Becoming a Morning Person

That's right...I'm trying.

For the past two weeks I've been forcing myself to get out of bed at around 7:15am. For me that is decently early considering I don't have to be at work until 9am. I've been making time to eat breakfast EVERY morning and I can already feel a difference in my energy level...it is kinda amazing. I am completely obsessed with Trader Joe's Steel Cut Oats. They are SO EASY to make and are quite healthy and super delicious. They come in a box of two frozen oatmeal balls...which sounds a little gross but I promise it is awesome. You just plop the ball in the microwave for two minutes, stir, and then zap for one more minute. And even better??? During those three minutes I can find time to unload/load the dishwasher or feed the cats. It is kinda of amazing how awesome breakfast can be.  Oh and each box is just under $2...so that means I get a nice yummy breakfast for $1. Score.

Go buy me NOW.

So WHY am I slowly transforming myself into a morning person? Mostly because I felt like I was wasting away my days by sleeping in. For some reason it just makes me feel so guilty that I didn't use my day better... and then it ends up affecting me for the whole rest of the day. That guilt just makes motivation to do other things hard to come by. So I finally got with the program and decided to FORCE myself to wake up early in the AM. I started off small by just setting my alarm 15 minutes earlier than normal. I also played little tricks on myself like putting my glasses on top of my phone (alarm) so that I have to pick up the glasses before I can turn off the alarm. Once I am capable of seeing in the morning, I am usually pretty good at feeling awake. I've also been sitting up straight when the alarm goes off and forcing myself to keep my eyes open. Gosh I sound like some type of lazy bum...all the more reason to get my butt in gear. 

I've also discovered that if my house is untidy (especially our bedroom) it makes getting out of bed harder in the mornings. Clutter seems to negatively affect my mood so I've been trying to keep things as neat as possible so the first thing I see in the morning when I get up is a nice, fresh and clean room. Same goes for the bathroom. 

And in other awesome news, I went to an 8AM yoga class on SATURDAY. Go me!! It was my first yoga class ever and it seriously kicked my butt. I was sore for about 2 days afterwards. I was nervous to give it a whirl so I did a lot of Googling about what to expect and things turned out nicely. I've even put some yoga videos on our Netflix instant que on Wii to do at home. So far, so good. 

It is now my personal goal to NEVER sleep past 930am...meaning no crazy late morning awakenings on the weekends. We'll see... this girl really loves her beauty sleep! Hopefully the benefits of becoming a morning person will far out weigh the super coziness of my bed. 

And then there were...

100!!!!!

YES!!! This is my 100th glorious post over here at Carrie On and I'm excited to have obtained this magical moment on the very day that Brian and I closed on our cute little house 1 year ago!! We've officially been home owners for 1 entire year. And so far, only the boiler, the bathroom sink, and the fridge have broken. Let's hope there are fewer maintenance issues in year two ;)

Closing day 2009.

Celebrating amidst the boxes.

I don't really have anything special to write about today in honor of my 100th post. Life has continued as usual for us around these parts, so that's as good a reason to write as any. Deuce had a minor encounter with the emergency vet clinic last week (he had crystals in his wee wee and had to have emergency surgery to remove them) but he is doing much better now. He's been sporting a pretty sweet cone and has actually managed to keep it on for an entire week. He's one tough cookie. However, if this whole crystal-in-the-wee-wee thing happens again, they will actually remove his manly parts and give him some sort of prosthetic. Yikes to that on SO MANY levels...

Totally drugged out and rocking the kitty catheter.

A slightly more dignified smaller cone.

So anyways, here's to 100 more posts...and hundreds more beyond that! Time to celebrate...

Boatin' to Bergen

*Quick disclaimer - I'm getting into some detail about our trip to Scandinavia this summer, but I am not listing dates/times/etc of when we will be there :) Sorry - don't want to give away too much about my personal life!

The next stop on our whirlwind adventure will be Bergen, Norway. Never heard of it? Neither had I until T-Friend mentioned that she had read about it in a guidebook. I was pretty much just researching major cities (think Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, etc.) and not really thinking about what else might exist beyond the major transportation hubs. Planning a trip with someone else is great - without Tessa's input I would have never even considered heading to Bergen.

Beautiful Bergen.

But I digress.

So in our hunt for our most affordable options, it became obvious that boating it around was actually a great bang for our bucks (kroners in this case). Not only does a ferry/cruise/boat get us from point A to point B, it also provides a place to stay for a night. We really get to kill two birds with one stone by doing the overnight thing - we get where we want to go, and we get to sleep while doing it. No wasted travel day on this leg of the trip!

Kinda like a pseudo cruise. 

After our jaunt in Copenhagen we will make our way entirely across Denmark to Hirshals, where the ferry departs. We may make a pit stop on our way to Hirtshals and spend a night in some other cute little Danish town. The entire journey from Copenhagen to Hirtshals will take about 5.5 hours.  We will be doing this during the day, so it will be nice to take in the scenery of the entire country. 

Upon arrival in Hirtshals, we will board a ferry bound for Bergen. Passengers on the ferry can opt to make the journey in airplane-like seats, or rent a small cabin. We are opting for the latter option so we are refreshed and ready to explore Norway on our arrival. The boat itself is pretty basic, but it does offer a nice dinner buffet with fabulous views of the passing fjords. The last leg of the trip will take us through some pretty spectacular scenery as the sun begins to rise (it doesn't set till SUPER late...think 11pm). Overall ferry travel is a pretty awesome deal - travel, accommodations, AND view of the fjords. 

