hensinki-vaanta airport
hesburger....finlands own mcdonalds
helsinki train station
helsinki sunset at 2:30 pm
well...basically after that we had some wonderful finnish vodka on the bus back to the airport...and again, our flight was delayed and we passed out in the airport...then on to norway! we arrived in oslo around 9 (when we were supposed to be there at like 6) and then they lost lexies luggage somewhere in finland, so we had to deal with that. herman and his mom picked us up at sandvika station, and then we were warmly welcomed into his beautiful bærum home. as we struggled to attack the effects of jetlag, we ate some delicious norwegian food (mm grandiosa!) and then finally fell asleep.
bærum from gullhaug around 3:30pm
bærum sunset
just a pit stop on karl johans in oslo..this time in the winter! weve never really seen karl johans in the dark..the next day was going to be a big day...it was henriks surprise 16th that we had been planning..and we still had no idea of where to have it. made some phone calls to yens in the morning...we ended up being able to have it at hermans house, while his parents made an excuse to go out. it was a slow start and there were only about 6 of us sitting around when all of the sudden henrik just walked in and we kinda just...surprise? haha with the response, hahahaha fyyy faen! from henrik. anyway a few more people ended up showing up...and, well. it was just epic. nothing says it better then this video.
and heres a few epic pictures just to emphasise the rediculousness of our night. definitely the best night in norway ever.
judy, best birthday present ever!
yens, lookin fresh
the boys with their new best friend judy
henriks other present, and best shirt of the night
henrik loves judy!
yens and ståle with the typical norwegian love
birthday boy!
yens why is your head in that weird norwegian oven and microwavey thing
the four best friends
martin!
emil and henrik
we decided to go to this awesome chick martines birthday...but it was a 45 minute walk, in -18 degrees. welcome to norway!
what would a party hopping walk in -18 be without some throwing people into snow. yens basically bodyslamming ståle headfirst into a snow bank
now its yens turn to go down
it was so cold lexies vodka drink froze and broke her bottle
mari and erik having out bathroom party till einar lit fireworks at us
ragge!
the crew! julyeah, mari, henrik, lexie, me, erik and emil..party in the usa?
the reactions to what was happening between a certain 2 people over in the corner..
einar, mari and jonas
this sums up the night
so anyways, that was our first night in bærum! after that it was mostly just chillen...the legernes black hole of a couch took over. we spent many hours learning how to be lazy norwegians...
skate and facebook...
some man love on the legernes couch.
so in these few days we also went to tryvann and kirkerudbakken, which was really fun but we realize why norwegians are so good at skiing and snowboarding (they ride on crap!)...and learned the true meaning of running for the bus. we also tried to session a ledge in bekkestua (see below) and the day before new years we finally met sigrun and we went bowling in oslo with johan and simon! supper fun.
einar at bekkestua ledge
einars sick camera
bowling with johan
lexie, sigrun and me!
well then the next day was new years. we got invited to our first norwegian dinner party. these are pretty huge deal in norway...and a lot of times they are just all boys or all girls. well because were friends with mostly boys, we got invited to an all boys dinner in jar, in bærum. it was realllly fun and it was me and lexie and like 9 norwegian boys, and realllly good food...all dressed in sunday best and lookin fly for the new year. heres a few photos of that...
the chefs
us and the boys! joakim, tor emil, me, herman, henrik, andre, henrik, lexie, sondre, and markus, and one other i cant remember the name. probably henrik.
after that we went to our hotel in oslo, where we were supposed to meet up with johan but we ended up not being able to get in touch..haha we ended up hanging out with simon, herman, this kid joakim and einar. after 1/2 liter of vodka and some champagne...we went to see the fireworks...and thats all that needs to be said about new years...the rest can just live with--what happens in norway, stays in norway.
on the way to the fireworks, we stopped at the us embassy
this picture does no justice...the fireworks were everyyywhere in every direction for more then 40 minutes! you'll see in the final video..
this is the crazy type of thing that happens on new years...after vodka, gin, etc.
simon in the hotel room..doing what? i have no idea
and the morning after...
heres just a few random pictures from our last few days in bærum...
running for the bus...as usual
homemade norwegian waffles at sigruns
the last sunset we got to see in bærum..from the legernes house
snowboard park in downtown oslo in grünerløkka
the next days lexie and i went on a cruise from oslo to copenhagen denmark...im not really sure how to describe this in words so ill let the pictures do most of the talking...
our cruise ship docked in oslo
duty free shopping...do you think we have enough for 2 days?
at the piano bar with the norwegians and the russian mickey mouse.
