first few day in Oslo

Thursday: Was a *long* day. I finished up packing and went to sleep a bit after midnight, and slept till about 02:00, which gave me time for a shower before heading out the door at 03:00. The walk to the train station, which takes about 45 minutes during business hours took only 30 minuets at that hour, since we didn't have to slow down while trying to get around people who walk slowly, nor did we have to wait to cross any streets. The bus was scheduled to depart at 04:00, and it is an hour ride to the airport, so I got some nap time then, though not very deep. Didn't bother trying to nap at the airport, but did manage to sleep on the plane (too cloudy to see the alps, which is good, because I was too sleepy to try to stay awake to look out the window, and I'd have hated to have missed them if they were visible.

Landed in "Oslo", as Ryan Air calls their airport in Torp, and caught the next free shuttle to the train station, which is a platform, without a building or ticket machine, next to some fields with some farm houses in sight. Took the hour and a half (or more) train ride to the city, and then went to the History Museum (which is free entry) and admired the displays from the earliest stone-age through to the middle ages (they had lockers at the museum where we could store our luggage while there), then wandered around the city for a while and got some food at a grocery store (because we weren't willing to pay restaurant prices) before it was time to meet our host, who lives quite near the main Oslo train & buss stations.

We hung out with her and her 2-year old son for a bit (and I did my yoga) and we all went to sleep around 9pm. I tried waking up around 07:30, and even managed to do my situps and read my 1000 words from the geological literature before deciding that I needed more sleep, and didn't wake up again till around 10:00.

Friday: We bought the "Oslo Pass", which provides one with free entry to lots of different museums and public transit for one flat fee. We then used the pass to take the ferry out to the peninsula across the way, where we went to the Oslo Folk Museum (an open-air museum with many buildings from various periods in history), the Viking Ship museum, where I admired the carving on the ships, cart, sleds, and other wooden items and also admired some of the textile fragments on display. I drooled over a book, but didn't get it, because it is way, way too large to fit into my luggage, and the 990 NOK price tag sounded like a lot. However, that is considerably cheaper than the price listed on the link, so I may yet go back and pick it up--shipping it from here would probably be cheaper than ordering it. From there we went to the Maratime museum, the Antarctic (wooden research boat, the Fram) museum, and even stuck our heads into the Kontiki museum before catching the ferry back to the city center and visiting the war museum (couldn't miss that one when traveling with someone who majored in History and did his honour's thesis on how personalties in politics and personalities in science affected the development of WWII weapons). Then we returned to our host's house and had a short rest before heading out with her and spending the evening walking around the city, looking occasionally at Eurovision crowds and chatting. We finally got home after midnight, did yoga, and went to sleep, only to be woken at 08:30 by a two-year old jumping upon us.

Today (Saturday): Despite not feeling like we'd had enough sleep, decided to get up after the child woke us,
and we headed out to see the Geology museum at the University. Nice place. If you like pretty minerals, or dinosaur bones you should go to this one. From there we went to meet a friend of mine for lunch. I hadn't seen him since 1990, when we both attended the Oslo International Summer school. Then we met our new host and had a pleasant visit wandering around more of Oslo before picking up our luggage and heading back to his place, where we've relaxed with the internet.

Tomorrow more sightseeing, Monday, fly to Trondheim.

PS clovis_t has posted some photos from the trip to facebook if you want to see them

first few day in Oslo

Thursday: Was a *long* day. I finished up packing and went to sleep a bit after midnight, and slept till about 02:00, which gave me time for a shower before heading out the door at 03:00. The walk to the train station, which takes about 45 minutes during business hours took only 30 minuets at that hour, since we didn't have to slow down while trying to get around people who walk slowly, nor did we have to wait to cross any streets. The bus was scheduled to depart at 04:00, and it is an hour ride to the airport, so I got some nap time then, though not very deep. Didn't bother trying to nap at the airport, but did manage to sleep on the plane (too cloudy to see the alps, which is good, because I was too sleepy to try to stay awake to look out the window, and I'd have hated to have missed them if they were visible.

Landed in "Oslo", as Ryan Air calls their airport in Torp, and caught the next free shuttle to the train station, which is a platform, without a building or ticket machine, next to some fields with some farm houses in sight. Took the hour and a half (or more) train ride to the city, and then went to the History Museum (which is free entry) and admired the displays from the earliest stone-age through to the middle ages (they had lockers at the museum where we could store our luggage while there), then wandered around the city for a while and got some food at a grocery store (because we weren't willing to pay restaurant prices) before it was time to meet our host, who lives quite near the main Oslo train & buss stations.

We hung out with her and her 2-year old son for a bit (and I did my yoga) and we all went to sleep around 9pm. I tried waking up around 07:30, and even managed to do my situps and read my 1000 words from the geological literature before deciding that I needed more sleep, and didn't wake up again till around 10:00.

Friday: We bought the "Oslo Pass", which provides one with free entry to lots of different museums and public transit for one flat fee. We then used the pass to take the ferry out to the peninsula across the way, where we went to the Oslo Folk Museum (an open-air museum with many buildings from various periods in history), the Viking Ship museum, where I admired the carving on the ships, cart, sleds, and other wooden items and also admired some of the textile fragments on display. I drooled over a book, but didn't get it, because it is way, way too large to fit into my luggage, and the 990 NOK price tag sounded like a lot. However, that is considerably cheaper than the price listed on the link, so I may yet go back and pick it up--shipping it from here would probably be cheaper than ordering it. From there we went to the Maratime museum, the Antarctic (wooden research boat, the Fram) museum, and even stuck our heads into the Kontiki museum before catching the ferry back to the city center and visiting the war museum (couldn't miss that one when traveling with someone who majored in History and did his honour's thesis on how personalties in politics and personalities in science affected the development of WWII weapons). Then we returned to our host's house and had a short rest before heading out with her and spending the evening walking around the city, looking occasionally at Eurovision crowds and chatting. We finally got home after midnight, did yoga, and went to sleep, only to be woken at 08:30 by a two-year old jumping upon us.

Today (Saturday): Despite not feeling like we'd had enough sleep, decided to get up after the child woke us,
and we headed out to see the Geology museum at the University. Nice place. If you like pretty minerals, or dinosaur bones you should go to this one. From there we went to meet a friend of mine for lunch. I hadn't seen him since 1990, when we both attended the Oslo International Summer school. Then we met our new host and had a pleasant visit wandering around more of Oslo before picking up our luggage and heading back to his place, where we've relaxed with the internet.

Tomorrow more sightseeing, Monday, fly to Trondheim.

PS clovis_t has posted some photos from the trip to facebook if you want to see them