Trip to Sweden summer 2016

Earlier this summer me, my parents and my brother went on a trip to Sweden. The first day we drove from Bergen, over the mountains and arrived in Oslo in the evening. Me and my dad switched on who was driving. We also had a couple of short breaks on the way, and i slept a bit when i wasn't driving, or just looked outside the window on the pretty nature =D Me and my brother were a bit sad that no one in the car had a phone that could play Pokemon Go.

Somewhere on the mountains

I wanted to reach Oslo before Loving Hut closed, and luckily we reached it less than an hour before they were closing. We first checked into the hotel, then we went to Loving Hut St. Hanshaugen. I ordered a kebab wrap and a spicy burger, while they others ordered chic burger and falafel wrap. The kebab wrap was amazing and i totally recommend trying that one if you ever go there!!! The burger was more ordinary i though, but of course yummy that one as well.

Kebab wrap!! <3

Spicy burger

After eating we went on a trip in Vigelandsparken, where they have lots of statues of humans. It was a nice and large park =D After a while we went back to the hotel to watch the final football match in the European cup; Portugal vs France. It was a kinda boring match, and lasted for too long i thought, especially because i was tired and wanted to sleep xD I preferred the Iceland vs France match that i watched on a big screen in town earlier in the championship =p

The next day started with a breakfast at the hotel. They had some vegan food; bread with jam, fruit cocktail, and juice. After eating we checked out of the hotel, and went on a little trip to the beach next to the hotel. It was really nice there =D

Then we explored Oslo. We saw the opera house, and the castle and the shopping streets. It's a nice town =D

The weather was nice too until we were leaving. Then it started raining heavily. So then we headed to Sweden. We stopped at the Nordby shopping center close to the border. There we ate burgers at Max burger. They have a vegan barbecue sandwich burger there made with pulled oumph that i ate =D Very yummy and a bit spicy xD

After eating we checked out some of the shops there =p They have really a lot of cool stuff, and the prices are quite lower than in Norway! We bought some candy in a huuuuge candy shop, plus some Fanta types they don't have in Norway (pineapple and mango, none of them were awesome xD) and some juices. Then we drove to Göteborg where we would be staying.

The hotel in Göteborg we stayed at was Gothia Towers. It consists of 3 towers, and it's located right across the road of the theme park Liseberg =D Me and my brother got a room with view of Liseberg =D Our room also had two double beds, which was awesome! =D My parents room was more boring with one double bed and no cool view.

The three towers

My bed closest to the window =D

Liseberg!!!

After chilling for a bit we went outside, walking around in Göteborg. I ordered a red hot chorizo hot dog from Jonsborgs grill where they had a lot of different vegan options =D This hot dog was super yummy =D I'm a bit jealous on the Göteborg people who can just go and get a vegan hot dog whenever they want to =p After strolling around for a bit more we went back to the hotel to sleep.

Yummy!! =D

The next day i woke up early and sneaked around a bit in the hotel, going through the tower bridges and finding a gym that looked awesome!

View from the bridge

The gym

At the hotel breakfast i was amazed that they had vegan margarine, tartex, vegan yoghurts and plant based milks =D They also had fruits, bread, cereals and juice =D

 
After eating breakfast we drove to Ullared, which is a shopping center. They also got a TV-show from there where they follow shoppers around. They were filming when we were there, but we weren't caught on tape i think =p It took us at least 30 minutes to find a free parking spot, because there were soooooo many cars there!!! It wasn't fewer people once inside!! The place was crammed with people!!! This place is known for being cheap and they had a lot of cheap stuff there. I went around looking at fitness clothes, and i also bought a new bikini =p They had lots of different stuff there =D I also bought a vegan cooking book, and some delicatoboll which are nice choco-oat-balls, nöt-creme which is the most amazing peanut-hazelnut-chocolatespread ever!! And i bought candy, peanut curls, peanuts, cashewnuts, and some more stuff xD It was a cool place, but would have been nicer if there was fewer people there so i didn't have to stand in line to cross the queue everywhere xD Also the sizes there were "wrong", so small fitted for me, while normally i buy medium. It's a bit sad, because now some things are too big for me xD I was too lazy to wait in line to access the dressing room, so i just tried clothes on on top of my other clothes xD

