Tis the Season

This Christmas marks the second Christmas I have spent abroad. I have been living in Bundoran, Ireland for just under two months now and have made some pretty good friends here. However, most everyone seemed to go home or travel elsewhere for Christmas and the town became deserted. 

When Christmas morning came around I slept in, had breakfast and then headed to main beach for the annual Christmas day swim. I didn't think there would be many people there since the town was so quite but to my surprise I it was probably the biggest gathering I have seen thus far in Bundoran. Just after noon we all ran to the waters edge and submerged ourselves in a bone chilling water that was 8 degrees Celsius.  

In the evening I face timed my mom and brother and then my dad, brother. We were even able to include my grandma on the call just through a regular phone call while my dad and brother were on face time with me. It is a tradition for her to always come up with fun puzzles and trivia for everyone and we did them over the pone and face time. Although this year the questions were different from previous years. Usually if we were at her house for Christmas everyone would pay attention and count decorations scattered around to try and be prepared for questions like, how many snowmen are in the bathroom or how many saints are in the living room.
This years questions included things like:
What is known as the "stinking rose"?
Who wrote the Star Spangled Banner? Year?
How many stores does Kroger have?

Overall I had a good Christmas and have amazing people in my life.

Black Wednesday

On December 10th the biggest storm in 10 years was said to hit Ireland and was named Black Wednesday. There were 50+ knot winds and 40+ foot waves in parts of Ireland. Iria, Johanna and I decided to do the cliff walk to see how Tullin Strand and Bundoran bay were affected. It was extremely windy which made it hard to walk when we were going against the wind not only because of the force of the wind but occasionally bits of hail and rain would fly into our faces. All of main beach was covered in ocean foam which made it look like it had snowed but it was just spew from the ocean covering the ground and flying around in the air. Tullin was a huge mess of white water across the entire beach and the waves were pushing around huge amounts of sand. It was incredible to see how drastically different the beach could look when mother nature was letting out some frustration.

      

Galway Getaway

About a month into my time in Bundoran it was time for an exciting trip to Galway. Johanna, Iria, Annie and I were all able to get a couple days off work, courses and other obligations to spend some time exploring other parts of Ireland. It was really nice to see Galway during the Christmas season because they have a Christmas market with food, gifts and decorations. The entire town seemed to light up at night with the Christmas spirit. When we went out there was always live music not only in the pubs but along the streets and around almost every corner. We wandered around the town during the day and explored the Christmas market and local pubs in the evening. It was an amazing place and had a lovely time on our Galway Getaway!

An American Thanksgiving Potluck in Bundoran, Ireland

Thanksgiving is easily one of my favorite holidays and regardless of where I am I always celebrate. Last year I celebrated with two Argentinians and a South African in Nepal eating chicken burgers and buff momo on a beautiful sunny day. It was among one of my favorite Thanksgivings mainly because when we went around the circle to say what everyone was thankful for they were the most sincere words I have heard at a Thanksgiving gathering. This year I celebrated with 10 nationalities including Irish, Swedish, Norwegian, German, Welsh, Australian, English, South African, Dutch and of course American. It was a potluck style meal so initially we were skeptical if people would actually contribute and there would be enough food for everyone attending. My contribution was making two turkeys, stuffing and cranberry sauce. I had never made a turkey before and know from previous family thanksgivings that things can easily go wrong when cooking the turkey but I was very attentive while cooking and they actually turned out great! I was more than thrilled and it was rewarding to see everyone enjoying what I had made. We did not go around saying what we were all thankful for because there were so many of us but the positive fun atmosphere was enough to make me happy and really appreciate where I am presently not only in location but in life in general. The majority of people that were at the Thanksgiving dinner were all surfers and there happened to be an asp surfing competition on that evening so after dinner we watched some surfing and relaxed by a fire. It was a great night with amazing people, delicious food, good surf and a cozy fire.

Norway

Oslo
1 night

Since I was running out of time I decided that I would only spend one night in Oslo so I could maximize my time hiking in Bergen. I had arrived when it was already dark so my exploring was restricted to the night. I just wandered around seeing what I could without knowing much about the city and later on continued wandering with Bret who I had met on my last day in Stockholm.

