Norwegia, Norway

When I first met Nils Andersen, I was living in Izhevsk, Russia, with Zhenya Kazakov. I asked Nils where he was from and he said, "Oslo," and I said, "Where's that?" Then he and Kazakov laughed at me for being a stupid American who didn't know anything about geography and told me that OSLO is the capital of NORWAY. (P.S. I accidentally called it NORWEGIA half the time after that anyway, so jokes on them.)

Highlights from my mission aside, Oslo is the capital of NORWAY which is in EUROPE which is where I went in January. I decided to visit this beautiful country after seeing Internet pictures and watching "Frozen" a lot. Also, I think Nils is pretty cool and he invited me to visit.

So, after England, I snuck over to Oslo for a three-day visit. It was snowy, icey, and rainy, and my feet STILL hadn't dried from England, but I loved it. The snow, ice, and rain made for some beauti-freakin-beautiful scenery and some GREAT pictures (my favorite pics from my trip are from England and Norway).

Plus, the language is no big because everyone here speaks English. So cool!!!

I honestly think Norway would be better to visit after March, but that's only because  tours of the Royal Palace and boat tours of Oslofjord were closed and wouldn't open until mid-March, so now I know.

BUTT I did see some pretty sick stuff and here's what it was:

Oslo City Hall

I accidentally stumbled onto this building. The outside looks really soviet (gray and depressing), BUT there is a cool clock and wood carvings outside. Anyway, I went inside and my jaw DROPPED like the bass at your mama's birthday. There's a MASSIVE great hall (HP lingo because europe) and every wall is covered in murals. Also, each bathroom stall has its own sink. It was WAY fancy and nice and one of my top 3 buildings in Europe (don't ask what the other two are).

Royal Palace

Norway still has a monarchy and just like England, I'm not sure what it does. Anyway, like I said, the palace was closed when I was visiting, so be sure to stop by and tell me about it if you're here after March!

Vigeland Sculpture Park AKA Naked Park in Oslo

Pro tip about Norway: there are a lot of naked statues and murals everywhere. To the Norwegians, it's not weird. So the fact that there's a park full of nude statues of men and women doing weird things (like juggling babies) doesn't really throw off anyone here. And asking why the statues are all naked doesn't really get an answer. And apparently, this place is the #1 tourist attraction in Oslo. So don't miss it. But be prepared. FOR NAKED.

Kulturkirken (pronounced "kultur-heer-kin")

This building is so amaze-balls inside and out. Look at the intricate carvings on the outside door, then look at the ceiling inside and listen to the organ. Usually, I HATE the organ, but the whole building feels to special and great. And there's an altar where you can write a prayer and the priests will pray for you. ...... ....

Oslo Opera House

Again, another thing that's cooler after winter. The opera house's roof slants down so you can walk from the ground level to the top, BUTT in winter, it's too icey. So. Also fancy bathrooms.

Eat the seafood

This guy's selling shrimp out of his FISHING BOAT. I don't even LIKE seafood, but even smelling it raw made me want to try this stuff because it's so fresh! (I didn't, cuz I forgot to eat half the time on this trip. I was TOO BUSY DOING THINGS.)

SKI!

Skiing was basically invented in Norway, SO I HAD to go skiing. Pro tip: spend the first two hours falling over, then spend the last hour actually having fun! That's what I did! I rode the metro up to Frognerseteren and skied. I made lots of mistakes, but I have videos about how to do it WITHOUT making mistakes. And I should post those.

Explore Oslofjord and take sick pix!

PRO TIP: Oslofjord isn't a real fjord. It doesn't have hills on either side with water in between: it's basically just a bay with no hills around it. But it's still beauty-ful. Even though the tourist tours were closed, I jumped on a random ferry to a random peninsula in Oslofjord and took lots of pictures. It was a good time. But I did get hungry.

Go shopping at Underground

I lost my beanie on the bus from the Rygge Airport, so I got on google and found a close-by thrift store, hence I came toUnderground (UFF). It's actually a vintage shop, which means they don't take anything newer than 1980. There were sweet sweaters, reindeer bags, sealskin boots, and all sorts of other things that would make PETA mad. I bought a sweet hat and wanted to buy everything else.

