Norway adventure – Oslo

Oslo – Day 1
Friday, 1 March
Steps: 16153
Song: Norwegian wood by the Beatles

We had a long uneventful flight, with probably the worst airline food ever (Air France), but reasonable wine and we were able to watch Bohemian Rhapsody which was wonderful.

The Oslo airport is well sign-posted in English and Norwegian, which has a lot of similarity to Dutch and hence Afrikaans, for example, ‘free wifi’ is ‘gratis internet’, so we were able to understand it quite easily.

Our first stop was at the Duty Free. Alcohol is heavily taxed in Norway, so we stocked up. We had bought a bottle of Whiskey from home, but could add another, as well as 4 bottles of wine. We found Kanonkop Cape Blend for about R250 and R&R Classique for about R300 a bottle. Heavily loaded with our booze, we decided to have coffee and lunch at the airport and found ‘Espresso House’ which is very much like “Mugg and Bean” back home. We shared a salad full of salmon which was delicious. We then walked outside to wait for the train and hit the cold for the first time. We waited 10 minutes, then caught a train which took us to Oslo Sentral, walked through a mall and then 100m of cold outdoors to our hotel. The absence of traffic was noticeable.

Our room was pleasant enough and the bed was so soft, I felt like Goldilocks in Mamma Bear’s bed. Not great for our old backs! The shower over the raised bath was most impractical shower ever and really challenging to get in, let alone get out off. As I said, first world problems, so not moaning.

After unpacking the little we could into the tiny cupboard, we braved the cold and walked to the Royal Palace, looking out for Karl Jurgens Gate which I assumed, understandably, was a gate, sort of like an entrance to the old city, until I realized we were actually walking on the “gate”. What struck me most about the gates (streets) of Oslo was not the cold, not the cigarette stomps lying all about- it is a bit like walking in an ashtray- but the lack of colour.
Granted it is still winter, so no leaves or grass, the lack of green is overwhelming for me. Also, nearly everyone is wearing black, brown or some dark colour. David and I must have stood out like sore thumbs, him in blue and me in red!
I understand we were tired, but to me, the city has loads of statues, but no energy. It is flat.

We stopped off in a Scottish pub for a drink which was pleasant, but not vibey, then continued walking looking for a place to eat. We found an Irish pub, with live music, which was promising. Poor guy was trying to get some interaction from the crowd, but nobody was listening. They did not serve food, so we left.
We walked into a restaurant called Grand Cafe, which looked very expensive, but we were hungry. After waiting for 5 minutes ( felt like 10) in the vestibule to be seated, we left unattended. Finally we found an alley with a Spur-like restaurant which looked very inviting, but their kitchen was about to close. It was 8pm! Luckily, the waitress recommended the place next door, which was a Palestinian Meze joint and they squeezed us in. I was in heaven, my first prize in dining out, Meze for one!. There were so many little dishes, that they did not fit on the table. David had a lamb casserole and he helped me finish all of mine.