Our home in Bergen will be Marken Gjetehus (MG), another highly recommended hostel. After doing a bit of price comparison, we managed to get a private room at MG for only about $13US more per night than the 6 bed dorm room. Because Bergen isn't a huge place, the accommodation prices are a lot more reasonable than many places in Norway. We are paying about $45 per person per night. It is possible to stay in a large dorm for about $25-30, so this isn't too bad for our own space!

A typical room at MG...again, small but perfect for our needs.

Bergen itself is a quaint little town, and we should have plenty of time to explore it in our short stay there. We are using the town as the jumping off point for our fabulous "Norway in a Nutshell" tour. More on that next time...

And stay tuned for posts about:

- Hostelling

- Eurail passes

- Dining in a foreign country

- Lessons I learned on my Euro2007 trip

Taking a Look...

I've decided that since I am completely immersing myself in this Scandinavian adventure, I should share some of my planning ideas with you. And it will be nice to look back years from now and see how this trip came to be.


Before I start, let me preface this by saying that we (Tessa & myself) are doing this trip on a super tight budget, so we have been researching our butts off to find the best deals. There are probably a million ways to plan a trip, and this is simply what we've decided to do. Also, we have planned our itinerary based on the idea that we want to make this trip into one giant adventure. Sure we'll do some of the typical tourist stuff, but we will also be traveling off the beaten path to try and get a more complete sense of the countries we are visiting. We had originally planned to do a Western Europe tour (Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Munich, Belgium, Netherlands) but for some reason Scandinavia kept calling our names. Maybe it is the fact that we would probably NEVER get a chance to go back to Scandinavia (it's a lot more realistic to visit other European countries like France and Germany again in the future) or maybe we are just trying to avoid the summer tourist scene as much as possible, but either way, Scandinavia sounds like an amazing place. Sunlight till midnight, YES PLEASE!


So without further adieu, let's talk about Copenhagen...the first stop on this Epic Adventure.

Flying into Copenhagen was the cheapest option for me from the US, so it was a logical first stop. Finding a decently priced flight to anywhere in Europe was a lot of work, but thankfully KLM/Delta has some great deals. Also, interesting fact, it was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper for me to fly into one city (Copenhagen) and fly out of another (Amsterdam) at the end of the trip. I was so surprised when I started doing searches with this criteria. AND it actually worked out to be cheaper for me to fly out of Richmond than from other major airports in the area. So, I won't have to leave my car for a few weeks and face a massive parking bill when I return. Double score. Finally, I used sites like kayak.com and expedia.com to make my general searches easier, but I ended up booking directly through the Delta site. The price was just as cheap (or expensive, depending on how you look at it). Oh and don't even bother calling customer service to book a flight. The best the lady could do was practically DOUBLE what I found online. Sooooo not worth the 30 minute annoying conversation I had with her.

Anyshnitzel...Copenhagen. I arrive about 6 hours before Tessa, so I will be jetlagged and wandering around by myself. But I'll be in freaking Denmark so I'll get over it. The hostel said I can check in a few hours early, but it is still 3 hours after I arrive on the plane. Based on my past European travel experiences (also done on an insanely tight budget...and yet still epic), it will probably take me a while to get from the airport to the train station to the city, so hopefully I won't have too much time to kill before I check into the hostel and Tessa arrives.

2007 - Arriving in Chartres, France...notice my authentic backpackers pack in the background (I told you I was hardcore). And notice the decently nice room...NOT a hostel...more like a Motel 6. Yeah, their standards are slightly higher than ours.

In Copenhagen we will be staying in the Copenhagen Downtown Hostel. We will have our own room but will be sharing a bathroom with other people on the hall. That may sound weird to some people, but I promise you it is NO big deal at all. Most people are in hostels because they are traveling around to see new places, not because they expect a relaxing, luxurious vacation. Those people stay in hotels. Hostels are actually nice places (if you do a bit of research and find the good ones), although EVERY hostel will get good and bad reviews alike. In my 2007 trip, I didn't stay in a place I didn't like, even though I had read a few negative reviews about each of them. Seriously, you just have to go in with the right expectations and you'll be fine. Remember - a hostel is a place to sleep after a long day of exploring!!

Here is an image of what our room should look like. Small but clean, cozy, and perfect for sleeping. 

This room is about $50 a person per night...so on the more expensive end of the hostel spectrum. We decided to go for a double room (versus staying in a dorm with other random people) since it is the first leg of our trip. I want to be able to take a quick power nap in the room before Tessa arrives and I don't really have that luxury in a dorm. Resting up will be super important to get over any jetlag so we can go full speed ahead for the rest of our stay in Copenhagen!

Other exciting plans for Copenhagen include a VIKING FESTIVAL, a trip to the Carlsberg Brewery, and a night visit to Tivoli (an amusement park/place of awesome and culture). We've got several nights in the city so we'll have plenty of time to squeeze in other events of awesomeness. 

We'll eat some traditional Danish food

Go on a canal tour or just walk around the wharf

And see the REAL Little Mermaid. 

In somewhat related news, I'm thinking about investing in a FlipCam so I can take some short videos while on our trip. I think it will be nice to recap everything here with some video action added in :)

Next up, Bergen, Norway - stop #2!