Fredrikstad

Today I was supposed to have the knitting group at 11, but Lita emailed me around 9 saying that she was sick so she would have to cancel it. I was a little upset, but on the bright side I got to go to Fredrikstad instead! I decided to wait and make myself some lunch and take the 12:45 train instead of hurrying up to take the 11:45 train. I made myself some french toast for lunch and I surprised myself because it was actually really good; I made food that was edible!!! Then, after I had cleaned up and grabbed everything I would need, I set out for the train station. It took me about 20 minutes to walk there and I was about 10 minutes early for the train so I had plenty of time to buy my ticket, which I found out I really didn't need. When I was on the train and seated the conductor came through and just looked at me and kept walking, he never even took my ticket so I basically wasted 67 kroner. It's only a 25 minute train ride from Moss to Fredrikstad so I was there at 1:10. I really don't know what way to go to find the ferry to get to Old Town Fredrikstad, but I knew that all I needed to do was go toward the river, so that made it pretty simple. It only turned out to be a 5 minute walk straight down a road from the train station to get to the ferry and about a 2 minute ferry ride to get to Old Town. Fredrikstad is one of three Norwegian cities to have been fortified and is the last town to have the fortifications still intact. The construction started in 1663 and was based off of Dutch designs, which meant having a moat surround it. The fortress was only attacked once, in 1814, and it continued to be a military base until 2002, but now it is basically just a tourist trap. While I was there, I walked the entire perimeter of the town and walked through the streets before deciding to head back. Because it was drizzling off and on all day, I only spent about an hour and a half there before taking the ferry back and heading home. I did buy a ticket for the ride back because it was the start of "rush hour" due to winter vacation and people leaving work early, so I knew the conductor would be checking for tickets, which he did. I got back to Moss around 3 and decided to go to the grocery store quick on my way back to the apartment.  When I was back at the apartment around 3:45, Natalie and Brigitte were already getting ready for the premiere of Fifty Shades of Grey. They left around 5, so I had the entire apartment to myself for about 3 hours tonight and it was glorious. I made myself a nice supper and just sat in the kitchen eating and watching Netflix until they came back. Then of course when they came back they had to tell me how good the movie was and show me everything they had received in their gift bags. After we had finished talking, I went back to my room and starting deleting photos off my phone to try and make room for new ones; I got a message today saying that I was running out of space on my phone and being I have about 8 GB of photos, I figured I would start there. I also debated going to Halden tomorrow (and I still am debating) or just staying home and working ahead on homework.

This is an image off of Google, but this is an aerial view of Old Town surrounded by the moat and river.

This was the sick bag on the train. I thought it was funny that it said "Uff, da!"

This was the train station in Fredrikstad.

This is the view of Old Town Fredrikstad while waiting for the ferry.

This is a street leading up to the city center.

This is the statue in the middle of the city. It's a guy named Fredrik, go figure.

Some of the remnants of a building on the fortress.

More remnants.

The bridge in Fredrikstad. They put "suicide fencing" on the bridge to prevent anyone from attempting or succeeding with suicide.