Sienna, Italy

After spending another night in Stockholm, we slept in a while before waking up and getting some lunch at the train station. Then, we went to the airport and flew back to Italy – Milan to be exact. It was already around seven by the time we arrived, so there wasn’t much to do. We went ahead and checked into our hotel and asked for a good restaurant. We ended up eating at really good place just a block away. It seemed to be really popular and clams seemed to be the main dish that people were eating, but we didn’t join in on the clam consumption. The next morning we caught a train to Florence at 8:30 and dropped off our luggage at our old hostel Archi Rosi before heading to Sienna. The train ride was really pretty since everything had completely bloomed and green. We had quite a walk to get to the city center, but it was a nice walk. The scenery was really pretty on the way up.



The first thing we passed was the Fortezza Medicea or the Fort of Santa Barbara thought we didn’t know what it was at the time because we didn’t have a map.




Next we saw the Basilica or Saint Catherine. It was very empty inside and though the outside was kinda cool, overall it was not very impressive.




Finally we made it to the city center at the Piazza del Campo. It is said to be one of the most famous piazzas in the world and it was originally a meadow. We sat there for a bit with everyone else and had fun taking stupid pictures.



Our next stop was at the Il Duomo. It was beautiful, one of our favorites. It was the same marble color scheme as the one in Florence, but this one seemed to be decorated much more than the others.




Our final stop in Sienna, the Orto Botanico, was my favorite. It was a botanical garden consisting of some two thousand plants. The plants themselves were pretty ,but the view from the hill it was on was even better. From there we got a great view of the outline of the city wall and into the countryside.





When we got back to our hostel, we ate dinner provided by it for free and then did some laundry and internet stuff before hitting the hay.

Stockholm, Sweden

Day 1
So we arrived at like 6:10 in the morning after a horrible night on the stupid night bus. Never again will we do that. The bus was just a charter bus and was packed full, and to our horror we had to put our bags under the bus (even our backpacks). All we could think about was that they were gonna get stolen just like our friends had. We left Oslo at 11 and we seriously stopped at least one time every hour until we arrived in Stockholm. All our necks had cricks in them, our backs hurt, and we were tired beyond belief. Basically it just sucked big time. But we were at our destination with all our stuff safe and sound. We got metro passes and headed straight to our hostel with the knowledge that they weren’t gonna let us into our room until 3 that afternoon. When we got there a little before 7 we found that it didn’t even open until 8 so we were stranded for an hour. Luckily there was a McDonald’s only a block away so we ended up eating breakfast and chilling there until we were allowed to check our luggage at the hostel. Our first thing to do in Stockholm was surprisingly going to IKEA.

If you don’t know, Rachel is extremely obsessed with IKEA and Kyle isn’t too far off but that is only part of the reason we went there. IKEA was actually started in Sweden in one of the smallest towns in the country. We got to go to like the biggest one here. It was a huge five story building and had a lot more stuff then what our have in America.

After spending a while there we got hungry and went to eat. We went to a Mexican food buffet for lunch. It was cheap and tasted ok, nothing as good as ours though. After lunch we went to the old town to do some sightseeing. Old town was neat but not very pretty. Even the royal palace wasn’t very cool looking but the guards were cool. We liked their uniforms which were blue and white and their guns with bayonets.

Rachel’s bag has been slowly, well, falling apart on her and we found a really cheap yet good bag to replace it. She decided to look around the town some more before getting it though, just to make sure it was the best deal. Kyle also found something he liked at a souvenir store but we hadn’t got any cash out yet and it didnt cost enought to use his credit card so he decided to wait too. We had decided to make dinner since our hostel had a nice kitchen. After we were finished looking around in old town we went to a grocery store and got some stuff for dinner. Completely exhausted by this point we were pretty much bums for the rest of the night. We all spent time checking our email and such since we had been deprived of it for so long. Once we were hungry we started cooking but Kyle ended up doing it as Rachel and I were sent out to get something to drink with it, something we had totally forgot about while at the store. We had some pasta with stuff kinda like Ragu (but not really) with some chicken and some bread. Oh yeah, we had to get a 4 person room and the fourth person showed up. He was an older dude, like in his forties, but he was nice. Finally we all passed out after a long, long day.

Day 2
Today we had one of the most fun days so far. We slept in just a little bit and then went to the Skansen for like 5 hours or more. The Skansen is an open air museum where historical buildings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries have been relocated from around the country. They made it into a replica of how the towns would be and even had craftsmen in the classic dress that would demonstrate how they would tan hides, make shoes, glow glass, as well as how the general stores were run, how they made furniture, and industrial machines among other things. We didn’t get to see everything because some things were done only at certain times but we did get to see how the general stores were run and how they had to buy things, the glass blowing, and the industrial machines.

