What Are Men To Rocks And Mountains?

Friends. Norway was incredible.  One of my favorite thingsthat I've done since coming to Europe for sure. After the mishap of missing my bus in Paris I was very careful to make sure that everything went well in Norway-and it did! I got into Oslo late but ended up taking a taxi to my hostel so I was safe. I got up very early in the morning to catch the Oslo-Bergen train. I traveled to Flam, gave candy to strangers, explored the Fjords, hitched a ride with some french dudes, slept in a cabin, got lost in Oslo and enjoyed some fantastically picturesque fall leaves. The best and most succinct way to describe that last weekend in October is through pictures. So humour me as I share with you only about 100 of my favourites! 

Waiting at the tram stop early in the morning-I was NOT going to sleep in again.

Unintended Consequence:
I got to the train station so early That I had to wait for awhile in the cold.

This is what long-suffering Norwegians look like.
On a Train.

After falling asleep and then waking up in a panic, fearing that I had missed
something, I got to work exploiting the picturesque countryside with my
sub-par photography skills

Misty Mountain 

Sorry. I know it's Practically the same picture but ...
But look at it! 

There was so much varied landscape along the journey 

snow!

So rustic!

I really like red things.

Just in case you were wondering what it looks like to geek out on a train by yourself in Norway.

I did not go all the way to Bergen but Instead got off to switch to the Flam railway, famous for being one of
the most beautiful rail journeys in the world

Look at how cute the train is! It's green!

So many waterfalls in this area

We got to get off the train to take pictures.
Quite considerate, those Norwegians.

View along the railway 

Approaching the small town of Flam

When I got to Flam I hung out looking at souvenirs for
a little while before embarking on my epic FJORD SAFARI. Since
it had been raining a lot of the day They suited us up HARD core.
Oh also, I should mention it was Halloween and I carried candy with me and offered it to some people
while waiting for my boat. The Americans thought it was cool. The Europeans
were like "......?"

Fjord!

People LIVE there!

And here!

In the shadow of this epic camel-hump mountain!

See That adorable old church on the left?

Can you spot the buildings up there? That's a bed and breakfast.
A BED AND BREAKFAST
AT THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN
ABOVE A LARGE BODY OF WATER
SURROUNDED BY WATER FALLS
WITH A ZIP LINE TO GET YOUR STUFF UP

The glory.

#Neature

The rain turned out to be a blessing because it made ​​the waterfalls
more magnifique! (Oh, and it was not raining for our actual boat
ride-which was perfect!)

It really was a safari! We got so close! 

Not sure where it was but I'm just going to mention here that we saw a seal along the shore.
A SEAL.
IN THE MOUNTAINS.

This may be the little village where only ONE man currently lives.
Apparently he is a curmudgen. 

As we set off from the harbor I was pretty in love with my life

There May be an L on my forehead...  

Bu I was NOT feeling like a loser

I'm sorry but just look at my eyes.
They are GLOWING.
It's like I discovered Christmas

Our fantastic Danish guide.
Clearly he LOVED his job and was just as excited about being there as we were.

Plug for a great company. Worth the extra bucks.

It was very cold out on the water. 

Which made it an adventure! 

So picturesque 

Experimenting with the filter on my phone. 

By the time we got back to shore it was dark.
I knew that my hostel was somewhere "not far" in the countryside but
was a bit nervous about finding it. Luckily the three nice French guys from the Fjord
tour (the only other ones on it) gave me a ride to the hostel.
It turned out to just be a series or cabins! This little room was mine. 
I cranked up the heating and had a great night's sleep

The buildings. 
And When you think about it, staying in a remote cabin with strangers 
in the middle of nowhere is a pretty appropriate way to spend
Halloween. 

View from the grounds

I walked from the cabin to town early in the morning

It's pretty remote! 

Those buildings in the back are my hostel. SO REMOTE.

I was in love with the fall leaves.

And obessed about them a bit.

River 

and this orange

these quaint houses

and the most epic playground in the world!
You better believe I took a swing on that swing set.

Incroyable

I'm making a collection-which I call "Jenny eating junk food in picturesque places"
It's a working title. 

Apparently this is what the locals look like

Hey, thanks for the validation Norwegian train station! 

Getting ready to head back the way I came

It was not rainy the next day which was nice

I made friends with our conductor

He did not speak much English but I'm pretty sure he is one of the nicest people on earth
Had a Mr. Rogers sort of feel to him.

He took this picture for me!
Looks like I Should Be in Bollywood, huh?

