When in Rome have a Sweet Tea

When I arrived in Myrtle Beach I was starving, the downside of traveling with an airline where you have to pay for food and drink. Due to a lack of time I had to settle for fast food. I wanted something a little different, but couldn't find the Hardee's - Hey, we don't have that here in NY. But I ended up at McDonalds. In a continued effort to have a more "local" experience I opted to get a Sweet Tea as my drink. I'm not sure if Southerners really do like Sweet Tea, but that's the rumor going around up North. I have to say, I kinda liked it, but then I do like anything with lots of sugar in it. I do recommend a sweet tea, but get it with a lemon, it's better that way.

Andalses to Trondheim

Day 10: Andalsnes to Trondheim: On to Trondheim, the former capital of Norway, an ancient town where much of the original wooden architecture still remains. See the Kristiansten Fortress and perhaps enjoy a chance to go for pizza and ten-pin bowling. (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Trondheim Vandrerhjem Rosenborg

Breakfast: 7:15, Bags to the bus: 8:00, Bus departs: 8:30

I woke up at 6am and was very happy to hear that the water was back on, I was not happy when I realized I had brought the wrong bag to the bathroom with me and I didn't have my toiletries. So back I went to the cabin for the second day in a row.

Whenever we would eat at camp we did it standing up, unless there happened to be seating at the campsite, which was hit or miss, and then we had to wash our dishes, which left my hands frozen for a couple hours, which was getting worse the farther north we went, but luckily we were staying in a hostel tonight and wouldn't be eating at camp.

On our way to Trondheim we stopped at the same souvenir shop we stopped at on our way to Andalsnes, here we were also able to exchange money. I got rid of my Swedish Kroner and had a pastry. On the bus we actually had some good music and some of us played "who wants to be a millionaire." At 1:30 we got stopped at a checkpoint, but Andy passed and we were quickly on our way.

At 2:00 we were dropped of in Trondheim at Nidarosdomen Cathedral. I went with Renae, Nancy, AJ and Cara sightseeing. First we went to the mall in search of lunch, but didn't find anything we wanted and ended up at a grocery store where I got a muffin. We found the Royal Palace, which is made of wood. Unfortunately it didn't open for visitors till the following day so we could only look at it from the outside.

After that we did some shopping walked to the water, and over the Gamble Bybro Bridge. We considered going to the fortress, but decided we didn't have time, so we did some more shopping. We ran into Lis and Jilly after that and Nancy and I decided to go off with them for the last bit of time we had in Trondheim, so we could get pictures of the Cathedral.

After that we were picked up at 5:00 and were taken to our hostel, I was rooming with Lis, Jilly, and Nancy tonight. Rooming with people from tour made the hostel experience less hostel like and more agreeable to me. We got our stuff ready, and ourselves ready for the pizza and ten pin bowling optional. We had no idea how the night would end up, but it was an interesting night....
We had dinner at Dolly Dimples, which was ok pizza. Even though it was all you can eat pizza you were limited to what pizza was delivered to your table or another table you could get a slice from. At 9:00 it was time to go to bowling, I played with Nancy, Caroline, Kellie and Ted. I got a 104, which made me happy since my goal was to break 100. Bowling was fun, as it always is with friends, but we decided against a second game since it was so expensive. Only one game was being included was kinda cheesy. Instead we went to the Downtown Bar, for a drink or two...

We were pretty much the only ones at the bar until 11:30, which was around when I was thinking it was getting to be time to go. But a piano player started and people started coming to the bar so I stayed. Tom told us he had never heard the song Piano Man by Billy Joel, nor Billy Joel or several other famous songs that I thought everyone had heard, he was going to need some culture! Or at least be forced to listen to some of the classics (wow, Billy Joel is now a classic!) Anyway, people started dancing, and they were pretty good. The women were dressed quite skimpily, and I'm told they were quite forward. That might explain why several of the guys picked up at this bar, which gave the rest of us some entertainment. But nothing was quite as interesting as the 2 businessmen with a very attractive woman, either they liked to share her or she was a prostitute they were splitting. She would dance (ok, they were practically having sex on the dance floor) with one guy, then she would be making out and give a lap dance to the other guy. Then she would leave with one of them, then come back, more dancing, leave again, come back again. They kept us entertained for quite some time. In the middle of all this I swear one of the women around the piano flashed the piano player, though I'm not sure it was his lucky night.

