I think I've seen it all

So I'm not lost, I've just been buried under a bushel of Apples lately. I keep thinking I've seen it all, but I'm pretty sure I saw IT today. An older fella' came in and was hanging out a bit and while there, he answered his phone. I actually did a double take when I saw it. He had a Blackberry, and connected to it, he had an actual phone handset. An old-school, plugs into the base with a cord and then into the wall with another cord handset. Seriously, I'm not kidding. He had a 5 foot curly-cue cord plugged into the imin-USB port on the phone and when he answered it, he held the handset up to his ear. Craziness.

living in a quentin tarantino movie

or maybe just a bad, B horror film. Lately I've been working a lot starting in the mornings, and as such, I have to enter the store through the back tunnels. The bowels of the mall, as it were. Ok, here's the crazy thing.....They pipe music into the halls , but you can only hear it sometimes. So you'll walk through the hall hearing nothing, then turn a courner and all of a sudden hear the mall music perfectly. It's got that tinny sound to it and is always some obscure song that you remember hearing before, but can't quite place it. Add to that the leaky pipe dripping into the Home Depot bucket that only gets emptied maybe once a month and therefore is constantly full/overflowing and thus doing absolutely no good, and you can totally see why I fully expect to see John Travolta dancing with Uma Thurman or some other full on Quentin scene to pop up on me or even just some scary monster chasing a girl who can't help but keep looking back at him and doesn't watch her step, so of course, she falls down and then can't get back up, scooting along screaming.

I love the gay bar

seriously...the bulk of the bars I've been to latelyhave been gay bars & I've had the most fun ever

Stretched.Too.Thin

That would be me. Lately I've been stretched too thing. I'm wearing myself out. Well, me and the Apple Store. And, I haven't been practicing very good time management.

In my last post, I mentioned Creative Escape. Wow! It was awesome. We didn't go on the tours. Instead, we spent time at the hotel/resort hanging out. They had this amazing system of pools called the River Ranch, and the first day we spent like 7 hours there. No lie. They had this great lazy river, and we spent hours on end there. It was fabulous. A couple of times, we even got adult beverages and lazy river-ed with them. For the most part, we were the only scrappers at the pool....out of 600+!! The second day, we registered late so we could spend more time at the pool. Turned out to be a good idea, as the only thing we missed out on was lines, lines, and grumpy, gripey ladies.

Most of the people there were crazy obsessed about the scrapbooking. Obviously, we are too, or we wouldn't have spent a premium to attend, travel there, and stay there. But, we really wanted to use this as a get away. And we did. It was fabulous. We both had ime to relax and really enjoyed the scrapping and the classes. And, but the time it was time to come home, we were ready.

I'm not going to rehash all the details for the 2 people besides me reading this (nope, my mom doesn't even read it....she forgets I have it for long periods at a time), but the gal who organized it all, Heidi Swapp, did a big review on her blog, here. (PS - I wasn't so excited about the so called yummy dessert, but then it was a mousse-like concoction with nuts in it, and we all know how I feel about crunch stuff in my soft foods.....totally not intended by God....and yes, he told me)

We got home Sunday and I took over a guy's 4-9 shift Monday night at the Apple Store - thank goodness there was a double-header of Monday Night Football and I actually got to seem some (they had a meeting at the store Sunday night, but I told them before-hand that I wouldn't be there), then I worked my regular schedule of 9-5 Tues, Wed, Thurs. Wednesday we had Financial Peace University.

Friday morning, Bob and I left for Fin n'Feather and the annual scrapbooking retreat put on by Scraphappy's. I'd spent all of my free time that week getting ready for the retreat. In the past, I've carted down skads and skads of stuff, but this year I found tons of sketches and planned out the pages. (most of the ones I used were from the website Valerie's Sketches). Of course, we stayed up late and scrapped every night. We had a great time! The weather was just gorgeous, and Bob and I drove the hour + drive down with the top down and had a great time together. I finished 11 pages, which wasn't too bad considering I didn't feel great Fri. afternoon and took an hour and a half nap and had to do the same Sat. afternoon. (and I didn't wake up grumpy...that's a novel concept when i nap!)

This week, I work every day from either 9 or 9:45 til 5 (expect tomorrow when I work till 6). That's 35 hours! What happened to the 20-25 I told them I wanted when I signed up? Let me tell you, that stone floor is wearing me out. But, I have to do something for myself, so I'm also working out in the mornings. By this time of night, I'm just worn down. Needless to say, I haven't been a very good friend lately. In fact, I've been a rather crummy friend! Oh, and yes, I have pictures of everything, but i'm too lazy to put them up here right now!

one more sleep

Tommorrow, Rachel and I head off to Arizona for Creative Escape. We're super excited!! Goobers, we are. We're so excited over a scrapping retreat. But, we signed up for it back in like February or some fool thing. To tell the truth, I haven't been all that excited about it, but all of a sudden tonight I am. I'm actually all packed and ready to go. Kind of a novel concept. Ready to go the night before. Don't have to stay up till 4 in the morning doing last minute things. We're staing at the Squaw Peak Pointe Hilton. (isn't that a weird name?....just more money in Paris' pocketbook!) Looks like a pretty nice joint!! And, we get a discount at the spa. Sounds rather inviting. So long as they keep their paws off my feet. Blech!! We're missing out on the Bazzill warehouse sale, but I think we'll be okay even without that!

In completely unrelated, no scrabooking lunatic news, I've finally started working out again. I was doing awesome there for a while. I was really starting to notice a difference. But then the store opened. And I was going to not do a couple of days for fear that I'd tweak my back while we unloaded the semis (yes, WE unloaded them, and yes, that was plural) and hefted boxes all over the place. Then, I was so tired from working so much. Those stone floors really take it out of you! And all of a sudden, 2 months had elapsed. Finally, I said enough is enough! And, I'm back in the saddle again. Four whole days in a row. And I even went to a Weight Watchers meeting. Just in time to go out of town, but still....better than nothing! Yay me!

let's eat!!

A year or two ago, we were at church one Sunday, and they were talking up the dinner groups. You sign up with a group of people and rotate having dinner at each other's houses. The pastor talked about how the best/easiest way to welcome people into your life and form friendships is to welcome them into your home. It really stuck with me. Wow. And I started thinking about it. And, it made sense to me. But here's the thing, I'm not a neatnick. I don't keep my home as neat as I should. My Chris is a neatnick, but I have a feeling he gets overwhelmed and just doesn't even try. And so, I'm embarrassed and don't want to invite people over.

When we lived in the condo, we simply didn't have people over. Easy as that. We had too much stuff and not enough room to put in it's place. Now, we have enough room, but we'd rather sit on the couch. Last night, I had some friends from work over. Mom always said you should have people over at least once a quarter so you make sure to clean up your house. I have to say, the house looks awesome!! And, we had a fabulous time last night! It reminds me of how I want to live. Now, I just have to remember that every night at 11:00 when I'm heading to bed and should really pick up after myself!

I am the voice inside his head

Chris and I were walking the dogs around the block recently, and I asked if he grabbed baggies to pick up after them 'cuz I forgot. He forgot too. He walks the dogs almost every morning (they can no longer be trusted in the backyard. that's a whole different story) so I figured grabbing the baggies was part of the ritual. I was duly informed that we were lucky he in fact got out the door with the dogs. That early in the morning, pre-coffee, he very well could take off and leave the puppies at home. And that's when he said it, "And every time, I think Jamie would say, 'Chris! That's so rude!' but at least they're not pooping in the house." And so, I've become the voice inside my husband's head. But I'm not just terribly sure that's it's making any difference!

Doing the happy dance

I can hardly contain myself!! On the way home from work the other day, I noticed that they're putting in a Chipotle restaurant less than a mile from my house. I can't wait! I've been saying for years that we needed one here. And now it's coming! Yay!! They can't get it done fast enough for me! And by the looks of it, they've just only started. Oh well!

Norv Turner? Seriously.

As previously mentioned, I bleed pigskin. After the SuperBowl, I pine for September. Sure, the pre-season gets me my fix, but it's just not the same. So last night, the Chargers vs. Rams game is on. No question, we're watching it (with a brief interlude for me to buy a new Mac). Now I'm a serious Bolts fan. From back in the early 80s when we lived in San Diego. Always have been, always will be. But I am currently questioning the sanity of the front office. They fired Marty Schottenheimer with a 10-2 record last year and brought in Norv Turner. Okay, first of all, his name is Norv. Hello? So, you go from Marty Ball (which worked, by the way) to a guy with a marginal record. The Chargers lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs last year after a first round bye week. So, apparantly a fabulous season and getting the team into the playoffs isn't enough. They want to WIN the SuperBowl. And they chose Norv as they guy to do it. Hmmmm....questionable. Thank goodness the team has skads of talent!

I bought a Mac!!

So, since I didn't spend that much money in NYC I decided to reward myself. With a computer. yep, that's right, Chris and I went back up to the store tonight after I got off work and we had dinner, and I bought a Mac. Holy Cow! I had to order it in back and it will be shipped to me. When I came back out, Chris asked if I was excited. I told him I needed a stiff drink and was going to throw up. That's a lot of money, especially since he just got a new quad-core Dell with a 22-inch monitor. But then again, I have been waiting since last December! yay!!! I got the white Macbook with the 2.16 processor and 2 gig of ram. I even paid the extra $$ to have it shipped faster 'cuz I'm like Alvin at Christmas and can't hardly stand the wait!!! (and yes, that innapropriate over-use of exclamations points was necessary)

What's that Willie Nelson song?

On the road again? Well, I'm off the road again! Or something like that. NYC was great. Seriously whirlwind, but great. We spent quite a bit of time at the Millionaire studio. All day Tuesday, and half the day Wednesday. We really wanted to be done Tues. so we could play Wed., but it just wasn't in the cards. Actually, I think it was better for CJ, my cousin. (well, actually my mom's cousin's son, but whatever, that's cousin to me) Because he was able to watch everyone the first day and cogitate everything over night, he was much more relaxed. I would have been exactly the opposite. The longer they made me wait, the more nervous I would have been. I was incredibly proud of CJ. He came across so calm, cool, collected, and most impressively, articulate. The people who are supposed to come across well, the doctors and lawyers, and what not seem to crumble, but not my CJ. He totally rose to the occasion. And, i thought he played the game perfectly. His episode will air the third week (ish) of December. Oh, but he goes by Cole.

