Oslo, Norway
July 9th, 10th 2010
Not much to say about Oslo. It’s quite pretty, things are expensive, everyone gets around on bus, quite a number of museums around. The only one I visited was the Viking Museum, which frankly, for its price, was disappointing. But then again, it’s nice to see some old wooden Viking ships.
Hostels in Norway love charging for essential extras, like bed linen. Linen is standard and included in every single hostel I’ve stayed at, except the ones in Norway. I had a room mate who was this older man who declined to name his original nationality (he told me to stop guessing when I tried). He is an EU citizen, probably from Eastern Europe, this much I could tell. He lived in America (somewhere in Washington state) and was kicked out of the country by immigration when they told him they made a mistake giving him his permanent residency years earlier, which I thought was quite messed up. He lost everything he worked for in the USA; house, possessions, car, social security etc. Then he went to live in London. He constantly talked about how much he could earn working in Norway, if they let him. In fact, I’ve met quite a few people on my Norwegian travels who are living in hostels while they look for work. The problem is, Norwegian employers want employees who can speak Norwegian, which is the stumbling block for most immigrants. The country is one of the richest and most stable in the world and has one of the lowest unemployment rates, which is what’s drawing in all these immigrants. Anyway, this guy wouldn’t stop griping about money and how hard life is, it made me realize how fortunate I am.
BTW, this guy slept in the bunk above mine. He snored very loud throughout the night. I was tempted on several occasions to kick his bed in the middle of the night.
Food wise, our room had a small stove and sink so I borrowed some pots/pans from the hostel and made pasta for my meals. Much cheaper than eating outside.
p/s: I think I forgot to allow the public to see my Bergen pictures so I just changed it. Check the Bergen pictures out if you haven’t.
The National Gallery is free and has one of the most famous paintings in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream
I’ve stayed at maybe 40 hostels, and though linen is included in most of them, I’d say about a dozen of them (in all parts of Europe) required an extra deposit for linen. I always carry a sleep sheet, so I never bother.
I spent 9 days in Scandinavia, and never slept in a bed. I took overnight trains every night, from Berlin to Copenhagen to Stockholm to Oslo to Bergen, back to Oslo, back to Stockholm, to Helsinki, back to Stockholm, back to Copenhagen, then to Hamburg.
If you count it out I spent two days in every city, three in Stockholm, one in Finland, but I never spent the night. I had a Eurail pass, so I only spent money on reservations (about €30) and on the cruise to Helsinki (half-price Eurail discount, about €80).
A neat trick about Oslo, you can take the overnight train that heads to Trondheim, get off at Vinstra around 3 am, wait about 20 minutes for the overnight train heading in the other direction, and take it back to Oslo which arrives around 7 am. You get eight hours of sleep in a nice Norwegian train (with free linen, pillow, ear plugs, etc.). You can technically do this every night in Oslo as long as your Eurail pass lasts.
Whoa, that’s a good strategy. I think it’s definitely something I should try down the road. But on a train every night? Sounds tiring after a while (but cheaper in the long run).
norway is home to some good black metal
aka stuff I don’t listen to 😮