At 1:45 I decided to leave with Chris, Jacqui, Andrew, and Lis since I was getting tired and we had to walk and I wanted to do that with a group since I didn't have a clue where we were. It was bright out the whole walk, which was a bit weird, and we sorda got lost. Not so much lost as I just don't think we took the shortest way back. There was a lot of fighting over which way we should go, eventually we asked a couple people wandering around, they pointed us in the right direction, but we still ended up asking a taxi shortly after that. We would have taken the taxi, but it was 80 NKr to start, didn't fit all of us and we were apparently almost there, we just had to walk up hill. We fought some more about which way to go and if we were going the right way. But eventually we saw the hostel in the distance... It only took us 20 minutes to get there.
When we got back to the hostel there were people hanging around in the hallway talking (not very quietly, I might add), and the hallway by the mens bathroom still smelled like urine. This wasn't the nicest hostel, and the internet was VERY expensive, it was one of the few times we would stay at a place and not have half the tour online to check email. I guess since it's the only hostel in the city, they don't have to worry about competition or having high standards. I finally got to bed at 2:20. I missed the conclusion of some of the guys hooking up, but I would hear the gossip in the morning....

In all, Trondheim was a cute little city (3rd largest in Norway) and although it seemed a bit sleepy, apparently it's hopping at night.

Frequent Flyer Master???

I recently purchased the Unconventional Guide - Frequent Flyer Master and finally got a chance to read it. I had previously bought another guide from the Unconventional Guide about frequent flyer miles. The first guide, which I can't remember the name of, was more basic then this one and cheaper. This one was more basic on the concept of frequent flyer miles, expanding much more on ways to earn miles using unconventional methods.

There was a lot of stuff that I already new, I'm not sure if it's from the first ebook or if I had picked it up along the way - such as using one airlines program within a airline alliance to earn all your miles. But there were also a lot of tips I hadn't heard or thought of, though aren't necessarily secrets. Sorry, you'll have to buy the book for those tips.

Is the book worth $49? I'm not sure yet, I apparently have some work to do. But the book comes with update emails, little tips and links to help, if these emails keep up the book could certainly pay off quickly!

My first goal for earning miles is with Continental since I already have quite a few miles from my trip to Hawaii, certainly enough to be a reasonable start.

Andalsnes (Geringer Fjord)

Day 9: Andalsnes Sightseeing: Don't leave your camera behind as today we follow the 'Trolls Road' past the Stigfoss Falls and up the mountain for fabulous views of the glacial valley below. Why not join us on an optional fjord cruise, past some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world, it's an experience you'll never forget. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Trollstigen Camping & Gjestegard

Breakfast: 7:15 Bus departs: 8:00

I got up at 6am and when I got to the shower I realized I didn't have my towel, so I had to walk back to my cabin for my towel, which was REALLY annoying. and was of course one of the place with the longest walk to the showers. We had to pay for showers again, 15 Nkr for 5 minutes and since I had mastered the 5 minute shower I did what I had to do in plenty of time. Today we would have a substitute driver since it was Andy's day off, by the time we were out of the campsite we knew we were lucky to have Andy as a driver, because this other guy wasn't so hot. But today was one of the big excursions, one of the reasons you come to Norway - to see a Fjord.

We tool the Trollstigen (Troll's Path) which has a 1:12 gradient up the mountain, don't really know what that means, but you had to snake up the road with hairpin turns. It's an amazing road, pretty much one really wide lane up a mountain. On the way up we had great views of waterfalls and on top there was snow. When we got to the other side we took a ferry from Eidsdal to Linge, which also had amazing views. We arrived at the Geiranger Fjord at 10:45. We had some time to do some shopping for lunch and for Souvenirs before meeting at 11:15 for an 11:30 cruise. It's amazing how much you could get done in 30 minutes, I got lunch and souvenirs.

The fjord was beautiful, like being in a valley surrounded by mountains, with beautiful water. We saw the 7 sisters (7 waterfalls from one place) and some face in a rock (which I didn't see because I didn't hear them announce it). The Fjord was magnificent and an absolute highlight. the clear water, the mountains around it - all that nature has to offer in one place. Ok, maybe not all, but I couldn't have thought of another thing I needed either. This is the type of place that makes you wonder if there is anything more beautiful out there. The pictures only portray part of the beauty. The cruise was over at 1:15 and we had another half hour for shopping.

On our ride back some people took naps, but we had some photo stops, including one in the snow to keep us entertained. Of course there was a snowball fight and Nancy and Jilly made angels in the snow. When we stopped an Insight Tours bus also stopped, a couple people seemed excited to see a Contiki bus, ahhhh, the Contiki reputation followed us to Norway. On the way we met up with Hollywood, the photographer for our group picture, which we took in the rain.

