I arrived back in Bergen Friday morning at 7am. I headed back to my dorm to pack and check out of my room. I had two more mountains to climb. After turning my keys in and leaving my stuff in Stephie's room, she and I headed to climb them. It was late afternoon when we started and it took about two hours to climb Lyderhorn. When we reached the bottom we were both exhausted and it was starting to get late. We decided to forgo climbing Damsgardsfjellet. Although I would have loved to climb all seven mountains I'm happy with the [View Full Entry]

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Both Sandra and Angel had to work Wednesday, so Chaz and I took the day to tour Frankfurt. We traveled to the top of the Main Tour for spectacular views of the city. We stopped in multiple tourist gift shops looking at cuckoo clocks. As we didn’t get a chance to go to the black forest, I decided to look for my cuckoo clock in Frankfurt. I found a beautiful one in one of the shops and after spending a bit of money…It was mine. We went back to Sandra and Angel’s place to relax for a bit. Later we headed [View Full Entry]

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Our train arrived in Munich at 2am. Marvin had arranged for us to stay with a friend of his that night. In the morning we checked into our hostel, locked our luggage, and headed to the city center. We had lunch at Donsil, a restaurant with nice outside tables. We split white sausages, a pretzel, roasted pork, and potato dumplings and topped it off with a cold beer. I am really enjoying the food in Germany! After lunch we took a 3 hour free walking tour of the city. My favorite part was watching the large cuckoo clock on the city [View Full Entry]

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After saying goodbye to my parents in Oslo, I took a few a few trains, busses, and a flight, and arrived in Köln, Germany late on Thursday evening. I had decided to spend my last week in Germany. Luckily, Chaz was able to find the time and money to join me. His flight wouldn’t arrive until the morning, but his roommate from last year, Marvin, is from Köln, and was nice enough to offer us a place to stay for a few nights. Marvin picked me up, showed me the Rhine River, and treated me to a beer in one of [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Stockholm Saturday evening and headed to our hotel Rica Kungsgaten. We explored around the hotel and shared a calzone for dinner. We slept in Suday morning and enjoyed a large breakfast. The hotel offers: crepes, eggs, bacon, sausage, sliced meats and cheeses, cereal, fresh fruit, fresh breads, and much more. After breakfast, we walked along Gamla Stan, old town Stockholm. We stopped in front of the palace and at 1:15 watched a spectacular changing of the guards, complete with calvary, and a mounted brass band. They are not always mounted, but we were lucky! It was like m [View Full Entry]

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Friday morning upon arriving in Copenhagen, we headed straight for our hotel to drop off our luggage. Luckily they had a room ready early for us. After leaving our luggage in our room, we headed to a bakery at the train station for crosants. Then we took a walking tour of the city again guided by Rick Steves. We walked along the Stroget, a long pedestrain only street. We also took a rainy canal cruise, ate ice cream in fresh waffle cones, and gazed at the statue of little mermaid. We dragged our tired feet back to the hotel for a [View Full Entry]

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This past week has been a busy week! On Tuesday morning we woke up to pouring rain in Bergen. We took the bus to the train station to catch our train to Voss. This was the first leg of Norway in a Nutshell, a popular tour of Norway. In Voss we caught a bus to Gudvangen. We traveled along the winding road in the rain. We passed numerous waterfalls and drove down a switchback road to the bottom of the fjord. There we boarded a boat cruise through Aurlandsfjord and Sognefjord, the world's longest and deepest fjord. It was still raining, [View Full Entry]

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My parents arrived Friday night. After meeting them in the city around 10pm we walked up the hill to my dorm. Nothing like a 30 minute hike after over 24hours of flying. After catching up and unpacking a bit, we decided to go to bed early. There was only one problem, three people and one twin bed. Our resolution: my parents slept head to foot in my twin sized bed, and I slept of a $7 pool mattress brought from Phoenix. It was quite comfy actually, and everyone seemed to get a full night's rest. Saturday morning we awoke to the [View Full Entry]

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I’m officially done with my research this summer. On Wednesday, I gave a final presentation of my study. As most everyone in the office is already on holiday, there were only five people there. It was good practice for a larger presentation that I will give when I arrive back in Tucson. I have learned a great deal this summer while researching. Nothing really ever goes as planned, and you just have to go with it. This has been a wonderful experience that has gotten my foot in the door of the research world. I will be continuing this study back [View Full Entry]

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Summer has finally arrived in Bergen. Monday was our last day of rain and 50 degree weather. Two days later the sun was shining and the temperature had jumped to 79 degrees. I have been taking advantage of the nice weather walking into the city almost every day. On Wednesday, I bought some Norwegian strawberries at the fish market. The strawberries are full of flavor. I’ve never tasted any strawberries like them. The taste has something to do with the slow rate at which they grow here in Norway. As there peak season is only the next three weeks I will [View Full Entry]

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