Oslo: Awesome capital of Scandinavia (part 1)

Of course, like every other time I travel to a new place, I am going to rave about how stark raving AWESOME Oslo is! 

At first I was a bit skeptical about the whole trip, being that Norway is without a doubt the most expensive place, ever, in the world.

Anyhooter, we ended up gathering 9 of us to hit the road up north last Thursday, so we split gas in the cars 5 ways, and the ferry tickets were only a fraction of the cost. Yeehaw! 

Steffi, Guri, Hanna,  Nina, Emiel, Adelija, Simona, Alberto, and I

Hirtshalls Harbor, Northern Denmark

In addition, all the shopping on the ferry is tax free, and while I formerly thought this was a waste of space, time, and money, my thoughts changed when it became clear that we could buy a bottle of vodka for 20 euro, while in Norway it is closer to 35. Good call, Color Line.

 Gloriousness of tax free shopping...

It took 2 hours to drive to Hirtshalls harbor from Århus, then we waited in an awesomely not awesome line for 2 hours to get on the ferry, and then is was 4 hours of FUN! Thank god for motion sickness pills, or I would have been barfing up a storm on that thing.

This is the windblown look...rawr.

So what I thought of a ferry was a crummy large boat with plastic seats and screaming children, but this baby was like a mini cruise ship! 4 hours of decadence, tax free goods, beautiful views, and only one screaming child, who happened to wake me up. GRRR.

Arrived in Larvik, Norway, and headed to Baerum  (Guri's hometown) to drop her off and rearrange our stuff before driving the rest of the way to Oslo to continue our adventures.

Of course, none of our stupid Danish sim cards worked there. So, we had to use the Danish, Spanish, Lithuanian, and Dutch ones, costing a fortune and making things uber difficult. The main problem: WHERE TO STAY?!

As of Wednesday afternoon, we had nowhere to stay. Cheap(-ish) hostels were booked, no apartments to split, and Couchsurfing just didn't come through. Until Wednesday at 10pm, when all of a sudden CS paid off, and we had too many places to stay! Wherein lied another problem.. how to split 8 of us between different places???

Alberto stayed with some family friends in the ritzy neighborhood by the Palace, Emiel and Adelija stayed with a complete stoner man, and Steffi, Hanna, Simona, Nina and I were hoping to meet up with someone.

Eventually we got to Frode's house, ate some quick grub, then he took us to an art gallery (weird, weird stuff: eyeballs hanging from the ceiling as birds, sketches of a woman  having an abortion, and rice on the floor in the shape of a vagine, complete with blood. I had no idea what to think, but to each his own...)

First night at Frode's, cool artist flat in Grunerlokka.

We got the hell out of there, but then all of a sudden Norway decided to be REALLY COOL and not allow people (us) into bars if we weren't 23. Whaaaaaattt??? I already waited 21 long years buddy, but whatever. After 3 misses, Nina and I called it a night and went back to sleep, while the others went to party at Villa. Norway got ever COOLER when they all came home at 4am, turned on music and continued to talk as loud as possible, and then Simona brought up gay adoption rights, and I gave up the idea of a good night's sleep. 

Friday was the day for exploration! Guri sort of mentioned a bit about May Day, but said only there would be people protesting for the legalization of pot. Little did we know, as we walked to the city, we encountered the biggest parade/protest of the year! From every street and every direction, more and more people came, with signs about anything and everything, megaphone and marching bands. And claustrophobia for me.

  Really fun when you can't read what the signs say...
  Coolest marching bands! Playing ABBA!
  Clueless.

So the parade hampered our travel time a bit, but it was the best weather I have seen in ages, and was stoked on life. Not just sunny, but warm warm warm, close to 75, and I got a sunburn! Crazy times. 

So we met up with everyone at the Central Station (junkie haven, btw.) and did all the major sightseeing, with Martin, who was Emiel and Adelija's host, and probably high all day.

First we went to the Akershus Fortress overlooking the harbor and apparently a popular sunbathing hangout.
Group photo! Minus Martin, weirdo...
 Fortress/solarium
Harbor area, full of pirate ships! Yippeee

After that, we headed by the city hall up to the Royal Palace, to eat lunch and bask in the sun.

Giant palace, complete with tourists and Norwegian flag (EVERYWHERE!)

View from top of Palace, looking towards the city.

Nina and I, suckers for a guy in uniform...

Simona and Sarah enjoying the sunshine

Rested for a bit, then headed more north up to the sculpture park, Vigelund, and were thoroughly impressed. So much bigger than I thought, and overflowing with people, dogs, babies, and BBQs, basically all of my favorite things! 

There are over 200 statues, portraying various human activities, though some seem overtly sexual, but I'm okay with that. 

Thinking we're cool...not so sure.
 Wrought iron gate guarding the Monolith.
River flowing through the park
Main fountain
Boys will be boys...

Setting sun, leaving the park.


Some of my favorites

The park was great, but soon it was time for dinner, where we parted ways, only to meet up later that night at the Palace, where the fun began! 

We then went to the place Guri was staying with her boyfriend and his best friend, and hung out until we went out to Mono, and met up with Ola, our new couchsurfing friend we didn't get to stay with the first 2 nights.

Nina headed back to Frode's later that night (around 230) thinking we would have an okay night of sleep...until they came home 5 minutes later with friends, and stayed up drinking in the living room area until 630, which was just not so great! Glories of couch surfing continue...

Saturday. The weather was TERRIBLE, but we took a ferry to Hovedøya island, where an old monastery was build and is semi-preserved. It was really pretty, but when it started raining, us girls called it quits and the boys attempted to explore around the other parts of the island.

Old Monk fortifications

Had brief dinner at Frode's house after we ran into him at the supermarket, but decided it was time to move to Ola's house for the night, for *hopefully* better sleep, and possibly some better conversation, as we didn't feel so welcome at Frode's place. 

To be continued..................

MARMALUND!!

After an exhausting week working on an article about "green lifestyles" in Denmark, an exploring to an eco-village (basically a compound with a punch of people living on it in almost completely organic ways) it was time to CELEBRATE last night! Delish tacos and a box (yes, BOX) of wine later, we were settled in to watch the intensely popular Denmark-Norway handball semi-finals.

Now, when I think handball, I vaguely recall boys in high school itching for the bell to ring so they could run out and throw some stupid little ball against a giant green wall, or the side of a classroom if they were all taken up. They would play the entire brunch or lunch period. Such dedication... So when they asked if iI wanted to watch handball, I wasn't too thrilled. But no no no, this is some sick twisted version of both soccer and basketball. Played on an indoor court, you can only take 3 steps with the ball (like a small volleyball) without dribbling, or passing it on. There's a goalie in front of soccer goal posts, hoping to catch the ball before it goes in. 2 halves of 30 minutes each, one point every time you score. Simple.

Guri (our very own Norwegian Viking) was rooting for her team who needed to win to make it through, thought we would be seeing our Danish male counterparts crying at some point during the night, and used this to lure us over to actually watch. But no, not even Marmalund could help Norway play better. Denmark won 32-28, and then it was all over. Virtually the least painful sports experience of my life.