Bechamel in Marseille

Montpellier is quite possibly one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen in France. It’s a good mix of modern and old.

On the way there, Alex had some disgusting doner kebab for 8 euro! (Normally they cost 3 euro on the street)

T he next day, we strolled around the markets

Saw this book maker

 

The main place is ENORMOUS. It’s called Place de la Comedie

Alex kindly permitted a visit to the Musee Fabre where he got scolded by the museum guards for standing too close to the paintings. Cameras were forbidden, but I managed a couple of shots

We spent our evening in the most American way. We went to a quasi-Irvine Spectrum place where we ate at a French brewery chain (think Bj’s) where I had a beer taster

and a giant pork knuckle…..

We then took in a movie

Alex and I, one fine Sunday, rented bikes and headed to the ocean (a mere 20 mins away)

We had cafe

Then watched skateboarded

And how adorable is this…..!!

Another weekend we headed to  Gobi Monastery near Manosque

And of course, I saw SHEEP at his parent’s house!

It’s bit distracting  to have a flock staring at you

Ok Sarah I quite didn’t make the weekned mark, it turns out there are no shortage of beautiful sunny days in the South of France where the only thing I feel like doing is having a chilled glass of rose on the Vieux Port…

But enfin we have had some monstrous weather (RAIN!! RAIN!! DAMN YOU GLOBAL WARNING) so my days of flitting down dog shit covered street of Marseille in a cute sundress were over….

Which is fitting that I’ll finally do my posts on Oslo and Stockholm

What can I say about Oslo? It’s cold. Honestly, after 3 days that’s pretty much it unless you’re a die hard snow bunny

But the cleanliness and the people impressed me. The high food prices not soo much. To my delight there was a Burger King here (yay!) but at 12 euros a value meal ($15 ) I sadly did not indulge in a whopper with cheese.

Our amazing high speed Flytoget train to get from the airport to the center of the city.

Chrisi and I unfortunately got RIDICULOUSLY lost on our way to our hostel. We literally ran down dark stretches of narrow highway, asking the least dodgy looking people where the hell this hostel was.

Once there, we cracked open a bottle of wine using a butter knife (we had wisely hit up the duty free shop in the airport purchasing wine and a forever wonderful bottle of vodka)

The next day we set out in the cold. The weather wasn’t terribly great with no sun in sight.

We first hit up a couple of unmemorable museums (not that we should complain as they were free, as most government museums in Oslo were) while waiting for the changing of the guards at 1 pm. The Norwegians have a very interesting way of paying homage to their Viking history with kitcshy paper mache interspersed with archaeological artifacts

Also terrible english translations

And child-like paintings

Then we headed over to the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace

There we clowned around with a guard (very nice btw)

and then watched the procession.

Now in trying to plan this trip, I had made an excel spreadsheet on all the budget eats (yes i am a freak)

So after 3 false starts (restaurant not open, no longer exists, where the hell is Kjelsås,??) we finally ate at Dovrehallen

I had the pork schnitzel which was amazingly good

And Chrisi had corned beef and swedish mash

It had a diner feel, surrounded by old Norwegians

Then we attempted to see Akershus festning but it was TOO cold so Chrisi and I gave up.

But not before seeing Roosevelt

The next day was the Holmenkollen, or the ski jump Oslo.

We took a 30 minute metro ride there along with half of Oslo apparently ditching work/school/various commitments to go skiing, snowboarding and sledding.

BTW this thing is amazing looking.

We didn’t pay the NOK 75 ($12) for a view of the top because the nice young man told us it wouldn’t be worth it with the shitty weather.

So we took to the woods

 

Then we took in a free movie (yay) offered by a film group and watched Death at Oslo S

I recommend it actually if you wish to look at horrid fashion choices from the 90’s along with heroin addicted kids.

After an unmemorable dinner at Smak

(we didn’t opt for the bush and laden pizza with half beef, cheese, and peppers with chicken jalapenos and cheese)

We took an 8 (8!!) hour bus to Stockholm after meeting up with Jessica.

And this is us BONE TIRED afterwards. I won’t generally recommend this. We took a long nap afterwards.

We wanted to head out Skansen Museum   but during off season half of the exhibits were closed so we just took pretty pictures and checked out Nordiska Museet

BTW our hostel was probably the best I had been too. We met up with a random group and all headed out.

Then  the crazy Australian girl Sarah and I headed out to a club

Clubs in Stockholm weren’t much to write home about. I wish I had splurged a bit and gone to the Opera Club. Apparently this is the place to be seen. Next time.

One thing I would have to say about Stockholm is the shopping.

The fashion in Stockholm is amazing. After the black and colorless (yet still chic) of France, my eyes welcomed the bright colors of Stockholm. I ALMOST bought a bright ass yellow dress but decided it would just wash out my yellow skin.

Sadly we missed the BIGGEST Ikea in the world because it was outside of the city center.

The markets are also tiny

And then we ate at Max, a  Swedish hamburger chain.

The hamburger was decent but the beef patty was boiled!!

Then off to the Swedish palace

And off to Gamla Stan, the oldest part of Sweden

We took in a rugby match and beer here.

Then the most hilarious part of our trip…

We missed our bus to Stockholm and SPENT THE NIGHT (Midnight to 11 AM) IN THE BUS STATION

The worst part was the police waking us up every 2 hours  (apparently one can’t sleep in the train station because it just makes the city of Stockholm look slovenly)

We comforted ourselves with some passable Mexican food

And I saw a new way of a Hanbok being worn

Back at Oslo  we checked into our  hostel and passed out after hitting the vodka bottle.

The next day, we headed to the Viking ship museum

Now this was impressive

Then the Munch museum

The Scream was at the National Museum but there were also some interesting pieces here.

The off to the fjords!!

Err more like the poorman’s fjords.

We took a free boat trip (included in the day pass)

And took a 10min trip.

Chrisi cooked for us that night (although she claimed she couldn’t cook) and we had to deal with an interesting roomate (I’d like to think deranged as the self mutterings wouldn’t stop)

Then we hung out with a bunch of Spainairds

Interestingly, while I had forgotten all of my Spanish learning French had somehow made understanding it easier.

Our last day in Oslo had us hitting the Vigeland Sculpture Park

Everything was designed by Gustav Vigeland

I particularly was fascinated by this one

Then we took a bunch of silly pictures

With one final lunch at a cafe that I don’t remember(very hipsterish)

And of course a stop to buy a giant tube of Mentos

and BAGELS. I bought about 4 bagels and still have one in the freezer