We got back to camp at 4:15 and I wrote some postcards and had a hot chocolate while most people slept until dinner time. Although I got to bed fairly early, 10:30, we were up talking for a while, apparently there was no water at the campsite, I prayed it would be fixed by morning.

Jetblue broke my heart

Last year I earned 2 Truepasses through Jetblue's frequent flyer program. I used one of those passes last September, the other will expire tomorrow. I had offered my flight to my mother a while ago and she planned to use it, but then they laid off a bunch of people at work and she couldn't commit to booking a flight this month. I've been toying with some ideas, but with surgery scheduled for next month I can't even think about a trip (did I just say that?). Then to add insult to injury, Jetblue announced this week that they were shutting down their reservation system today and tomorrow - effectively shortening my year at the last moment, thanks!

On Tuesday night I decided to take action and call Jetblue to see if their are any exceptions to the rule - that would be a big fat NO! And, my agent Karen wasn't terribly sympathetic to my case, it was just - no, their are no exceptions. I tried to explain again, thinking maybe she needed more persuasion, I ended up convinced that she has no heart. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told I didn't need one because there are no exceptions. Now I was concerned with the lack of heart thing, and started wondering if she was a computer reading a script. Has Jetblue's phone been so busy that Karen (or the computer named Karen) forgotten to insert the part about "I'm so sorry about this inconvenience and I understand your frustration, but our policy is that we can not transfer calls to supervisors in regards to extending Truepasses." No, instead I got, "you don't need to speak to a supervisor."

Ya know what, I did, and I still need to.

I promptly went on the website to complain, I submitted my complaint and got a canned response back on Wednesday. Apparently, someone is missing the point. Jetblue is an airline that prides itself on bringing humanity back to air travel - I found that on their website, that's what they say - there words, not mine. Where is the humanity?

I've flown Jetblue many times and I flew with them within the first few months of their launch. I dealt with customer service a couple times and everything always worked out fine and I felt like a valued customer. I've had flights delayed with Jetblue and even those were relatively good experiences. My attitude has changed...

I woke up the morning after the call and Jetblue was dead to me, they had broken my heart and I no longer wanted to book a flight with them or fly on their planes. I wrote another letter, a real one, on paper with an envelope and a stamp and a signature (I think my true calling is consumer advocate.) I briefly explained what had happened and how I lost my desire to fly with them. I expressed my concern with customer service - I have NEVER EVER in all the companies that I had called (and trust me I have called my fair share) been told I can't speak to a supervisor. Then I went into how they weren't living up to their mission of bringing humanity back to air travel and that I no longer wanted to fly with them that I might as well fly with a legacy carrier because they would at least let me speak with a supervisor.

In the end all I wanted was for Jetblue to act like they cared, to humor me a bit and let me think I'm a special customer to them. Instead, they broke my heart. Jetblue your dead to me!

Oslo to Andalsnes

Day 8: Oslo to Andalsnes: On to Lillehammer, host town for the 1994 Winter Olympics, and perhaps a chance to try the bobsled run? We then follow a picturesque route past lakes, waterfalls and mountains to our beautifully situated campsite. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Tollstigen Camping & Gjestegard

Breakfast: 7:15 Bags to the bus: 8:00 Bus departs: 8:30

I got up a few minutes before my alarm today, and when I got to the shower there was a line, I knew there was a reason I got up extra early. After breakfast a couple of us were talking near the Top Deck tent and noticed that they had a toaster. WHAT? We do NOT have a toaster! I mentioned it to Dion who was equally disgusted with Contiki. But I guess when you have 14 people a toaster is easier to manage. Today I sat with Ted on the bus and got to wear my Bobsledding t-shirt since today we were going on the optional I had dreamed about in statistics class - Bobsledding in Lillehammer!!!!!!!!! But we had some things to do first, like stop for gas and the bathroom. Then we were off to Lillehammer.

We got our first view of Lillehammer when we made a quick photo stop across from Lillehammer on the Mjsoa Lake. Our first stop in Lillehammer was the Olympic ski jump, I of course spent the 10 NKr to go up to the top, and then I spent another 160 NKr on souvenirs. Finally, Olympic souvenirs! When we started to pull out of the parking lot we saw Nancy running after the bus, she almost missed it, but we did wait for her, but she said she was prepared to hitch a ride into town. After the ski jump we went into the town, and you could see why this was one of the best Olympics. It's a quaint little town, reminded me a bit of Innsbruck, only smaller, but it had that quaint small town Europe feel to it. We had a hour for lunch and to take a look around. I grabbed some lunch at the local supermarket and took a look around, bought a few more little things then sat in the park eating my lunch till it was time to leave.