And I can't say enough good about Meredith Viera. Mom's always liked her, so I've know who she was and followed her and have to say respected her for keeping her politics out of her reporting. Now, I'm totally in love with her! She was incredibly kind to everyone. Just lovely, and seemed 100% genuine. As my awesome Apple co-worker would say, she's Flaw-Less!

I was able to do just a smidge of shopping in Soho (Crumpler and Kate's) and visited the 5th Ave. Apple store. Wow! Also, we did a bit of site seeing. Took him to Soho with me, then on to the Empire State Building (where we ran into a guy working there who just moved to NYC from Tulsa. I didn't believe him at first, but when he started telling me about where all the Wal-Mart neighboorhood markets were, I did!) and Times Sq. We did quite a bit of walking so CJ could see more of the city. Were it up to me, it would have been subways all the way, but that way he got to see a little more than just the tunnels and the studio. Lest we forget, I also introduced CJ to Chipotle. I eat there whenever I can, so that's where we had dinner Tues. nite. YUM, YUM, YUM!!!

We barely made it home that night. And by barely, I mean by the skin of our collective chinny chin chin. We got to the airport really early. And by really, I mean several hours. It was either that, or hang around Manhattan for an hour and then hope that the traffic wasn't too bad. We chose the former (and on the way, CJ got his first glimpse of Harlem. I think his eyes were a big as saucers when i told him we were there. I didn't tell him that it's going through a renaissance/gentrification.) and thus had tons of time at the airport.

Anyway, we're sitting there forever. I drop a wad in the gift shops. Hats, tees, mags, books. Couldn't resist. We eat awesome Au Bon Pain sandwiches, make phone calls, and hang. CJ decides to check the boards just to check on our flight. He comes back, "Um Jamie, our 5:45 flight is delayed untl 7:25." Now, mind you, we had a 7-something flight out of Chicago. Even with the time change, there was no way we'd make it. Off I went to the ticket counter to get us rerouted. Somehow, I managed to get us two of the last seats on the plane to Dallas, and they were together no less!!! The counter agent was a goddess! That plane was delayed a while too, but we had plenty of time in Dallas. Which was great, seeing as we had to run through DFW to make our connecting flight on the way out. All's I'm sayin' is we didn't need a repeat! On the plane was a guy I'd done a personal shopping session with at the Apple Store. I even remembered his name. Too crazy, huh?

We finally make it home well after 11, and wouldn't ya know, no bags. I didn't really expect it. But, the bag lady (heh!) wouldn't do a claim ticket for us because it was possible that our bags made it through on the original flight (the second leg out of Chicago was delayed by 2 hours) and we could come back out (or wait) at 12 after midnight to see. Um yeah, not so much. I was in dire need of beauty sleep, plus I had an Outlook class at 8:30 the next morning. So, she gave me a 1-800 number to call. Needless to say, when I called the next day, it was a bit of a mess. but, the lovely lady on the other end of the phone was able to tell me that both of our bags where there. When I got there, the new bag lady said that they had only just gotten there a bit before! Good thing I didn't wait. Luckily, we live in the land of the Okies where noone really checks things like baggage claim tix, and I took both bags and was on my merry way into the 103 degree heat. Did I mention that? No? And we took almost the entire top off the Jeep. Oh my! It's hot.

giving it another go

the air travel, that is. One of my friends sent me an email today that said, "don't miss your flight!" Egads! I would have to sit right down on the floor and cry. I asked if she was trying to jinx me. She laughed at me.

I'm off to NYC this afternoon. Yay! Look up whirlwind trip in the dictionary, and this would be it. I'll be home at 11 Wed. nite!! Holy cow. Better not miss that flight either, as I have a class Thurs. morning.

So now we're here at the airport. Hopefully we9e suffered our only snafus of the day. CJ (that's my cousin who now goes by Cole, but he'll always be CJ to me) ot a little off track on hs way to our house, but that was no biggie. I got him turned back around. Once at the airport, we both got tripped up at security. Oops. I didn't realize my water bottle I always bring with me still had water in it. I was totally apologetic, and the guy was super nice! He just dumped the water out and gave me back the bottle. Yay! Then CJ forot to take off his belt and got the requisite ensuing pat- down. Now we're just waiting for our delayed flight. We connect through Dallas. Thank goodness we had an hour & a half layover to begin with.

I have way to much money to put up with this

Those words were said to lowly, peon me today. Let's just say I was taken aback. Literally. Apparently, the guy, who was part of this event, wanted to be sure I knew how important he was after talking to me for a bit. Guess I didn't bow down at his greatness enought. Or maybe I just didn't get IT. How would I know him? Duh. I bleed pigskin. Hello! Yes, his name is indeed on that list - above the cut line even - but, I thought maybe it would be beneath me to actually say who it was....and no, you've never heard of him. Or at least I hadn't. Before the fatal phrases were uttered (yes, there was actually more to it than that), I was super sympathetic. In that moment, though, I was done. D.O.N.E! Not rude, mind you, but done. His problem was solved, but not by me. My question is, who do these people think they are? In our own lives, we are all busy and need to get things done ASAP at times. So some money and a career put him ahead of everyone else? Hmmmmm.....Funny thing is, I was trying to really do that....till he busted out with that phrase. And then, as I may have mentioned, I was done. What are people thinking? And again, who do they think they are. I'm just sayin's all.

why yes, Mr. Williams...I am 100% ready

for some footbal!!!! Chris and I have been waiting for football season since the superbowl ended. We pine for it. Those lazy Sundays at home (honestly, there aren't that many) would be that much better with some football in the background. Monday nights feel empty. Thursday nights could use a little boost. Seriously. And while we're on the topic of Thursday night football, didn't there used to always be a Thursday night game? Now, they wait until after Thanksgiving or some fool thing to have Thursday night games. Makes no darn sense to me.

The NFL Channel says they're airing 52 games in 29 days during preseason. I almost fell off my chair with giddiness when I heard that. Yes, I know that preseason games are different than regular season games, but no matter. It's football. Makes me happy.

This week, Chris and I have been discussing the possiblity of going to an NFL game this season (preferably the Chargers - at home, of course). It's been a dream of mine for a loooooooong time. I know he would get a kick out of it to. Hopefully it'll work out. I might just pee my pants in excitement when I walk in the stadium.

it's a love-hate relationship

as of right now, that would be me and Southwest. I just booked a flight with them. I couldn't find my rewards card, so I called in, and the guy seriously annoyed the c.r.a.p. out of me. I try to be patient with folks on the phone. I know they have to deal with all kinds of stuff, but this guy started off on me from the get-go and it quickly spiraled downhill. Let's just say that it ended with me saying to him four times, "It's a yes or no question. Just tell me is that possible, yes or no." He was slightly less than helpful. I think Herb may have rolled over in his grave (oops...just noticed on Wikipedia that he's alive and kicking. I thought he died last year! So, maybe he would have croaked!...and yes, I was a little less gracious than normal. But still....I'm just sayin's all). Oh, and thanks to Bob for the Southwest Gift Card. That was the BEST EVAH!

Just as I start griping to Chris, I go to actually pay for my flight (my third one I've purchased in the last 2 weeks...all on different carriers, of course) and notice that you can pay with PayPal. I love that. Love, love, love companies that offer PayPal as an option. There are a couple of scrapping sites I won't use b/c they don't accept PayPal. We don't use credit cards, and it makes me feel a lot safer.

Speaking of the credit card usage, tonight we attended the orientation for Dave Ramsey's program, Financial Peace University. (wow! his website is REALLY busy. He obviously hasn't been through my web design theory class) It's something I've wanted to do for a while, but haven't wanted to actually be adult enough to do it. It's about spending wisely and saving and budgeting, and honestly it's just been easier to not tackle everything I know we should. So, here we go on a 14 week journey (with a couple of bye weeks thrown in) toward financial freedom. Before we start, though, I'm buying an iPhone, an Apple bluetooth earpiece, a laptop, and I really want one of these Coach bags. And, if we're honest about it, I really want this one too (in another color, that one's fairly hideous)....but I'm gonna be good. We won't even mention my impending trip to NYC (next week) or Chris' purchase of a new computer today. Yikes! I think we need Dave worse than we thought!

And lest anyone wonder about the title of my last post, yes, I did end up with a whole pile of sand in my pants..and so did my mom! We went boogie boarding my last day in SD and had the absolute best time. Boogie boarding does have some inherent flaws such as the aforementioned sand in the pants and great big mouthfuls of super salty Pacific Ocean water. I can't imagine what the water in the Dead Sea or Salt Lake is like. Yikes! No matter, we had the most fun! And, we got fab pictures of each other. I'm still working on those. I'll share soon.

Did I mention that we went to not one, but two Padres games? It was outstandingly fabulous (or as my 100% awesome Apple co-worker would say, "it was Flawless." I mean just perfect. The first night, we sat up high behind home plate. Perfect view of everything. The second night, we sat on the third base line just a few rows off the field. So stinking close to the action! We took cabs to the park and rode the city bus fun. Seriously felt like locals. I REALLY want to be a local again. REALLY. If we were, we would 100% have season tickets to both the Padres and the Chargers. Seriously.

sunshine, cracker jacks & just a little sand in my pants

So I've returned from the Golden State. I totally missed Chris, but I 100 per cent (no symbol on my phone's keypad...just another reason I need an iPhone) didn't want to come home. I never feel like I have enough time there. I'm not really sure I ever could...short of living there. It feels like home. I feel like I belong there. Like my mindset fits there - and yes, my politics do fit in parts of San Diego...but it's so much more than that. It's a whole attitude. And honestly, I feel like I lose - or forget - that part of myself here in the land of Okies. Something to work on, I suppose. But it's sooooo much easier to be an outdoorsy type there. Whenever I'm there, I feel like the real me. The person I'm supposed to be. Again...somehting to explore more. But it's so easy to fall into those old habits.

