Home

The next day, we woke up at 4:30 to be able to have Mie's parents drive us to the Copenhagen airport (Or lufthavn in Danish). We said our good-byes as we got into the check-in line for the 7:00 flight to Frankfurt. The flight was short, only an hour and a half, plus I slept through most of it. We had a bit f a layover before we made the big trek, 9 hours and 5 minutes to Philadelphia. This flight was much longer, although it felt shorter than the last time we made this flight. It was a good feeling to be back in the U.S., although we still weren't home. We had a three hour layover before we had to get on the plane to LA. This flight I slept through most of, too, and before I knew it, we were in Los Angeles. Now I knew I was near home (although LA isn't the prettiest and most good smelling city! Blech!) as we got into our rental car and drove our way home, where we met up with Winnie and our cats and returned safely. Now, I was home, and boy did it feel good!

Aalborg,to Billund,Legoland, to Copenhagen, to Niva

We took yet another early morning train away from Aalborg and to Billund, Legoland. We arrived and checked into to our lego hotel and went to check out all of the cool Legos. It was amazing how somebody could build all of that out of Legos. They even had sections of towns built out of Legos. The rides were the greatest though, they were so great, I went on some of there more than once! But as we started to have our fun, the dark clouds rolled in and poured rain on us. It only after a couple more hours we left to our hotel, soaking wet. The next day, we took a train to Copenhagen, right back where we started. That wasn't it though. We took another train to Niva, where our last exchange student we'd meet lived, Mie. She and her parents picked us up at the train station, and they drove us to their house, where we rested most of the day. The next day, we set out to go up north to see the castle of Kronborg. The castle was beautiful, it had a transition between new roofs and old roofs, which made it look interesting. What we did there was travel through the undergroud tunnels and channels which they called the casemates. It was scary down there, the only light was candle light every couple of corners. There were places so dark that it looked like something was going to jump out at you! We finally weaved our way through the terror of those casemates, which for used for protection in war and emergency escapes. After that we drove up to Helsingor where we checked out the harbor and walked around town. From the harbor, you see Sweden as clear as possible, it was so close that it only took fifteen mintues to get from one side to the other. After a long day in town, we settled down at Mie's house, waiting to go to Tivoli, a famous amusement park where Mie worked. We were able to get on free and were able to check all of the cool rides. The problem was, it poured down rain, just like it did in Legoland. We stayed inside for a while and only went on a couple more rides before we headed home, for we did have a big day ahead of us.

Kristiansand to Hirtschals, to Hjorring, and to Aalborg.

In Kristiansand, we stayed for about an hour and then caught a boat to Hirtschals, Denmark. Surprisingly, we ended up in first class and we got a 50% discount on the buffet there. The ride was nice and took only about two hours. Once we got off we followed signs to the train. Everybody else seemed to be passing where the train was, so we followed them, thinking that they'd know where to get tickets. Well, they lead us to a grocery store, leaving us in confusion as our train left. It was two hours until the next one. Instead of waiting, we called a taxi and it and took us to Hjorring. Once at Hjorring, we waited for the next train to Aalborg. After getting on the train and then getting off of it later, we met another one of our exchange students, Jackie. Jackie was our first exchange student and had a British accent, for her dad lives in England. She showed us to our hotel, which was right next to the train station. The whole hotel was full of smoke, we could only handle it for one night. That day, Jackie showed us around Aalborg and took us to dinner. It was nice to be back in Denmark, and it would feel even better to be back home. The next day, Jackie' s mom came to meet us and take us around Aalborg some more. We went up a tower about 50 meters high and saw a beautiful view of all of Aalborg. We stayed up there for a while and ate ice cream. As we came down, we decided to see the Aalborg zoo. The zoo was great, there was a wide selection of animals. There were even beavers that sounded like goats! The same night, Jackie helped us find another hotel. On our way to find it, we stopped by to get some ice cream. After we found our hotel, we ate our ice cream, and said good-bye to Jackie, for we were to leave the next morning.

From Bergen, to Stavanger, to Kristiansand

After our stay in Bergen, we took another boat to Stavanger, which took about 4-5 hours. Once we arrived, it took us a bit to actually find the street we were staying on. The street was long, but we finally arrived at the big red house where we were staying. It was about 9:00 when we checked in and apparently that was waffle time! We ate our waffles and took off for our room. The next day, we woke up at about 5:o0 to hop on the train that took off at 6:00. The train was delayed until 7:00 because there was an accident, a dead body was found on the tracks. The train took three hours and then we finally arrived in Kristiansand.

From Flam, to Balestrand, and to Bergen.

The train got to Flam and we waited there for an hour and a half until a small, fast boat came and took us throug the fjords into a small town right in the middle called Balestrand. It was spectacular there on the boat and at Balestrand, just the view of the fjords. We stayed the night there and took a nature hike the next afternoon, where we ate lunch at a small picnic area. After spending another day there, we took yet another small boat all the way to Bergen. We didnt spend much time in Bergen, although we did visit the aquarium and took a special tram up to a very high point in the mountains and got a spectacular view of Bergen.

