Friday Oct 15th - M, D, Br, L, J and I arrived in Oslo around 14:30 in the afternoon. M and D were supposed to get there a few hours before the rest of us, but they hilariously accidentally booked their tickets for Oct 15th, 2011. Bahaha. Anyway, when we finally made it into the city center, we decided to stroll around for a bit, and grab some lunch/dinner. We found a place that seemed pretty cheap (converting things from Krona is really difficult. 50 kr is a really good price for something, but most places are about 80-140), and had the best waitress ever! She was so helpful, and spoke perfect English. She gave us a big long list of all the things we had to do seeing as we only had 3 days to do it! After our delicious pizza dinner (literally all we ate for the entire week was either pizza or pasta) we headed out to explore a little more before meeting up with Inge, our host. We randomly stumbled upon a royal procession - the King, Queen and Princess were headed to a Hotel where they were having a banquet for the Swiss King/President (I don't know what the Swiss government is). Lady Gaga was having a concert while we were there, and I think we were all secretly hoping that the blocked off road and police were for her entrance, but alas.... Then, we continued walking and stumbled upon a movie premiere! The movie was called Fritt Vill III, the third in a horror movie series (J, Br and I went to see it on our last night), and we were standing right next to the red carpet, a death metal band was playing (the lead singer was playing the cello while screaming into the mic), and they were handing out Batteries - a Norwegian energy drink. It was pretty epic. After that we had to go meet up with Inge. He was so cool! We stayed at his amazing house about 45 minutes from the city, with an absolutely amazing view! He was hardly ever there though, which was a bit of a shame, though getting drunk texts from him in the middle of the night, telling us he wouldn't be coming home was pretty amazing. After we got all the information we needed, we decided to just go to the house and relax for the rest of the night. We got some beers, played Risk and stared out at the view on the balcony. It was an amazing first day.
Saturday Oct 16th - So the next morning we all slept in a bit, and made an amazing breakfast with Inge when he rolled in around 11. The night before we'd been joking about him being a serial killer, so it was really nice to actually talk to him and determine that he wasn't a serial killer. He had lots of cool things to tell us about Norway, and has lived one crazy life (sailing to Africa, then South America and finally landing in the Bahamas where he lived for 4 months - badass). Then we headed out into town to explore around before meeting up with the final 3 of our fellowship (Br if you're reading this, yes I totally stole that from you because it's excellent). We found some statues that we, of course, climbed all over, and then strolled down the pier. There were about a billion bra's hanging from the power lines, and we couldn't figure out why until someone pointed out that it was national breast cancer awareness month (and even if it's not, we're just going to say it is). We walked all the way down the pier and found ourselves at an incredible fortress. It was absolutely beautiful! All the orange leaves and the bright sun (even though it was super cold), that's just something you never get in California. Autumn is definitely my favorite time of year, and it was so amazing in Norway! After the fortress, we headed to the Opera House, which Inge had told us about that morning. At first, I was a little ambivalent, but then it turned out to be amazing! You could climb all over it, and we were there at sunset - it was marvelous! After that came a lot of aimless wandering, searching for a place to eat (ok, I guess that doesn't mean it was aimless). Br, J and I split off from the group and got Indian food... it was so good! I got the Lamb Paneer and a honey pudding thing... it was so good. Br and J have been really close this whole trip, so it was nice to get to know them better, and now I've apparently become part of the trio (this is mainly because the rest of the group walks too fast, and we can't/don't want to keep up). And I think after that we just met up with the rest of the group and headed home.
Sunday Oct 17th - Sunday started off our last full day in Oslo, and what better way to start a day than by randomly finding a waterfall right by your bus stop? We had about half an hour before our bus got there, so we played around and took pictures for a while, twas delightful :) When we finally got into town (it was vacation, we weren't about the head into town at 8 am) the other 3 of the fellowship - who were staying somewhere else - had already been around to all the things we had done before they arrived, and went back to their apartment to make lunch, while the 6 of us headed to the statue park (a suggestion from our awesome waitress the first night). It was lovely, the trees were all shedding, the light was gorgeous, and it wasn't even that cold (for Scandinavia). The statues were a little weird... we determined that they were statues of what people would do during the apocalypse. And apparently a large, phallic orgy of people will pile up in the middle of a park. Oh and men will start kicking babies (Don't worry, I'll put pictures of these). D, J, L, and I lost Br and M, so we headed out into a non-statue-y part of the park and compiled a huge pile of leaves to play in! It was great, our pile was huge and everyone was having a great time jumping in and throwing leaves everywhere. M and Br finally showed up, and almost ruined the pile, but then decided to be nice and let us finish it first. After the park we met up with the rest of the group and strolled around town a little more. We got coffee and some food from a little restaurant on the docks, with the worst waiter ever, and sat playing cards under the heat lamps for an hour or so. Then we explored the docks again, only this time at night, and Br, J and I decided to go see Fritt Vill III. It was great. One of those scary movies that scares you while you're watching it, but makes you laugh afterwards. The rest of the group went to an ice bar.... oh wait, no, they did that when we went to Indian the night before, just kidding. I think they just went to a regular bar, and then back to H, BR (yeah, this isn't getting confusing at all...) and K's apartment to make dinner and watch a movie. After our movie, we met up with them, and then we all headed back to Inge's place and promptly passed out.
Checking out the river/waterfall we discovered
Phallic statue of an orgy
Baby-kicking man
Playing with our leaf pile
Monday Oct 18th - The next morning we had to get up bright and early to catch our 10:30 train to Bergen. Yeah, that's right, we woke up at 8... shocking, I know. We said out farewells to Inge and thanked him for having us, then headed down to the train station. Because I had to change my travel plans for break so suddenly, my train reservation wasn't with the rest of the group. I had to sit in the last car on the train all by my lonesome. It was actually quite nice to be alone for those 8 hours. The whole trip I'd barely had enough time to process everything that had happened, and where my emotions stood, so it was really nice to just sit back and think for a while. I only wish I'd brought my iPod with me. I realized that I need to start taking school more seriously (ok, I know some of you are laughing at me for saying that), and start getting involved with things on campus/start taking classes for fun. Everyone on the program seems to be having a great time at college, and I don't know if it's just that I don't like UCSC or what, but I just can't relate to them about that. So I decided that when I get back to school I'm going to sign up for a dance class and maybe a photography/graphic design class (I'll probably have to take it at Cabrillo though) so that I can have more things to keep me active and meeting people. I also discovered some new thoughts on romantic relationships thanks to two books I've been reading that have really gotten me thinking (Brave New World and I'm Not Stiller, if you were wondering). M joined me in the back for a bit, but when the train stopped and it was snowing, we both ran to take pictures and play in the snow. Then we got yelled at and separated (apparently when they say a "short stop," they mean it). We finally got to Bergen, and headed to our hostel at the top of a mountain - don't worry, we took a bus. Once we checked in and got settled, we headed to the store and got some stuff for dinner, ate dinner, played some games. I need time to adjust from being alone for so long (especially when the me being alone involves me seriously thinking about and analyzing my life), so I got a little anxious and went out for a walk. It was cold and dark, haha. Probably not my best decision ever, but whatever. It was necessary. I don't think anything else too spectacular or noteworthy happened that evening, so I'll just say: and then we went to bed.
All of us with Inge
I would have taken a better picture if the stupid people
hadn't yelled at me to get back on the train
hadn't yelled at me to get back on the train
The View of Bergen from the Hostel
Ok, and I've decided that I am going to split this into two posts. Because, really, no one would read something twice this long. I'm surprised anyone has actually made it this far down! :-p
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