By 1:00 we were off to the Bobsled. My team would be Lis, Jilly, and Nancy - "4 Non-Aussies." We were the 3rd sled to go, I sat in the front, behind the professional driver. A bunch of the guys pushed us off as everyone cheered for us, the noise was deafening! Then we picked up speed and turned to the left, the right, my head bopping back and forth, eventually hitting the sides of the sled because of the force. It was a rush, and I got a great view since I only had the drivers head in front of me. Then cheering once again as we went up hill and came to a stop. Our time was 65:72. We didn't beat any Olympic records, but we came in 3rd for our group. After we finished we had plenty of time to take photos of the other sleds coming down. I even went into the circle at the bottom on the inside of the track where they had a stone monument thing with the winners of the Olympic Bobsled and Luge competitions. There was some delay because they had a problem with the machine that moves the sleds off the truck (they are driven back to the top of the track), so we didn't finish until 3:00, which meant we had to eat lunch on the bus. On the way to our campsite we stopped at some Troll Shop that was supposed to have good prices (apparently it depended on what you bought, some people found good prices there, while others found things cheaper elsewhere). From there we had great views as we drove through the mountains to our campsite, aside from beautiful mountains there were also waterfalls everywhere, Norway is beautiful.

Finally we got to our campsite at 7:30, it was nestled in a valley surrounded by the mountains, quite possibly the nicest setting of all our campsites. At this site I was rooming with Leah, Caroline and Renae. We found out quickly that they had washers and dryers, we decided to mix our stuff together so that we could all get some stuff done and so that we could save a bit of money since it wasn't cheap. Apparently we weren't as quick as we thought and were next in line for one of the washers. Dinner was at 9pm and was a little skimpy this evening. Apparently this caused a bit of an uproar for some people, and in fairness we do have quite a few big guys on the tour, so while there was always enough to fill me up, I'm sure others left dinner hungry. I think someone said something to Dion, and we never had a problem again.

I ended up spending the rest of the night in the laundry room chatting with Leah, Renae and Karl. While there we found out the the dryer sucked and ended up having to hang all our stuff in the room, later on I found out that after 3 or 4 hours you stuff would be dry, isn't that handy! I got to bed around 12:30, but because we were talking, I didn't get to sleep till at least 1am.

Myrtle Beach is so not Pigeon Forge

A couple months ago when I found out I was going to Myrtle Beach I did a little research on what there was to do there. Based on the list, I thought it was going to like Pigeon Forge, TN. I was very wrong.

Myrtle Beach is a beach community (shocking, I know) with a lot of condo/time share buildings. There are also a lot of houses and middle class suburban areas. Pigeon Forge was a commercial strip of land with hotels and cheesy activities. I had kinda enjoyed that cheesiness of Pigeon Forge, but after visiting Myrtle Beach with my pre-conceptions I could see why National Geographic Traveler bashed Pigeon Forge for wrecking the Smokey Mountain area.


One of the curious things in Myrtle Beach were the houses, I'm sorry I didn't take pictures. There were quite a few very boxy houses. They looked like tall cubes plopped on a square of land, often 3 stories and narrow with what looked like a basement above land. Then a couple houses down there were be your typical bungalow type of house. Next there would be a large grandiose house with fancy steps leading up to it, something you would picture in Beverly Hills only smaller and with less land.

As for the things to do there, I didn't have much time but it seemed like there was just an entertainment complex with restaruants and recreation stuff to do (Ripley's Aquarium was one). Then in another area there was a massive mall that had some other activities, my nephew did a bungy thing there and LOVED it.

Overall Myrtle Beach was a nice area, a good place for families who like the beach and the availablity of other activities without over stimulation. The downside is that the place has every chain restaurant, but I didn't notice many local types of places.

Oslo

Day 7: Oslo Sightseeing: A whole day to enjoy the many sights. A chance to visit the Kontiki Museum with its amazing raft and see the Gustav Vigeland sculptures in Frogner Park. (Breakfast included)


Hotel: Vivbratan

Breakfast: 8:15 Bus departs: 9:00


I was up at 7am this morning and took a free shower, yea! But since nothing is truly free, every time you pushed the button for the shower it would last about 30 seconds, so you had to keep pushing it. After a few minutes you could kinda tell when it was about to go out and could keep a pretty steady stream going. The adventures in travel!

