On Our Way in Oslo

Our Second break is to be filled with a month long backpacking trip across the European continent, starting in Olso, Norway and heading all the way to Athens, Greece. All of the travel is to be done by train with our Eurail passes. This is about the same distance as a trip from Hemlock, Michigan to Los Angeles, CA would be. So, we’ve got a good long exciting trip ahead of us.

Our trip truly started in Cambridge where we walked the 40 mins. to the train station which took us to Stansted Airport. After getting through to our gate, we found out that our flight was delayed 2 hours. We passed the time by playing cards. (Twill be a theme of this trip me thinks). The plane trip was as cozy as a Ryanair flight can be. The first Oslo experience we had was that after we got through customs everyone who got off of the plane (except for us) headed straight to the duty-free shop, which was more like a grocery store. Apparently alcohol is extremely expensive in Norway so everyone stocks up before going home. Because our plane was delayed, we missed our bus to Oslo (because in good Ryanair fashion our “Oslo” airport was 2 hours outside of Oslo.) The young guy who sat next to us on the flight helped us find a train to Oslo which ended up being free because of our rail passes. After arriving, our next task was to make train reservations for our train to Stockholm the following evening. This was trickier than we anticipated. We walked around for about 45 mins. trying to find the main desk, but after getting directions twice we found it. Our next gauntlet was purchasing a pass on the T-Bahn. The ticket machine was only in Norwegian and only took cash, no cards. So we took out 400 Krones (about $64) from the ATM and then asked a girl standing in our line to help us. Luckily most Norwegians (at least the younger ones) speak some, if not good, English. We then took the train/subway/metro to where we would be sleeping for the evening.
We found out while planning this trip that Scandinavia is VERY expensive, even when purchasing “cheap” things. Norway in fact sells the most expensive Big Mac in the world. Because of this, we found out that sleeping in Norway was also going to be a very costly stay. Instead, we decided to try something new on our big adventure. Earlier in the term we had signed up for Couchsurfing.com Maybe you have heard of it. It’s where people all over the world offer up their places for others to crash at for free. This is in turn from when they had crashed somewhere in the past, or will crash in the future. It is also a great way to meet people from all over the world. So this is what we did in Norway. On this site you can look at people’s profiles and decide if they would be a good fit for you to spend an evening or two with them on their “couch”. Mandy researched long and hard to find just the right people for us. We stayed with Silje and Hans Oyvind Lied. We had previously e-mailed them and asked them if they were able to house us for that evening and they affirmed they were. So we took the train/subway/metro to their house and just rang the doorbell. Sort of strange with people you have only met through a few e-mails, but it turned out to be an excellent experience. They had some dinner for us and some soda-pop which included one that tasted like bubblegum. (Not available in the U.S.) Then we sat and talked and got to know each other and we also got to know their pets. They had 2 cats and a dog, Atlas, who was the friendliest Rotweiler we had ever met. We chatted for a few hours before we crashed on their futon. “It’s a sofa, it’s a bed, it’s a FUTON.” It was a pleasant sleep and a great first day of our trip.
After waking, we had a wonderful Norwegian breakfast with Silje and Hans. Cereal, warm rolls, soft boiled eggs, hot chocolate and tea. They both had the morning off of work, so they offered to show us around the city. We graciously accepted. We first stopped at a market where I was tempted to buy some old ELO, Phil Collins and Don Johnson albums. Then I realized there was no way to get them home, so we moved on. They then took us to Aker Brygge. This is one of the fjords where we sat and had coffee outside. It was a nice sunny day so it was fun for us to just walk around, and Atlas the dog enjoyed it too. At one point he had 3 children and 1 old lady “pawing” over him. We moved from there to the Royal Palace. Norway has a royal family where the King actually does have some say over the parliament. We didn’t go inside, but we did get the obligatory picture with palace guard. After swinging by the American Embassy (just in case of an emergency), we went to a sculpture garden which was filled with statues of people…all naked. Sort of strange, but I guess this IS Europe. Atlas also had a fun time there where bunches of people brought their dogs to just run around and play with other dogs. More loose dogs than we had ever seen in one place.
Following the sculpture park visit we made our way back to Silje and Hans’s apartment where we had left our backpacks for the day. We still had about 6 hours before our train left for Stockholm so Silje invited us to paint Easter eggs with her. That turned out to be its own experience. Mandy had never made eggs by blowing out the insides before (she had just hard-boiled them) so it was fun teaching and watching her blow out the eggs. Okay, I’m no expert either, but I have had at least one egg blowing experience. We then painted them with…um…paint and made Easter ducks and flowers. Silje then used the eggs to make waffles which tasted like crepes and were really good with Norwegian brown cheese. That evening we played board games where Silje beat both of us soundly. We think she agreed to house us just because we looked like we would be easy board game prey. But in some way she would have been right…we love board games, win or lose.
Soon it was time to say our goodbyes and we headed back to the Oslo train station. On our train we had a 5 seat compartment which we shared with one Swede and 2 Australians living in England. The Australians were kinda crazy guys and one of them even tried to sleep under the seats of the compartment to get comfortable. He claimed he couldn’t breathe well though so he ended up just sitting. Sleeping on a train overnight isn’t something that is very relaxing, especially when you just have seats and no beds, but we made the most of it and got into Stockholm safe and sound…just maybe a little tired…and it was only day 3!

Check out Oslo Trip Pictures! Viewing as a slideshow is always best.