On Saturday I had a huge breakfast at the hotel. They had two or three kinds of eggs and sausage and bacon and tons of weird fish stuff that was pretty good. Lunch meat and lots of cheeses, too. Yogurt, cereal, peanut butter and jelly.
I took the train into Oslo and it was a great trip. Only about 20 minutes, but the countryside was so pretty I wanted it to last longer.
I walked to a hostel and got a room where I've been staying ever since. It's a room with 6 beds, but when I got there, only one guy was there. His name is Angelo. He went to the west coast of Norway, but we hung out all day. He's from Paris. Pretty good guy, but he liked to tell stories and history lessons so I easily feel into my listening sponge mode. That gets old, so it was ok that we only hung out on Saturday. He left his wallet at a place we went for drinks and so we rushed back to it once we realize it was gone. I imagined myself losing my wallet and man, horrible feeling. He was naturally so relieved to have it back so we went to mAx, a Swedish burger place. The burgers were good, nice tangy BBQ sauce and I had two. Angelo went to study in Uppsala Sweden and loves the country. He told me many stories of how rude french ppl are and how nice Swedes are. He even called me an uncultured American because I didn't know the restaurant had more than one hot tea. He liked talking. Earlier we had gone to the king's palace. We tired to buy tickets but the pretty host told us that you have to buy them at 7 Eleven. Yeah, that's right, they sell tickets to tour the king's palace at a convenience store. Hahha, go figure. Let's see if I can put a few pictures in.
On Sunday I went to mass at the cathedral. It was weird. Pretty boring mass with nothing lively. It made me feel a little lonely at first to not understand the words of something I know so well.
After mass I wandered around a lot and had fun. I went to Norway's old castle and took the tour. Kinda boring tour, but cool castle. Here's a picture of the dining hall.
I got two double cheeseburgers and one hamburger at Burger King and I think I paid a little more than $15. It is amazing how expensive take out food is here. I went to the tourism office and the big (but way pretty) girl told me about the train from Oslo to Bergen. It's supposed to be an amazingly beautiful ride. To cut back on costs I went to "Lima" for a microwave meal. I got a whole chicken and a rice pudding like yogurt and an apple for about the same price as three value burgers at Burger King. Unfortunately, I think the chicken turned my guts to water and the toilet was my seat for the night. Everything is still a bit loose. No pictures here.
Today (Monday) I had the room to myself and slept ok. I couldn't get back to sleep and was worried about my guts. I tried planning a trip to Bergen for tomorrow (Tuesday) and got way stressed out. My plan was this: take the train at 6:43 am from Oslo to arrive in Bergen by 14:20. Take a bus to the Bergen airport. Fly from Bergen to an airport south of Oslo (TFT) and then take the train back to Oslo. It was crazy and so many trips for still ending back up in Oslo, but I decided to do it even though making all those connections scared me. Things were cut short when I couldn't buy the train ticket for tomorrow morning with either of my cards. The error messages were in Norwegian. I was relieved and frazzled that what I had looked at for about 3 hours just wasn't going to work. I could not find anything under $150 to stay the night in Bergen and got stressed out. I decided I should have planned more. So many hostels and cheap hotels were already booked. I'm frustrated my lack of effort is actually haunting me. Gee, I guess planning is good for something (duh!). The sort of good news I got a hotel in Gothenburg Sweden for Wednesday night and a hostel for the following night. I'm thinking I'm going to have to decide here and now where I want to be up until the Robyn concert on Aug 24. It sucks because I wanted to just move when I wanted to. Oh well, I'll just have to find stuff to do for the days I book stuff. That shouldn't be hard. It's fun just wandering around Oslo, so I'm sure it'll be the same in Sweden. No one at this hostel seems very outgoing. The solo guys have super thick Chinese or french accents. Most ppl eat with their friends and talk with their friends. The girls that work the desk are nice and helpful, but they don't really ask questions about my travels. It all kinda makes me not want to go out to bars or clubs and just get to bed early and do tourist stuff. Which is fun, but it would be great to talk to locals. I don't have a lot of confidence because the looseness of my plans makes me worried about where I'll be able to sleep! Oh well, I'm covered until Friday morning, so I better check tonight where I want to stay or perhaps move cities. I like when I'm moving and feel a little weird when I'm just hanging around the hostel with no strong plans.