At 9am we were off to Holmenkollen, home of the biggest ski jump in the world. And I have to say, it was pretty damn big! You would have to be nuts to jump off that thing! When we first got there everyone was taking pictures of it and then we finally got to go inside, they have a ski museum there, showing skis over the years, and Holmenkollen over the years and Olympic stuff from the 1952 Oslo games, I was in heaven. Then I went up to the top, you take an elevator about half way (on the picture you'll notice a post holding the ski jump up, that post had the elevator in it), but you had to climb (141 steps) the rest of the way to the top. Again I have noticed that the Stairmaster does not translate to stairs, what good is a stairmaster if it doesn't help with stairs? While I was waiting to go to the top they had ski jumping skis on the wall, wow, they are really wide! I guess it makes sense since you use them to fly, but they were still wider then I thought they would be, and generally just really big. But the wait in line and the 141 stairs were all worth it once you got to see the view down! It was beautiful! After a little Contiki photo session I went back down so I could do some shopping for Olympic paraphernalia. Sadly there wasn't any Olympic stuff for me to buy. Then I wanted to go on the ski jump simulator, but I didn't have time for that, and the ATM. Money won out. But money did not come out of the ATM machine; for some reason it didn't like my ATM card, or Kevin's for that matter. All I had was 50 NKr from when I bought a ticket to the simulator with my credit card and then returned the ticket (got cash back) because I was afraid I would run out of time and miss the bus. Renae ran into her parents at Holmenkollen, they were on a cruise that was in Oslo today, I guess it really is a small world. She met up with them later to get clothes from them.

Our next stop on the bus was Frogner Park. I must admit I wasn't terribly excited about this, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or go where the Tour Manager takes you. We arrived at 11:45 and were walked through a cemetery to the Park (I don't make the news, I just report it). In the park we saw lots of statues, mostly of naked people in strange poses. We of course saw the whining baby, reminds me of a temper tantrum. It was one of the smallest statues in the park, but probably the most famous (it was the only one I had heard of), I was surprised how small it is. If Che hadn't shown us where it was I probably wouldn't have found it.


After Frogner Park we went into Oslo. We were dropped off at Acker Brygge at 12:30 for our free day. The first thing I hoped to do was get my camera looked at, but since I didn't get my own map of the city I decided that I was better off going around with a group and seeing the city, I probably wouldn't have bothered getting my camera fixed, especially since it worked on automatic. So off I went with Marie, Kieran, Ashley, Chris, Jacqui, Kevin and Patrick. But first we needed lunch. Chris and I ended up at Burger King while everyone else ended up at a little deli type place. After our quick bite we were off to the National Museum. We tried a couple ATM's, but with no success, well Kevin and Patrick got money, it was just me who couldn't get it. Apparently, my bank was refusing to give me my money. I didn't understand why, I told them I was going away and hadn't had any trouble using my ATM card anywhere else or my credit card either. Of course it was a Sunday so I couldn't even call. But I trekked on, eventually I would get money, either that or I was going to owe someone a lot of money. So after eating and not getting money we went to the National Museum, which is free. So are you wondering what is in the National Museum in Oslo that is interesting to see? Well, The Scream, The Madonna, and Da Vinci's Self Portrait. I must admit that other then that I wasn't all that into the museum, but it was small enough that you could look around the whole place in an hour or so.

After the National Museum I wanted to see the Resistance Museum; however, there was a conflict. At 3:00 there was a bus going to the area of Oslo that has the Kon-tiki, Fram and Viking museums. Although that all sounded nice, I wasn't really into that stuff, and much preferred to go to the Resistance Museum. So Marie gave me her map and I grabbed another map from the museum and decided to venture off on my own to the Resistance Museum, setting a 5:00 meeting time with Marie so that I could catch up with the group later for dinner. Off I went, on my own. I found the Jewel of the Sea, one of Royal Caribbean's ships, on the way. Across from the ship was the Akerhus Castle which I found out is where the Resistance Museum was. When you walk in there is a handy sign that tells you where you are and where everything was. I studied it for a minute and went into the grounds. Once in I realized I was going to have trouble finding this museum and that I didn't have much time to make a final decision about going to the Kon-tiki Museum. So I looked around a little more, didn't find it and headed back to the 3:00 meeting place. In retrospect this was probably a good decision. Later in the day I found out that Tom had moved the sticker that tells you where you are on the map at Akershus Castle, confusing many tourists, and possibly me, and could be the reason I didn't find the Resistance Museum. Ultimately I ended up going back to meet the group.


When we got to the museums, I decided that they still didn't really interest me, especially if I had to pay to get in. So I took a little walk with Chris and Jacqui and sat on the water for a little bit chatting, it was probably the nicest day so far on the trip, it wasn't raining and it was almost warm out. From where we were sitting we had a nice view of Oslo and the harbor, which was really pretty. We decided to head back toward the ferry and ran into Lis and Jilly, we all took a 4:05 ferry back to Acker Bregger for 20 NKr. The hope was to find an open souvenir shop, but it was 4:30 on a Sunday in Oslo and we couldn't. We ended up just walking around town a bit and I was eventually able to get money out of an ATM. I think my problem was that I was trying to take too much money out at once and was going over my daily limit, all these different currencies were annoying to keep track of.