I was lucky enough to get to Oslo with enough time to explore for a few hours!
I got lost and ended up at this cool fortress thing. 

There were incredible views of the harbor from this area

Autumn in Oslo

LEAVES!

More Leaves!

Oslo Cathedral

Add I saw in a shop window.
Norwegians really know whats up.

The fortress again. Clearly these aren't quite in order.

Selfie by my selfie

The leaves were just out of this world

A Norwegian Beefeater!
Didn't know that was a thing.

Trying to be artsy

Harbour

Cute red door.

It looks like when Frodo sails off at the end of Lord of the Rings

Magical

I even had time to go to the Nobel Peace Center!

And since I Mentioned that I interned at OPCW they welcomed me into the museum for FREE
as a past winner! 

OPCW won the nobel peace prize in 2013

I failed at taking a picture with the OPCW plaque

But the room dedicated to the past winners was pretty awesome

At the gift shop I did a pretty random thing and bought myself a geo-puzzle.
Here's how it looked put together back in the Hague.

So that was Norway! There is so much more I could say but for some reason blogger knows that I'm in the Netherlands and keeps trying to correct my English into Dutch (so go easy on me if there are weird typos in the last few posts). I will leave it here with the declaration that Norway is AWESOME and everyone should consider going there.

Really puts things into perspective: what are men to rocks and mountains, indeed.

Anticipation has a habit to set you up...

Well, here I am finally writing in here about the third weekend of October 2015. This was a crazy one.  Simultaneously the best of times and the worst of times. 

So, as some people may have seen on Facebook, there was a time on this trip (saturday morning to be exact) when I felt like this....

Cain in torment after killing his brother Abel.

Why did I feel such epic sorrow you may ask? Well, I had bought a 160 euro ticket for a beautiful tour of the Loire and I missed the bus. It was really upsetting. Like, the only reason I had decided to come to Paris was so that I could do that tour. I had a 3 day weekend from work and I was determined to make the most of it. My plans had ranged from going to Italy to going to Denmark to going to France when some friends suggested the Loire. They got all flakey so I thought, if you want to do something, just do it yourself! 

So I looked up tickets and tours of the Loire and I found one that looked absolutely fantastic. It was expensive but I decided to splurge on an experience. I bought the ticket and was so looking forward to it. Before I left for Paris I made myself directions from google maps of exactly how to get to the meeting point. I got to Paris on Friday morning and on Friday night I went to bed early and set several alarms so that I would be sure to be at my bus in time for our early departure at 7:15 am.

I wish that I could say that I saved a lost child in the metro and that's why I was late for my tour. But in actuality... my alarm went off and I hit snooze thinking that there would be another one in a few minutes. In actuality, after I hit snooze, I woke up at 7:18 and felt the horror. 

I jumped out of bed, got ready as quick as possible (didn't even put contacts in) and rushed out the door to the metro. I knew I wouldn't get there in time but I thought maybe I could change tours or something. 

I found the tour centre-exactly where my trusty instructions had told me it would be and hurried in and plead my case. To my everlasting sorrow they were so dang french about it. They told me I was an hour late and there was nothing I could do. They gave me the email for customer service and I was like, "Do you think there's any chance?" And they were basically like "NO." Then I was like "sniffle, sniffle...Is there a McDonald's nearby? I need wifi."

So they directed me to the nearby McDonalds and I left in shame. I just couldn't believe it. I actually teared up walking down the street. It was for such a stupid reason too. I kept reliving it in my brain. Luckily, I wasn't totally alone. When I got to McDonalds and got my chocolate croissant-y thing (yeah, that's sold at MacDo's in Paris) I found that my friend Sameer was online. I showed him how miserable I was:

Live from McDonalds early saturday morning

and he helped me feel better. We discussed the facts that it was just money and that no one had died. He encouraged me to go do something fun and cheap instead and consider it a sunk cost. So I stuck my chin out and did some research. My top choices upon consulting my iPhone were either Provinse, an old medeval village outside Paris or the Chateau Fontainbleu-also outside Paris. Sameer was like, "chateau!" so that's what I did.

On the way I stopped to look at the garden outside the Louvre right by my metro stop. It was beautiful and also gave shape to my distress when I saw this all too real depiction: 

Once again. Just to re-re-emphasize how much remorse I felt.

But then this view kind of reminds you that really....life isn't too bad.

People were going on morning jogs here! Very cool.

So I made my way to the train station and with the help of a nice officer, bought my ticket and boarded my train. It took like an hour and a half to get to the stop and then I took a bus to the chateau. Oh my goodness it was so beautiful. I stopped and got a meal and ate it in the chateau garden and it was just like..."if this is plan B, my life is pretty dang good." 

