It's been an amazing 8 weeks abroad, and it makes me sad that I have to stop adventuring (for now), but I'm so stoked to be going home.
I've made so so so many memories that I'm afraid I won't be able to remember them all in a year. I've made friends that I know I will never forget, even though I may never see them again. It's so crazy that at home, I have very few people I can call friends, but that these people that I literally met two months ago have become some of my closest friends. I've learned so much from my experiences traveling and from my course and internship and from the people that I lived and interacted with. It sucks that I am completely broke and almost a hobo, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Traveling to Europe by myself has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, and having to live on my own has given me confidence and reassurance that I can do pretty cool things if I put my mind to it. This is a trip that I will probably talk about for the rest of my life, and I feel bad for everyone around me that'll have to listen to it forever.
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Last stop for my Summer 2018 trip was Toronto, Canada! The 85 degree weather, although not ideal, was a nice change from the 45 degrees in Iceland. It was also nice to finally be able to read English on signs and packages again.
Our first day was packed, with going to the CN Tower to see the view of the city, Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, Chinatown, the multi-cultural Kensington Market, Graffiti Alley, and the huge shopping mall; CF Toronto Eaton Centre. Although I never want to pay money to go up a building ever again, I can't deny the views that we got to see from the top of the CN Tower. The aquarium was pretty cool (280% better than the Waikiki Aquarium), but I'm not a huge fan of them to begin with, so it was meh. We found a money exchange place in Chinatown that literally gave us the exact rate, which was awesome. Kensington Market was a street that had a lot of different stores, ranging from clothes to restaurants to grocery stores that catered to all types of people. Graffiti Alley was definitely one of my favorite places, because all the art was so nice and was the perfect place for a photoshoot. The mall was HUGE and I regret not having more time (and money) to spend, because there were SO MANY CUTE CLOTHING STORES that we saw but couldn't buy from :( We went to the harbor on our second day, and walked the PATH (which was actually pretty underwhelming). We went to St. Lawrence Market which was my favorite part of the day, because they had so many different foods. We ended at Allan Gardens, which was a beautiful botanical garden, before going to a fancy French restaurant called Le Notre Bistro, where we each had a three course meal FOR LIKE $32 USD IT WAS RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP FOR AMAZING FOOD. We headed out early in the morning to start the Golden Circle, which is a drive around the southern part of Iceland, that hits three of the biggest tourist attractions. We started at Kerið, (which wasn't part of the Golden Circle) a volcanic crater lake with beautiful red rocks and turquoise-blue water.
Our first stop on the Golden Circle tour was Gullfoss, a gigantic waterfall that's fed by a glacier, that plummets the water down 32 meters (104 feet). There were so many tourists that it was hard to get decent pictures, but as we got closer to it, we put our cameras away because we wanted to soak in the beauty of it all. Our second stop was Geysir. It started raining on our walk there, and the smell of sulfur did not make our journey there very pleasant. We watched the geyser spout twice, and heard a lot of "oohs" and "ahhs" from the people behind us. Our third and last stop was Þingvellir National Park, which was super cool because we got to walk right between the continental plates of Eurasia and North America. We walked around the whole park for about an hour to take pictures and soak in the view. * Bonus, we got to see a herd of horses run past our car in the middle of the street (there were like 30 of them), and we also found a cute lil place that let you pet them! Day two on our wonderful Iceland trip, we started our day at Perlan, and because they were doing construction in the exhibits, the prices were cut in half - from 3,900 ISK to 1,900 ISK (roughly around $17). We got to go into the Ice Cave, which was a whopping -10°C and the Observation Deck to see Iceland from a few stories high.
I was originally supposed to meet up with one of my classmates from my study abroad class, but things didn't really work out (which i'm still super bummed about to this day), but my family instead took a trip to Seljlandsfoss, a magnificent waterfall that people can walk behind, and Sólheimajökull - a glacier that has been melting away for the past decade due to global warming. Pictures will never do what we saw justice. Iceland has been on my bucket list for a few years now, and we're finally here! It's crazy because the sun sets like 15 minutes before midnight (technically - it never really gets dark though), and rises back at 3am.
One of the things I'd been dying to do my whole life was to visit the Blue Lagoon, which is a beautiful Geothermal Spa that's filled with minerals and nutrients. I wanted lots and lots of pictures, but because it was 45 degrees before getting into the water, I couldn't stand it, and ended up taking a few decent ones, and diving in to the 100 degree water. I've been to the baths in Japan numerous times, but the lagoon was on a whole other level - I can't explain exactly what it was, but I felt so refreshed and relaxed my whole stay. Our admission included the use of towels, a free drink, and complimentary silica face masks. The silica face masks were so amazing - I've never felt my skin so smooth in my whole life. The lagoon was packed the entire time we were there, but I'm not surprised, because the weather was warmer and sunnier than usual, and summer is the prime time to enjoy Iceland. After my time in Denmark, we flew to Oslo, Norway for three days. The weather was perfect for the first day, and then suddenly became like a scorching 85 (which usually doesn't faze me, but coming from the chilly Denmark weather, it completely threw me off). During our stay, we basically ate 24/7.
My dad told me to book a ticket to Oslo specifically so he could eat exotic foods, like whale, reindeer, and elk - all of which we ate during our time there. On the first day, we went to a restaurant called Den Glade Gris, and had the most popular dish, the Pork Knuckle, along with a caesar salad and a whale meat starter - the pork knuckle was huge, and the outside was the crunchiest skin ever, while the meat just completely melted in my mouth. The second day, we went to Rorbua, a restaurant on Aker Brygge, and had the bucket of shrimp, whale steak, and meat skewer consisting of whale, beef, deer, and reindeer. On our third day, we went ate lunch at a fish market called Pipervika, also located on Aker Brygge. We got a few things from the market - oysters, rock crab, and langoustine, along with some sushi (salmon, whale, and unagi). All were super delicious but a lil too pricey. Aside from just eating, we also did a Fjord Tour that showed us the beautiful waters of Oslo, visited the beautiful City Hall, and went to the new Opera House that had the most amazing view of the waters. |