From Toijala, Back to Helsinki, Back to Stockholm, Up to Oslo, and to Flam

After leaving Emma, we took a train back Helsinki, where we met up with Nikki once again. We spent half the day with her until she had to catch her bus to get to the airport where she would fly back to Austria. Once again, we took the ferry back to Stockholm, where we stayed another night at Julia’s house. After that, we rode on a train 6 ½ hours to Oslo. Getting off of the train, we met up with yet another one of our exchange students, Maggie, and her mom. They showed us around town as we walked to our hotel. After checking in and settling in, we took the metro over to her house. There we met her father, her sister, and her dog. They served us a great dinner and we sat down and talked for a while.

The next morning, we explored Oslo some more and, at the same time, spent time with Maggie. We spent our last dinner with her and then had to say good-bye, just like the rest of the students. We woke up the next morning and got on yet another train heading for Myrdal. We got off at Myrdal and took a sightseeing train to Flam. It was truly beautiful looking down at the valleys below and watching the waterfalls below.

A Day in Toijala and Hämeenlinna

After our stay in Helsinki with our student, Nikki, we took an hour train ride up to Hämeenlinna, where we met another one of our students, Emma. She and her dad picked us up at the train station and drove us around. We stopped by at one of the gyms Emma's parents owns. After taking a tour of that, we headed down to Aulanko, a very nice forest-like park with a duck pond and a tower about 6 stories high. The view was spectacular for the top of the tower, we could see all of Hämeenlinna. Eventually, we became tired and headed for Toijala, where Emma lived. There we met Emma's mother, sister, dog, and cat.

Later that day, everybody went down to a small camp place and we made a fire and roasted sausages. Afterwards, we were treated with a nice relaxing sauna. It felt very good afterwards. Today, we actually got to sleep in! We hung out at the house until we had to go pick up Emma from school in Tampere. Everybody then went to a nearby amusement park, but the rides were closed. Instead some people went to the observation tower there and the others went to the aquarium. Overall, Finland has been a great place to stay.

In Finland

Yesterday, we left Stockholm in what they called a ferry. Apparently the ferry was a huge cruise ship. The ship was beautiful and the ride was magnificent. It took sixteen hours to get to Helsinki, so we had to stay overnight. Our ship ported at 10 AM Finland time and after we got off another one of our exchange students met us. We took the trams around Helsinki, checking out the major attractions. So that takes me here to my cozy and very big hotel room.

Remember to comment on the posts!!!

In Sweden

Today was a great day in Sweden, although it was COLD!!!!! The scenery of the city was magnificent! The buildings were beautiful, the weather was nice, and the food was delicious. I am currently staying in the home of my exchange student that came last here and their service to us is wonderful.

We visted a museum today that was all about a ship that had sunk in the Stockholm harbor centuries ago. It sunk in 1628 and in 1961 it was pulled from the water. It took 4 years to pull it from the water, for it was pulled very,very slowly. The ship, which was called the Vasa, was HUGE and very decorative. The museum even showed how to preserve the wood from being eaten away in different situations. I watched a short film on why they think the Vasa capsized. It was thought that there was too little ballast. The shipbuilder, the man that put the ballast in, and an army commander was called to an inquiry with the king. After each one told their story, the film ended saying,``And no one was convicted.`` We were a bit frustrated as people walked out of the audittorium. We expected someone to get caught, but that was it. We walked around the museum a bit more and looked more at what happened on the inside. That was mainly what happened today, but everything else that we did today was walking around Stockholm. Good night everybody!! (Or good morning to most other people!)

On the Train

Here I am on the train to Stockholm. All is going well here and we had a great day at Copenhagen. We explored most of an area and went to see a famous statue, The Little Mermaid. Apparently, it was quite little compared to what we thought it was going to be. There were some very beautiful buildings there. Well, that sums up my day for now.

Sir Blake

Let's Fight!

This is me at a Natural History Museum in Copenhagen wearing a knight helmet!:)

Vocab

Danish Vocab:

Vil du være sod to...-Please (Would you be so kind to...)
Tak-Thank you
Salv Tak-Your Welcome

Beginning

To begin our journey to Scandinavia, we crawled out of bed at 4:00 AM and drove all the way to LAX. From LAX, we took a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. We sat there for 5 hours watching movies and napping. After we landed in Charlotte, we took another flight that was twice as long to Frankfurt. After the flight to Fankfurt, we had to wait 14 hours at the airport before we could get to Denmark, because Mom had messed up our flight from AM to PM, and they wouldnt let us change. So, Here I am now in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here is some German vocab for you! ;)

Ausgang-Exit
Eingang-Entrance
Flughafen-Airport
Bahnhof-Train Station
Nichtraucher-No Smoking
Danke-Thank You
Auf Vietersehn-Good-Bye
Bitte-Please

Fred Fredburger!!!

Fred Fredburger!! Yes!