of tourists roaming around your home all the time.