October 31, 2023
The past week in Norway have been really nice, albeit fairly cold.
October 23
I arrived in Oslo, dropped by bag in the hostel, and pretty soon after set off on a walk to the Oslo Scottish Dancing class. It was a lovely group of people. Unfortunately, the floor of their dance space was all concrete and after dancing all day on Saturday, my legs were pretty worn out. Still, it was lovely to meet new people. The class teacher was really wonderful and walked me from class to the bus stop where I got a bus back to my hostel. It was a really nice first evening in Oslo.
October 24
Tuesday morning I walked to a hardware store to pick up a lock. Somehow up to this point on the trip, I have managed to not feel the need for a padlock to lock things up. However, this hostel felt like the kind of place where that was needed, so I now am the proud owner of a padlock. I imagine it will come in handy again, as well.
Then I went for a stroll along Akerselva, a river running right near the hostel. It was beautiful, with walking bridges over it, waterfalls, and an abundance of autumn colored trees. It was chilly, but the natural beauty was amazing. I kept thinking I would just walk to the next river bend before turning back, and then I would see the next bend and want to walk on. Eventually I made it to the market I had been vaguely aiming for an got a cinnamon roll and some coffee for breakfast. From there I started following a walking tour route I had found online.
The tour was lovely and took me to the Opera House where I got to see really lovely views of the city and fjord from on top of the roof. From there I walked to the Akershus Fortress and thorough a bunch of parks. It was a chilly, grey sky day but overall a really nice time walking around to see the sights.
October 25
I started my morning by walking along the main touristy/shopping street, Karl Johans Gate, to the Palace. From there I headed out in search of Hartvig Nissens Skole where a Norwegian TV show I like was filmed. Unfortunately, it was under construction and completely wrapped in scaffolding and plastic. The whole school site was fenced off. It was rather amusing to have walked 40 minutes in freezing temperatures to see a building wrapped in plastic. But I suppose that is how these things go sometimes.
In hindsight, I should have gone from there to Vigelandsparken while I killed time before the changing of the guard ceremony, but I didn’t plan very well, so instead I sat in a cafe for a while before heading back to Palace for a ceremony that was much less of a production than the one in Stockholm had been. To be fair, the Norwegian guard has a ceremony every day while the Swedish ones only do the ceremony on Sundays.
After the ceremony, I took the tram all the way to the end, to Frognerseteren to see the city from a much higher vantage point. On the way up, there were many teenagers wearing intense skiing outfits and “skis” with wheels on them. It was fascinating to watch them glide onto the tram as if there was snow the whole way.
When I got to the top, there was snow in the air and a very slight dusting on the ground. Not much of it stuck, but it was still exciting. Unfortunately, due to the snowy conditions, the view of Oslo from above was a bit obscured, but still really lovely from the top of the hill. I got hot chocolate and a pastry at a cafe and then started walking down towards the ski jump at Holmenkollen. The walk was cold and beautiful. The ski jump and surrounding area were lovely, but I didn’t stay much beyond taking photos because it was just a bit too cold to be comfortable. From there I took the tram back to the hostel, getting back after the dark had fully set in.
October 26
In the morning I had to deal with doing laundry and it was a bit of a nightmare. The place I went was being deep cleaned so all of the machines were running on high temperature and had to cool down before they could be used. Then I had to download an app to pay, which is frustrating and always annoying. Anyway, eventually I got my laundry started and wandered off to pick up my “Too Good to Go” order. I paid 390 NOK for a mystery bag of pastries that were going to be thrown in the garbage otherwise. It turned out to be a large bag of pastries, which felt really great. I sat in a park to eat my breakfast while the wash finished.
After I successfully cleaned my clothes, I went back to the hostel to hang up the things that weren’t quite dry and make a plan for the day.
By the time I actually got started, it was nearly 2pm and I was feeling slightly grumpy about the ‘wasted’ time during my final full day in Oslo. Anyway, I eventually got going and walked to the Oslo City Hall to check out the art there. The Norse mythology wood carvings on the outside of the building were beautiful, but the murals inside the building were magnificent. It was hard to imagine it as a functioning city hall because it felt more like a museum.