Wow! Deep...especially for me.

it could be worse

i'm sitting on the beach in San Diego. It's perfect! I'm trying to post some pics I took with my phone, but apparently that's impossible. Grrrrrrr.

I had a bit of a rough time getting here. For the first time in my life, I missed a flight and it was my fault! So instead of getting here at 8:40 am, I got here at 5:40 pm. Very frustrating . I was exceptionally mad at myself. On a good note though, I got to spend the whole day with the absolutely fabulous Rachel. Having a whole day to just hang out with her is as relaxing and recharging as sitting on the beach. Girl talk is a good thing.

As soon as I got here (finally) we went to Horton Plaza. Our old stomping ground and home of Nordstrom & See's. This time we also hit the Clark's store where I got not one but two pairs of Privos (a belated b-day gift).

I don't work for Steve, I work for Bill

My husband fancies himself a comedian. he thinks teasing me about Apple is great fun. Really, he's not so much funny. Seriously. does it count as funny if he's the only one laughing?

Tomorrow I'm going to San Diego. Yay! It came about rather suddenly...sort of.

It's a sickness, really

Bath & Body Works is having a HUGE sale right now. And by HUGE, I mean H.U.G.E!! I don't shop there very often. I'm allergic (Body Shop is even worse....100% no-go). I stopped in the other day, though. When Chris and I were in Osage Beach what seems like a lifetime ago, the girl at the B & BW told us our fave body wash from Bigelow would be back out on the shelves during the upcoming sale. Fast forward to this week, and boy was she right! I stopped in after work, and it's 75% off! Holy Cow!!! It started at $13, so that made it like $3.25!! Needless to say, I bought 8 bottles. Chris wanted to know if we actually NEEDED 8 bottles of body wash. I told him need was not the issue. So, we're set on personal hygiene until the next big sale! Yay!!

Blog on, blogger

That's what Chris would say to me while waiting during my marathon blogs while we were in Scandinavia. Someone commented the other day that it had been a while since I blogged. It has quite literally been forever. Seriously. Honestly, I just wasn't that interested. I think I blogged myself out. And I never even finished retelling the whole Scandinavia trip! Silly me.

Already, this has been an extremely busy, yet exicting and awesome summer. We joined a neighborhood pool. Not in our neighborhood, but in the one where we used to live. Funny, huh? We've really been enjoying it and using it a lot (and by we, I mean I). Chris likes to relax there, but what with the regular working hours and all....let's just say that I get to spend a lot more time there. We signed Bob (that would be my mom) up with us, so she and I hang there and my good friend Stephanie has been a member for like 20 years, so we all just have a blast! Noone will ever believe it. I've been to the pool no less than 20 times, and I don't have one picture. I think I pictured myself out too!

Speaking of pictures, I've been sending piles of them to Winkflash. They're having a sale right now....$.06 per print. Holy cow!

Long Day's Journey into Night

Phew! We made it home. If felt like it took forever. We spent all but our last 100 Danish Kroners in Copenhagen's airport. We tried to so hard to spend it, but it was like they just didn't want us to. So we kept it and changed it into Euros in Amsterdam. I mentioned the guy in the kilt. There were actually a bunch of them, and they were all on our flight. I really wanted one of them to sit next to us so we could ask him if he had anything on under that skirt. Ha! None of them did.

We thought we were going to have tons of time in Amsterdam. We didn't. We thought we were going to have a snack (we got sandwhiches on the flight, but the one was Pastrami and pickles on dark bread....um....yuck). We were also going to get online, as we didn't use all of our time on the way over and still had the codes. Nope, nothing. The boards said we had to head to the gate and it would take 15 minutes to get there. Thankfully, we believed it. But, we'd just changed our Kroners into Euros, and that coupled with our leftovers from Finland we had like 24 Euros (we got 9 Euros for our 100 dkk).

I wasn't about to take that home with us. Surely we could find SOMETHING in Dutch in the airport to take home with us. Now, there is tons of shopping to be done in the Amsterdam airport. Literally tons. But most of it is well over 24 Euros (remember, add about 30% to translate it to American), and we were quickly running out of time. So we bought cheese! I wanted some good ole Dutch cheese anyway, and they had a four pack of cheeses for 22.95. Perfect!

Our flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis was fairly uneventful. Well, other than the medical emergency just 30 minutes into it. We sat next to a nice couple from Salt Lake who had been in Switzerland. I finished my book in the first our of the flight, and was thankful for the in-seat movies. I watched three! The only new one was Music & Lyrics. I absolutely loved that movie! Also watched Dave and You've Got Mail. Two of my all time favorites. You've got mail finished just 20 minutes before we landed. Perfect.

I have to say, though, we were slightly unimpressed with our Flight Attendant. He was honestly the shabbiest Flight Attendant I've ever had; both in appearance and demeanor. I think the medical emergency right off the bat threw everyone off a bit, but he was the only one who let it show. They kept running out of things a row or two ahead of us. We had to have vegetarian meals because he ran out of the chicken meal. He ran out of orange juice. He'd come around to do water service and run out and forget to come back to us. It was most annoying when they said they were out of stuff, but the people on the other aisle were still getting it. It was like he just couldn't be bothered to ask them to share. And, he was basically tossing stuff at people. Another couple talked about it with us while waiting in Customs, it was that bad!

Customs was no big deal. We got asked over and over about bringing liquor and cigs. in, but we had none, so no biggie. The first guy asked if we had any food. I told him just the cheese we bought in the airport, and Chris brings it out of the bag to show him. It totally cracked me up. The way he brought it out the bag and showed the guy, it almost looked a fisherman showing off his prized catch. That cracked a smile on the grumpy Customs guy's face, and he said welcome back. We got toally passed by by the most adorable drug dog on earth. Oh, was he cute! Always a good feeling to get passed by the drug dog! Even when you have nothing to worry about, it still makes you nervous. We got our bags, dropped them off, went through security again (I didn't know you don't have the option of not removing your shoes any more), and we were officially back in America. And it felt good.

We hung out in the main hall for a while. Checked out the shops, watched a little FoxNews for a while. We were totally news starved. We only actually saw tv a couple of times while we were gone, and that was either sports in another language or the BBC and (trust me on this) the BBC gets really old, really fast. I called Mom collect. It's been a really long time since I've made a collect call. But, we didn't think it prudent to lug our cell phones (that's mobile to the Europeans) all over for 3 weeks just to have them for the 2 hours in Minneapolis. It was really good to hear Mom's voice. We talk every day, and most days about 52 times, so it was good to talk again after so long.

Sitting there, on the phone, I noticed there was an iPod vending machine across the way. Now, I've seen these before, most notably in Macy's in Dallas in the Men's cologne department (weird), but there in the airport, wedged between the water fountians and the women's WC, it struck me as odd. Oh, I've been wanting an iPod, so I'll pick one up at the airport on my way out. Never mind the fact that you have to charge it to use it and connect it to a computer and get all of the music downloaded. And then I noticed another one just around the corner. There's that much use that they need two of them, literally, like 30 feet apart? Wow! 

We had some good 'ole American fare at Chili's and it was GOOD. Chips, salsa, queso, and quesadillas,  washed down with all the Coke we could drink. Yum, yum, yum! I have to admit, the Twin Cities airport isn't my fave on earth. They do have good stores, and we bought a "city" mug at the Starbucks, but I just didn't like it all that much. There was that smell of canned air about the place. You know, when you're on an airplane and you've pushed away from the gate, and there's that stale, canned air mixed with just a hint of jet fuel. Yeah, that smell permeated the airport. Yuck. And what's worse is, for some reason that specific odor sets off my allergies and turns on the nausea and dizziness. Yay! I got a rootbeer float at the A&W stand to help a little. After all, ice cream is a cure all. Rootbeer, however is not. To make matters worse, after we got down to our gate and waited for a while, they quite nonchalantly decided we were going to be delayed. By 40 minutes. NOOOOOOOOO!!! We were at that point where all we wanted to do was get home. We needed to be home. In bed. Something was going on with the crew, and once we were on board, the captain announced the situation. They are required to have a certain amount of rest time, and had arrived late in the morning, so they had to push back the evening's flight. Interesting, no?

Thankfully, the powers that be approved us leaving earlier than the estimated 40 minutes, and we were on our way soon. We think one guy got left. He was in the gate area, pacing, talking on his cell phone; got huffy at the announcement and walked off. We never saw him again. But then, we both fell asleep before the plane took off. I was in and out, Chris was mostly out. After about 20 minutes, Chris woke with a start and said, why are we still on the ground? Huh? I was so confused by his question, as I was looking out the window and could see the black night and lights of little towns below us. I told him to look out the window, but he didn't get it, so I had to spell the situation out for him. Cracked me up!

Finally, we were home. Bob picked us up and brought us home to the puppies. They were so confused. I think they thought we were never coming back!

Leavin´on a jet plane

We´re at the CPH airport. I´m yhe geek stnding at the internet kiosk, typing on the miniscule keyboard, while everyone else sits typing happily away on thier laptops in the wifi zone. next time, I´m bringing one of those miniscule laptops with me. There's wifi everywhere here. Guess that's why I had such a hard time finding the internet cafes, huh?

We made it through check-in and security without too much trouble. We did self check in, only it didn't want to work that well. It checked us in through Tulsa, but only printed our boarding cards to Amsterdam. Then it couldn't get our baggage tags printed. But, the totally helpful KLM desk agent got us all taken care of. At security, I beeped! Me! The person who makes sure Chris takes everything out of his pockets (which he never remembers, and almoat went through with a pocketful of change, a camera and various and sundry other things) and wears a sports bra for the express purpose of avoiding these things: Guess it was the zipper in my fleece. Chris had his on too, but it did't go off. Humph!! I won't kid ya about it,it is quite intimidating to get wanded,patted down in another language. I'm just sayin'.

Now, we have to figure out how to spend the $20+ in change we still have. We saved up so we could pay for the Metro/train combination out here. Turns out I was making it harder than it needed to be and cost us 54 DKK instead of the 133 we were expecting. Hey! A guy in a kilt just walked by! I guess there were a lot of Brits, Irishmen, what have you heerer this weekend for a rugby tourney. Yesterday, we saw a guy wearing a shirt that said, "I´m Irish." I noticed it, walked beside him for a minute, and then looked over and said, "So you're Irish?" He and his buddies just died laughing. Cracked myself up a bit, Im must admit. Turns out, he'd gotten the shirt at a rugby tourney over St. Pat's in Savannah, Ga. Too funny!

