AJ wanted to take a trip for his birthday. I was against it since we're buying dinner for 150+ people in December, but he also knows I believe in birthdays more than anything and I couldn't say no to a birthday boy, so I relented. Plus, we had friends that were really down to go, and I figure the window is closing on being able to take international trips with friends before complicated schedules, kids, and different lifestyles get in the way. So, we booked a trip to Norway and Sweden with 4 other friends.
First up was Norway!
Scene entering the city from the airport train
Our Airbnb
Viking ship museum!
Viking ship museum!
Vigeland Park
Open air museum; old Norwegian church
Inside the old Norwegian church
Open air museum
Downtown Oslo
Oslo icebar
Fjord tour!
Norwegian Royal Palace
River view by our Airbnb
Oslo was great, even though it was a bit small. There wasn't too much going on, but still enough for us to fill our time while we were there. There was a public Olympic viewing near the train station square, but otherwise there didn't seem to be too much Olympic spirit, which is really a head-scratcher considering Norway completely dominates in the winter Olympics!
The Viking ship museum was pretty great, and my favorite part was reading about how all these ships had been buried with their chieftains, but by the time archaeologists had found them, the valuables were already gone because they had already been plundered... by the Vikings. LOLOLOL.
Next up was Sweden! I had been to Stockholm previously, in August 2008, so not only had it been 9 1/2 years, but I was there in the summer, so I was looking forward to experiencing a winter wonderland of Stockholm.
The Vasa Museum! It's like the Swedish Titanic... look it up!
The Royal Palace
Guinness Record for oldest unaltered restaurant (1775?)
Sweden's metro is considered "the longest art gallery in the world" due to all the art and beauty below. Things like this escalator made me so happy!
Our friends actually went on to Copenhagen while we came home. We were sad to leave them, but we need to save up money and work days off for the wedding and honeymoon, and plus we just did Copenhagen in 2016 after Shannon's wedding. Still, I do love me some Scandinavia, and having done Iceland and Denmark in 2016, then Norway and Sweden in 2018, next up has to be Finland in 2020!
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