With all that in my head and the time I spent with Maria arguing a case for Denmark while she pushed for the Czech Republic, I had a bad nights sleep. We had to get up at 5 to catch transportation to the airport. Once we said farewell to the Hotel Ritz we tried to board a tram.The ticket booth wouldn't work or we were too stupid to figure it out and we wasted 20 minutes. We ended up grabbing a taxi. It cost 20 pounds.
Getting checked in gave me major anxiety because it was confusing and we didn't have boarding passes. Everything went fine though and we got our passes and got through security. We had a layover in Copenhagen. On the flight there, 2 girls sat behind us. It must have been their first time on a plane and they hadn't learned plane etiquette yet because those bitches were annoying. But they were having fun and laughing and you shouldn't yell at someone because their laugh is annoying. The flight was about an hour and a half and I read A Clash of Kings the whole way.
Then we were in Copenhagen Denmark! Just the airport, but still a new country! For the rest of this trip, I'll be 8 hours ahead of home. They stamped my passport! Now I have 2 stamps, one from here and one from Ireland. Maria bought a lunch of sandwiches and Pringles for us. I owe her like 35 or 40 pounds now. Our flight to Oslo was on time and we boarded around noon. I fell asleep on the flight and woke up in time to see Norway from above.
Where's the fjords?!
We got our suitcases back (I always worry they'll lose mine) and exchanged money. Currently 1 American dollar is worth 7.77 Norwegian Krone. I got 1,500 krones, less than $200. Then we did something stupid and awful and I considered not mentioning it because that will help me to forget and repress it.
I wasn't thinking and Maria wanted to get a taxi. We got in one and drove to our hostel (I'm staying in a hostel by the way, more on that later). It cost 1,400 krones. I about threw up. It was about a 40 minute drive from the airport to the hostel and we fucked up so bad by taking a taxi. I don't know what we were thinking. We fucked up so bad, I should have known it would be ridiculous.
Maria was decently miserable and that all went to hell when she saw the Sentrum Hostel. I knew at best the hostel would be like college dorming with dozens of young, independent travelers like us. At worst it would be full of druggies and perverts. We walked in, it wasn't ideal, and she turns to me in barely an audible voice and says "Can we go?" And I felt really bad because she was scared and not okay with everything that had just happened. I made us check in and see the room. Then we each texted our moms because after that taxi ride and seeing our hostel, we could barely afford to live in the slums of Norway.
My mom made me feel better. She is such a cheerleader to me. I was so angry at Maria and I for getting in a taxi and paying so much. My mom I guess felt guilty because she was a big advocate for hostels when I was deciding whether or not to stay in one that she put $200 in my account as a gift to make up for the awful morning we had. Lack of sleep makes me emotional and I got choked up and had to pretend to stare outside so Maria wouldn't see me cry. I won't take the money because I'm too proud that I've financed 100% of this trip by myself, but that was too kind of her.
While I was being a weeping devotchka, Maria was making plans to get us out of here. She wanted to leave Norway, skip Sweden and Denmark (they all use some form of the krone and her reasoning was that if it's expensive in Norway, it'll be expensive there too) and go straight to the Czech Republic for a week until it was time to go to Germany to meet our school group. A lot of that depended on whether or not we could get refunds for the places we booked. She started emailing our future hostel and hotels to cancel our reservations without telling me. It's a big mess. Neither of us is happy with the other. I'm so pissed off with everything.
I made the executive decision to stay in Norway. I also made Maria leave the hostel and come explore the city with me. We found the train station we'll be taking to Sweden, so that's good, and we got our eurail passes activated.
We stopped by a touristy store because I thought it would cheer Maria up. I got 2 postcards and the clerk was very nice and we got to talking about Norway and money and stuff. They had trolls in the store.
He invited me to drinks under the bridge. I considered.
Then we had a drink at a cafe. I had a green smoothie and it was delicious.
Hot damn I am a healthy eater.
