Home again

After a long day getting home (the first leg from Oslo to Philly was on time, but the flight from Philly to SFO was delayed), I'm back home, unpacking, and looking through the 900+ photos I took. There is so much that I witnessed and experienced in Scandinavia over the last 2 weeks that I know I won't remember and 10 times as much that I will. But I'd go back to Scandinavia tomorrow (on another airline though). :-)

It was an amazing experience and I met a lot of new people. Many I hope to stay in contact with and/or visit in their native countries. Some are coming to the US and even California in the near future whom I'm looking forward to seeing and showing them around my area. While it's so nice to see my family, friends, and sleep in my own bed, I miss my new friends but thanks to the digital age, I can stay in constant communication with them.

There is so much in the world to see and I look forward to continuing my travels.

But here are some odd bits of things I noticed over there... There are others scattered throughout all of my posts and some of these are obvious duplicates. I know I'll keep thinking of more so I'll add as they come up.

- Donald Duck is VERY popular in Norway. They sell his comics, his likeness is all over and they even show old Donald Duck cartoons.

- Starbucks has NOT conquered Scandinavia but their coffee isn't very good. It's very watered down.

- McDonald's and 7/11 HAVE conquered Scandinavia. McDonald's is not a surprise, but I was surprised to see so many 7/11s.

- There were TGIFs (Thank God It's Friday) restaurants in every city we visited. Same with The Hard Rock Cafe.

- Norway has a population of 4.5 million people so there are a lot of jobs and they pay well. Because of this we encountered a lot of people from Sweden working in Norway.

- Norwegians are BLONDE BLONDE BLONDE. But some are fair skinned and some are tan.

- Swedish are the best looking, followed by Norwegian, followed by Danish. But the Danish are the tallest.

- Their food is ehhhh. Swedish meatballs weren't bad, but I didn't taste anything else that really stood out.

- Pickled herring is salty and fishy.

- They LOVE salty licorice and it's horrible.

- Ice cream is a meal.

- So is beer.

- Their dark chocolate is better than their milk chocolate.

- Scandinavia's transit system is phenominal.

- So is their tap water.

- It ain't cheap.

- If you've got a long walk ahead of you. Play "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon".

- If you've got a long ride ahead of you. Play "Scrabble" on the iPhone.

- In Copenhagen, 1 bike bell "ching" means "Look out! I'm coming!".

- 2 bike bell "chings" means "GET THE F OUT OF THE WAY!!!"

- 3 or more bike bell "chings" means "I warned you. You're SOL. Rest in peace."

- Stockholm and Copenhagen ride bikes as a primary mode of transportation. Oslo, not so much.

- Don't fly US Airways

- They love Britney Spears

- You can get pizza or a calzone in EVERY restaurant.