Well, the back is starting to hurt from standing here, and I need to go see if they've decided on a gate for us yet. No one can make fun of me anymore (yes, you can tell, even in another language when they are making fun of you...the phrase Internet kiosk was a dead give away).

 

we contemplated alternative lifestyles...they`re not for us

Tomorrow`s the day. The fun is over. We are going home. I don wanna go home. I miss home, but I don`t want it to be over. We have had a really, really good trip. even with all of the hiccups, it`s been wonderful. Better than I`d imagined. In fact, I had a hard time imagining it before we left. And, I`ve never had so many surreal moments in my life. I think I`ve done a good job this trip living in the moment. Not worried so much about what comes next, but enjoying now. Maybe I should have been more worried about what came next! Ha!

So what did we do today? Other than the day spent on the train, it was probably our most relaxing yet. The perfect way to end such an active vacation. We woke up at the same time but were lazy about it (which means Chris pretended to be awake, but his snores totally tipped me off). We stayed in bed and read and talked and tried to stay warm under the miniscule comforters. We have a double bed, but it`s actually like two twins pushed together and we each get our own comforter. Which, is actually a good idea, but they aren`t wide enough. If they were just a foot wider, they`d be perfect!

Finally, we made our way out into the day. It was noon. We needed food. We stopped at 7-eleven for Frankse Dogs. It`s the craziest thing. They take super skinny hotdogs and put them in bread that is actully like a mini baggeutte with one end cut off and a hole drilled 3/4 of the way down. Before they stick the dog in the hole (as it were), they squirt it full of whatever you want. Ketchup and mustard for us. It was great! Too bad, though there was waaaaayyy to much of the condiments toward the bottom. I couldn`t eat it all.

We intended to go to Our Saviour`s Church, just around the corner from our place. We walked there, and wouldn`t you know, it`s under construction? Everything we want to see is under construction. The awesome spires of the church in Roskilde were covered in scaffolding, the Rosenborg Castle was under total renovation (only 3 of the rooms were open plus the treasury), the castle looking thing at Tivoli. Don`t ever travel with me, everything you want to see will be under construction! And by under construction, I mean completely closed, and you couldn`t even go in the main gate. I was totally disappointed. I was looking forward to climbing the spiral spire. Very cool.

Instead, we continued on our way to Christiana. It`s Copenhagen`s "free society." To tell the truth, I was a tad nervous walking in. I (and by I, I mean we) don`t really fit in in places like that. Hippies, we are not. And no, we didn`t fit in. We stuck out like sore thumbs in the communal living that is Christiania. It`s an old barracks that was empty and just taken over in the 70s (I think). It´s definitely thought provoking. Should it be allowed to remain open? Or should the residents forced out and back into greater Copenhagen? I think maybe I don`t mind it so much. It`s not for me, but it works for them. There used to be lots of illegal activities there. That`s the only part I mind. And yes, we did smell the wacky tabbacy several times. But other than that, who are they bothering? I know the city is thinking about turning it into condos, and if the city actually still owns the land, they can do whatever they want, but maybe it`s better for now to let them have their place?

As we contemplated how glad we are we earn a good living, have electricity and own our own home, we walked back to the main shopping street to go in a few shops and see some Danish design. I read the best place for that was at Illums Bolighus. Wow! Very cool stuf, but very expensive. I really want to get Scooby a Fatboy dog bed. Really, Mimi will probably use it more, but we`ve started calling Scooby the Fatboy since we first saw them in Norway, and now he will have to have one!!

Just down from the shopping street is Nyhavn. One of my favorite places in Copenhagen. It`s wonderful to sit and people watch and take in the scenery. We sat for a while and then went and got a take away pizza. Brought it back and ate by the water. Wonderful. There are restaurants lining the area, but they can be quite expensive, and you know what happens at the end of vacation! But, we didn`t really mind eating that way. The water area is always lined with people. Tourists, yes, but sitting and enjoying their city are the Danes. Very cool. We hung out for a while and then took an ultra touristy canal boat tour. Not much to say about it. Good thing it was only $10 for both of us.

We came back and got beers and ice cream and hung out at Nyhavn some more. We were getting seriously annoyed by the family who comes around every 2 minutes trying to take your bottles and so were they guys next to us, and we started talking about it and just kept talking for the next hour or so. One was German, one was Latvian. It was very interesting. The German thinks our President is not so intelligent, and not very clever. And then he brought up Michael Moore. The Latvian seemed to take a more critical look at things. I think because of all they`ve been through with the Russians, they are wary. Like I said, very interesting.

And then it was time for dinner. We headed back down the shopping street, past the city hall (Radhus) to Tivoli...for the third time. Yep, we`ve been three times! Tonight we had dinner at the same place we ate the first night. Super awesome Italian food. Yum! We walked around, bought christmas ornaments, and waited for the Illusions show. It`s a water, light, and smoke show. The first night we were there, it was broken. The second, it was Saturday, and it didn`t run until 12:15. Tonight we finally saw it, and it was actually worth it. Very cool.

And that`s it. The end of our trip. Makes me sad. Now we have to go back, pack, sleep a little, and travel the 17+ hours home. At least we`ll be at home in our own bed with our own pillows (and a puppy sleeping on my head) tomorrow night. I am really looking forward to that. My own pillow. Maybe my neck will quit hurting so much. It`s going down my shoulder now too. Okay, so I`m out for now, but I`m planning on going back and telling some of the untold stories!

today, we were Vikings

I have to apologize for the quietness of late. I think I`ve got my mom worried! We`re fine. I don`t really understand why it needs to be just so hard to find an internet cafe in this country. In Æro, I used the computer in the Library. I went back to use it again before we left. The library doesn`t open until 1:00 (that`s 13:00 over here) on Tuesday and Thursday. I was NOT about to relive the ferry missing incident, so figured we`d just find one in Copenhagen. Yeah, well, you know what you get when you assume. We`ve kept our eyes out for the last three days, and nothing.

Finally, I looked in Rick again, I knew he mentioned one in there. It says it`s next to the TI. Now, in my world, next means just that. Next door, and if not, a couple of doors down. Apparently in Rick`s world, that means around the corner. How hard would it be to put, "around the corner instead," of, "next to?" As we were taking Rick`s walking tour and wondering once again what the heck he was talking about (with regard to some directions), and Chris made a very astute observation. He said that quite often, Rick fails to give that one little piece of information that would bring everything together. Maybe he thinks that these little things enhance the experience. If that`s the case, I`ve got news. It just isn`t so. It`s frustrating.

While I`m once again ranting about Rick, let me mention that I`m just about sick of his snide little Republican comments. We`ve found a couple in this book, and there were a couple in his shows we watched before coming here. It annoys me. Anyone can have an open mind, Dems, Greens, and yes, even Republicans. Anyone who speaks to me for even just a short amount of time will know I lean decidedly Right. But if I did`t have at least a somewhat open mind, I wouldn`t be here in the first place. Period. And yes, I know I ranted and raved about Oslo, but if you`d have been there you would too. I almost posted the next day that Rick would admonish me for what I said. I`m sure he would (and probably add, "That`s a stodgy Republican for you") but that was my experience. Take it or leave it.

How about some trip info? I`m miserably behind in sharing what we`ve been doing, and I plan to go back and fill in the holes, so bare with me (there`s a good chance it`ll be after we get home, though...when the internet is free and Chris isn`t pacing waiting for me). The weather in Copenhagen has been gorgeous. This is technically our third day here. Our first day, though, we didn`t get here until 4:00 and didn`t actually get out into the city until close to 6:00. We took a taxi to our Pension because we just couldn`t handle another death march with those packs on our back. The taxi driver was super nice and told us what a bunch of the buildings were and their history. Very cool.

Today, we got up and went to Smods Bolcher (yes, I know it`s in Danish, but if you do a search in English, you come up with next to nothing). It`s a candy factory that`s been around just this side of forever (1871, actually I thought it was longer!). They make hard sugar candies, and oh my!! Are they good! Apparently, they started as a supplier for the Royal Family. You can watch them "cook" the candy, but apparently they don`t actually make it on Saturday, and Friday was a National Holiday. Oh yeah, did I mention that? Yesterday was another national holiday. Two in one week. Only this time EVERYTHING was closed. Touristy attractions were still open, though, thank goodness, as were restaurants. Otherwise, we would have been up a creek! We had no idea until our cabbie told us. Anyway, we bought a bunch of different flavored candies (peppermint w/chocolate center, raspberry, carmel, lemon, rhubarb, and something with whiskey), and the gal measured it in the coolest old time scale. We booked it out of there so we could make the 11:01 train to Roskilde.

Why Roskilde? That`s where Denmark`s Viking Ship Museum is. I`d heard that you could take a ride on a viking ship, and I wanted to! The museum houses 5 ships that were excavated from the Roskilde harbor. They believe they were scuttled in order to block the shipping lanes (some were on top of one another, and they were basically lined up). They don`t have whole boats, and they certainly don`t look like the ones in Oslo, but it was awesome. We really liked they way they had them displayed. You can kind of see it in the pictures on the website. They have these skeletons that they built and the pieces of the ships were put together inside of them. After the ships were found, it was another 23(ish) years before they could be put back together! They had some other cool displays at the museum. Replica ships we could climb inside of with sample cargo, clothes to try on, weapons and chainmail to practice with, and even a lady working a loom making a wollen sail for the replica ships the museum sails.

They sail a bunch of ships, actually. One is huge and seats at least 80 people. They`re getting ready to sail one of them to Dublin this summer and were practicing today. We got the last two open spots on the last sailing of the day. It was meant to be. It was awesome. Yes, they`re replicas, but they`re hand made in the same way the Vikings made them, and it looked like they even recreated some of the old tools to make them with. We got splinters in our rumps and tar (or was it tree sap) on our hands. And it was one of the coolest things we did on our trip. There were 11 of us in the boat, and we had to row the oars and set the sail and drop the sail and row back in. It was crazy, and did I mention cool? We met a couple from Wisconsin who are currently living in Leiden, The Netherlands. Holy cow! That`s where I lived in college. Very cool!! It`s amazing the people you meet if you just talk to them (I know, I know mom! Chip, block).