Eventually we found a little internet cafe with a pub next door, Lis, Jilly and I all checked our email while Chris and Jacqui had a drink next door. While I was gone Rob, Leah B, Stefan, and Tom had showen up. Lis and Jilly split off after a bit since they had decided to go to the movies, they were seeing X-Men, which was playing in English. The rest of us decided to go to an Indian restaurant, we expected the walk to be 10 minutes in the wrong direction. Along the way we ran into Danny, Samar, Karl, Skye, and some other people on bikes. They biked around Oslo and apparently had a wonderful time. When 20 minutes went by and we were only halfway there Chris, Jacqui and I decided to head back and grab something along the way. We eventually ended up in some little whole in the wall type of place having burgers. When we were walking back after dinner we ran into Lis and Jilly coming out of the movies. We were back at the bus at 8:40 (almost everyone was early since there isn't much to do in Oslo at 8:00 on a Sunday), and as we pulled out it started to rain. When we got back to the campsite at 10 the Top Deck tour was in and having a bonfire. I went inside and hung out with Nancy, Donna, Sara and Stephanie for a bit. I found out that I could only transfer around 256 photos onto my ipod before the battery died, too bad my memory card holds twice as many photos.


I liked Oslo, it wasn't an exciting city, but it was quant for how big it was, though I still wouldn't consider it to be one of my favorite cities, like Rome.

Guilty for enjoying your cruise

I saw today on CNN that some Royal Caribbean ships stopped at Royal Carbbean's private island at Labadee on the island of Hispaniola, the same Island that the country of Haiti is on. Apparently, this was quite insensitive to visit the island when there is such a crisis going on in Haiti. I have a heart full of sympathy for the Haitian people, but avoiding the cruise port of Labadee is not going to change anything. It's not going to change the number of people saved or lost nor will it clean up the buildings and rebuild the country. We should all take some time to reflect on the things we are grateful for and do what we can to support the Haitian people and all the people who have gone to Haiti to help. Skipping the Island of Hispaniola for another port will not change anything, to say that would be to say that we shouldn't visit the Dominican Republic and maybe we shouldn't visit other Caribbean islands either, they are close together after all. I was in NYC on September 11 and it was weird to see people getting their nails done, but a week later it wasn't so weird. It will be a LONG time until Haiti returns to anything resembling normal. Instead of worrying about people having pina colladas on the Labadee beach maybe we should worry about people forgetting the Haitian people in a months time when they're not in the news all day everyday.

Spirit, checked bags and fees for seats

A couple airlines last week announced a increase in checked baggage fees - I think it's Continental and Delta but I'm not really sure. And does it REALLY matter, I hate the fees and try to stick with airlines without fees and if I don't I know I'm getting hit over the head with these fees anyway.

But this week I ran into a work friend who is going to Myrtle Beach this Spring and is flying Spirit Airways. Our conversation reminded me of how much I know (even when I think I don't) about travel and that there are so many people who don't know much - the rookies of travel. Well my friend booked his $100 ticket that cost him like $300, he was shocked. I might have the prices a bit off, but the story is still the same... He saw the price, the non-stopness and booked the ticket. Then there were fees for his 2 bags (he's going for golf) and then the fee to choose his seat. What he thought was a good deal was in fact not that good of a deal and after booking the flight he found out that the flight would cost a lot more then he expected. When I think about how annoying I find the checked bag fee now I think how much worse it is for those who find out after booking their flight, at least I am able to factor that into my cost of the flight when booking the flight. Lets just say that my friend doesn't have a good opinion of Spirit Airways, so is the cost worth it if my friend forever avoids Spirit Airways?

Fining Airlines

http://rickseaney.com/2010/01/15/dot-fines-united-airlines-must-treat-passengers-fairly/
I just read the above article. For those who don't want to read it the short version is that DOT fined United Airlines for adding on an illegal fee during a 60 hour computer glitch. I wonder if it's really a glitch and they're sorry they got caught or if it was just a glitch and bad luck. Here is the thing... United was fined $30,000, good for DOT. However, where does that money come from - our pockets. I'm not suggesting that fines are bad and shouldn't be imposed, but I wonder is there other ways that might hurt the airlines more?

How about taking away gates and peak take off times at airports, I'm sure that's a complex process, but I would think that DOT might be able to use that as leverage and it would hurt more then a fine that is passed on to the consumers.