The Chateau Fountainbleu is a lot like Versailles but with a lot less tourists- kind of the hipster version! Because I have a card to work in the EU and I'm under 25, I was able to take the tour for free! There is a lot of history there, especially with Napoleon which was a big bonus. Cause Napoleon was pretty cool. 

Cookie Chateau Selfie

No crowds!

The people who took this picture were like, "you sure you don't want another one?"
Now I see why. Im standing so awkward! 

Guys, this is OCTOBER. Incroyable. 

There's a cool staircase in the back but you can't really see it

Now you can! It's called the horseshoe staircase or something

Top of the staircase

My Secret Garden. 

The coat. The hat. The legend.

I was obsessed with the fall colours.

Obsessed!

The chateau had a great 3 euro audio guide AND a Napoleon exhibit. So worth it. After that I walked around town a little bit and enjoyed the charm. Got a macaron and a chocolate from a sweets place that were delicious. Eventually I had walked too far to turn back but I didn't know the appropriate time to catch the bus. I decided to just walk back to the train station. 

The downside of this was that it was a long way. The upside was that I proved to myself that after about a decade of french lessons, I do, in fact, know how to ask for directions in French. Another perk was that I saw a man walking along by himself in a Ramones t-shirt carrying just a baguette. So French!

As I had been walking around the town I had seen signs for the little medieval town I had been interested in so I figured it was close by. I did a little research and decided to go there! I took the train to the appropriate stop and then waited for the bus. It was starting to get late though and the bus was really late. I didn't want to get stuck outside Paris. So I thought, maybe I shouldn't be so greedy. I also knew that all the museums would be closed in Paris so I decided to just get dinner in that little town and then head back. I had a bit of a misadventure taking the bus into town and trying to find somewhere to eat. The first place I went to, I sat down and it turns out they only had drinks! I was too embarrassed to leave so I got hot chocolate. Then I went next door and got a sandwich which I ate outside by the fountain. Weirdly, people seemed to like my American accent in French. Everyone was quite nice to me.

More cookie selfies.

The bus finally came and it was the one I was originally supposed to be on. It took me like an HOUR into the countryside to Provins, the town I originally wanted to be in. I was like, oh the irony. Because by then it was too dark to see anything. I think I saw the outline of a fortress on the hill. So I just got off the bus at the train station in Provins, thinking that one train station was as good as another. But then I missed the train. I was misinformed about which side it would be leaving from. I wasn't the only one. I ended up bonding with this other American girl there. Eventually we were the only ones left in the station and it was like 11 pm. We had one more chance to get the right train. 

As we started talking it turned out that she WENT TO THE SAME ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AS ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS AT BYU! I was like ...whhhhaaaaatttt? She was really nice and I invited her to come stay with me in Den Haag if she ever wants to. I'm hoping that for some reason I needed to meet her and that's why I missed my tour! 

Me and my new friend when we finally made it onto the train.

Well, anyway, that was Saturday. To back track, Friday was really good. I got into town too early in the morning for anyone to be awake which was kind of awkward but it all worked out (the perks of taking super cheap buses). I met up with my friend and fellow intern from OPCW who was visiting her family in Paris for the weekend and I had a great time eating crepes, looking at Napoleon's tomb, seeing museums and going to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe! She was a great and very patient tour guide for me.

Outside the Hotel Des Invalides

Yes, I was a total tourist and took a picture with my savoury crepe

Imitating the thinker at the Musee Rodin 

Me and Miriam
(and The Thinker)

It's a statue of Eve leaving the garden ashamed.
I took a solidarity picture with her because I think Eve is pretty cool and shouldn't be ashamed. 

There were a LOT of weeping angels in Paris in general and at the Rodin Museum in particular.
It was hard not to blink.

Michael Jackson

Napoleon's tomb

Eiffel Tower

So excited about the Eiffel Tower that I'm falling down

Miriam doesn't like taking pictures as much as I do but she was a great sport

Market in the evening

INCREDIBLE Dessert crepe

Oh, Champs Elysee! (da da da do do) 

On Sunday I went to a museum with my cousin who was nice enough to let me stay with her all weekend. 

Outside Le Petit Palais 

So yeah. That was my awful for a second but mostly wonderful weekend in Paris! Am I the luckiest girl or what? Also if you want to know what I'm referencing with that title check out this classic from the Arctic Monkeys. So appropriate for so many circumstances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK7UU097W_w