We also went into a tobacco museum there and learned about the Swedish history of it and how they had to cut in and roll it. After all this we were still only halfway done so we had some lunch at a little restaurant inside the park. Afterwards we saw some of the old farm houses and then got to see the Scandinavian animals. That’s right; there was also a zoo inside. So we got to see all sorts of animals like peacocks, wolverines, bears, lynxes, seals, many kinds of owls, elk, caribou (reindeer), other exotic animals, and some domestic ones.

It was a lot of fun but by the end of it we were all tired and our feet were starting to hurt. Nevertheless, we walked back to the metro and went back to old town to get Rachel’s bag and Kyle’s souvenir and then dropped them off at the hotel before going to Hard Rock to get me my souvenir. Starving by this point, we went to Tennstopet, a classic Swedish restaurant, to eat dinner. The food was amazing. We all licked our plates clean. Stuffed, we came back to our hostel and talked to our families and started to write blog posts so that all of ya’ll could know how we were doing and what we are up to.

Oslo, Norway

Day 1
Ok, so we road in the nicest night train that we have ever been in so far. It was just us three in the cabin and we had a lot more room than usual. Sadly, it was also the shortest ride on one as well. We had to get up at 4:20 in the morning to be able to wake up and get off the train at a little past five. Then we hung out, meaning slept, for three hours or so at the train station before getting onto our next train that was forever long which took us into Oslo. We didn’t arrive until about 2:50 that afternoon. We knew it would be that late and we had sacrificed time here for more in Copenhagen.

Our hotel was only a few blocks away so we didn’t have to lug our bags around too much. After checking in, we went back to the station and tried to get transportation to Stockholm. There weren’t any night trains so we ended up getting a night bus instead. We were all a little anxious about what they would be like but we really had no choice in the matter. Next we got a quick lunch and went to the tourist info to get a map of the city and so that they could circle what we wanted to see in order to save time. We were delighted when the lady told us that Oslo was having a “get to know your city” event the next day. They would be handing out Oslo passes for free. These passes would get us into all the museums in the city and access to all public transportation for free! We decided to wait to do most of the stuff on the following day since it would be free, and it didn’t hurt that all the museums were about to close in a couple of hours. Happy about the news, we headed off to look at some of the sites. Our first stop was the Opera House. It was definitely unique in comparison to all of the other ones that we have seen. This one looked very modern and had multiple slanted walkways allowing people to walk all the way to the top of the building.




It was quite a popular hangout. There were tons of people just sitting down taking in the scenery or just talking with their companions. After sitting awhile ourselves and taking pictures, we proceeded to walk around the harbor to our next destination the Akershus Fortress and Castle. To our disappointment however, they had just closed the gates. We were a bit confused because according to what I had found on the internet, what the lady said at the info desk, and its own sign, the place was supposed to be open until nine and it was wasn’t near that yet. But we got to see the wall a few other things peeking over the top of said wall.

We weren’t too far from the City Hall so we decided to go there in order to know where it was the next day. City Hall was where they were going to be giving out free passes. After locating City Hall, we walked back to our hotel and timed it to see how long it would take us to get there. When we got back, we just stayed because there wasn’t much else we could do that day and we didn’t feel like doing anything anyway. What we really wanted and were excited for was internet access. Although we had thought all of the places we booked had it, we were constantly disappointed. The first place you had to pay and we had to go to the lobby to pick it up. In the second place, it was available but neither of our computers would connect to it. Apparently there was some kind of problem with it. The third didn’t have internet at all, but finally we were in a place that had it and we definitely took advantage. We stayed online checking our emails and stuff for the rest of the night and got a long, needed night’s sleep.

Day 2
After a good night’s rest, we got ready and headed to City Hall to get our free passes. The place wasn’t near as crowded as we thought it might be. However, it did take us a while to get out because they had everyone going out only one small door. All of the museums were on the other side of the harbor so we waited and took the public fairy across for free. The first place we went was the Vikingskiphuset or in another words The Viking Ship Museum. This one Kyle and I really enjoyed. These ships had been found in clay and were completely together, unlike the ones in Copenhagen. Though almost the entire ship was original, there were a few boards that you could tell that were recreated because they were not found in the wreckage. It was still pretty cool. The museum also had a chariot, sleds, and other random things that were found in the wreckage as well.

