Norway

The first night in Oslo I checked into the hostel and walked around the city. It was rainy and cold. I read the guidebook and talked with the staff at the hostel and there really isn't very much to do after sunset on a Sunday in Oslo. I ducked into a pub where the Chelsea vs. Arsenal game was on all of the TV's. The matchup is equivalent to the Texas OU game (too soon). The place was packed. Just like in the States, if I'm going to watch a game I feel obligated to buy a drink. I order a Norwegian pint and hand the bartender 200 kroners ($40) expecting a lot of change. Well, she gave me back 130 kroners($26). My beer cost $14! I sat down and watched the game laughing at the ridiculousness of a $14 beer. If anyone ever complains about beer prices in the US come to Norway and you will have good reason to complain. Alcohol is taxed like Robin Hood took a vacation to Brighton and the Sherriff of Nottingham is on speed.

The game was great and I looked around to see that barely anyone bought anything from the bar. Oh the curse of being a polite American tourist. $14 was the amount I hoped to spend on that drink and an entire dinner. Once again, I was mistaken. I ordered the cheapest pizza slices on the menu in the cafe on the 1st floor of the hostel and my bill came to $23. I saw an advertisement on the side of a bus with a Big Mac meal for the "low" price of 70 kroners ($14)...In the immortal words of Inspector Gadget, Wowsers.

The next morning I got up early to rain and, you guessed it, frigid weather. I had coffee and a piece of toast in the cafe on the bottom floor of the hostel (they had special prices for people staying there). Coffee and a piece of toast cost 25 kroners ($5). I talked with the owner for a while and he threw me another piece of toast for free. He was interested in how much a person can happily live on in Texas in a month. I told him it is like everything is 75% off, but you have to pay for healthcare. He told his wife they need to move to Texas.
After breakfast I walked all over Oslo. I saw the changing of the guards at Akershus castle. There is a huge statue of FDR looking out on the bay just under the castle. I wish I had all of my pictures here, they were really great, but that is a story for a bit later. After the castle I took a ferry to the Fram Museum. The Fram is a ship famous for exploring the North and South Poles. I didn't know all of the stories of the Norwegian explorers who risked everything to reach the poles. A British crew was also attempting to reach the pole, but finally reached it only to find a tent with a huge Norwegian flag billowing in the frozen wind. Ouch. The Fram is in the middle of the museum. I walked all throughout the decks and have no idea how they did what they did in such a small ship.

Across the street from the Fram was the Kon Tiki Museum. So maybe I don't know very much about the world, but the Kon Tiki Museum is all about Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer and writer who believed ancient societies were able to make their way across oceans in their primitive boats. He built boats the way they would have been built 800-1000 years ago and sailed them across the ocean proving how different cultures moved across continents. His crews consisted of men each from a different country. Inspirational story.

On the way back from the ferry I went by the Nobel Prize Museum. I got to bed early that night after walking so much. I was awoken by a guy in the same hostel room saying he needed to borrow my phone charger. I was disoriented and gave the charger to him and told him to give it back in the morning. I went back to sleep and woke up to find my Iphone which I hid under my pillow because it was my alarm clock was gone. I was not happy. I had to file a report with the police which caused me to miss my train to Bergen. All of my pictures from the previous day were on my phone. I lost my camera, phone, gps, alarm clock, watch, and music player. Not cool. The thief forgot to steal my passport, credit cards, cash, netbook, and what's left of my dignity. I truly wish that person a lifetime of dropped calls.

I got on the last train out of Oslo to Bergen. On the trip I finished reading "The Imperfectionists," a book with multiple fictional stories and perspectives on the currrent state of the newspaper industry. It was a great read. The train ride to Bergen from Oslo is one of the most scenic train routes in the world and I was very dissapointed to have to travel it in the dark, but I needed to get to Bergen to make my hostel reservations. Just to make the day better, the man sitting across from me on the train spilled hot coffee on me. What a day.
I got to a rainy Bergen at about 11 PM. I walked to the hostel in the rain only to find the reception at the hostel was closed and someone had forgotten to put my key in the secret safe like they said they would. I had to walk around in the rain to find internet, pay for internet, call security who gave me another number to call in order to find someone to find me a key. Fun times!

I finally got into my hostel room to find no one else was in my room that night. This was a bit of comfort after a rough day.

The next morning I woke up to cold rain yet again. I walked to a laundromat, supposedly the only one in Bergen. Two loads of laundry cost $25 and I didn't even pay someone else to do it. After the laundry was finished I went to the tourist information booth to ask where to buy a digital watch to I could know what time it is and set an alarm. The place they said is the cheapest in Bergen sold very cheap digital watches for the low price of $125...Ugh. I went to a different store and settled on an old school alarm clock which would cost $4 in the US, but in Bergen cost $45. Sorry for talking about money so much, but it really is amazing how much more expensive everything is in Norway. I really do love Bergen. It is a perfectly picturesque town. Fjords surge up on either side of the town and all of the houses match with vibrant colors and tiled roofs. I took a special tram up to the top of one of the fjords which overlooked the town. An American girl and a Norwegian guy were behind me in the best seats on the tram, but the American girl was spazzing out over the heights and so I switched seats with them. I think the Norwegian guy should dump the girl, she was so whiny. She got to the top and wouldn't walk near the observation deck and kept saying she wanted to go back down. The view from the top was spectacular. The fjord is so steep hovering over the city you feel like you are on a skyscraper looking out over one of those Dickens Snow Villages people put out around Christmas time. The overcast weather just added a mystical element to the scene.