Eat the weird crap Nils gives you.

Norway has a weird cuisine. Aside from the seafood smelling good, they also like to eat liver, jam on meatballs, lots of frozen pizza, and bacon in a tube. The pic above is "brown cheese" with jam on bread. It tasted like old-ish cheese with jam on it. The combo of cheese + jam made it a little creamy, but still weird. So take your taste buds on an adventure!

Find this random statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Riiiiight?


Norway was a blast and a half! I want to give a big shout-out to Nils and his awesome wife Natali for letting me crash on their couch for three days and helping me find and do all the cool things to do in Oslo! And honestly, Nils is lucky to have scored a girl as sweet as Natali. It was so great to stay with you guys! Until next time!

When your dreams come true in England

Ever since I was a young Gordy, I've wanted to go to England. I love Narnia, am a big fan of the queen (J.K. Rowling currently), and have spoken the English language almost fluently for most of my life.

And I'm not the only one who loves England. I've talked to lots of others who would love to skip rocks on the other side of the pond.

So what's it like to be in England? What is there 2 doo? WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE? Well, I'm about to let you kno.

My first three nights, I stayed on the beautiful London Temple apartments (or FLATS lol). The temple is 30 miles (or KILOMETERS lol) from London proper, but it's still a pretty rural area.

My face and the London temple!

View of the London Temple from a footpath.

I stayed here Saturday and Sunday and literally just walked around looking at how old, rural, and green (LUSH) everything is. I visited the nearby villages and pubs within walking distance of the temple.

The oldest buildings in East Grinstead, a village close to the temple.

England has a super nifty thing called "footpaths." They're just public trails that go through forests and fields, across pub decks and people's yards. Even though people have lived on this small island for thousands of years, the government has gone to great lengths to preserve its natural beauty, so there's plenty of trees and greenery to love. It's like being in a Beatrix Potter story. Just look for a "footpath" sign and follow.

A cool thing I saw on a footpath!

I went to London on Monday. I don't love big cities, so I only stopped by for a day visit. I rode into Victoria Station at noon-ish and walked to King's Cross Station by the end of the day. Walking is the absolute best way to see EVERYTHING -- touristy and otherwise. Along the way, I saw Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, ate at an Indian restaurant, and went to Platform 9 3/4.

Westminster Cathedral

Westminster Abbey lol

It so big.

Me and one of them Trafalgar Square lions.

Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio in the National Gallery (J.K. Rowling's fave painting).

Indian food! It was very good.

It's straight magic, promise.

From King's Cross, I took the Tube to Paddington Station, then rode a train up to Oxford to visit C.S. Lewis's home.

Oxford was one of the most amazing parts of my trip. The university is almost literally Hogwarts. It's hundreds of years old, but it's still going strong and its ancient buildings are still in use.

A library at Oxford University.

Just like Hogwarts.

Literal Hogwarts.

C.S. Lewis's home was great. I toured it and learned a lot about his life. A nature reserve dedicated to Lewis is right next to his home. These woods are said to be inspiration for Narnia. I definitely uglycried walking through them as I thought, "I'M IN NARNIA!!!"

Me in front of C.S. Lewis's home.

C.S. Lewis Nature Reserve.

I also visited the Eagle and Child, the pub where Lewis used to bash around story and philosophical ideas with his mates, including J.R.R. Tolkien. 

A great place to get drunk. jkjkjkjkjkjk!!!

In general, Oxford is such a cool city. It's very old and there's just such a cool feeling there.

England was everything I'd dreamed it would be and more. It was like stepping into my favorite books and stories I had as a kid (and still have). It rained at least twice a day, my feet weren't dry for a week, and I absolutely loved it. DREAMS COME FREAKING TRUE.

If you wanna see more Anglo pix, check out my tumblr: gordyyates.tumblr.com.

Freaking Russia

So I love Russia and I hate Russia. On my mission, I loved the food and church members and little differences between Russian and American culture (like Russian Christmas and Baptism Day). Since coming home, I've loved telling people what Russia's REALLY like instead of them only knowing what they see in American propaganda.

