blast from the past.

NOTE * i have been debating about actually posting this since

it's way beyond old news but i feel like i cheated myself out of

documenting all of my european adventures. so this is months

past due and out of order but it is the last leg of my summer

adventure. do realize that i started this post about two days 

after saying i wasn't going to finish the rest.*

this is a highlights update instead of a day by day. basically the

reason for this is because i can't really remember the order of
my trip and which days i was where so the last two
weeks that i was gone will be one giant post with maybe a few
pictures - that is if in the end i feel like putting in the extra effort.
uploading pictures is a chore.

so here it goes...
the next day we were in flaam, norway. we went on a tour called
mountains and waterfalls. now i am sure that you'll get sick of
hearing this by the end of my post, but norway is one of the
most beautiful places i have ever seen in my life. the mountains
there are HUGE. so huge, in fact, that the roads have to go
through the mountains rather than around them. i was absolutely
horrified to go through the tunnels, i mean one was 7 miles long!!! and
for hell-sake you are at the very bottom what happens if there
is an earthquake? that's right a giant mountain falls on my head
and squishes my brain out my ears. not pleasant, i know. i had 7
long  miles to sit and imagine this happening over and over again.
my heart raced the entire time we were going through the tunnels.
once i saw light, meaning i peeked open my tightly shut eyes to see
if the end was near, i almost peed i was so happy. we ended up at
this amazing waterfall.

it was huge, it was beautiful, i wanted to take
it home and put it in my backyard. after the waterfall we went on
another drive to a hotel for, you'll never guess, coffee and cakes.
it had an amazing view from out back. check it.

after not too long a stay we had to head back to the ship, meaning i
had sit on the bus going through those awful tunnels again. we were all safe
from a terrible and gruesome death, i will never go in those tunnels again.

alesund, norway

the next day we were in a tiny town in norway called olden.
i went on a lovely little hike to a glacier. awesome, right? i took
off in the morning on a drive, where i swear every 2 minutes you would
see a waterfall and then another waterfall. once the bus reached the base of the mountain
that i would be hiking i was practically jumping out of my shoes to be
doing something so active. i took off without a hesitation once the
doors of the bus were open. after about 10 minutes of hiking you come
this

one of the coolest waterfalls i will probably ever see in my life.

i ran into some goats that i was completely fascinated with.
at this point in the trip i was missing my puppy terribly. so anything
furry and alive was going to be my friend.

after about another 20 minutes (my sense of time was completely
off so it may have only been 10 minutes rather than 20) of hiking
i reached the view of the glacier. If you know me at all I'm the sort of
person that wants to get right up next to things that I think are cool.
So I ignored the two fences and signs advising against getting closer to
the glacier and hiked right up to it.

I touched a glacier!
It was so neat!

I started getting a little nervous when ice chunks started started rolling
down the glacier. You could actually hear cracking, it was quite thrilling.
i then decided it was time to head back down to the base.

(a few shots of the awesome waterfall with some more sun)

It took me all of 25 minutes, maybe. But of course that left plenty of time
for coffee and cakes. This place had the most delicious Caramel dessert
on the planet. I ate so much of it. NOTE: By this time it was about
12 and you still couldn't see the sun, that's how high the mountains are!
it's so strange that everything appears to be in day light but you cannot

visibly see the sun. i would love to experience the daylit nights of summer.

Once we got back to the ship the sun was blazing so after lunch i
laid out and drank fruity drinks; perfect way to spend an afternoon.

The next day we were cruising the geiranger fjord. All the waterfalls
and mountains left me speechless. I sat outside on the freezing cold deck
taking a million pictures.

The next day was our last stop in Norway. i went to a piano recital

with Dona and el in the am. Which the entire getting off the ship part

was a joke. VISUALIZE a stair case of 33 steps and getting a wheelchair

down safely. it only took 4 huge crew members to get dona and her

chair down. Afterwards we went back to the ship and then
 I headed out to find a Macdonalds. i spent 30 bucks on three

hamburgers, some fries and a mcflurry. So over priced! and still tasted shitty. then i went
up this awesome vertical inclined tram to mount floyen, I guess it's a famous lookout area.
You can see why.

(the cruise ship on the right was our home for the month)

i hiked around the trails near the surrounding area which was super fun.

after getting back to the ship it was time for dinner. i ate with
dona and elbert then put them to bed. that night they were having a sail
away party out on the deck i decided to check it out. at first i
just sat there laughing at everyone and their dancing skills. some people
have the craziest dance moves and when you add age, funny clothes
and excessive amounts of alcohol you are in for a show. i was just an
observer in the beginning, with my one of my favorite ladies and her husband.
after having a few drinks with her i asked why she wasn't dancing.
apparently her husband refuses to dance with her. since i absolutely love
dancing i took her to the floor and we started dancing the night away.
after a few dances we went back up to her husband to take a break.
slow dancing isn't really my forte. while the slow tunes were playing
i was trying to convience my dear lady friend's husband to dance.
he finally caved and took my waist and started to dance with me. everything
was going wonderful, i was actually waltzing. he then tripped on a loung chair
and refused to dance at all.
once the deck party was over i decided to head down to the club for
some more fun. i didn't stay long but i did try this drink that tasted just
like liquid chocolate cake (strangest thing EVER.)

the next stop we made was to the shetland islands, which is a part of scotland. 
we went on a tour to the northern parts of the island. this is where we saw 
some of the most beautiful coastal areas.

we also went to a shetland pony farm. i got to pet a pony it was wicked awesome.

 after the tour i roamed around the tiny
city a bit but i was unable to find anything worth buying. 
 
on our next outing, i think it was in the invergorden, scotland. we all went on a private
tour. we went to lochness, where we actually saw the lochness monster.

we also went to a castle. we weren't able to really tour it because back in the day

wheelchair accessibility wasn't a priority, go figure. there were some beautiful

gardens surrounding the castle that we were able to roam around.

pictures from orkney, scotland.

the last stop we made was in leith, scotland. lieth is so close to edinburgh that it is pretty

much combined. we went to the castle of edinburgh which was neat.

(the huge castle on the left is the castle of edinburgh)

 the drive up to it was insane. there was a huge arts festival going on,

there were a million tourist, plus a million there for the book festival.

 there were so many people in the streets, it was insane! the amount of people reminded me

of being in russia. people were everywhere.

i don't think there were as many people in scotland as

there were in russia; but scotland had the second highest amount of people congestion

i have ever seen. after the tour we headed back to the ship where

we had an early dinner and headed back up to the castle for the military tattoo.

which is where bag pipers from around the world come and put on a little show.

it was pretty cool little shindig.

we headed back up to the boat where the next day was filled with packing and

not much else. that night we had to put all the luggage out and get ready to

go home.

 

the flight home wasn't nearly as ridiculous as the flight to denmark but it was

still quite stressful and long!! we landed back in salt lake sunday night around

1130pm. i was so tired and just wanted to be in my bed. we took el and dona

back to legacy. i was reunited with an

ugly puppy (my mom had his hair cut while i was away) but i still loved him.

i finally was able to fall asleep at about 2am and woke up for work the next morning.

 

well that's everything.