From there I walked to Vigelandsparken to look at the sculptures and park. It was a brisk, gray, but nice day to be out looking at the fall leaves and sculptures in the park. I really enjoyed the sculptures and the park, but would have preferred if I had done them the pervious day instead of killing time at the cafe. That would have given me time to actually go to a museum in Oslo, but instead I did it the way I did, which is fine too. Because it was getting dark around 5pm, the day felt fairly short and it was hard to be motivated to go out into the city to do much else once it got dark.
After heading back to the hostel on the tram, I had my first real hostel chat session in quite a while. The people in the room were having a full conversation, which was a different vibe than the previous few nights had been. It was nice to actually have a solid interaction with a group of strangers. I had missed that from previous hostels I have stayed in and found it pleasant.
October 27
Friday morning I headed to the train station to start my journey to Voss. The trip was beautiful and uneventful. The snowy mountains we passed over were gorgeous and made me want to get off the train and explore.
When I arrived in Voss, my friend, Marta, met me at the train station and we walked the few minutes to the place we were staying for the Osafestivalen music festival. I met the rest of the group and we had dinner in the apartment. After dinner we headed out to a concert. It was really fun and while I didn’t understand any of the lyrics or banter of the performers, it was still a really cool experience.
October 28
Another day of the festival. Having stayed up quite late, we had a bit of a slow start, but it was a cozy and pleasant morning. Marta and I went out for a walk at one point and caught up while admiring the beautiful scenery of Voss, Norway. It was another lovely day. All of the people in the group were wonderful and although they spoke Norwegian more than English, they were kind in including me much of the time.
We went to a few more concerts and in the evening, we went to the folk dance event. Unfortunately, my shin splints were acting up so I was nervous about dancing on them too much. Marta was very kind though and helped me through some of the Norwegian folk dances. It was really fun, although also very crowded on the dance floor. When I decided my legs had had enough, I sat down and just listened to the music and people watched. It was very fun and I wish I could have danced more without feeling it in my shins. Oh well, it was still a great atmosphere to be in and the music was fantastic!
October 29
Sunday morning, we went to a few different concerts. I really enjoyed the solo accordion concert but was a bit confused by what felt like very experimental music with strange non-word vocals and funky things being done to a piano. Eventually we cleaned up the apartment, said goodbye to everyone and headed out. We took a complicated travel route to Bergen including a car, train, bus, and city tram.
October 30
Marta very graciously took Monday off from her internship to spend time with me. We went to a second hand store and I bought a second hand Norwegian sweater. It’s very cozy and will be a wonderful reminder of this visit and the whole adventure in general.
Then we headed out into Bergen to see the city. We took a tram up Fløyen to look at the view of the city and then walked back down. The view was gorgeous! I have been told that it rains in Bergen 270ish days out of the year, but somehow I managed to visit on a day with a crustal clear blue sky. While we were initially bothered that we missed a tram just as we arrived, we ended up being lucky because we got to sit in the front and watch the city disappear below us as we climbed.
The walk down was beautiful with the blue sky peaking through the yellow leaves. We wandered into a mini troll forest and enjoyed a troll statue. Descending from the mountain, we wandered the streets of Bergen for a while enjoying the cute little streets, small pathways, and most importantly for me, the slide.
We saw the famous old Bergen buildings along the water and then wandered to the store to get food for dinner and firewood. After a yummy home cooked dinner, some knitting practice, and a few episodes of the show Hilda in Norwegian, we headed back out to go to a sauna.
The sauna was beautiful in the moonlight on its floating dock. We sat in the sauna until we were warm enough to go jump in the harbor before rushing back in. The water and air were both really cold, but combined with the sauna, it was a really fun experience. Over the course of an hour we did at least 5 jumps into the water, only staying in long enough to dip under before grabbing the ladder to pull ourselves out again.
It was really fun and felt like an important cultural experience to have while in Norway. I was glad to be able to do it with something. It was much more pleasant than doing it on my own in Oslo would have been, I think.
We went back to Marta’s place with wet hair, but only had to wait a few minutes for a tram and then we got enjoy the warm cozy fire back at her place. All in all, it was a really wonderful. A great way to end my last full day in Norway.
October 31
Today I’m leaving Norway. After a day inside catching up on some life planning things, like trying to figure out my next parts of the plan, I headed to the airport.
Unfortunately, it has become time to say goodbye to my sneakers. After serving me well for at least 1.5 years of lots and lots of walking, the holes I have worn int the sides and the lack of tread on the bottom were strong indicators that it is time to let them go.