But as soon as I'd bought tickets to go to Moscow in January, I remembered that Russia isn't a SUPER safe place. Flashbacks of being chased by drunks, dodging flying beer bottles, and being followed by teenagers came back to me. The last month of my mission, it really felt like I had SURVIVED, rather than served, a mission. And now, for some reason, I was going back and would have to SURVIVE another couple days!! Plus, I'd be ALONE this time, no mission companion to provide "safety in numbers." I WAS GOING TO DIE.

Also (and this is important), I'd forgotten that the Russian government requires Americans to obtain a visa in order to enter their country, even if it's just for three days, and the cheapest option for a visa cost more than $200. (Before you get too mad at Russia, just remember that we require the same inconvenience of Russians AND that Russians are poorer than us AND I'm pretty sure we deny them visas more often than they deny us visas, but I don't know for sure.)

I tried for over a month to switch my flight from Moscow to somewhere else: Helsinki, Oslo, Athens, Frankfurt -- anywhere but Russia again. Unfortunately, there was no alternative that would cost less than $400, so buying a visa and going to Russia turned out to be most economical option, even if it didn't feel like the safest.

However, going back to Russia turned out to be one of the best parts of my whole trip. I'm so glad I went and I wish I had enough money to go every year.

UGH RUSSIA
The week before going to Russia (and to Europe in general) I was literally dreading it. I would probably get mugged, kidnapped, raped, and killed. But, since all that was most likely to happen in Russia, I told myself that if I could make it past three days in Russia, the rest of my trip (into four other countries and across three weeks) would be CAKE.

I landed in Russia with a dying phone and congested head. My ears wouldn't pop and none of the outlets in the Domodedovo Airport would work. I had barely been able to sleep in the 15ish hours since I'd left San Diego. Fortunately, I was able to keep my head and not get stressed (which is something I learned about myself on this trip -- I don't get stressed easy).

I walked up to the first Russian I could and asked where I could find an "ay-tee-emm." They were like, "What the freak are you talking about?" and I was like,"The thing that gives you money," and they were like, "Over there, you loser American." (They were a lot nicer than that, I'm just writing what they SHOULD have said.) Literally two steps after walking away from them, though, the Russian word for "ATM" popped into my head -- "bankomat." And I was like, "Yes! I got this!"



I found an ATM and withdrew 3,000 rubles ($50ish). After that, a representative from my favorite Russian phone company (МТС) was standing right outside the gate. I popped out my AT&T SIM card, gave them 1,000 rubles, and they popped in an МТС "seem kartichka" with 12 gigs of data on it. (I only used, like, 3 or 4 gigs in my three days, so that was a bit overkill, but it was nice not to worry about running out of data.)

The Domodedovo Airport is about 30 miles from Moscow, but since Europe is so much better about public transportation, I knew there must be a cheap shuttle to the city somewhere. The train that takes you to Moscow is called Aeroexpress (Аэроэкспресс). It costs 450 rubles and takes about an hour.

After buying some water, I jumped on the train and sat next to a really sweet girl from St. Petersburg who was going into Moscow to visit a friend. She reminded me of how normal and nice Russians are (By "normal," I mean they're literally just like Americans. STILL trying to convince people of that.).

I hopped off the tram when it reached its one and only stop: MOSCOW.

Since I served in the Samara Mission, I didn't really know anyone I could stay with in Moscow. I ended up connecting with a random Russian couple over Couchsurfing who said I could stay with them. We'd agreed to meet in front St. Basil's on Red Square at 10 pm.

I got off the train and, since I had no idea what I was doing or where I was, I picked a random person and followed him. I figured that he knew where he was going, so I'd follow him until he got there. He went into a big building and down some stairs into the metro. I made a mental note, found a cafe upstairs, charged my phone for a couple hours, then jumped on the metro to Red Square.

An escalator going down into the Moscow Metro.