While we were waiting, we had lunch. We`d only eaten sugar so far today. We intended to eat lunch on the way, but it just didn`t happen. We had a bunch of those candies and then walked through Roskilde down the main drag with everyone out for their Saturday shopping. It was neat to be a part of it. We stopped into a bread store and got pastries. More sugar. We were actually trying to find the TI to get a map of town. I don`t know what it is about this part of the world, but they put their TIs in the craziest places. And by crazy, I mean nowhere near the train station. Makes no sense.

We finally found it, got a map, and were on our way. We decided to stop at the renowned church on the way to the museum. Good choice. It was amazing! All of the royalty of Denmark has been buried there since like the 900s (although some of the older ones may have been reburied there). It was formerly a Catholic church, until the King realized that if they reformed and became Lutheran, he could practice Absolute Monarchism and be not only the Head of State, but also the Head of the Church. The chapels that ring the church were no longer needed, so that`s where they started burying people. Previously, they put them in the floor, walls, and basement. We were astounded by both the rooms and the sarcophogi they held. It was unreal. They most recent burial was in 1972. WOW!!! And, there`s a special pew for the Royal Family. WOW again! I took a ton of pictures.

My point to all that was, we still hadn`t eaten a meal, and it was after 2:00. We were sailing at 4:00. We hit the restaurant. I mentioned the other day that it`s rare to have dinner for under $40 (although, we did dine out for $30 the other night). It`s also rare to dine out in under an hour. You wait and wait and wait to be greeted. Here, they order drinks first, then order the meal, and they never bring you the check unless you ask. And good luck trying to order another drink. Eye contact is avoided at all cost, so flagging down a server can be difficult, if not impossible. Anyway, we were hoping for semi-quick service. We were disappointed. I got an awesome sandwhich of brie, artichoke hearts, and lettuce. Chris got a so-so club sandwhich. He declared it the worst 40 meal he ever had!

After we sailed (did I mention it was awesome?), we walked around looking at all of the replica boats and watching the workers practice sailing a couple. Then, it was time to head back for the train station. But with a side trip to hit the ice cream stand. What to my wondering eyes should appear at the stand? Ebelskivvers. What are those? Well, they`re similar to poffertjes. If you don`t know what those are, they`re little mini pancakes, only these are like 3 times as big, and therefore doughier. They`re served with powdered sugar and raspberry sauce, and unbelieveably good! As we headed for the station, we retraced our steps from earlier in the day. Only now, it was after five and everything was locked up tight and the streets were totally barren. Weird. Very weird. To go from packed to nothing. There were even papers blowing down the street like in a movie.

We made it back (after getting shushed by the guy across from us...it was a quiet car...oops!) and decided to try eating at the Hard Rock again. We tried last night, but the wait was 45 minutes. My 25 minute tops rule travels with me. Tonight it was 35 minutes, so I said okay. I gave in. We grabbed the pager (they have to explain it to everyone over here - you don`t wait anywhere), and set out in search of the internet cafe. Not a couple of minutes after our return, we were paged. Yay!! We had great big juicy hamburgers, and they were good! We perused the HRC store, and between dinner and goodies ended up dropping nearly $200! Yikes!We spent more in the store than on dinner! But we justified it because the store was closed when we were at the one in Olso (again, I ask, what HRC store closes at 8:00?).

And now, here we are. We are quite certainly tired and weary. Never, ever in my life before have I uttered the words, "I want to go home," while traveling. Not while living in other countries, not while traveling through them, never. Those words have been uttered. This trip has not been easy. It`s been fun. It`s been awesome, but the number of days where it was the opposite of easy is coming close to those where it was easy. Today was actually an easy day (as was yesterday) and we (by we I mean I) needed it. W made all of our connections, scooted in to the last slots for sailing, the tickets we bought from the automatic machine for the train were right. It worked. It was a good thing. Now we have tomorrow left, and then our tired feet head for home. And, I can honestly say I`m looking forward to climbing into the Jeep, putting the top down, and driving where I want to go. At least my legs are getting rock hard. Too bad my feet are too!

Men in Denmark wear headbands

Need I say more? In all fairness to the Danes, we saw a guy in Estonia with a headband on too. It wasn`t just any headband, either, it was one of those comb thingies that goes all the way around your head and keeps the hair back. First time I`d ever seen a guy in one of those! But, we`ve seen tons of guys here in headbands. Don`t know what that`s all about. And, we`ve seen some of the craziest hair on the guys. It`s like they are trying to make it look like a cow licked the back of their heads. The women seem to have regular hair, but the men? It`s odd. Speaking of hair, I must comment on the leggy, blond stereo-type. While we have seen quite a number of leggy blondes, we have also seen quite a number of blondes that are of the bottle variety. Yup. More than anyone would like to admit. And, apparently, dyed stark black hair is super in too.

We are currently on Æero island in the tiny municipality of Æroskobing. How`s that for a name? You should see some of these street names. We saw one that was 15 letters long!! We finally got here at around 6:00 last night. It was a rough day. We walked around Odense and saw some of the May Day activities. People marching in makeshift parades. Loosely organzed bands followed by groups of people, some organized, some who just randomly joined in, almost all who had been drinking a lot already, and it was only 11:00!! The all convereged on the square we happened to be in with their red flags and fists flying and socialist propaganda.

Actually, the gal who checked us in last night said that morst of them really don`t care that much about it all, it`s just a free day and a day to get righteously pissed (in the British sense of the word......crazy drunk). We shopped in this awesome department store. It`s a good thing we don`t have it at home, and that we don`t live here. LOTS of our money would go to that store. Lucky for me, though....they have a website. Gotta love the information superhighway!

We headed for the train station. We bought tickets from the automated teller just for the experience. We made our way to the track. And we missed the train. I don`t know how. I still don`t believe it was actually there. So, we weren`t actually facing it. We thought it was the track on the other side, but I kept turning around and looking at that one, and I promise, there was nothing there. Well, this threw off the day even more than it already was. And I was not so pleased. We took the next train to Svendborg and missed the ferry by 10 minutes, so had to wait another 3 hours for the next one. Again, not so happy way I (but, I knew this was the case as soon as we missed the first train, so at least I was mostly over it by the time we got to Svendborg).

Since we were stuck there, we walked around the town. Impossibly quaint. Look quaint up in the dictionary, and you`ll find that town (well, that`s what we thought anyway, until we got here!). We had lunch outside by the quay (I just love words like that) and savored the sunlight. It wasn`t the warmest day we`ve had, but man did it feel good. Didn`t even need a coat! Not really even a jacket! I had the most amazing salmon fish cakes. Oh my, was it good! Chris and I had mentioned earlier in the day how hard it can be to keep up the water intake when traveling like we are. So at lunch, I ordered water, and whaddaya know? I got an entire liter. Drank the whole thing too (except for the couple of sips I gave Chris). We walked along the shopping streets. That was where everyone was. There were sales and families out enjoying the day. It was nice.

Finally, at 4:30, our ferry left, and we were on it! We got to Æro a short 75 minutes later. Then we had to walk to the campgrounds. I`m sure it is a nice walk in the summer when all of the grass has been tramped down by all of the other people walking that way, but we were among the first, so we were forging a path in grass sometimes hip high! It was a nice view, as we walked, though. And our cabin is impossibly cute! We are at a non-primitive campgrounds. Meaning, there`s showers and electricity and cabins. If you can stand bunk beds, I highly recommend it. So quite and so nice! We love it, and were thinking of staying an extra day. Probably won`t, though.

We had the most amazing meal last night. Chris had Ox filet (yep, that`s right...Ox) and I had....well, I had fish. We still don`t know exactly what kind. She didn`t know the translation. Only, "Flat fish. You know, with the red spots on it." Hmmm.....whatever....it was darn good. So was the Ox. Outstanding! Afterwards, we took Rick`s walking tour of town. This is a glorious place, and we are glad to be about the only tourists. It feels so slow and perfect here. Many of the homes are from the 1700s. Holy cow! You can tell on some of them, they`re leaning just a bit. This place just feels special.

We`re supposed to be on a bike ride already, but we did a little shopping instead. We have to quit buying things! But it`s so hard! We see the most unique things. And how are we supposed to pass them up? Now we need to have our picnic lunch. Maybe down by the water? Then maybe the bike ride. Did I mention ìt`s 18 miles?

Sleepyheads

So, we`re supposed to be in Æro (I asked last night, it`s pronounced eru, kinda like emu, but with an R instead) by now. We are not. We`re still in Odense. We overslept. Did`t hear the alarm one little bit and woke up 20 minutes before the train. Oops!! Could have been that awesome beer we had just before bed. We decided to take a more leisurly pace, and here we are. This is the home of Hans Christian Andersen, so we may go by his house or something. l saw a store last night that really interested me, so we`ll probably stop by there too. Not that I can buy anything...all of it`s too big to carry!

Chris says I was being a bit of a Negative Nancy last night. I didn`t mean to be. Sorry if it came across that way. Thing is, I have to deal with all of the hiccups. Well, he does too, but Í`m the one figuring out the logistics of it all. As he says, he just shows up and hands over the Visa. Too funny!! No worries though, we are on track and are totally enjoying ourselves.

It`s funny, this trip is starting to feel realllllllly long. We`ve both noticed it independently of each other. Our last European adventure was only 5 days less, but it didn`t seem nearly as long. One thing I`ve learned, I really don`t like McDonald´s all that much. We ate it again yesterday in the Stockholm train station while waiting for our number to be called so we could make our reservations. Not my favorite. Neither of us can wait to get home and be able to have a $10 dinner. Dinner for under $40 over here is pretty difficult.

One thing I thought of yesterday, we all but missed the famed Stockholm city hall. It`s where they have a banquet for the Nobel winners, and is supposed to be cool. We kept putting it off and were planning on doing it yesterday, but ended up with only 40 minutes in the city. I managed to get a decent picture from the train. Kind of disappointing, but as Bob says, you always gotta have something to do next time!!

st-marcopolo.dkWhat country are we in again?