Next, we went to some of the free places I had picked out to visit. First up, the Royal Palace of Oslo. It was kind of a walk and I took pictures to pass the time. I had been very worried about the whole not speaking Norwegian thing. Turns out I don't pay attention to much anyways and the signs are easy enough to decipher. Well, most are.
"Don't do drugs" or "Join the drama club"?
A reminder to pick up after your dog.
Norway is seriously pretty. There are trees everywhere once you get a little outside of the city the air smelled so fresh and sweet with flowers.
Passing by houses you could smell their lavender plants and it was really nice. Oh and we finally made it to the Royal house.
Suns out guns out
The weather was the nicest it had been this whole Euro trip. It was warn and sunny and I loved it. We got lost a few times and had to open the map. On two separate occasions, a stranger asked if we needed help and they gave us directions. People were just really nice and it makes you happy and feel welcome to be here.
We left to find a park of naked statues. That sounds like a crazy person sentence. Vigeland Park is a train wreck. Basically it's the worlds largest sculpture park, all made by the same crazy guy, filled with naked sculptures of people doing normal things or weird things. I don't know what else to say. It wasn't offensive. It wasn't sexual. It wasn't beautiful.
This multiplied by 300
You just walk around looking at the sculptures. Some were in movement, some were just standing, some were with other people, some were giving piggyback rides, some attacking another statue. It was... interesting. I came across one particular statue and almost died because I recognized it.
Just like with Lilith at the Met I knew about this statue and hadn't made the connection that it would be here. Had I known, I would have sought it out instead of stumble upon it.
Years ago I read an article by cracked.com about the top # of crazy sculptures in the world. This statue made that list. Here is me with said statue.
It's a statue of a man fighting off babies. I have no context on symbolism or anything. Amazing isn't it.
Once you got past the rows of naked statues, you would be greeted with pretty sights of flowers and water fountains. I like to think of it as a palate cleanse for the next dish of crazy you were about to be served.
Ah, so cleansing!
Because up on the hill was another thing I don't really have words for. It's this tall monument type design, but it's of bodies. Real Hannibal Lecter stuff.
Gods be good.
So weird. But not creepy. I would have liked it to be creepy. Or even beautiful, because I don't think this is beautiful. It's just... interesting.
We left the park and passed by some astronomy or maybe astrology (I didn't do well in school okay?!) thing and I wonder what it does.
Maybe it's a sun dial. I don't know! I took my picture with the ram though, since I'm an Aries.
Having so much fun at the naked sculpture park
Then we left for good. Except not really, because Maria got turned around and we went the wrong way. We had to double back and walk through the naked sculpture park again and it's just not something you need to see twice.
Get away from me!
We walked and walked and walked. I was in charge of the map this time and it turns out I'm not as silly as I thought I was when it comes to directions.
Clearly we're on Brisk-eby-vein street.
On the way back to the hostel we passed by Parliament.
I don't know enough about politics to say something clever.
We also ended up stopping for dinner. It's about 8:00 (we had been walking for 4 hours and had clocked over 10 miles). Several months ago, Maria and I had agreed to go out of our comfort zone when it came to trying new foods. We vowed to never go to any McDonalds or Starbucks while we were abroad. We weren't about to break that promise.
So we went to Subway. I had a sandwich and BBQ chips. They don't have ranch to put on the sandwiches and the BBQ chips taste weaker than our American ones but I ate it all. It cost nearly 80 Norwegian krones, or 10 dollars.
Back at the hostel, we got used to our new living space.
...At least we're not sharing a bed.
We got back to trying to find a place to stay from the 4th to the 7th. It was hard and emotions were high. I Skyped with my mom and felt better. Every hour that passes seems to bring new developments.
I finished writing about today, then I wrote some postcards. One is for my mom, and one is for my dad.
'Thanks for raising me to be awesome. Love, Calla'
After running around Oslo, I don't think things in Norway are that much more expensive than any big city. It's just a really lovely place. I already wish we had more time. If we had several more days we would go to Alesund, a seaside town several hours away.
But I am happy enough in Oslo.
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