Twitter took me to see Ripley's Aquarium

Before I went to Myrtle Beach I had heard the recommendation that you should post on Twitter for tips on the location. I wrote a post asking what to do with a 7 and 11 year old (my nephews). The tips I got were to go to some indoor water park, Ripleys Aquarium and something else. The only thing I got to see, which I did with my 7 year old nephew was Ripley's Aquarium, and it was a nice place.

The whole aquarium is indoors, a plus when it's 32 degrees outside. The aquarium isn't terribly big, but it had a large selection of fish and exhibits, enough for a good hour to two for a family that isn't fish obsessed. We also did not see any of the presentations since the schedule didn't match ours. We also didn't buy any additional ticket items - like a movie. In addition to the fish tanks there was also an exhibit about babies and incubators included in the base ticket, which had little to do with fish, but was interesting anyway. It also had a couple funny photo spots, especially with a goofy kid like my nephew.

I'll admit I haven't been to all that many aquariums, the most recent was the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay - this was smaller but just as nice. My sister often takes the kids to a couple different aquariums in NY and when they travel and she really liked this one and my nephew had fun too!

Stockholm to Oslo

Day 6: Stockholm to Oslo: Our route today takes us through Sweden and across the Norwegian border to the capital city Oslo. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Vivbratan
Breakfast: 7:00 Bags to the Bus: 7:45 Bus departs: 8:30

I woke up at 4:45 thinking it was time to get, but didn't realize I was an hour early till I got back to the cabin. Since I didn't want to wake anyone up I just updated my journal till it was time to get ready. Once Cathy got up we chatted for a while untill Leah came in, then we chatted some more until we had to go help with breakfast. The bus pulled out early today, at 8:20.
Our first stop was at 10:50 untill 12:00 at a much less crowded mall/supermarket. Then we drove until 2:35 and had a picnic lunch (since there seemed to be few traditional rest stops in Scandinavia this was common), with a lovely view of the bus! We finally arrived at the Oslo campsite at 6pm. I had slept most of the bus ride today, which is unusual for me, my cold must be making me exhausted when combined with the pace of Contiki. I missed some of it, but did get to see some of the beautiful mountains, lakes, and rivers that make Norway so nice. I think Norway may be more beautiful then Austria, which I didn't think was possible.



This campsite consisted of 2 big houses (one for girls, one for boys), and a couple little cabins (for couples). Our house was pretty cool, it consisted of different rooms with either beds, a sitting area, or both. Before dinner a bunch of us hung out in Stephanie and Sara's room sitting area. Ashley and Kevin came over, Kevin convinced me to drink straight Whiskey or something. He said it would make my sore throat feel better, it felt like my throat burned off... It was chilly outside so it was nice to have a place inside to hang out. At 8pm we had a "Viking" dinner, we were supposed to eat our pork chops with our hands, but I think AJ was the only one who actually did that.

After dinner I did a bit of hand washing and then went out to the campfire to hang out. Dion brought out some marshmallows so that people could toast them over the campfire. Since I'm not a big fan of toasted marshmallows I just ate mine uncooked, mmmmmm. I ended up going with Skye to the couples cabins, which weren't nearly as nice as our house and then to Kevin's room. The guys house was nice, but ours was nicer, go girls! Everyone took a lot of pictures since everyone was out and getting to know each other. Eventually Marie started telling ghost stories from her job and I got freaked out, which was my cue to go to bed. It was after midnight, but the sun had not fully set yet.

Stockholm

Day 5: Stockholm Sightseeing: Today an orientation tour including the Royal Palace and Old Town. In your free time you can visit the 17th Century warship ‘The Vasa'. Tonight why not explore the cobbled streets and sample the local fare? (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Angby Camping
Breakfast: 8:00 Bus departs: 8:30

I was up this morning at 6:15 for my shower, and it worked out perfectly because I took the last empty shower stall, and when I got out a line had formed for the showers. It was interesting taking a shower where you had to pay, especially since the coin slot was outside the shower and you only got 5 minutes. At 7:30 I reported to the cook tent to help with breakfast, although I did a couple things to help out, for the most part I felt like I was in the way. At 8:30 we headed into Stockholm and at 9:00 we did a tour of Stockholm's City Hall. When we first entered the building I dropped my camera, but I wasn't too concerned since I had dropped it before and never had a problem with it, this would actually be a problem later in the day. The building was very interesting, designed to look much older then it is, it hosts the Nobel Prize banquet in the Blue Room. Much thought was put into the design, like the designer having his wife walk up and down several different sets of steps in a gown, to see which was the easiest to walk up and down.

