The Traveling Bears

[thetravelingbears]

Oslo

May 7th, 2019

After a semi-sleep filled night on the bus, we arrived in Oslo at around 5:30 in the morning. It was blisteringly cold when we arrived. We hung around the bus terminal for about 1.5 hours waiting for our AirBnb check in at 7am. This is the first place where we had to pay to use a pubic bathroom. 

We took the train to the Toyen, where we were staying and walking around, I hadn’t been that cold in a long time. When we got to the place, it slight hurt to breathe. Little did I know, it would be the beginning of a long and hard cold that would last until we got back to the US. 

After sleeping until 1:30pm at the place, it was some of the best sleep we’ve gotten on the trip, we ventured out into Oslo. We noticed immediately how diverse it was. It was full of people of different cultures and nationalities. 

The first place we went to was Fiskeriet, where we had fish and chips and a fish soup. It was better than the fish and chips we had back in Copenhagen, but still not as good as what we’re used to in the US, and in California. There, we met a woman from California who had moved to Norway 6 years ago, and we both commented on how European customer service isn’t as good as back in the US since the shop keeper ignored both of us as we were trying to order. 

After, we got a coffee and had our first taste of Skolleboller (or Skolebrød) W.B. Samson. It was delicious! Not as sweet as American pastries, but just as good. 

It was a dark and cold day in Oslo, but we were determined to make the best of it. We walked to Aker Brygge, where a lot of the buildings reminded me of the Soviet Era. We walked around the shops, and found relief in the warmth of the stores. 

We tried salted black licorice ice cream, which might be my favorite ice cream flavor right now. And I don’t even like licorice. 

We stopped by an Espresso House, and John was already feeling sick. It was brutally cold in Oslo. I said we could head back to the Airbnb, but he said we could keep exploring. Looking back, I feel like we should have headed back and relaxed because we both ended up sick. 

We headed to Vigeland Park where we pursued a bunch of naked statues. One thing we’ve noticed in Norway is that they have a lot of naked statues, paintings, etc. Turns out that they are the horniest? most sexual country in the world after Brazil. Who would have thought? 

To John’s surpise, on the way out, we walked by a tennis park and stayed a while watching the adults and kids play tennis at Frogner Tennis. There were two little girls who were really good and will probably be pros one day. 

After, we took

Trolley to Punjab Tandoori - Chicken Tikka Masala, Beer Brutus - wine bar, red wine, cured meats, cheeses, honey, ice cream with cider sediment, pie crumbs Tried to get booze, they stop selling at 8pm

[thetravelingbears]

Little Mermaid and Walking Around Copenhagen

May 6th, 2019

Today, my brain woke up at 2am and refused to go to sleep again until 5am. And even after that, I kept tossing and turning. We had 2 new people in the room tonight, and the guy sleeping above me kept tossing and turning and talking in his sleep all night so I could not fall asleep because every little noise wakes me up. After 6am, I think I finally flee asleep. 

It wasn’t until 12:30pm that we heard some guy speaking to us - turns out it was the cleaning guy and we had to leave the room so that he could clean it. Everyone else was gone. It was our last day in Copenhagen before we had to take the bus to Oslo that night. We sleepily got out of bed and got ready for the day. 

We decided to check out the “hip” part of Copenhagen - Norresbro. John found a spectacular place for lunch called GAO dumpling house. It was so so good. It was a little bit strange though that they charged us for the water, no other place we’ve been to so far has done that. We got the hong kong dumplings, mushroom dumplings, and the veggie soup and it was all fantastic. 

We walked around the little suburban alley ways of Norresbro and there were so many different types of falafel and shwarma. A lot of the places had the same combo of food: pizza, burgers, and shwarma/falafel. So many places had that combo. There was also a burka store! 

We stopped by Anker Chocolade for the best chocolate ice cream and some sorbets: strawberry, passionafruit and raspberry. We also got a chocolate filled pastry with unbaked mirangue, marzapan bottom.

After, we crossed the bridge to Nyboder, where we walked around the quant little town with yellow houses and took a series of jumping shots before making our way to the little Mermaid. It was a blisteringly cold that day. 

On the way back, we searched and searched for a place to eat before settling on the organic cafe of the restaurant that we had gone to the bathroom at earlier: Babette. There we had the most amazing charcuterie plate of my life - the best proscuitto. The design of the place was so cozy. One thing I‘ve noticed and that I love about Scandinavian restaurants is that they use real candles. 

On the way back to the hostel and the overnight bus, we stopped by a liquor store where we picked up an organic bottle of wine and we chugged on the streets of Copenhagen. The wine was superb and prolly deserved better treatment. 

John was freaking out that we wouldn’t make the bus, but I made him loosen up and have more wine. We walked through a beautiful park before bolting straight to the hostel and bus station. We got on the bus, and basically left 5 minutes after that. Onto Oslo!