After Ullared we went back to Göteborg and visited my dads uncle who lives there. It was nice seeing him again. He served us cookies and cake and we chatted for a while. He had lots of cook books in his appartment, so i looked through all of them, drooling at the recipes xD Later we went back to the hotel, snacking on candy and chips there while relaxing. I also worked out at the gym, doing jogging in New Zealand and in Utah, and testing out the different equipments =D

The next day was Liseberg-day =D We were excited, waiting for it to open at 11. We spent the whole day in Liseberg, except mom who isn't a fan of roller-coasters and stuff, so she left after some hours. It was many people there, so a lot of queues. We tried to limit the waiting time to max 30 minutes per attraction. It said on the attractions what the estimated waiting times were, and we could also look it up on internet. After some hours of fun we went to eat at the vegan buffet restaurant inside Liseberg called The Green Room. It was really cool and cheap!!! =D 159 sek for everything you could eat, and everything was vegan!! I ate really a lot because i had to taste everything, and then eat more of the yummiest things xD If you visit Liseberg, you gotta try this restaurant!!! =D Actually if you're in Göteborg or close by you gotta visit both Liseberg and the restaurant =D

So much yummy food!!!

It was a long and late day with a lot of fun!! The last hour was coolest because then many people had left, so the queues were shorter =D Down to 0 minutes waiting time!!! =p My favorite rides were Balder, Helix, FlumeRide, Lisebergbanan, Uppswinget and Mechanica =D Basically anything quick and scary xD

Balder

Mechanica

Liseberg at night

The next day me and my brother was tired. We started with breakfast, followed by a walk in the park. I had eaten too much, so i felt a bit nauseous. After the park me and my brother slept for a bit, while my parents went somewhere else. After i woke up i went to ICA next to the hotel to see if they had anything cool =p and they did!!!! So much cool vegan products that i didn't know where to start!!! They had a vegan brand called Astrid och Aporna there with vegan ham, sausages, burgers, meatballs, cheese, and a lot more, and that's only one of the cool things they had there!! In the freezer they had Anamma, Hälsans Kök, Oumph and Frys, and more!! I was really amazed how much cool stuff they had there and went around just saying "wow... wow... woowww.." xD The pictures only shows some of the stuff!!! They had A LOT more!!!!!

After checking out the shop i went to the Jonsborg grill again and bought another vegan sausage and a vegan donut ice cream =D This time i tried the curry-wurst. It wasn't as good as the chorizo sausage, but it wasn't bad either =p The donut ice cream was yummy and cool xD

I picked up my brother and we went to Liseberg again, only us two this time. It was fun today also, and maybe a bit fewer people, so we could take more of the cool rides without needing to wait for an eternity!! xD In the evening we got pizza delivery from my mom who had gotten vegan and non vegan kebab pizza for us from a restaurant called Old Corner =D It was a really nice and yummy pizza =D After the park closed we went back to the hotel for our last night in Göteborg.

The next morning we were leaving, so i bought a lot of Astrid and Aporna product in the ICA shop, and also other cool stuff like bean pasta, and some other stuff. Then we drove to Nordby and Svinesund and there i bought more vegan food =D Frys, Anamma, Oumph! etc =D Lots of frozen products that didn't like the long ride home to Bergen since everything melted xD I also ordered a last max barbecue sandwich to enjoy =p I think my family were a bit upset i bought so much and needed to enter every single store on the way kinda xD We were gonna drive all the way from Göteborg to Bergen in one day, so all my stops and shopping took time xP