Chris asked me that this afternoon. It`s Denmark, the last country of our trip. We sailed from Tallinn to Stockholm last night. We were supposed to take a night train to Copenhagen tonight and then on to Æro Island in the morning. Tommorrow is May Day, and being as we are in the countries we`re in (I`m not gonna say Socialist Tendancies or anything), nothing is as it should be. The Swedish trains ran today as if it were a Sunday, meaning no night tain. Honestly, I`m not really sure what Sundays have to do with night trains, but whatever. So, we traveled during the day. And actually, it was quite nice. A day with not so much walking, and we actually got to see the scenery. We`re starting to be too old for the night trains. I know, I know. We aren`t that old yet, but whenever we`ve taken them, we haven`t gotten but a couple few hours of sleep, and those few hours were ridden with wake-ups.

So, here we are in Odense. It is Denmark`s third largest city. We`re glad to be here. I slept like a baby last night. Literally. I woke up like a million times. That would be on the boat. The boat that was not so impressive. We`ve actually been on quite a few boats lately. This was technically our third cruise-type boat (our second being the shuttle to Tallinn - there were actually cabins on it!). Like I said, we were not overly impressed. There was no pool on this one, just a sauna. There was only one shopping shop and one tax free shop. The Stockholm - Helsinki boat put it to shame!! I know I haven`t talked about that boat, or any of Helsinki for that matter, but bear with me, I will.

I`m actually a little ticked at myself that we are here in Odense. I thought we were doing the right thing. I`d read somewhere that the ferry to Æro stops at like 6 pm or something. Turns out it runs until 10:30. I figured that out after we were already here with a room. I just now found out that the ferry service doesn`t run at all tomorrow as it`s May Day. I stick my tongue out at May Day! They say here that it`s like our Labor Day, but not really...in oh so many ways! For instance, ferry service doesn`t stop. The easiness of this trip has gone out the window. The first week was pretty great (let`s leave out Oslo for a moment). The second week seems to be one pitfall after another. Not to say that we aren`t having a great time. We are, it´s just there`s been a bunch of set backs. I´m just sayin`s all.

So we may have to spend an extra night here. I`m going to Æero if it kills me. It`s nice and idyllic and quaint and quiet. All things we need. Plus, our feet are well rested from the lack of touring today. But man, have those packs gotten heavy. Mine has this special way of pressing right on the nerves in my shoulder!!

On an upshot, we are staying in an awesome little botique hotel, and it`s only 595 Danish Krone (divide by 6). For this place, the only is appropriate. By far the nicest place we`ve stayed so far. I guess this is a slow week because he said they have plenty of rooms for the week. In fact, I think he charged us the price for a room with the bathroom down the hall (we`ve had our fair share of those), but we have a bathroom (wC - water closet) ensuite. Yay us! And, it sounds like it`s a good thing they have plenty of rooms. We may be sleeping in tomorrow and reading books (I read a whole one by James Patterson today. Beach House, I think it was. WOW!! Good book. Great twist at the end!) and then seeing what there is to see here.

Tonight we had a fabulous dinner. Service in this part of the world is not quite on par with that at home. In fact, you could even call it non-existent. In most places you don`t tip. I wonder if they got paid less and relied on tips, like at home, if they`d give more/better service? So the service stunk, but the food. Oh my, the food! It was awesome. The guy at the hotel recommended the place. Marco Polo (click on the top M). They love that name over here. You see all kinds of things with it. There`s even a clothing line called Marc O`Polo. Anyway, the food rocked.

Afterward, we tried in vain to find a place with ice cream. Finally, we ended up back at the hotel. Chris went upstairs already. I`m on the free computer in the lobby. He`s probably asleep already. It`s annoyingly easy for him to sleep. Today, I was miserable on the train. Seriously. In bad shape. And there he sat, sleeping. Ooooohhhh, I just wanted to pinch him!

*update* I just talked to the guy at the desk. he says it doesn`t make sense for the ferry to not run, all the shops will be open. I checked again. It was January first. Ugh! Like I needed those two years of my life I just lost!!

we found the photo nazi...he`s in Estonia

Before I begin anything else, I`d like to mention that it`s cold here. Seriously, teeth chattering cold. Stockholm was gorgeous the other day. We saw people in tube tops (okay, that was taking it a little to the extreme, but it was close to that warm...low 70s, I`d say). Our first day in Finland was also lovely until the sun started to set. Since then....brrrrrr! Today, I have on 4 layers plus my hat and mittens, and at times I`ve still been cold. It`s the first time I haven`t gotten hot and sweaty carrying my pack.You know how Scandinavians always have that ruddy complexion? I always thought it was a sun thing. It`s partially that, but it`s also from the wind. More than one day, I`ve come in at the end of the day with serious wind burn. Today would be the worst. I was nearly blown over by the wind as we packed it back to the ferry terminal.

We had a nice day of sightseeing. The turmoil of the nights seems to have died down. Probably from the daylight. The waiter last night said they`re expecting it to get worse before it gets better, as May 8 is a holiday. The anniversary of the end of WWII, and apparently some group always buses in a bunch of Russians from the east (where they`re more prevelant...makes sense that theref`s more of them there...)

So, we finished up Rick Steves`walking tour that got so rudely interrupted last night. Tallinn`s old town is lovely. That`s mostly what we saw. Old churches, the old town hall and Town Hall Square. I mentioned yesterday that Chris saw his first Russian Orthodox Church. Today we went inside. It was gorgeous. Painted a shade of teal that you`d never expect to see in a church. There are no pews or seats of any kind...they stand during services. All services. And they`re not short. Can you imagine? It said no photography, but I hid around a corner and took a couple. Funny thing is, I wasn`t the only one!! Some people would say that`s being disrespectful, but for me, I was so in awe of the beauty that I want to never forget it. So I snuck a couple!

We had lunch at another touristy joint. It`s called the Beer House, and is Bavarian Style. But get this....no photos allowed. Are you kidding me? You build a place like this with the total cheese factor flying off the end of the spectrun, and you want people to NOT take pictures? Of course, I snuck a few. Actually, no one really seemed to care....except our waiter. He was the only one admonishing the photo takers. So, whenever we gave or got something from him, I`d whip out the camera. I`ll show him!!!

You are tourists, it is not safe for you

These are not necessarily comforting words, especially when said by a cop. I`ll give a little background. We woke up in Finland yesterday (I`ll do some back tracking on the rest of Sweden and Finland later) toured around a bit and then took the "high speed" ferry over to Tallinn, Estonia. By high speed, they mean 2 hours time and 30 Euros per person (add 30% to translate to American....we`ve stopped doing the math, it`s just easier that way). So, we got here and needed to head to the room office. They call themselves the B&B office and cooridnate travelers with rooms in homes all over the Baltic States. Great! Perfect even! Except we were later than I thought we`d be. I just couldnt actually find us on the map. When I did find us, we hadn`t gone out of our way, just another route. Maybe a little more circuitous route. We picked up a map at the boat terminal, but when comparing it to the map in Rick`s book, I was a tad confused. It looked like there was only one way into the city from the boats. Ha! Try like 15. But, we got there, and it actually was a fairly good route (I love being lost and then finding out we never were lost in the first place, just didn`t know where we were).

We finally got to the office. And wouldn`t ya know, it`s locked up tight. We went around trying different doors, and Chris banged on doors, but it was to no avail. We were up a creek. Funny thing, I was thinking earlier that day that the Amazing Race would be so much more interesting if they had to find their own hotel rooms. Heh. Anyway, we just sat there on the step for a bit thinking. I got out Rick and started trying to find another hotel that was fairly close. I think I forgot to mention, Rick says the cabs are unregulated, so he doesn`t reccommend using them unless it`s totally necessary, so we walked. Ugh.

I found a place that looked kind of close (there`s no kind of scale to Rick`s maps) and we started walking. As we walked, it seemed like there was a weird feeling in the air. When you get to former Eastern Bloc countries, they look at you, as a tourist, with distrust. But here, they see their fare share of tourists. I thought maybe it was because it was a Sunday, but the city seemed deserted. That was of no concern to us, though! We needed a room. So, we kept walking. Without meaning to, we happened upon the Kalev Spa Hotel, but it was not to be. They were full, and I was actually disappointed. They have a water park, and people come there for a restful, sporting vacation. The guy at reception called another hotel for us. Nothing.

So, we kept walking. The neighborhood looked Soviet-era and rundown. Heck, it literally was rundown! But, we kept walking and came out onto a beautiful street! One one side was a lovely guesthouse that didn`t have anything, but on the other was their associated Hostel which did. Yay! This is easily, hands down the nicest hostel situation I`ve ever had. Lovely place. As travel snafus go, this one was fairly painless. Thank goodness!

By now, it was later in the day, but we decided to go do at least part of Rick`s walking tour (those are pretty much always great) and then dinner. What a lovely town Tallinn is. A mix of old-world charm and Soviet-era remnants. The sun was setting and the lighting awesome. We walked, we read, we took pictures. Some of the buildings have signs on them in Estonian and English. We read those too. Very interesting. We did notice a preponderance of police. And we were getting odd looks from the police. We definitely stand out. First of all, no one wears a white coat over here. I was aware of that coming, but it`s not like I was going to buy a new North Face coat! And that`s not to mention the camera glued to my face. And then there`s our accents. It`s pretty obvious.

Anyway, these groups of five or more cops were everywhere. We also noticed shop after shop with the windows smashed out. One still had the rock in the sill. Of those without the windows smashed, so many had the windows boarded up. It was wierd. It felt like the city was maybe more run-down than we though. Or maybe something we didn`t know about was going on. It was most definitely the latter. We continued following the walking tour and that led us through this terriffically old wooden gate up to the upper town (Tallinn used to be two towns, an upper and lower, and this gate has supposedly been there for hundreds and hundreds of years). We were enthralled by the Russian Orthodox church. Chris had never seen one before, only in my pictures. Weird, though...there was a fence across the street. Huh? Well, all the locals were shimmying between the temporary fence across the middle of the street and the wall. When in Estonia.....