[thetravelingbears]

Torvehallerne Food Market, Botanical Gardens and Copenhagen Free Tour

May 5th, 2019

Both of us woke up in the middle of the night at 2am after not being able to sleep. Our room had 6 beds, and at the time, it was us and two other girls. Even though they were super quiet, it was hard to fall asleep from all the noise or to feel relaxed enough to sleep. Mostly, I was the loud one and ended up waking John up, but it seems like he was pretty awake as well. So we just decided to go down stairs and do some planning. We did a ton of planning for the trip until almost 5am. Decided that instead of going to some warmer countries, we would fully commit to Scandinavia and our original plan, despite being a little scared of how cold it was and not having the right clothes for the rest of the trip. 

The next morning, we planned on going to the Copenhagen free tour, but we so wiped from the night before, we ended up sleeping in until 10am, and completely missed the first one. We decided to head to the Torvehallerne and try some smorresbord again. We fiddled with the train machine for almost an hour trying to buy tickets. It was a chilly day, but it being a Saturday, it was super active and the streets were full of people. 

At Torvehallerne, we had fish and chips which were disappointing, and again striked out with the pickled herring smorresbord. Oh well. 

Outside of the food market, there was an interesting clothes trade market going on, with a ton of Danish women and girls buzzing around racks of clothing. Upon a closer look, we saw that each woman was selling her old clothes. 

After, we killed some time by walking around the Botanical Gardens. It was a cute little park in the middle of the city where a lot of families were taking their kids out for a stroll. The whole thing was walkable in about 10-15 minutes. 

At around 2pm, we headed to the Dragon Statue near the center of the city to meet for the free tour. Right before, John had to check out the local McDonalds as he’s been clamoring for a burger since we’ve arrived. Every day and at every meal time, he wants to have McDonalds. Men...

At the Dragon Statue, we started talking to one of the tour guides, Janek, and he mentioned how Copenhagen pays you to study there as long as you work 13 hours per week. Being a tour guide, along with bartending was one of his ways to make extra money. We also met another young guy from Spain who was with us for the whole tour. After learning about the history of Copenhagen and it’s many fires (why do these Scandinavian countries keep making everything out of woods?!), we headed to the local churros store, touristy, but worth it. 

And then we headed to Christania with our new friend from Madrid. After, we grabbed a bar at a local (very local) bar called Kanal Pub, where the beers were only $3. It was a nice relief from the astronomical prices. Although, it’s been hard knowing how much everything really costs because of the conversion rate. You don’t really want to know anyway, because you’d think that none of the stuff was worth the price. 

Our friend had to catch a flight back to Spain, and we headed to Magasin to find some more appropriate shoes for Norway since I’d only brought light tennis shoes. Everything was so crazy expensive. More than anything we’ve seen in the US, and I decided it was okay to be a little bit cold. 

For dinner, we headed to Mamemi pizza, which we both thought might be some of the best Italian food we’ve ever had. The wines were fantastic! We had the margherita pizza, meatballs with tomato sauce, and the creme brulee - amazing! 

Back at the hostel, everything was bumping on this Saturday night. After walking the dark, cold, and windy streets of Copenhagen, it was nice coming to a cozy warm reprieve full of music, laughter and people. There was live music, and we decided to sit up front on statge with the musician and singer. He sang classic rock and roll and regae and I wondered if he was famous. We both we starting to crash from exhausting and decided to finally head to sleep. 

^^ Exhausted after a looong day!

[thetravelingbears]

Tivoli Gardens

We made our way to the other touristy destination in Copenhagen. Admission was about $20 per person to just enter the park, but was a lot more if you wanted to go on the rides. The nice thing about Tivoli is that you can pay per ride. After going to Six Flags last weekend, we weren’t too interested in going on any of the rides, but it was cool to walk around the amusement park that inspired Disney World. It’s quaint and old, but I can see how in those times, it was considered grand, magical, and forward thinking. We briefly stepped into the food hall, and the difference in temperature from the outside to going inside could be best described as a warm hug after being in the freezing cold. 

Our first taste of smørrebrød (scandinavian style open faced sandwich, typically with herring, salmon, or shrimp and eggs). We both weren’t huge fans of it. 

We tried one of the smorgasbord open faced sandwiches, and although it was good, it was a little too heavy for our tastes. The best part was the salmon roe on top.

After, we braved the cold and walked around Tivoli, while at the same time perusing hat and glove stores and looking for hot cocoa. We went into this one shop where they give you recycled cups that you can return for about $1 refund. Pretty cool system! After talking to the barista about where the best place in Copenhagen is for the sunset, she also mentioned that today was the inaugural firework show for the summer, and it was happening a little bit before midnight. Sunset was at 9pm!

