After an epic day of driving back along the full length of the Lofoten islands and then up north for several hundred kms, we finally arrived in Tromso at about 7pm at night, 503kms from our departure point! We stopped in briefly to see the Arctic Cathedral, an altogether ugly modern church which was to be a sign of things to see in Tromso (basically nothing!).

After checking in to our accommodation, which was separately labelled as a hotel, a hostel and a bed and breakfast depending on what part of the building you were in, we did a quick walk around the central part of the city. It only took this half hour walk for us to conclude that the only reasons people visit Tromso is for the natural phenomenons of the midnight sun and the northern lights. Unfortunately for us we were about 2 weeks too late to see the midnight sun, but we still experienced the after-effects, with a 1:15am light check from our window showing the kind of twilight you'd experience in an Australian summer at about 7pm at night.

The following morning was spent relaxing in the hotel/hostel/B&B/apartment/guesthouse/flat/share house until just before midday when we set off for Tromso's tiny airport to catch a flight south to the capital of Norway, Oslo. There was something disheartening about the flight south, which took only 1 hour 45 minutes to undo all the north-bound travel we'd just taken 2 weeks, 15 ferries, 2 cars, 4 trains, 3 buses and a cruise ship to get up from the bottom of the country!

As we arrived into the centre of the most expensive city in the world to live in, $15 poorer from a 20 minute train ride from the airport, we were unsure what to expect of a city regularly voted most expensive and yet apparently able to provide heroin to addicts at a similar cost to beer. We quickly saw evidence of the heroin problem gripping the city, with some very interesting individuals loitering outside 7 eleven demonstrating the difficulty of remaining upright while standing. We'd also heard some say that they did not rate the city at all and would not even recommend a visit. With all this in mind, we made the very short walk to our accommodation, a room off Airbnb and based right in the heart of the city.

Shortly after arriving at our accommodation, a very generous roommate also staying at the place we were offered us to share in his dinner, a spicy lentil Dahl and chapatti bread he'd made himself. After this delicious dinner we headed out for a walk to begin exploring Oslo. We wandered through the old town, spotting many of the museums that are spread all throughout the city, as well as the palace and national theatre, both fairly unimpressive buildings. We then headed down to the new waterfront docks development, where we discovered countless modern, new restaurants, kooky sculptures, man made beaches and other creations that helped to reveal Oslo's cool side to us.

The following day was spent further exploring Oslo, and included a very strong espresso coffee at a highly acclaimed coffee institution, riding city bikes the wrong way down one way streets, and getting our Munch on (in honour of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Edvard Munch's birth - the dude who painted that weird scream painting). The night was spent chilling in our room, planning a few remaining elements of our trip we hadn't yet booked and then it was off to bed for an early start in the morning for our 7:32am train to Stockholm in Svedan ja!? Our 2 and a half weeks in Norway had already sadly come to an end :-(