We took an overnight train to Copenhagen, where we shared a cabin with a nice guy from Syria and a pair of complete sketchballs from Germany. Out of the kindness of his heart, the conductor moved us to what he called "The Ladies Compartment" (gigity gigity), where we met the world's most stereotypical German woman (think Augustus Gloop in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory), her 2 zany, stereotypical German kids, a nice lady from Denmark, and her gigantic cello. And we all shared a tiny sleeping compartment. Ah, to be young and cheap.
We got to Copenhagen, wandered around to various hostels begging to be taken in from the cold, dark night (it was 9am). Ended up staying at the DanHostel, where we met a woman from Taiwan. She asked us if we'd heard of Taiwan, and then showed us her magic spoon which plugged into the wall and could boil a small pot of water in 5 minutes.
During the 3 days in the city, we went on a castle tour which included the castle that serves as the setting to Hamlet. From that castle, you can see Sweden...which has cannons pointed at it. Apparently the Danish are still a bit leery after an attack from across the water several hundred years ago. We also went to the Glyptotek, which actually isn't a crazy European rave, but an art museum (that's free on Sundays!), and Tivoli, the greatest small-scale amusement park ever. Think of the giant swings at a carnival, then raise them up several hundred feet so that your wild, spinning ride involves looking out over an entire city. Mindy summed it up nicely: "We can figure out the whole bus schedule from up here!"
We also saw Christiania which the guidebooks recommended and I don't.
After Denmark, we hit the high seas and took a (gigantic, utterly fabulous) boat to Norway, home country of my people (or at least the people of my grandmother). We stayed with my great aunt Unni and her boyfriend Jan in Oslo, and enjoyed the comfort of staying in one of the most expensive cities in the world for free. We went hiking the first day we were there at a local park. We were told it'd be an easy hike, no need to bring water. 6 miles and one piece of cake later, we found out that it was 90 degrees in the shade and passed out.
Other things we did in Norway included riding on a lot of boats around the Oslofjord, seeing an 11th century nunnery (which has seen better days), climbing the Holmenkollen, and eating prawns. My time there taught me that I will never be a ski jumper, and that prawns aren't worth the work.
From the top of Holmenkollen, my last thought as a ski-jumper: "OH GOD OH GOD NO NO NO NO NO!!!!"
Now, re: the title. I might not have noticed this, had my uncle not pointed it out. My uncle Lars and my grandma are the only relatives State-side that actually have Scandinavian blood, and it shows. That said, I still didn't understand what my blond-haired, blue-eyed, very tall uncle meant when he said "Norway doesn't look like a viking ship anymore."
What he was referring to was immigration. Even though Grandma Solvieg crossed the pond and preserved her Aryan supermodel making genes, Norway itself has supposedly mixed it up as people have immigrated in droves, presumably looking for some Norwegian version of the American dream. From what I understand, a lot of people are coming from Pakistan. My relatives laid out the Norwegian immigration debate pretty plainly - and it's the same one we have here. "Immigrants are lazy and they fed off productive citizens!" "But immigrants are here and they are an important part of our society, so we need to provide jobs and welcome them!" I'm not sure what we can take from this experience, other then some people are going to be (unnecessarily) awful to immigrants everywhere.
That said, let me be clear: at least Oslo and Copenhagen still look A LOT like that metaphoric viking ship, except now instead of great horned helmets, everyone has health care.
But everyone still eats prawns.
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