We walked a little more, before I caved and got gloves, a hat, and a warm scarf. It completely changed my life and I felt different being outside. I felt that I could now be outside for hours on end. Bring it Denmark! We got John a scarf too and he instantly felt warm.

Tivoli is a nice place to go on a date or bring your family. We only spent about 1-2 hours there without riding any rides, but felt like it was enough time to get a sense of the place.

Sunset

We biked to the 3 Lakes and “watched the sunset” there. There aren’t actually a ton of good places in Copenhagen to see the sun setting because the city faces east.

We biked back to the hostel, and now, it was packed with people. It was a like a mini-party going on. People were drinking, talking, playing games, and the amount of hygge present was off the chart.

After doing a little bit of trip planning to Norway, we crashed early, 10pm, with some plans of “hitting the town on a Saturday night.. But I think we were both too exhausted to get out in the cold again.  

[thetravelingbears]

Stroll Through Nyhavn

May 4th, 2019

We biked straight to Nyhavn as cold gusts of air reminded us we were no longer in Southern California. Nyhavn is supposed to be a touristy area, but we thought it was charming and it was full of Danes, or maybe just other Europeans. The amount of attractive people in Copenhagen is staggering. As we walked around and took pictures, we sat down at one of the restaurants along the waterfront, but after seeing how expensive it would be and also the fact that no one had come to our table, we decided to leave.

On that same street, we got these AMAZING Belgian waffles with dulce de lece ice cream. I’ve never had a waffle that good in my life. They really know how to make food here in Copenhagen.

We stopped by one of the hot dog stands and although it looks unassuming, I would have to say that the basic hot dog they have with the crispy onions and pickles was prolly one of the best hot dogs I’ve ever had in my life. It was so good. We shared one, but I wish I had my own. There’s so much good food to try in Copenhagen, but I would totally get another hot dog while we can.

[thetravelingbears]

Biking In Copenhagen

May 4th, 2019

John warned me that people in Copenhagen would be aggressive riders, but I had no idea what as in store for me. Immediately after merging into the bike late right outside the hostel, and getting my biking legs, I was shoved to the right and also reprimanded and I think I heard “Fuck off” in Danish …an angry Danish man had already pushed me aside, that I almost fell off my bike. There was another man walking towards me that saw the whole incident and looked apologetic and concerned and said something in danish.

I was in a little bit of a shock, and couldn’t believe what has just happened. A part of me questioned why, a part of me thought it was funny. Welcome to Copenhagen!

[thetravelingbears]

Arriving In Copenhagen - May 4th, 2019

The Copenhagen airport smelled so good. I loved the fact that they had fridges worth of ikura - SO MUCH! 

After getting some espresso and freshening up a little bit, we headed to our hostel via train. Check in was at 3pm, so we waited around until then because we arrived so late.

Steel House in Copenhagen is an excellent hostel. They had a huge common area, and it’s open 24 hours. They serve beer pretty late into the night. When it became time to  check in, the hostel became swarmed with people.

After dropping off our bags, we rented a couple of bikes from the hostel, and took off.

[thetravelingbears]

Beverly Hills + Flight to Copenhagen

May 4th, 2019

Los Angeles

We had a sleepy morning and didn’t end up checking out of the hotel until 1pm. After, we walked the streets of Beverly Hills in our full backpacker gear. It was an experience.

Beverly Hills is actually a lot nicer than I remember, we’ve never walked the streets but just drove through. Literally every place and establishment is kosher. We ended up heading to Hasiba for falafel and it was soo good. Maybe better than what I had in Israel. We tried their hummus with wild roasted mushrooms which was fantastic as well.

From there, we took an uber to LAX and had very interesting uber driver that use to do travel documentaries in Europe. Once we arrived to LAX, we hauled a$$ to our gate because it was last call at that point.

Norweigan Flight

After copious amount of alcohol and cognac ordered from the self-service kiosks, John and I watched the Great Gatsby together, and then tried falling asleep. For some random reason, I chose to get the kosher meal and it actually came with more food, and I felt lighter eating it. I might keep getting kosher from now on.

For most of our flight we were sleeping.

[thetravelingbears]

Taking the Train from San Diego to Los Angeles - May 2nd, 2019

After saying our goodbyes to work, we took an Uber to the downtown San Diego to board the train to LA. We upgraded to the business class and got extra goodies from the train conductor, who went around and gave us craft snack boxes and wine. 

When we landed in LA with our backpacks, we realized that maybe the backpacks weren’t the best for travel. They are bulky and oversized, and if you’re walking around downtown LA with a backpacker’s backpack, most people will assume you’re homeless as most of the people that wear that type of backpack in LA are, in fact, homeless. 

We made our way to a sushi place called Sushi Enya, and had some of the best sushi we’ve both ever had. 

After, we headed to our hotel in Beverly Hills. It was actually pretty nice because we got a suite!