I'd never been on a real subway before and I'd heard of how confusing the Moscow Metro is, so my only hope of finding Red Square was talking to people. Of course, like I said, Russians are beyond helpful and nice. I asked a babushka and she told me which train to get on and a student told me which stop to get off at. I got out on the street and asked a couple which way Red Square was and another lady corrected me when I took a wrong turn. I found Red Square, took a selfie in front of St. Basil's, and met up with my hosts Katya and Slava.

GLORY TO KATYA AND SLAVA
I was so relieved to meet Katya and Slava. I'd been ALONE travelling for a day and a half and now I had friends! They were so nice and Katya spoke English very well. They gave me a whole apartment to myself (cuz they have two) and let me babysit their cat! They were the best hosts and they were definitely one the best parts of my trip to Moscow. They showed me around the best parts of Moscow the next day, found a nice banya for me to visit, made me homemade pelmeni (like Russian ravioli), and drove me to the airport on Friday. They're the literal best!

Landing in Russia WAS the hardest part of my trip. I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't know how things would ultimately work out. I had to figure out how to get money, set my phone up, get transportation, navigate the streets of a foreign city, and find a place to sleep. But figuring all that out was really satisfying and making more Russian friends was the best! Despite my initial regrets and misgivings, Russia was one of the best places I visited my whole trip.

IF YOU'RE GOING TO RUSSIA/MOSCOW
Here are some cool things I did while visiting Moscow that I think you should do (plus some tips!):

1) Learn the Cyrillic alphabet or bring someone who knows it. A lot of the signs are transliterated from Cyrillic into English, BUTT unless you're used to reading and pronouncing words like "Preobrajendkaya" (Преображенская), the English transliteration won't do you a lot of good.

2) Drink peach juice and Chudo (Чудо) drinkable yogurt and eat chocolate, especially Super Snickers. Why don't we have more juice and yogurt in America?!! Also, my Norwegian friend tells me that the Snickers in Russia are the best in the world (better than American and Norwegian, at least), and I would have to agree. Ughhhh. AMERICA PLEASE MAKE BETTER FOOOOOOD



3) Eat at a restaurant on Old Arbat Street. Old Arbat is one of the oldest parts of Moscow and has a lot of touristy things to do and see, plus it's not too far from ...

4) RED SQUARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are a couple things at Red Square you should see. 1) St. Basil's: It's not an operating church anymore, just a museum. It's 250 rubles ($5ish) to get in, but it's very worth it, especially if you wait for the choir upstairs to start singing! 2) Lenin's tomb: It was closed when I went, but you should see it! 3) The Kremlin: It didn't even occur to me that you can go inside while I was there, but I hear you need to plan in advance to get tickets to go in. I'm sure it's way great! 4) GUM:It's a big shopping center. Go inside and see what it's like.

5) The Catheral of Christ the Savior: It's the main cathedral in Moscow and it's way pretty! It's also not far from Red Square.



6) Banya it up: The idea of being surrounded by dozens of naked people (if you go in a gender-specific one), getting boiling hot, then drenching yourself with ice cold water (Ice Bucket Challenge eat your heart out) sounds awful to most sane people, but it's a very Russian thing to do and I loved it. Just know you'll be SUPER tired after. The one I visited in Moscow was called Sanduny (Сандуны) and I really recommend it. (I'll post a vid of how-to lates.)

7) Spend time with the people and learn for yourself that they're not cray cray.

My new friends Slava and Katya. They thought I was cool cuz I'm from California lol.

How to go to Russia (BORING butt informative)

Babushka cat lol

Back in October, I decided that I was a winner and to congratulate myself on being such a winner, I bought open-jaw plane tickets to and from Europe for $900 flying into Moscow and out through Dublin.

HOWEVER, I'm a cheapskate and I forgot that Russia requires you to get a visa (an EXPENSIVE visa too) and an official invitation in order to enter the country, so I tried to reroute my flight for almost a month, but it's almost impossible to economically change your flight once you've purchased airline tickets. LESSON LEARNED.

I finally decided to buy a visa to go back to Russia almost six weeks before my flight to Moscow. I contacted BYU's Kennedy Center because I heard you can get free help getting a visa (and I was still a student at the time). They directed me to a company called Travel Broker that basically does all the paperwork for you. You pay them $100, they take care of the finer details of the visa application AND get you an invitation into the country. So, no free help, but I think it was the best option for me at that time. The visa itself cost about $250, so the entire visa process cost me about $350. :( But whatever.

