Day 22, 4 July 2014, Gothenburg (Sweden) to Oslo (Norway). Love. European. Trains.
It was an early start today - Awake at 5 am and creeping out of the hostel at 6 am onto a bus to Central Station. The train to Norway was thankfully without incident and (almost) before I knew it we were on the coast and coming in to Oslo (pictured). Due to a miracle of forward planning, excellent pricing via Amoma.com and I think a change of management group, I'm actually staying in a hotel. With a massive buffet breakfast and wifi included. Due to my inherent charm I even got to check-in at midday and have a single room around six times larger than the standard single. Fortunately it didn't have a bath - otherwise I would never have left and would have missed out on gorgeous Oslo - the most welcoming and friendly Scandinavian city so far. Very multi-cultural, very easy to get around, hardly any psychotic cyclists... need I say more. The plan was to pick up my Oslo Pass and have a stroll, repair to the hotel and plan my next few days. But the best laid plans... Went to the info centre, got my pass - even had 5 minutes of fame when my photo was taken picking up the pass for a new Visit Oslo marketing campaign (see album). There is a walking tour in English included in the pass - $26/150 kr. But the catch is it's only on Friday nights and Monday nights. And it's a fairly good rule to do the orientation stroll at the beginning of a stay. So I spent a couple of hours strolling around and about - the main drag - Karl Johan's Gate (remember from York, UK - Bar means Gate. Gate means Street. Pub means Pub). Also strolled around the vicinity of the National Gallery and most importantly, with advice from info centre - found the boozer. Very against booze generally this lot - beer and cider, though not cheap, can be found at supermarkets. The Demon Drinks of wine & spirits can only be found at the Wine Monopoly shops. Behind barred doors. Shades of the legal injecting room in Kings Cross, Sydney! Nevertheless... trundled in, found a bottle of hugely overpriced Portuguese plonk and carted my treasure back to the hotel - planning illicit drinking in the comfort of the nicest room on the trip so far. I don't think many tourists make it to the Wine Monopoly - you really have to know it's there - the staff were shocked that I only spoke English! Back to the hotel for a coffee & a waffle in their afternoon tea lounge, snappy 1 hour snooze and then it was off to the walking tour start point in front of city hall - thankfully just around the corner. Now it wasn't the best walking tour ever. And it wasn't the worst. It just wasn't entertaining. Darn lucky she wasn't working for tips, or she wouldn't be eating. Was a pleasant night to stroll about and get some history though - like why a lot of the old signs say Christiana - that was actually's Oslo's name back when Danish Christian IV was in charge. Also learned how Norway's been potted back and forward between Denmark and Sweden over the years - only becoming independent in the early 1900s. The last respite of the less than thrilling tour of course is photo taking and lots of it. Foot sore & definitely weary after the early start to my Oslo Pass, it was back to my luxury digs for dinner - thankfully only 130 kr. Or $23 odd. Which is pretty reasonable for a small buffet dinner. Especially given the propensity for the local eateries to charge like wounded bulls... saw one cafe where an omelette was 130 kr! Plannings, sleepings, big day tomorrow.