Thing is, though, they all turned right, we were to turn left. Where there was noone but a couple of cops...this time in riot gear. We turned with the crowd for a moment, and a cop said something. They said things back. It was all in Estonian, which, suprprisingly, I don`t speak. We shrugged our shoulders and went on about the little tour. Weird thing is, the cops let us. Finally, I asked one if he spoke English. He said, "a little." That`s what they all say. I suppose I would too if I were them. You always feel weird speaking in another lanugage. I asked if this area was closed or something, and he said yes. You should go that way and go down. Hmmmm....okay....just a few more pictures, though. I guess none of the police bothered us because our tourist status was obvious and we wouldn`t be bothering them.

We took a few more pictures, saw the front of the church and noticed much more activity in the direction the first cop had pointed us. There, we saw a group of 6 or so cops, and down the hill they were putting up another fence across the street, but this time reinforced with concrete barriers. We asked them what was going on, and the first one didn`t have a fabulous command of English, so he brought another one over who might know the right words. This guy says, "It is like Germany and France." So what pops into my little head, "Riots?" No response. "Strike?" "No, not strike". "So it`s riots." Then, to make us feel better, he says, "You are tourists, it is not safe for you here. You should go to your hotel and stay there." And he and his buddies try to figure out the best way for us to get home because it really isn`t safe. Oh my!! At this point, we both got seriously nervous. And by nervous, I mean scared. About this time, they were arresting somebody up where they were putting up the fence. Finally, the cops asked us where our room was, and decided that was OK as it was in the old area and there are enough police. Again, OH MY!

There was a little problem in this scenario. We hadn`t eaten yet. And we were hungry. And for Jamie to not eat would be baaaaaad. Really. My blood sugar goes wonky, and if you`re not careful, you might just become headless (maybe we shouldn`t have eaten and then run into some rioters! Ha ha!). So, we went to this place we`d seen on the way called Old Hanse. It`s set in medieval times and totally toursity, but totally cool. Chris had wanted to go to this cool beer hall, but decided drunkeness & rioting do not mix! Anyway, it`s almost entirely lit with candles, and the food was out of this world! The mushroom soup was to die for! Our waiter was awesome. He seemed to be helping almost all of the tables in our area, and those he wasn`t waiting on, he was helping to translate into English and telling what is going on.

Here`s what he told us: the city/state decided to take down an old Soviet WWII memorial. It is Soviet and all. Well, there were some unknown soldiers buried underneath it and they wanted to exhume them, identify them, and give them a proper burial in a military cemetary. I guess this memorial was in the center of a sidewalk, so people were constantly walking over the grave. Well, this set off the Russian minority, who started protesting. And things started spiraling out of control.

Walking home after dinner (it was past 11 by this time), we felt more at ease. We didn`t have far to go, and there weren`t THAT many people out. We did stop for a picture or two, but there was noone around, and the old city wall was beautifully lit. As we walked down the even more deserted street that our hostel is on, we were just a touch more nervous. Actually, the most unnerving part was the bands of cops. We`d see one after another after another, in just a few blocks. At least we knew we were being looked after....as we were virtually the only ones on the street.

We made it back uneventfully, but neither of us slept well. Every little noise woke us. Well, for me it was the guy at 3:15 running down the street screaming. After that, I had a hard time. Part of what got me was the winow breaking, and we were in a street level room with a window. Everything is fine, though, and Chris is still downstairs sleeping. I´m on the one computer here. I`ve had a doozie of a time finding internet cafes in Finland and here. There`s wifi access everywhere, but what good is that with no laptop (though we have 2 sitting at home waiting for us!).

The cops said everything should be re-opened today. Should being the operative word. They weren`t sure. We shall see. We have until 5:00, then we take another cruise boat back to Stockholm. Where, we`ll spend the day, and then hopefully go to Denmark. We`re not really sure about the night train situation. We may be taking a last minute flight!

Here`s the only story I could find about there riots.

Aurland

So, I never got a chance to talk about the rest of our time on the Fjords. I have a list of things I want to do and see in my life. On it were Oktoberfest in Munich, check, Cinque Terre in Italy, check, the Fjords of Norway, check, Macchu Picchu, Red Square, and numerous other things. The Fjords are the whole reason we went to Norway. To fulfill my dream. I`ve wanted to see them since I was a kid. And was not disappointed. I think I mentioned that I wanted to do more, but couldn`t becuase it wasn`t May 1st yet. What we did was truly wonderful. More than once, we said, "Wow! This is so surreal."

I talked about the bus ride and the boat ride and that we were in Flåm. I can see why Rick says not to stay in Flåm. There is nothing. Some touristy restaurants (where we had fish and chips and cherry, marzipan cake), some touristy shops, a market, and a couple of touristy places to stay. All in all, we`re talking about maybe 15 buildings down by the water. Maybe. And that includes the train station. If you walk back up the river about 1 km, there`s what might be referred to as a town, but it looked to have max. 30 buildings. So, after walking around a bit, we decided to head over to Aurland.

The bus didn`t leave for hours, but the boat did leave to head back to where we came from. We talked to the guys running it, and they totally understood why we wanted to get out of Flåm. Cracked us up. Since we`d told them previously we were going to Aurland, they were all too happy to have us back on, and even let us on for free. It was the coolest experience. They pulled right up with the front of the boat facing the dock, and we walked a little gangplank down to the dock. We were the only ones getting off. I was alittle nervous what with the big pack on my back, but it was fine.

The town is small and deserted, as it`s not May 1st yet, but it was glorious. Right on the water, with the mountains behind. We had an awesome view from our window. It`s quite possible that we were the only people in the hotell! We walked around for a while taking tons of pictures and loving the fact that we got to enjoy more time on the fjords.

We were also exhausted. So, at like 5:00 on the dot, we headed for dinner. We went to the hotel`s pub. We were the only people in there, so we watched Isdans with the worker (we`re still debating if it was a he or she...I say he). It`s Dancing With the Stars, only for Ice Dancing. We totally got into it! For dinner, we had cheeseburgers. They were actually cheeseless and had Thousand Island dressing, lettuce, cucumber, and tomatoes on them. And they were quite possibly the worst cheeseburgers one earth. Thank goodness for the fries. I ate all of those. And they were good! Seriously, I didn`t know you could do such bad things to meat.

After dinner, we went to the convenience store next door and picked up chocolate for dessert. We talked for a bit with the gal working in there. She`s married to and Englishman. We talked about how dead the town was and how busy it gets in summer. We were glad we were there now. But, she said she`s always glad to see the first tourist because that means the warmer weather is coming soon. We talked about the beautiful train ride we`d be taking tomorrow and how the Japanese tourists go from side to side in the "carriage" taking pictures of everything. I found a little too much familiarity in that statement!!

We went back to the room and found the Discovery Channel on our tv. So, there we sat, watching Mike Rowe and Dirty Jobs. We love that show. His dry humor cracks us up. And I promptly fell asleep. At like 6:30 in the evening (or so). And then I woke up....at 2:30. And couldn`t go back to sleep....I`d already had 8 hours of sleep! Finally, after another 3 hours, I did, and we got up at a normal time.

We had to take the bus back to Flåm to cach the special railway. We were unsure of the bus schedule, but showed up when we thought it was coming, and eventually it did. We sat in the very front of the bus. We shouldn`t have. It felt like we were going to go off the little road skirting the mountain and water. When noone was coming, we drove down the middle of the road, and it truly looked like no other vehicles would fit. But they did. Oh my, they did.

We arrived unscathed and had a bit of time to walk around Flåm. Still unexciting. But the scenery was glorious. I didn`t want to leave. The weather was great and the views awesome. I kept taking picture after picture in hopes of remembering some of the grandness of it all.

We took the special little cog railway from Flåm to Myrdal. Wow!! Wow!! Wow!! The grand views were out of this world. I don`t know what else to say. It was a sight to behold. In Myrdal, we boarded the train for Oslo. We spent the next 5 hours being treated to even more amazing scenery. For the first few hours, it was all white. Houses were still buried in the snow. There was even one train station that was built into the tunnel, I guess because of the snow, and the snow was coming inside of the tunnel. Again, surreal. There were skiing resorts and never-ending mountain lakes with brightly painted houses reflecting in the water and rocky little islands with trees stories and stories tall. And more waterfalls than you could ever count.  I`ve never seen anything like it. I am so glad we broke the trip up. We were really able to enjoy everything. Well, I was. you-know-who slept. And then we were in Oslo. I`ve already shared that story. Let`s not rehash that.

Stockholm suits us

We had an amazing day today. Just fabulous. We love Stockholm. I knew we would. The day didn`t start out so well, though. Not at all. First, it took us forever to get out of the hostel. That was really no big deal. We just had to come back three times. Typical Jamie! Ha! It was really warm out today. A lady we spoke to later in the day said it was the first really nice weather they`d had. And it was glorious. Anyway, one of the returns to the hostel was for the removal of extra layers. We were already sweating.

We went to take the subway (T-bana) to the center of town (going down the way we should have come out last night), and the woman wanted to charge us 40 skr per person. Last night it was 52 total. This is for a trip of 2, count them 2 stops, and the exchange rate is about 7 skr per one dollar....that would be a $10 trip! So we decided to walk instead. We were pretty sure which direction we wanted (and we were right). We didn`t have a map, but we figured we were only a block or two east of the center and a few blocks north. We were right!! And, it was a lovely walk. We saw way more of Stockholm and it`s people and it`s stores than we would have otherwise. We happened upon the main shopping district where we bought flavored marshmallows (too bad there`s no fire pit here!) and the best strawberries I`ve ever had in my life. We spent about $4 at the outdoor market, and they were all well worth it. Oh, you should have smelled those strawberries! I wish I could bottle it. Even Chris, the non-berry lover thought it was awesome.

We walked our way into the map in Rick`s book, down the main shopping stree/pedestrian mall. Wow! were there a lot of people!! And this was at about 10:00 on a Wednesday (had to check my watch for what day it is. I can`t keep that straight any more. Don`t really need to. Just need to know where we`re going tomorrow!) We saw some interesting things, not the least of which was the Mongolian Barbecue place with the outdoor seating, and clear acrylic_type seats that were lime green. I mean totally neon lime green. It was the craziest thing. HAD to take a picture. The diners thought I was nuts. So, we`ve made it on to the map, and we`re walking along looking for the TI; we need some information.