welcome to copenhagen, denmark!
ship docked in denmark
copenhagen
nyhavn canal
tallest man in the world at the guinness world records museum
electric chair!
copenhagen
back on the cruise...dressed like ladies
the danes show their fair share of manlove too..
sing us a song, youre the piano man!
after our cruise, lexie and i chilled with poyan in grünerløkka a bit more...went to this super cool bar called quizas where they play snowboard movies, and we chilled with this awesome bartender marit. the next day lexie and i left for the last part of our adventure...our trip to oppdal to see johanne. unfortunately when we got there, we ended up being really lazy and didnt even go snowboarding for the first 2 days! thats because we were going to go down to lillehammer and go snowboard at hafjell so we had to save our money. but we did go to breakdancing class...
så sykt kul breakdancing remix i oppdal from Kelli Redes on Vimeo.
at oppdal we hung out with johannes friends kari, henrik, sondre, vebjørn, bob marley and i cant quite remember who else but we made brownies and just basically sat around by candlelight and forced anyone who spoke norwegian and not english to pay kr 100.thennn the next day we drove down to hafjell near lillehammer. we rented a cabin in hunderfossen...we paid for one for 4 people but something was wrong with it so they gave us this huge cabin for 7! three bedrooms and a living room and kitchen and stuff...ballllin! here we are just chillen the first night..playing idiot and throwing a few back before our next big day on the slopes.
i have an epic amount of video from hafjell the first day.....but i havent edited it yet, so an edit is soon to come. the second night at hafjell, we picked up crazy yens in lillehammer and had a massive pasta and meat sauce dinner with henrik, sigurd, sondre, vebjørn (and then of course there was me, johanne, lexie, and yens). we then played some kings and busted out the gin and aquavit and it turned out to be a pretty exciting evening...until of course my computer decided to try to have wings..
sondre and sigurd
the rule of the king johanne picked was sigurd had to put his face on the table until the next king...
yens trying to fit the wine glass in his mouth...typical.
if you say drink, drank or drunk in english or norwegian you have to take off your pants..
coco pops for the boy who carried our bags..
typical..
i made gods throwup and yens ran into a room to eat it all himself.
yens thought feeding my laptop some redbull would maybe be a good idea..
aww young love haha
yens what were you doing with that sheet anyway?
yens telling another long story hahaha...
sigurd was actually eating the coconut body butter...æææsj!
ice pops in the winter, its cool
bus to hafjell
yens in the jibpark
norwegian twin tip open..gooo vebjørn
failed hafjell handstand picture with the lillehammer olympic man in the background
so thats it for now. our last night here in norway, we started drinking with the vebjørns, mattis, henrik and sigrud...got on the train from hunderfossen to oslo, and met the most random people on the train. we couldnt get in touch with poyan and he wasnt home when we got to his apartment so we ended up checking into a hostel..and walked an hour to go find studenten, the bar that we first went to when we came to norway in june. it was really lame, mostly high school kids..and we ended up leaving there after an hour around 2:30am and got home at 4 because we got lost, of course! now were just getting ready to sleep in the airport and leave for the usa. OH and one part of the trip i forgot! i met the two families that i was potentially going to au pair for! i met nina and her three boys, axel, gustav and isaak..and then i went skiing with them! they were really fun but i wasnt sure how the timing was going to work out. but then i met elisabeth, her husbas trym and her two boys, felix (10) and jakob (13). i immedeately fell in love with the family..and the first thing i did was play skate with the boys! gotta love it...then the next weekend they wanted me to go snowboarding at tryvann with trym and jakob..but i had forgotten my snowboard at poyans. so then they rented me twin tips and i tried to twin tip ski, with jakob as my teacher! SO fun. well...all went well and as it turns out, i will be joining their family may 12th! im really excited...the kids are great and elisabeth and trym are so nice. they have cabins in geilo (a ski resort) and juvass (a glacier and by the ocean) so im excited for that as well. now we just have to wait for felix's broken leg to heal and everything will be great!
so thats concludes the epic trip to norway. it didnt really feel like a trip or a vacation, as much as it more just felt like we were living here. that peace i found the first time was still here..and the people are just as amazing. norway never ceases to amaze me and bring me to that point of levelheadedness, yet excitement and just pure peace. even though it may be cold in winter...nothing could keep me away. besides in the summer its just the opposite, and change is always good. i cant wait to come back and im already counting down the days. for now though its time to focus on my last semester...and some good times with some of my best friends and new roomates ;) so for now...hade på badet norge...i will miss you!
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