Travel Broker sent me to the Russian visa website. They told me to fill in the visa application, then print it out and take it to them.

A couple things about the visa application:

•  It asks you to list every country you've visited for the past couple (five or something) years. I just wrote in every country that's stamped my passport in the past five (or something) years.
• It asks you to write the address of every place you'll be staying in Russia. Travel Broker told me that I could just write any address in the city where I was visiting (Moscow) because the government doesn't follow up once you get there. So, I just googled a random hotel in Moscow and wrote its address. (And no, I didn't stay at that hotel and no it wasn't a problem.)
• It asks you to write in every city you'll be visiting and how you plan to travel in between cities. I was only going to be in Moscow, so I didn't have to worry about that part, but I assume you can just write in whatever you want here too because they most likely won't be following up on you.
• It also asks you to write in the dates of every other Russian visa you've ever had. If you've had multiple Russian visas in multiple passports, you only have to write in the visas that are in your CURRENT (active) passport.
• Remember that when you're visiting Russia, if you stay in any city/location for more than three days, you have to register, so it's easier to plan to be in the city for three days or less.

So that's basically the tricky part of the visa application.

I filled out all the paperwork, brought it to Travel Broker (they have an office in south Salt Lake), and I had a Russian visa within 2 1/2 weeks.

Next post: what to do/how to survive in Russia. IT WILL BE A FUN POST, I PROMISE.

Why it's worth going to Russia.

Almost five years ago today, I got my mission call to serve in Russia. When I first realized I would be serving in Russia, I was like, "Crap. Russia." I didn't want to go to Russia. The language seemed super hard, the culture and history didn't seem very interesting, the people never smiled, and I knew it would be a challenge living in a country that didn't even have cars or indoor plumbing.

When I got there in November 2009, I started learning what Russia was actually like.

No technology
First, there ARE cars and indoor plumbing. Before I went to Russia, I thought horses were still the main mode of transportation (the only things I knew about Russia, I'd learned from Fiddler on the Roof and Anastasia, so can you blame me????), but after being in Russia for a day I quickly realized that cars, indoor plumbing, and even light bulbs are just as common in Russia as they are in America. In fact, the biggest cities and tallest buildings I've ever seen are in Russia, so it is definitely just as modern and developed as America.



Unfriendly people
Everyone in America told me that Russians never smiled and were a pretty tough people to befriend. HOWEVER, some of the FIRST THINGS I saw in Russia were couples walking outside holding hands and SMILING, friends walking around together and SMILING, and people just looking like normal people, not like the communist robots I'd heard about. I realized that most of the Americans who'd told me about Russia had never actually been there, so how would they know what Russians are actually like?



Climate
Russia is effing cold. I had heard the word "cold" before my mission, but never actually knew what it meant. I'd lived in California basically my whole life, so the coldest I'd ever felt was, like, 32°F. When I got to Russia, winter was just starting, so it was 32ish°, which I thought was the coldest it could ever be. I was so cold, I wore two scarves: one for my neck and the other for my face. People told me I looked like a Muslim woman.



They'd laugh and say, "You know it's going to get colder, right?" and I'd laugh and say, "That's not even possible, right?" But it did get colder. The coldest I ever felt was -40° (which is where Fahrenheit and Celsius meet), but that wasn't typical. -5°F to -15°F was pretty normal. Cold, but livable.

I learned to enjoy the cold, so much so that when I went back to Russia after my mission, I made sure to go during the winter. To me, Russia isn't Russia if your nose hairs don't freeze.

Hard language
Yeah, Russian's hard, at least for me, no getting around that. The alphabet only takes, like, two weeks to learn, but actually speaking the language sucks butt. However, I think being able to understand is much more important than being able to express yourself. Listening for the few words I understood and paying attention to context went a long way in helping me understand what people were saying to me. And, since I had a mission companion, I could rely on him to say what needed to be said.

So the language is daunting, but it isn't everything.



