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Graffiti bench
In one of the parks, it looked sharp.I had another fun dorm-mate this morning… at 8am she decided to turn all the lights on, run the sink full blast and open all the windows - to the sounds of construction outside. Thank you ma’am.
Out of spite I lay in bed for another hour and half - today was a sleep-in day - I wasn’t giving it up that easily lol.
I wandered off towards the Natural History Museum (Museum of Nature) since it had free entry for students. (Score - always go for the freebies). Of course I get off the tram only to find out I have to climb a huge hill to get to the museum haha, but fine, I did it. I got my ticket to go in (I spoke English) and she neglected to inform me the displays were solely in Swedish haha.
Now, I love museums… I really do, but very hard to get into one when it’s in a foreign language. I think the only English signs I saw were at the entrance door… slightly misleading haha. Oh - a few of the animals displays had a paragraph in English, but like, it was maybe 5% of the
museum. I totally get it, I mean it’s a museum in Sweden - I just found it odd because it’s the first place I’ve gone in both Norway and Sweden where signs weren’t translated.
The, uhm, animals displays were special..? Most of them were very obviously not real… so much in fact, that I had to pictures as I tried not to snicker. The zebra’s head was about 5x too big for it’s body, the brown bears look like something I would’ve drawn in kindergarten (but in 3-D form) and the lions… well… let’s not go there. Oh, there was also a killer seal. It made me laugh.
I did enjoy seeing that the “Canadian Beaver” and “Canada Goose” were realistic looking. Yeah Canada, represent!
After the museum I wandered around Slottsskogen, a huge park in the middle of the city. I really do love these parks - it’s a nice escape from the hustle and bustle without having to go too far. I stopped to get a gelato at a little café - they had dishes named after Swedish names, I had to grin when I saw an Alfredsson, especially since I was wearing a Sens shirt
KILLER SEAL
I laughed really hard... today.
I knew the Botanical Garden was one tram stop away from the park and museum, so I decided to wander south/southeast in order to find it. Ahaha, sigh. That was an unfortunate adventure. Let’s just say I took a humongous detour without meaning too, and when I got there I found out it cost about $5 to go in. Now, $5 isn’t a lot (especially here!), but I didn’t particularly feel like paying to see flowers - there are enough in the city that I can see for free.
Instead of walking back to the same tram stop I decided to head to the next one thinking it must be close by. (I didn’t go back to the other one because it involved a steady uphill climb, plus about 6 flights of stairs… my feet hurt because I made the mistake of wearing my flip flops yesterday, all day). Of course, you can guess how close the stop ended up being… and it ended up being uphill anyway. I can’t win haha.
To add insult to injury, I just missed my tram too haha. Balls.
Anyway! After a 10min wait I got on the tram
to head back towards the Centre to see two “churches”. The first is actually a Church - it has beautiful architecture and great stain-glass windows on the inside. (I don’t know what is with my camera, but I couldn’t for the life of me get a good shot of the windows… too far and dark). Anyway, I loved their pews haha - they had cushions all over and swinging gates. Spiffy.
A couple blocks down is the Feskekörka, or, “the Fish Church” - it’s billed as being this amazing market to sell fish in… I mean, it was ok, but it had nothing on Bergen’s market. Also, fish are creepy as hell when they’re freshly killed and still have their heads attached. Ick.
I headed off to the mall after that - got some jewelry (not the expensive ones, just funky pieces) and a nice blue scarf. I puttered around some of the stores, but again, I have no room in my backpack haha, so I’ll wait until Oslo to shop. I did however go to 4-Gotti - the most amazing candy store I have ever seen. Like, woah. I couldn’t resist and got a nice assortment -
I wanted to try a bunch of different ones. I got everything from the apple-flavored chewy hearts, to tennis ball gum, to weird puffy pink marshmellow things, to boring old chocolate covered raisins.
With my bag of candy in tow, I headed off to Liseberg - think LaRonde-lite, if not super lite. It’s quite small, but it was fun to pop into. You pay per ride (or get coupons), you don’t need a bracelet which is good - otherwise it wouldn’t have been worth it for me.
They had three coasters (well… 2 and a half, one was like “Thunder Run” at Wonderland, it doesn’t fully count lol. The other two, Kanonen and Balder were amazing - top notch. Balder is one helluva wooden coaster - quite tall, and 70 degree incline on the first drop. Oh baby. I sat in the last seat, so I had quite the ride haha - it carries its speed the entire time, perfectly timed helixes, bunny hills, everything. One of the best wooden coasters I’ve been on! And then Kanonen is a power-launch system - it’s the first time I’ve been on one (Italian Job at Wonderland doesn‘t count…), and I
Liseberg
My ride coupons must go on others haha - it was unreal. It’s one of those ones that launch you 0-70 in two seconds, and then you go just about straight up, twist and turn, and come straight back down. And I mean straight. I was sitting second from the front, holy cow.
About an hour later Kanonen was closed for the rest of the day for maintenance… it’s a good thing I did the coasters first - I would’ve been so pissed haha. I was going to do the Canyon River thing, but it was chilly enough/getting late, so I didn’t want to get soaking wet. At the snack huts they have sour cream puffs and bacon bit puffs… I had seen them at the movies too last night, so I had to give in and try - I bought a small, mixed pack and you know, they were actually really good!
I did a couple of the smaller thrill rides - one where you rotate on this giant disk while see-sawing back and forth, one that’s like the swinging boat expect you sit in “packs” of 10 instead of one long boat, and the reverse drop zone - man,
I love that thing. I still say that’s one of the coolest feelings in the world when you’re launched up and you have that moment of weightlessness up there. The view of the city wasn’t too bad either. To finish things off I went on the Ferris wheel haha, I’m a child =)
On the way back to the hostel, our tram started to die haha. It kept sputtering (not a good sound to hear) and would then violently lurch forward. This was all on level ground, so it wasn’t a big issue… but then I started thinking ‘oh crap - we go up a huge hill right before the hostel’ haha… you know where this is going.
As we started to go up the hill, the tram started making this weird grinding noise, but it didn’t slow down - which is good, because we were on a steep enough incline. We got to the top of the hill, just as the light turned red. Oh, merde de la shit haha. The driver stopped the tram, which then sputtered, launched forward, and then proceeded to start “rolling” backwards.
I’m sitting there thinking:
A - This is a
Bag-o-candy
Ok, ok but this was much better haha. total “this is so typical of my journeys” moment haha, trying not to laugh
B - Hoping we don’t hit a car, hoping we don’t careen down the hill and explode.
The driver obv tried to brake - the first time it didn’t work (thought B became more prevalent haha), but the second time she managed to stop us and get us back to the top of the hill… but the effin’ light was still red and sure enough as soon as we stopped we started to “roll” so she shut the tram down, power and all. She gets on the intercom and says something in Swedish (I assume, ‘hey, you might want to get off while the going’s good’) People tried to, but because the power was off… the doors wouldn’t open haha. I love it.
Of course through all the commotion we had missed the next green light. We waited, and waited - she turned it back on and, like power throttled forward haha. We got over the hill. I got off since it was my stop. I survived. The end.
So, that was that! I called the parentals - apparently some numbers automatically reject
Balder
In all its glory when you call collect because the operator told me my own number doesn’t exist. Lovely. So, hi Mom! I’ll try something else next time lol.
And now I’m sitting on my bus, getting ready for the overnight trip to Stockholm.
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