Fell asleep fairly rapidly on the overnight train from Stockholm and woke in the morning to see the fields and lakes of Norway passing by the window…. The hostel check in wasn’t until 3 so I had about 5 hours to kill when I got to Oslo. Went straight to the Viking Ship museum and arrived just after a bus load of Japanese tourists ( “ arghh anyone here like electric eel shock !!!” ) The ships themselves were impressive but it was hard to fully enjoy them with the amount of people taking stupid photos all around….some were taking photos of the signs displaying opening times and price!!??….come on man?… what is that all about??? Apart from that small gripe was a good experience had been wanting to see the ships for a long time….
Next stop was the Vigeland sculpture park in the north of the city. I arrived just as the skies opened and spent the next hour and a half in an over priced café waiting the rain out ( had stupidly come out in just shorts and a t- shirt that morning) When it did stop raining the sun came out though, and I spent a good hour in the park looking at the impressive Vigeland sculptures that explored human form….next I wandered through town back towards the hostel. Oslo has a good vibe to it, not as large in scale as Stockholm but enough to keep you interested for a day…..
For food I debated several options and then decided to go to Pepee Pizza , “Norway’s largest Pizza chain” where I purchased 3 slices of pizza and a coke for the bargain price of 96 Kronas ( about a tenner) the food was gone way too quickly….bought 2 cans of Carlsberg for a fiver on the way back to hostel ( ooouch!) and stopped at the cathedral on the way.
The ceiling of the Cathedral in Oslo is one of the coolest things ive ever seen in a church. The usual bible depictions are shown but the style and colours used could be straight out of a Marvel comic book …awesome! all churches should use superhero graphics …(there was some pretty good stained glass in the traditional style too. )
I checked into the hostel to find my room to be fully occupied… however no one was there …after a couple of hours of hanging around in the lobby ( filled with A- level students and families on holiday ) I decided to start the night solo by drinking my vintage Carlsberg….an hour or so later still no one in the hostel room so decided to hit the town on my own and search out some fun.
The first area I went to was called Gronland and it reminded me of Peckham in London. Norway seems to have a much higher ethnic population than Sweden or Denmark. This allowed me to get a decent Kebab…..the bars in the area seemed a bit quiet so I headed into the main area of town….this was full of expensive tourist bars…..eventually I found a cool pub playing good Indie music and drank there for a couple of hours before heading to another place round the corner that seemed to be where the alternative crowd hung out. Got talking to a Norwegian girl at the bar who had been living in the states and then hung out with her and her friends for the rest of the night…eventually ended up back at their apartment. Norwegians, I was informed, are very shy people but once you get to know them they are fantastically friendly ….This certainly seemed to be true in my experience that evening…… got back to the hostel about 9.30am ( this has become a familiar pattern for me it seems. )
When I went into the room expecting to finally see my room mates I was surprised to find that they had all checkout already ….A truly strange hostelling experience, never saw my room mates and didn’t even sleep in the bed…..Ah well….. had a quick shower and got straight on a train to a place halfway between Oslo and Bergen called Geilo.
I had met a cool guy called Jermyn in Turkey who was originally from the Philippines, but had been working in Bergen for some time. A dedicated couch surfer, when I mentioned I was planning to finish my trip in Bergen he instantly offered to put me up for a couple of days …a top man! ….In addition to that he had use of a cottage near Geilo that we could use as a base to go hiking for a couple of days over the weekend. So I was met at the station by Jermyn and his housemate from the UK called Owen ( Owen had lived in Newtown, Mid Wales of all places…I swear Newtown is the centre of the Universe….keep meeting people from town all over the world). Booth cool guys who were super into travelling.
The use of the cottage promised me my first decent home cooked meal ( bbq… ah yeah!! ) and use of a private bedroom for the first time in ages…despite the lack of sleep the night before, got stuck into a bit of hiking as soon as we were set up . The hills around Geilo are amazing …..ski slopes in winter…in summer they look similar to Snowdonia but much greener….with grass roofed cottages scattered along the ridges…really impressive….
That night after a great meal and a couple of beers had the best nights sleep I can remember and woke the next morning feeling like a new man. I went out on a solo hike the next day to a lake in the middle of nowhere….Had to cross some marshy land to get there but it was well worth it. The felling of isolation, calm and the unusual colours surrounding the lake made for a unique experience.
That afternoon we drove to Bergen through some of the coolest natural scenery I’ve seen. Rocky cliffs, mountain lakes and glaciers at first ….. then we cut down through the fjords…deep glacial lakes surrounded by forested hills…something Id wanted to see for a long, long time …the perfect way to finish the European leg of the voyage. Got back to Jermyn’s place around 9 and had another home cooked meal and sleep in private room…wow I was really moving up in the world!
The next day Owen showed me around Bergen , Norway’s second biggest city….Began has some great wooden houses and is surrounded by mountains and Fjords. Really impressive location. Unfortunately it rains the most in this part of Norway meaning there was no view off the top of the mountain we climbed. It was still good to get the exercise in though ..That evening went out to a restaurant for a proper Norwegian meal and a couple of highly priced pints ….35 quid was gone in a flash so decided to have a quiet night and save the rest of my money for the next week in London.
I got to say Norway looks like a good place to live…high standard of living, conscientious social policy and high wages….would be a great place to build up travel money if you could land a job…. I’m seriously tempted!
Spent the next morning ( today ) getting my stuff together for the flight back to the UK….ahhrrrg return to ( semi) reality??!!!….ah well trying not to think about it until I’m back so will save the trip summary until later in the week…..
Scandinavian Summary
Well I’ve been wanting to come to Scandinavia for a long time and its lived up to expectations….just wish I had a bit longer to get to know the locals better and get into a bit more of the wilderness. Copenhagen was cool ..Stockholm was amazing and Norway had a charm all of its own.. Each country had its separate vibe though…the Danish people were outspoken and opinionated but enjoyed a laugh….the Swedes were friendly and outgoing (and really good looking ) and the Norwegians were more reserved but highly dependable once you got to know them….The Norwegian leg provided my first taste of couch surfing and its def something I will do again…big thanks to Jermyn for putting me up, driving and arranging the hiking trip, and to Owen for showing round Bergen and passing on some local knowledge…..All and all this leg was a great way to finish the trip ….was cool to see some impressive natural scenery and have some recovery space after partying hard in Northern Europe, and the lack of sun and increased rain will make the transition back to UK weather more bearable…..
okay time to catch the airport bus soon ….European trip summary and top 5 lists to follow in the next couple of days….
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