Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Kya Travels
We woke up very early this morning, packed and checked out, and walked down to the bus stop. We were catching the bus back to the bus station, but missed the stop because he stopped on the opposite side to yesterday so I didn't recognize it! So I pressed the buzzer to get off at the next one, and when he stopped at a light, I asked if we could jump off there! He looked a little confused, but understood me after a bit and opened the doors for us! He must have realized we'd missed our stop because he gave me a knowing grin and a wave before he drove off. We walked back up to the train station, where we had to wait for a bit before being let on the train. We got on, found our seats and settled in for our second 7 hour trip back to Oslo. I got some muesli from the cafe, then put on some music, chilled out, ate some food, and slept for the next 7ish hours. We arrived in Oslo and bought our tickets to the airport before heading for a walk up the main street, Karl Johan's Gate. We stopped at a cafe for a cold drink in the shade and listened to some Bob Marley that they had playing there. Then we headed up the road a bit further to a Scottish pub for another drink, and sat out the front where we had a good view over a group of buskers, three older men, one playing an accordion, one playing what looked like a mandolin but with only 3 strings, and one playing a giant triangle shaped instrument that sounded a bit like a double bass, that he told me was called a balalaika contrabass. After watching them play for a while, we headed back to the train station and got a train out to Oslo Gardermoen Airport. We checked in and went through security, where I'd forgotten about the iPod in the bag of rice, and it took me a while to figure out what was making the buzzer go off! We got through though, and went to exchange the rest of our kroners, then Darren bought a sticker to put on his guitar. We picked a sticker of a troll and took ages deciding where to stick it before we put it on. It wasn't until the next day we realized we had actually put the troll under the bridge of the guitar! Awesome. We boarded our flight, and spent a boring two hours on the plane before touching down in Amsterdam. Once we landed, we went to catch a train to centraal station, and it was the first time I've ever seen a double decker train! That was pretty cool. We got into the city and jumped on a tram to get to our hostel, and went to check in. The girl at the counter was super cool, showing us on a map all the places to go and things to see, and giving us advice on various things, without even being asked, which was awesome. We went upstairs to our room and dropped off our bags. It was like a sauna in the room, it was ridiculous! So we didn't spend long in there, but left to go out and find some dinner. We walked up the road a bit to an area of town called the Leidseplein. It was pretty much a couple of blocks full off restaurants, pubs, clubs and music venues, and it had a really cool vibe about it. There were people everywhere, and the bikes! So many bikes! It was so cool to see everyone just cruising around, no matter who they were or where they were headed, it was cool! The road rules seemed a bit crazy though! Bikes seem to have first priority, cars second, and pedestrians are left to their own devices to try not get cleaned up by bike, bus, car or tram!! It definitely tested our instinct to look the wrong way before crossing the streets! We walked around the streets of the Leidseplein for a bit before stopping at an Italian place called Casadi Sergio Ristorante Italiana. We got some amazing pasta and sat people watching for a bit before heading back to the hostel and spending a hot sweaty night in the sauna-dorm!
- comments