Next we went to the Frammuseet, The Polar Ship FRAM museum, which showcased a huge ship that was used back in the day for exhibitions to Antarctica. It was really neat and we got to go on the deck and all throughout the ship.



We spent a lot of time there before going to the Holocaust Center. It as well was very different from the other things we had seen. It took an in depth look into the Holocaust and what was done in Norway. It gave a lot of interesting information and even told about the research that classified races into certain characteristics and how the Nazis used it. Outside the museum an artist had made a punch card thing that had innocent words like nationality, sex, birthplace, eye color, and so on. It represented the criterion that was used to decide who to kill on a particular day.


Finally, we went to the Kon-Tiki Museum. This museum was about a Norwegian, Thor Heyerdahl, who went on many expeditions and was the first to do archaeological excavations so on Easter Island. We got to see a replica of a boat that he used to cross the Atlantic Ocean in made completely of papyrus reeds.

We took a fairy back to the main part of the city and took a tram over to the Vigelandsparken or the Vigeland Sculpture Park. It was really interesting. One artist had made all these sculptures for the park which all had some meaning.

To end the day we walked down the main street to look at shops and get some grub. To our surprise we found a TGI Friday’s. We have observed that the higher in Europe you get the more American like things get. The cities are more spacious, the people more friendly and able to speak English, and they have many American food and companies. Anyway, submitting to temptation we went in and had dinner there. It was really good and our waitress was really nice. She was actually from Sweden and had lived in Stockholm for two years so she gave us some tips. Lastly, we picked up our things at our hotel and went to the bus station.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 1
Copenhagen was our first destination on this little adventure where we could no longer use Euros. From now on we will be switching money every country, even though they are all called Kroner. Anyway, first thing we had to get some money from the ATM because our hotel didn’t take anything but cash. Then we decided to take the recommended walking tour that was on our map. It took us almost the entire day and we passed 36 sites but I am only gonna mention the ones we really liked.

The first important place we saw was City Hall corner where we found about three 7-11s. Yeah, that’s right the gas station. Only these 7-11s didn’t sell gas they were just the convenient store, but they had really good slushies. There was also a huge building it seemed was dedicated to American dining with McDonalds, KFC, and Burger King all having residence there. At this point we went into a really good restaurant that was in the vicinity and had lunch.

By the City Hall there was the statue of the Lure Blowers which was important to them.

Moving on we went to Hojbro Square we found the statue of a Merman with seven sons. This statue was under the water in the river that ran along side of the Square.

Stroget, one of Europe’s longest shopping streets, was next on our path. From there we ran into the Royal Theatre’s new playhouse and the Opera House. Next we got a view of the Royal Palace which was actually the home to the current Royals.

After the Palace we saw the Marble Church as well as a few others including the Russian Orthodoz church and the Catholic Cathedral.

The Gefion Fountain, the city’s favorite and most spectacular fountain (as they put it), was really cool but the statue to come right after was the cities most admired, the Little Mermaid.

This statue was the furthest point on our tour and now we had to turn around and go back to the start using a different route to see more things. We were already tired of walking by this point and the rest of it seemed to take forever. That said, we passed the Citadel not far from the Little Mermaid or the Gefion Fountain.

The King’s gardens were about the only really cool thing we passed after the fortress so I won’t bore you with the rest of the walk. Finally finished we wanted to sit down so naturally we went to the movies. All of them were in English and subtitled in Danish. We ended up seeing Confessions of a Shopaholic which turned out to be really funny. Afterwards we went back to our hotel and went to bed.

Day 2
The next morning we woke up and got on the tram to go outside the city center to go see another castle, the Frederiksborg Castle, now in use as a museum. We had to walk around a lake to get there and Kyle once again started trying to play with the ducks. Sadly, they wanted nothing to do with him. Nevertheless, it was fun to watch and he actually almost touched one this time.

After eating lunch and walking around that part of town a bit, we got back on the tram and went to the complete opposite side on the city center. There we found the Viking Ship Museum which was really cool. We got to see parts of actual Viking ships, none of them were whole, and watched a video that told us about their culture and a little bit of history.

The museum had made an exact replica of all of the ships they had found. They made them exactly how the Vikings had with the same tools, methods, and even them painted in the same style. So after we were finished in the museum, we went outside to look at them.

Lastly, we went by the Hard Rock to get me a shot glass. We ended up eating there mainly because we didn’t have anything else to do, and we still had 3 and a half hours till our train was supposed to leave.