I took the train into Oslo and it was a great trip. Only about 20 minutes, but the countryside was so pretty I wanted it to last longer.
I walked to a hostel and got a room where I've been staying ever since. It's a room with 6 beds, but when I got there, only one guy was there. His name is Angelo. He went to the west coast of Norway, but we hung out all day. He's from Paris. Pretty good guy, but he liked to tell stories and history lessons so I easily feel into my listening sponge mode. That gets old, so it was ok that we only hung out on Saturday. He left his wallet at a place we went for drinks and so we rushed back to it once we realize it was gone. I imagined myself losing my wallet and man, horrible feeling. He was naturally so relieved to have it back so we went to mAx, a Swedish burger place. The burgers were good, nice tangy BBQ sauce and I had two. Angelo went to study in Uppsala Sweden and loves the country. He told me many stories of how rude french ppl are and how nice Swedes are. He even called me an uncultured American because I didn't know the restaurant had more than one hot tea. He liked talking. Earlier we had gone to the king's palace. We tired to buy tickets but the pretty host told us that you have to buy them at 7 Eleven. Yeah, that's right, they sell tickets to tour the king's palace at a convenience store. Hahha, go figure. Let's see if I can put a few pictures in.
On Sunday I went to mass at the cathedral. It was weird. Pretty boring mass with nothing lively. It made me feel a little lonely at first to not understand the words of something I know so well.
After mass I wandered around a lot and had fun. I went to Norway's old castle and took the tour. Kinda boring tour, but cool castle. Here's a picture of the dining hall.
I got two double cheeseburgers and one hamburger at Burger King and I think I paid a little more than $15. It is amazing how expensive take out food is here. I went to the tourism office and the big (but way pretty) girl told me about the train from Oslo to Bergen. It's supposed to be an amazingly beautiful ride. To cut back on costs I went to "Lima" for a microwave meal. I got a whole chicken and a rice pudding like yogurt and an apple for about the same price as three value burgers at Burger King. Unfortunately, I think the chicken turned my guts to water and the toilet was my seat for the night. Everything is still a bit loose. No pictures here.
Today (Monday) I had the room to myself and slept ok. I couldn't get back to sleep and was worried about my guts. I tried planning a trip to Bergen for tomorrow (Tuesday) and got way stressed out. My plan was this: take the train at 6:43 am from Oslo to arrive in Bergen by 14:20. Take a bus to the Bergen airport. Fly from Bergen to an airport south of Oslo (TFT) and then take the train back to Oslo. It was crazy and so many trips for still ending back up in Oslo, but I decided to do it even though making all those connections scared me. Things were cut short when I couldn't buy the train ticket for tomorrow morning with either of my cards. The error messages were in Norwegian. I was relieved and frazzled that what I had looked at for about 3 hours just wasn't going to work. I could not find anything under $150 to stay the night in Bergen and got stressed out. I decided I should have planned more. So many hostels and cheap hotels were already booked. I'm frustrated my lack of effort is actually haunting me. Gee, I guess planning is good for something (duh!). The sort of good news I got a hotel in Gothenburg Sweden for Wednesday night and a hostel for the following night. I'm thinking I'm going to have to decide here and now where I want to be up until the Robyn concert on Aug 24. It sucks because I wanted to just move when I wanted to. Oh well, I'll just have to find stuff to do for the days I book stuff. That shouldn't be hard. It's fun just wandering around Oslo, so I'm sure it'll be the same in Sweden. No one at this hostel seems very outgoing. The solo guys have super thick Chinese or french accents. Most ppl eat with their friends and talk with their friends. The girls that work the desk are nice and helpful, but they don't really ask questions about my travels. It all kinda makes me not want to go out to bars or clubs and just get to bed early and do tourist stuff. Which is fun, but it would be great to talk to locals. I don't have a lot of confidence because the looseness of my plans makes me worried about where I'll be able to sleep! Oh well, I'm covered until Friday morning, so I better check tonight where I want to stay or perhaps move cities. I like when I'm moving and feel a little weird when I'm just hanging around the hostel with no strong plans.
No comments:
Post a Comment