After getting back into Norway again we ate, then we drove towards Bergen. Since we were driving through Drammen i told them we needed to visit Fristelse Cafe (which is now located in Oslo). My family didn't want anything from there, so i entered alone and I was really amazed by all the yummy vegan desserts they had! =D I ordered a vegan white chocolate cake with raspberry topping, and it's the best cake i have ever tasted!!!!! =D i also ordered a scoop of vegan ice cream that i think was made with carrot and orange and some other stuff =p It was super delicious!!! =D I hope one day they will open Fristelse Cafe in Bergen too! It was totally worth the visit and detour!! =D

So yummy!!! <3

We then drove the long way to Bergen, switching between my dad and I as the chauffeur and we arrived at 1 at home i think. We then took all the melted frozen products in the freezer, filled the fridge and went to sleep =p

It was a really nice trip with lots of vegan yumminess, and lots of fun =D I hope to visit Sweden soon again, because they have lots of cool vegan products there, and it's a nice and cool country =D The weather was mostly nice btw if anyone wondered x) I think i would have loved to live in Göteborg!! Liseberg access every single day, plus so many yummy vegan products in the stores, and vegan dishes at the restaurants there!!! =D <3

Lille Taste of Indian

I finally got my drivers licence now yay :D (8 years after i could have had it :x)

The driving exam went pretty good, so thats great =p To celebrate me and my family went out to eat at an indian restaurant in Bergen called Lille Taste of Indian, located in Marken =p

I ordered the dish called Degree Channa, with chickpeas, mushrooms and curry sauce. It was served with rice =p They other ordered non-vegan food. It was yummy and had a spiced taste, but without being spicy. I would have liked it a bit more spicy though, but then again I'm kinda unfamiliar with indian food, so I'm not sure how it's supposed to be like xD Think I'll try something different next time though, because it was yummy, but not superyummy for my taste =p

It was a quite cosy place though, and the woman serving us was wearing an indian dress or sari or whatever it's called that was very pretty =p

We had a nice time together, and I like to go out and eat and test out new places and dishes, so I hope we will do it more in the future =D

Work trip to Spain

Last week me and a colleague from the same shop went on a work trip to Alicante in Spain. There were other colleagues who work in the other Right Price Tiles shops in Norway also on the trip. We from Bergen travelled down in the middle of the day on Wednesday. I had to work first before we travelled, so it was a long day, with me starting work at 7 in the morning until we had to leave for the airport at 12:30. Also we had to travel back early Friday morning, so it was a very short trip.

I've never been to Spain before (unless Mallorca counts), so it was nice to travel somewhere i haven't been before :D The weather was nice too, coming from rainful, cold Bergen, it was a nice change with sunny and warmish (15-20°C i think). 

When we arrived in Alicante we took a taxi to the Malia hotel 10-15 minutes from the airport. It was very cool with palm trees and the beach there :D 

The hotel was really nice with good view from the hotel balcony to the beach and the mountain, and the room was nice and big. 

After changing clothes we went to eat at a restaurant closeby next to the boat place. It seemed like a seafood restaurant,  but they also had meat and veggie options. I ordered a plate of grilled vegetables, while everyone else ordered meat or fish :x Most of the people also drank shitloads of beer, while me and a couple of others stack to cola and water. We had to wait like 1-2 hours or so for the food. While waiting we got some appetizers, most of them non-vegan. Lucky i had snacked on dates on the plane :p 

After some hours it got dark and colder, so i was freezing a bit. People were getting drunker, one even fell over the neighbouring table and the children there, so was time to get back to the hotel because we had to get up early the next morning. A guy from one of the other shops and my colleague wanted to go on the mountain and take some pictures so i decided to join them. We never got that far though because they were drunk and just wanted to drink, so we eventually had to return to the hotel. I'm reminded why i don't drink from seeing all these drunk people :p it's not tempting to drink after seeing what it does to you x)

After getting to the hotel i sadly couldn't fall asleep. Long day and already little sleep from before didn't help. I think i slept like 2 hours, from 4 to 6. Alarm went off at 7. I took a shower before going yo breakfast. Should have timed it a bit better though because i only had 5 minutes to eat breakfast before the bus should leave to the tile fabrics at 8, so i just grabbed some bread and fruit and stuffed some in my mouth and some in my purse. Seems some of the guys overslept though so they had to wake them up before we could leave, so i was one of the early ones.