The next morning I woke up early to take the morning train to Bergen. I had heard amazing things about the train ride with websites saying that it is the most beautiful train ride in Europe with amazing landscape and beautiful scenery. Below is a photo from the train ride.
Bergen
3 nights

I was extremely excited to arrive in Bergen because there was meant to be some good hikes and outdoor activities in the area. I had also talked to my friend Stein who was from Norway to get some suggestions of things to do in Norway and told him some of the places that I had been thinking of going and he connected me with two of his really good friends that were living in Bergen and they invited me to dinner the night I arrived. I was supposed to meet them at 6 in Bryggen but ended up completely leaving the city center. First of all my hostel was outside of the city center and I was told to get off at a specific stop in the city center but the bus I took didn't stop where I was told and ended up completely leaving the center. I managed to get a bus going back and somehow found Aslak and Erlend. We went back to Aslak's apartment which was just behind Bryggen street where Mia his girlfriend was cooking an amazing meal. While traveling a home cooked meal is always greatly appreciated and the mushroom pie, salad and bread that Mia had made were exceptional! After a lovely evening I made my way back to my hostel where I got a good night sleep to prepare for my long day of hiking that awaited me the following day. However, when I awoke the next day the weather had turned and was extremely windy, rainy and cold. I decided to wait a bit for the wind to die down or the rain to slow down a bit but as the day continued the wind and rain persisted. I decided I would start my hike and see how I felt as I went along. My initial plan was to hike up to Ulriken and then across to Floyen which would have taken me all day but when I reached the top of Ulriken clouds began surrounding me and there was very little of a view to see and the rain and wind picked up even more so I decided it was best to head back down since all of my clothes were already drenched and I was very cold and tired at that point. Unfortunately the following day also had poor weathers so I only walked around the town a for a little bit instead of more hiking and even that was a challenge because of the cold and rain. Overall I did enjoy my time there but would love to go back in the summer when there is better weather and do a lot more hiking in Bergen and other areas of Norway that look astonishing from pictures.

Sweden

Stockholm
3 nights

I got a lot of walking in while I was in Stockholm. The archipelago has fourteen islands and I was able to explore a good number of them. I stumbled upon castles, parks, sculptures and museums. I also did two free walking tours that explored the new town and the old town. The new town wasn't that exciting because it was just like any other city with buildings, shops and restaurants. However, the old town was much more interesting with its narrow cobblestone pathways, palaces, old buildings and viking history.

After several days of exploring I was off to Gothenburg for a night then onto Norway.

Gothenburg
2 nights

Initially Gothenburg was meant to be a quick one night stop on my way to Oslo, Norway. However, it was one of those places when I arrived that I knew I had to say longer. When I arrived at the hostel I met some great people staying there and right away felt comfortable. The evening I arrived I went to an English Pub with an American guy staying at the hostel and ended up meeting a bunch of locals and having a great night out.

The next morning despite my raging hangover I put on warm clothes and ventured out to Slottsskogen Park which I was told had a baby moose also known as a calf but not to be confused with a baby cow. It was a cold but beautiful day and my curiosity was excited and overwhelmed by how immense the park was and how many things there were to see and directions to go. Every direction I looked there was a path that was calling my name to explore it more. The problem was there were so many paths and I wanted to go on all of them I had a hard time choosing what path to take and on top of it my main mission was to find the new calf that was in the park. After wandering around exploring as many paths as I could for about an hour I found all of the animals. It was a very unique place because it was like a public zoo within a park. Anyone walking around the park could see the seals, moose, sheep, birds and other animals that called Slottsskogen their home. I was lucky because when I was walking around the seals were very active and their curiosity brought them to the edge of the pool and swim around where I was standing. I then found the Moose enclosure and was there when they got fead. I was having such an amazing time walking around and finding all sorts of random unexpected things that my hangover seemed to disappear until I returned to the hostel in the evening. All of the guys staying in the hostel were planning on going to a reggae club that evening which sounded great but I decided to stay in because I had to get up early the next morning to catch a bus so I could actually spend a couple days in Norway.