Okay, total digression here....there is an old man at the table next to me, and he keeps belching really loudly. It`s just the two of us in the room (I`m at a little kiosk in the breakfast room of the hostel), and it`s kind of weird. They are to.tal open-mouthed, body-jarring belches. Okay, digression over.

So, we`re looking for the TI. And looking, and looking, and looking. I mean literally, we looked for this thing for an hour. We were using Rick`s map. You can see where this is leading, can`t you? He mentions that his maps are NOT to scale, but we`re talking poorly drawn here. In hindsight, there was a little blacked out spot on the map for where the TI was, but the "i" on the map (universal symbol for information/TI) was grouped with some other stuff with an arrow pointing down the block. If there had just been an arrow going from the "i" we would have been fine. But there wasn`t.

So we searched and we hunted and we gave up, and we went back again, and we asked in the 7-eleven in the underground mall (it was in a basement, we knew), and they pointed us in the wrong direction, and we looked some more, and we gave up again, and I got really, really, really frustrated, and we went back again, and we asked in the central subway station, and they said, "oh yeah, it just right there", and we went back to where we`d been three times before, and it wasn`t there, and I cried, and I said I wanted to go home...just get on a plane and go home (we needed to get there to find out where to go to book our cruise to Helsinki tomorrow night), and we crossed to the other side of the street (still don`t know what posessed us), and walked to the middle of the block, and we turned to look over our shoulders back across the street, and there it was. The god-forsaken Swedish House/TI. So we went and got our one piece of information and a map. Arm me with a map, and I`m good to go. Apparently without one, I`m dangreous!

The gal didn`t know THAT much information, but she did give us what we NEEDED to know. So, we walked to the Silja Cruise Line office. And it was a nice walk. It was a nice day in a nice city, and we knew where we were going, so we were able to enjoy it. Along the way, I noticed an art store, so we wandered in. Whaddaya know? They had scrapbook supplies! Most of them were imported from the States, and yes, I own almost all of them. I did find some awesome pens by Stablio that I`d never seen before and stocked up on those. Yay!! Love the pens!!

We made it to the Cruise Line office and got our sailing stuff set. It felt like it took forever, but I got to sit down for a while, so it was OK. By that time, it was already noon and I was starting to feel like we were wasting the day. But we weren`t. By this time, we were enjoying seeing Stockholm. We walked back down another street toward the TI, as there was a lovely park area with hot dog and ice cream stands (and a Fridays, which Chris aviods like the plague, but I´ve had good experiences with them overseas...just not at home!). Anyway, on the way back down, we saw some great stores, including Rolex and Urban Outfitters. I love UO, so we went in. We wouldn`t pay any of the prices for the stuff I like - most of it we can find at home. Chris was highly entertained by, "The Hello Penis Book." Yes, you read that right. It had a hole cut out of the center, and was basically a storybook. Not sexual, but just a little storybook. I think what cracked me up the most was the thought of someone actually taking it seriously. The ridiculousness of it all!!

So we went back out to the park, which turns out to be one of the most popular in Stockholm. I can see why, it was gorgeous! What looked like Cherry Blossom Trees lining a reflecting pool on both sides, with plenty of seating and cafes lining the entire park. There were families and workers and students and people playing life-sized chess games (quite seriously, I might add), and it was lovely. We got hot dogs and sat by the water enjoying. Here´s a funny, the hot dogs were 13 skr each. The bottle of Coke we shared? 24. The dogs rocked, so we each had another. And then, we went back for a third time for ice cream. I had Creme Brulee and Pistachio. Chris had Chocolate and Cappucino. Oh man was it good. As I always say, "Ice cream is a cure all." And boy is it!

We were feeling much better after lunch (I guess I should say I was feeling better - headache), so we decided to head to the Vasa Museum. We weren`t sure if the ferries were running yet or not, as nothing officially opens until May 1, but we decided to try. Apparently they are, just not all of them, so where we were, there was no service. So we walked. I saw a sign that said it was 1.1 K away, from my running, I know that is nothing, so like I said, we walked. Along the way, we happened upon a lovely little harbor side cafe, so we each had a beer...for $7 each!! No matter, it was good, and just what we needed. We sat and enjoyed the weather and the city (again).

Finally, we made our way to the museum. Thankfully, it`s open until 8:00 on Wednesdays. We spent nigh on 3 hours there! We both felt, hands down, it was the best museum we`d ever been to. The Vasa is a man-of-war ship that was commissioned by the King of Sweden and was built right here in Sweden by a Dutchie. It went on it`s maiden voyage in 1628 and promptly sank in the Stockholm harbor not far from where the museum is today. It was found in the 1950s and brought up over 5 years. Then, they spend another 17 years filling all the voids in the wood with wax to preserve it and another year doing cosmetic stuff. So, 23 years later (I`m pretty sure it was `79), they were able to put it on display. Incidentally, the day they brought it up from the water was the very first time they did a live broadcast. Guess it was a pretty big deal!! Chris says 23 years is a long time to wait to see a return on your investment!

Most of the ship was in tact, including all of it`s statues, many of the cannons (it`d had double gun decks, so it had 64 cannons, which, coupled with the ship not having enough ballast was it`s undoing), the bodies of the few who perished (most got out alive), and all the goods that were on the ship. Many of these things (including the skeletons) were on display in the museum. It was truly fascinating - and I took like 200 pictures. It was just awesome. They really did a good job. We even took a tour (yes, in English). Wow! Just wow!

Finally, we left the museum. And wouldn`t you know, we missed the last ferry. So we took the bus. But it was going back to where we`d been lost trying to find the TI & we didn`t want to go THERE again! So we hopped off the bus and headed to do Rick`s walking tour. It was in the old town section of Stockholm (the Gamala Stan neighborhood) and included the Royal Palace, several churches, and some very skinny lanes. It really was a lovely walk. We`d have been more into it if we (and more importantly, our feet) hadn`t been so tired (and by the end of it, hungry). We did see a Rune stone set into one of the buildings (Rick said that`s what it was, anyway) and some army boys practicing in the courtyard of the royal palace while the Royal Guards did their thing. Poor army boys aren`t that well practiced. One of them tripped over another`s gun!

We decided earlier that pasta was sounding super good, so after our walking tour, we went in search of food. Little did I know, my Christopher spied an Italian restaurant during our jaunt around Gamala Stan. So, we walked back over, and into what was apparently a little Italian neighborhood. Oh my gosh! The food was outstanding. We got a huge calzone-type situation and the chef`s special shrimp scampi. It was all to die for. Far and away the best food we`ve had on the trip. Actually, the best Italian food we`ve had since we were in Italy. We almost didn`t want the meal to end. We ate outside and watched the world go by. We even ordered a wine that I could drink. Celia something. It was a very, very good night. Awesome end to an awesome day.

We really like Stockholm. Like the city, like the people, like the food (Italian food counts, right?). Chris likes that people will make eye contact with you here. The fact that they didn`t bothered him in Oslo. Maybe they thought if they did, you`d mug them? Thing is, Stockholm is still a huge city, but it feels more like Bergen than Oslo. We were standing at the entrance to a park today, looking back over what we`d just walked through, and a woman just walked up and asked if she could help us find something. So nice!

Yum....crow tastes good

By the light of day this morning we realized what the problem was last night. We exited the subway station in the wrong direction. Most stations have 2 different directions you can use to exit. So does this one. We did not choose wisely. If we had, we would have been literally 5 feet away (okay, maybe 10) from the hostel`s front door. Now, in our defense, if Rick had added just three little words to his directions,"exit towards Stadsbibliotek," we would have been saved an hour out of our lives. And not just any hour, but an hour at darn-near midinight after 7 hours on the train with 5 kabajillion pound packs on our backs. When I write my travel guide, I will include things like that. It`s all in the details.

Where is Rick Steves? I`d like to ring his bell

I mentioned in my last post that Rick had 3 strikes against him (or at least his guide book). That post was made from the train station. This one is coming from our Hostel. Notice the time difference. It took us forever to get here. No, literally, foever. Look at the time stamp. That`s a long time for a trip that`s only two stations on the subway. This is how bad it was.....I didn`t take a single picture. Need I say more?

I mentioned earlier that Rick (our at least his book had) 3 strikes against him. I can`t remember them all, but suffice to say, now he has 4. Actually, after this last one, he may have 5! Yep, it was that bad. Now, I don`t expect a guide book to have a map to everything - that would be impossible. But, if you`re going to have directions in your book, make them have some semblance of accuracy. Or even actual directions. Something. You could go so far as to have someone like me write them, but I`m not even asking for that. Tonight, we wanted to get to the hostel. So, we followed the directions. We took the subway and walked. Chris just came by. He explains it this way...he just leaves out all the important information on how to get from point A to point B. I love how that man can sum up exactly what I´m trying to say so perfectly. Back to the story. Rick says you take the subway, and it`s right there.

Rick says it`s, "across the street from T-bana: Rådmansgatan, just off Sveavägan at Rehnsgatan 21." What he fails to mention is that you have to walk a couple of blocks down the S-street (in the right direction, mind you) to the street named Rehnsgatan, making sure not to go down the first street that has that on the street sign and thereby thinking you are on the right street and unable to find the hostel and so trying the door code on every possible door and finally stopping in a posh hotel to ask for help. The hotel guy was actually helpful - in a round about way. He drew it on the map and I noticed he indicated the correct street was one over from where we though. Whadday know, when we looked up, the street name had changed (and we both saw it, so we weren`t just wrong). Finally, we found the hostel, and I can only describe it as......charming. So far so good! I just glad to have my pack off my shoulders. It`s somehow jacked up and putting pressure on the nerve in the front of my shoulder when I carry it, but we can`t seem to figure it out.

So, I´m tired, painfully thirsty, I stink, my breath is horrible, and I`ve got a case of the grumps. But we`re here, and we`re off to bed. Stinking Oslo. This is all Oslo`s fault. (Chris is now sitting here waiting for me, trying to read the comics in Swedish. He just giggled. Is there something I should know?)