Uninteresting history and culture
So Russians may not be the cold-hearted people that Americans make them out to be, but they certainly have a colorful history. They've existed as a people for nearly 1,000 years, so of course they've had some super interesting stuff happen. They were invaded by Huns, they drove the Huns out, they had fake tsars the people elected, they had real tsars the people killed, they had fake tsars they elected then decided to kill, they have beautiful literature and art, they had communism, they sent the first man into space, they had Stalin, they have Putin, and BORIS NEMTSOV WAS SHOT FIVE DAYS AGO OH MY GOSH WHERE IS THE TRUTH AT? So, interesting stuff.



Of course, I didn't know a lot of this while I was actually living in Russia since I was busy doing the WORK OF THE LORD, but I learned it in college after and it explained a lot of what I'd seen on my mission. So definitely take a Russian history course if you get the chance, especially if you've been to Russia before and you're wondering "What the eff???"

So I ended up having a blast in Russia. I finished my mission three and a half years ago, but I really wanted to go back, so that brings us to the next part of this story ....

Is it worth it to pay for a study abroad????? AKA I went to Eurussia on the cheaps

Gordy Yates had the big fat dream of going to Eurussia and having a cray cray vacay.**** So, he bought a plane ticket to Russia and started saving his money (lol -- really he just stopped going out to eat and buying deodorant). He left, traversed all across the Eurussian wilds for 24 blissful days, and returned a happy and fulfilled young gentleman. Do you want to make your cray cray dreams come true?

Looking so happy and so fly in Moscow.

If you want to make your cray cray dreams come true and want to get a small itsy-bitsy baby idea of what it might cost, here's a little break down:

• Multi-city (aka open-jaw) ticket to Eurussia (San Diego --> Moscow, Dublin --> Salt Lake) (United Airlines/Lufthansa): $903.26

• Traveler's insurance (probably a smart idea even though I don't know what it's for): $49.95

• Russian visa (Thanks, Obama/Putin): $351.90 (I got it through Travel Broker, which is a company that basically does all the paperwork for you and you pay them $100ish. So I could have gotten the visa for cheaper, but I really don't know how, so it was worth it in my oponion.)

• Flight from Moscow (Domodedovo) to London (Gatwick) (EasyJet): $158.53 (could've gotten it for, like, $50 if I'd bought it a month or two sooner :(((((( )

• Flight from London (Standsted) to Oslo (Rygge) (Ryanair): $24.51 (#unbelievablycheap)

• Flight from Oslo (Rygge) to Milan (Bergamo) (Ryanair): $21.09

• Bus from Austria/Germany back to Milan: $25.58

• Flight from Milan (Bergamo) to Dublin (Ryanair): $29.43

I bought all this (minus the bus ticket) BEFORE going to Europe.

Total pre-Euro costs: $1,564.25

Once I got to Eurussia, my bank charged me $5 every time I withdrew money at an ATM or 3% every time I used my debit card to pay for things. I always withdrew cash and avoided using my card. Some countries, like Norway, have chip cards instead of magnetic strip cards, so American cards don't always work, so I used cash 99.99% of the time. At the start of my trip, I withdrew in increments of $50ish, but by the end of trip, it was increments of $150ish.

A harbor in Norwegia. Literally so pritt.

The total amount I withdrew while in Europe was $1,295.15, which combined with $55 in withdrawal fees, is $1,350.15.

What did I spend all that $$$$ on? I didn't keep an exact record, but according to what I remember/train tickets and phone cards I saved (none of this is exact, y'all):

• Food and chocolate: $388.43

• Intercity transport (long train and bus rides): $189.56

• SIM cards and data: $186.50

• Housing: $160.50

• Public transport (short train and bus rides): $101.64

• "Cultural experiences" (museums and junk): $100.50

• "Souvenirs" (pants, sweater, hat, socks, and an extra bag): $81

So, in total, it cost this little boy $2,914.40 to make his dreams come true for 24 days in Eurussia. He thinks he's a winner. 

A sample of the exotic cuisine this little boy sampled in the Eurussian wilds.