I got back to the hostel and read until I fell asleep. Unfortunantely my hostel room filled up. I woke up twice at around 4:30 AM because the gassy older man on the top bunk couldn't stop his phone alarm from going off. The other older man across from us on the lower bunk finally yelled "Are you $#%^# stupid turn off your phone. You are in a hostel with other people, please be considerate and let us #$^#% sleep!" Fun times...
I got up early the next morning because my hostelmates were incapable of being silent when getting up. They each made tea in the room before 8 AM. This should be a crime. No tea pot should howl before 8 AM. I got up and drank a strong coffee at a local coffee shop. I then ventured out of Bergen to see the home of famous Norwegian composer Grieg. The tourist information center told me to take the tram 30 minutes out of town to a certain stop and then I would see signs to Grieg's House. I got to the stop and found zero signs to anywhere...Awesome. I walked about a mile to a gas station and the lady was very kind and showed me on a map how I needed to go back the way I came and go another 2-3 miles by foot. I bought an orange juice as a thank you for her troubles and because I feel like I'm coming down with a slight cold ($6). I walked with a backpack the 3 miles to Grieg's House. I was the only person there. I got a personal tour of the house for the same price I paid for an orange juice. Many of you are probably thinking, who is this Grieg guy and why did Brent go all the way out there to see his place. Well see if this is familiar. You can play it while you continue reading:

I learned a great deal about the famous composer. He was very short, but in all of the pictures he used the same technique Peter Jackson used in The Lord of the Rings by standing 5 steps closer to the camera than the other person in the picture to make it look like he was a normal size. Grieg was also sick with TB as a child and it caused one of his shoulders to droop down further than the other. He is well known for starting the fraternity popped collar by holding the collar of the drooping side up to make it look like his shoulders are even. Very interesting to learn about the insecurities of such an accomplished man. Grieg also married his first cousin, which should have been an insecurity for him. The house was very quaint with impressive pictures, silver, and a polished piano Grieg and his wife would use daily. After the tour I walked down to the small hut where Grieg wrote his masterpieces. I was all alone sitting on a rock and pulled out my netbook to play some of his music.I listened to Peer Gynt looking over the water and islands of trees as the sun danced over the waves to the music, and the water kept time gently climbing up the shore before falling back again. The trees acted as a sort of background percussion to the music. At just the right moment during In the Hall of the Mountain King a wave crashed against the rocks beginning the exploding chorus. A peaceful moment I won't forget.


I made the 3 mile walk back to the tram got back to Bergen in one piece. Shortly thereafter, I met up with a camper from the camp I was a junior counselor at when I was 16. She was 11 at the time and one heck of a soccer player. She now plays for a team in Bergen. They just won their Division Championship and will be relegated up to the Premeire League next year. If you can't tell I'm very excited for her. At 16 I had to push her around and play like I did on my high school team to keep up. She is very good and very tough. We walked around Bergen and had a great meal. Afterwards she picked up some Norwegian snacks called Smash and we watched a movie at her place. Smash was really good and I ate way more than I should have. She showed me her skills on Guitar Hero and then we watched last season's season finale of the Simpsons. The episode was about Norwegians that come to Springfield and take the jobs no one in Springfield want. Springfield ends up building a wall, but no one in Springfield wants to build it so they pay the Norwegians to build it. There are some funny jokes about Norwegians and Americans and paints a satirical picture of the border fence between Mexico and the US. Grieg is also played in the background in the episode. Good stuff. She was a great host and I had a brilliant time.

I went to sleep soon after getting back to the hostel. I woke up at 5 AM to the man who complained about people being inconsiderate in a hostel snoring like a walrus in heat...I have no idea what that sounds like, but he was incredibly loud. I was going to take the 10:35 train from Bergen to Oslo in order to make my flight to London later that night, but the snoring was so terrible I couldn't get to sleep. I got up, showered, packed and moved my ticket up to the 7:45 AM train. I really am exhausted at this point with everything that has happened. I have an actual hotel room tonight at a Marriot and can't wait to sleep in without other people waking me up. Hopefully this helps me fight the cold.

The view on this train ride is unbelievable. The landscape looks like a fairy tale. Looking out on the vast fjords it seems perfectly reasonable for there to be trolls hidden in the snow peaked cliffs.

The family is a bit concerned about the warnings issued by the State Department and asked that I not spend the entire week in London. I finally agreed and will make like a Narnian child during World War II and escape to the birthplace of the Narnia books, Oxford, for two nights. 7 nights to go. A scary and exciting thing to think about. I can't wait to see family and friends, but don't want the adventure to end. Also, any job offers are more than welcome!