After the town hall we were dropped off at the Royal Palace. It was a cold day with rain off and on all day. Che had spoken to the Tour Manager from the tour ahead of us, the Wind-chill was -24° Celsius in Helsinki. In Stockholm the temperature was around 8-12° Celsius, with a wind that cut right through you. Oh dear, we had to still go a great deal more North.

When we were dropped off at the Royal Palace some people got pictures with the guard from the palace, including some rude Germany woman who would not stand the couple feet or so that you had to stand away from him. She would inch in and he would yell at her, she seemed to be laughing at the whole thing. It was very disrespectful, the classic obnoxious tourist, at least she wasn't American. Anyway, from the Royal Palace I went with Marie, Kieran, Patrick, Kevin and Rob to the Nobel Museum, but first we had to find it. After studying the map a few minutes we discovered that it was pretty much right in front of us, we just couldn't find the entrance. We found the sign for the museum, took pictures with it, walked around a bit and and still couldn't find the entrance. Of course if anyone had paid attention to the sign, it had an arrow pointing in the correct direction, though it was a small arrow. We eventually did find the entrance, and got in a few minutes before a guided tour was starting. After a little while I started to not feel so good, and had to find a chair to sit in. Not sure what came over me, but after a few minutes I started to feel better, and I never felt bad again. It was a little freaky though feeling that ill while I was so far from home and my couch. I guess maybe my cold was starting to drain me.

We tried to see the changing of the guard at noon, but it was pouring rain and you could barely see anything because of the crowd. We decided to skip it and had lunch instead. At 2:00 we met back at the Royal Palace for a ride over to the Vasa Museum.

At the Vasa Museum I saved 40 SKr using my International Student ID Card, Yea! Once inside I tried to take a picture of the ship, but couldn't get my manual settings to work - I tried every which way I could think of, but they didn't work (insert bad word here) I must have broken it when I dropped it at the town hall (insert more bad words here)! Well I wandered around taking some bad pictures of the ship and then went to the movie on the ship. Too bad it was the Swedish version, it had subtitles, but I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to read them. At least I got a nap in and those who stayed awake gave me the short story when it was over. But the ship was quite large and from the looks of it I'm not terribly surprised that it sunk, it just didn't look right. It didn't look proportional. I was surprised at how many people were at the museum, it was packed! But I got myself a pin of the ship at the gift shop and met the bus at 4pm for a ride back to central station.

A bunch of us decided to go to the Absolute Ice Bar, one of the things on my to do list. Che had tried to get a reservation for us, but couldn't so we had to organize it on our own. When we got there they had a couple slots open to take the last 20 minutes of the current session, but we would have to pay the whole amount, and there weren't enough spots for all of us. In the end a couple of us went in, and then other people left the bar and the rest of the group that wanted to go, got in. It was a neat experience having a drink from an ice glass and hanging out in the silver coats they give you. It was worth the exorbitant amount they charged you, 105 SKr for non-alcoholic drinks and 150 for an alcoholic drink. But we all had fun together picking drinks and taking pictures, the bartender finally had to leave the bar in an effort to get us out of there since our time had expired.

Then it was time for some shopping. We stopped at the System Bologet (alcohol store), and I got 4 bottles of Smirnoff Ice. Then we hit the tacky souvenir stores. I got my one nephew a Swedish Flag Viking hat that I knew he would love. Then we almost had to run to meet the bus at 7:00 for our optional dinner at the Fenix Bar. I probably would have been better off missing the bus though, the dinner wasn't very good.

Our dinner consisted of several types of Herring (they all looked gross), pork Swedish meatballs, potatoes, and mouse. For dessert we had canned fruit salad. Needless to say I didn't each much, and simply consider it to be a cultural experience. I sat with Ben, Stefan, James and Tom. The evening turned into spin the bottle/truth or dare. After a few rounds of getting lucky I decided it was time to bow out gracefully before I started losing, but not before learning a bit about Tom and James. I went to another table to hang out till it was time to leave at 10 to head back to the campsite.

Back at the campsite "club 10" was hoping. Club 10 was cabin #10 where the party was the last 2 nights. I didn't stay up too late but I heard a bunch of people were hanging out with the Top Deck people. I think it was Dion who woke up in the middle of the night with a naked man (aside from the socks he was wearing) in his room, it took a couple minutes but he finally got the guy to leave. When Dion got up in the morning his socks were missing. The naked guy must have taken them, we had a good laugh at that.

Anyway, Stockholm is a nice city, though I didn't get the full feel for it since it had rained so much, I think I might have loved the city if we had nicer weather and actually got to see more of it instead of hiding from the rain.