I went to BYU's Kennedy Center website and compared this to what it costs to do a study abroad in Europe. I always thought, "Why pay tuition AND pay to travel? That must be a crap-ton expensive!" but I never knew for sure if I was right.

Well, after a quick survey, I found out that I'm right. A study abroad that's 33-days-long and visits 8 countries (I went to 9) is $5,200-5,600 NOT INCLUDING airfare, public transport, museums, and most meals. So, crap, that'd probably be, like, three times more expensive than what I did in the long run.

Of course, there are other study abroad options that are cheaper/might be more worth it (like a water study that's only $2,200-2,400 in Belgium and The Netherlands INCLUDING airfare and museum entry) and if you have a scholarship, it would be cheaper for sure. BUT if you're like me, you've never had any luck getting a scholarship (#BaveragestudentatBYU) and you love figuring things out for yourself without The Man interfering (we all know I like to avoid hanging out with The Man).

So, yeah, I'm a major ... I mean Gordy's ... a major winner. Go Gordy, right? And I coulda done it cheaper!!!! (keep an eye out for those blogs l8r)

Joy that cannot be contained. Honestly, my eyes creep me out in this pic.

And the adventure's not over yet! Maybe some Taiwan or South Amricka this summer? And keep an eye out for #EURUSSIACRAYCRAYVAYCAY2016 next March. And give me money maybe so I can go?

 ****Urban Dictionary spells it both "vaycay" and "vacay," just FYI. Not sure which I prefer -- vote below!

Station Twenty-two (and Three Quarters)

You know a sandwich is good when it takes you a day and a half to stop thinking about it. This story is about one of those sandwiches.

There's a tale of boy who runs into a train station wall and is magically transported to a magical school. I don't know a whole lot about magic (JK -- I do), but running into Station 22 is almost as magical as running into a wall.

This little sandwich shop is located on Center Street, which means that eating here is a hipster adventure. The vibe is a step more hipster than Guru's: the menu is shorter and seasonal (meaning it's based off of ingredients available during that time of year), the space is smaller (giving it a cozy feel), it's filled with the randomest knickknacks (like cowboy boots and toy ships on shelves, sheet music used as light covers, and hunting mounts hanging on walls), and you drink out of MASON JARS. But, like Guru's, it's not a gross hipster place (I'm sure the people here wash their hands and take showers).

The specialty here is sandwiches and the prices are pretty reasonable. Most menu items run around $10.

I ordered the Memphis Chicken Sandwich. This sandwich is made of the crispiest, juiciest piece of fried chicken you can imagine, topped with red cabbage coleslaw and a spicy butter glaze, placed lovingly in a ciabatta bun. I was a little nervous about the red cabbage slaw since, for the most part, I don't believe in pickled foods, but it worked on this sandwich.

Memphis Chicken Sandwich with fries

The chicken is the best piece of fried chicken you've ever tasted: tender, juicy, and crunchy all at once; the coleslaw gives the sandwich the tiniest taste of sour, the cabbage adding a delicate crunch to every bite; and the spicy glaze gives the whole ensemble the slightest little zing. All the flavors stand out from each other, but they simultaneously work together. This sandwich was deeyyyuuung good -- I literally couldn't stop thinking about it all the next day (the fact that I was in church until 4:30 may or may not have had something to do with that).

The fries were good: crispy, delicious. I've also sampled their sweet potato wedges and those are DANG good. However, the fry sauce here is gross -- I can't eat it. It tastes too mustardy and Gordy don't like mustard. I asked for barbecue sauce instead, but even that was gross -- it tasted bitter (come to think of it, they may have given me Worcestershire sauce instead of barbecue sauce ... not sure why). Best to stick with ketchup 'round these parts.

I came here on a date and my date ordered the Club 22. She say it was good (like, she really liked it). I've been here a couple times on dates and neither me nor my dates have ever been disappointed (but I will say I prefer their sandwiches to their burgers).

Club 22 with sweet potato wedges, photo cred to special guest photographer Paige Bennett

So in this back-to-school season, if you want to take yourself on a magical journey, run into Station 22. It won't suck, promise.

The back of cafe has a wall full of soda. I don't support soda, but it's pretty nift to look at.