The tile fabrics were pretty far from Alicante, we had to pass Valencia, so it was a 3 hour bus trip. I couldn't sleep much now either, only like 30 minutes, so i just looked out the windows on the beautiful Spanish nature :p When we finally arrived at the first tile fabric, Cristacer, we had to wait a bit outside. It was sunny and warm so that was just nice :p they also had clementine trees just across the road so i sneaked some clementines :D Very delicious and totally fresh :D 

In the tile fabric we got a tour where they explained all the steps of how ceramic powder becomes tiles. It was very cool to see, and everything was automated :D We get some of our tiles from this fabric; blanco mate 30x45, partenon marfil, and canada :p 

So shortly the tile making process is that the ceramic powder gets its humidity decreased to like 6% then it's shaped into tiles, then it's heated to remove more humidity, then it's primered and gets a top layer, then it is burned. Somewhere in there it's also checked that it's the correct color and size and no bad stuff on the tiles. After burning they are packaged and transported. 

There were like 300 tile fabrics in the area, which means shiiiitloads of tiles being produced every day.

From Decocer

After the first tile fabric we visited another tile fabric, Decocer. This one we get some hexagon and devon tiles from. It was pretty much the same, except here they make more decorative tiles and they had more manual labor than the first fabric.

After we were done on the 2nd tile fabric we got some drink and snacks, then we travelled to a restaurant by the sea. It was really beautiful view outside :D 

I got some grilled vegetables as pre-dish which was quite delicious :D 

After eating i sat outside in the sun. Later the main dish arrived: grilled vegetables xD 

I must admit it started to be quite many meals with grilled vegetables now xP Atleast it was different vegetables than the pre-dish, but I did prefer the pre-dish because it was more meal-like and less side dish-like like the main dish xD I finished eating and went back into the sun, waiting for the ride back to the hotel.

Couldn't sleep again on the 3 hour ride back to the hotel, even if i was quite tired. They also did a quiz in the bus, but i had no idea about any of the answers so I lost. Didn't care much about it though either. When we arrived back in Alicante everyone could do what they wanted to do, so i went for a walk, checking out the city a bit before i went to the mountains.  I also stopped by a shop, finding plant milk and soy yoghurt, but i didn't buy anything. It was a nice town. I found some old trees and fountains and stuff :p The mountain was nice too, but by the time i got there it was already dark. It would have been nicer in daylight. On top of the mountain there was a fort. I went on the top and looked down at the town, it was really a nice view except for the dark. Then i went back down and took a trip on the beach. It seems like a really nice vacation place for the summer :D Then it was time for bed. Had to get up early the next morning, like 5:45 or so to go to the airport. Luckily i managed to sleep a bit more now.

We had to travel via Oslo, and 2 people from the Oslo shops also took the same plane, so we shared cab and hanged together at the airport. In the plane i barely slept also, so me and my colleague played some cards, like we did on the way down to Spain :p I taught him well cuz he won every single game this time of go-fish :p

In Oslo we rechecked our luggages and bought some stuff for others in the duty free shop and found some food to eat. I had heard Upper Crust had vegan options so i ordered a vegan baguette. It came with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion. Would have been cooler with some hummus, mayonnaise or vegan cheese on, but it was nice without also :p

Then plane back to Bergen, taxi home and sleeeeeep. And my poor colleague had to work.

It was a nice trip, even though it was a bit short. Hope next time I'll go on a longer trip with more free time to look around and explore :D And eat something else than grilled vegetables :p