Travel day + day one in Oslo, Norway
I like Oslo a lot. It’s a beautiful city full of modern and classic European/ Scandinavian architecture, the people are friendly, you can walk to most places that you want to visit, and there’s an energetic - yet chill- vibe here. It’s a nice place to be.
We flew out of Calgary in the afternoon at 3:15pm and enjoyed KLM airlines business class on the way to Amsterdam. What we didn’t manage to accomplish, however, was sleep. We both find it difficult to sleep on a plane, even if the seats fold out into a bed.
By the got to Amsterdam, caught the next flight to Oslo, and landed at Oslo International Airport, we had been awake for more than 24 hours.
At least we got a nice sunrise out the window of the plane!
We got our luggage and headed to the taxi kiosk - Oslo has a system where there are no taxis waiting, you have to book one at a kiosk at the curbside. A guy in a hoodie followed us from the doorway to the kiosk and asked if we needed a taxi. I said ‘yes’ and he said that he had his taxi available right away and we wouldn’t have to wait for one to show up from the kiosk booking. I was exhausted and just wanted to get to the hotel, so I said OK. He pushed the trolly with our bags to his car and he explained that because it was Easter Sunday, it wouldn’t be a flat rate, but would be the meter rate. OK, whatever. Off we went.
A few minutes into the 20 minute ride, we watched the numbers on the meter start to climb rapidly. It was adding about three Norwegian Krone every ten seconds. I started doing the calculations on the Currency app on my phone and nearly had a heart attack.
When we arrived at the hotel, the driver said that our fare was 2675 Krone ($526 CAD/ $390 USD). Rob blew up at the driver and said, “we’re not paying that. You’re a crook!” I won’t go into everything that happened after that, but suffice to say that I’ve never seen Rob that angry and I hope to never see it again. We asked another cabbie at the hotel what it normally costs to get to the airport from the hotel and he said around $150 USD. Rob said “then that’s what we’re paying. That’s it. Take it or leave it.”
The guy reluctantly said OK and then tried to get me to put my card in the machine before he punched in the amount. I told him no way, I want to see what you’re charging me before I put my card in. We finally got it sorted and paid the fair amount. I made sure to double-check my credit card statement as soon as we got to the room.
It just goes to show that you should never cross a moose.
(When Rob and I were dating, I worked at UPS and a friend of mine who was also a coworker was also named Rob - so boyfriend Rob needed a nickname to distinguish him from coworker Rob and I chose ‘moose’ because Canada. Rob seemed to take to it pretty well, even signing off on our FaceTime calls with antlers.)
So we got into our room at the Thon Hotel Opera…
It’s a nice room, very Scandinavian. The bed has two individual comforters instead of one large one, which is common in this part of the world.
The view out the window is pretty nice as well.
We texted our local friend Ian and he dropped by to take us to lunch and drinks at a burger place near our hotel. The burger was really good and afterward, he went home and Rob and I attempted to stay up until the normal local bedtime, even though we’d been up well past 24 hours. It’s the only way to beat jet lag, though…
We didn’t make it. We were both snoozing by 5pm and we slept off and on until 10:30 the next morning! We managed to grab some coffee and a bowl of cereal at the hotel before getting cleaned up to go to Ian and Jørgen’s place for cocktails and an early dinner.
I unpacked a flannel shirt to wear and discovered that one of our cats had decided that she wanted to come along. At least some of her did, anyway.
Apparently, she’s figured out how to open the closet door. All the shirts on the lower hanging rod are like this. Le sigh.
It was about a 30 minute walk from the hotel, but with the temp at 9C (48F) and hardly any breeze, it was a nice walk.
We arrived right on time and were greeted by Ian (right) and Jørgen and their new addition Madeleine.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of kids and I’m even less a fan of babies, but that kid just charmed my socks off. What a beautiful, happy little girl she is!
Ian and Jørgen were great hosts and we had some amazing food. The spread of appetizers was just the kickoff to a great meal.
a mound of French butter (with salt crystals throughout), gravlax (marinated salmon), holiday herring (pickled in booze and spices that made it taste like mulled wine - OMG delicious), Norwegian shrimp salad (which you might remember from previous trips gets put onto Norwegian hot dogs), plus some crackers and flatbread. The purple drink at the top is a martini made with Empress gin that we brought with us. Main courses (not shown) were a lamb roast and a beef roast, plus salad, mashed potatoes, and a panko-crusted halibut. It was all delicious!
We had a great time and met two of Ian and Jørgen’s friends - Kyle and Tommy - who were very nice. It was a fantastic start to our trip. After a quick Uber ride back to the hotel, jet lag kicked in again and Rob hit the sack pretty quickly. I managed to stay up long enough to write this, but that’s about as far as I’m going to get.
Nighty-night, y’all. That’s it for now.