Oslo Rains

It wouldn't be an adventure if everything went as planned. My poor friend had a family emergency and left me stranded in this grand capital city. Attempts to escape my marooning failed when the seats were completely booked for that same day, but as luck would have it, my guide brought me to a place that seemed relatively quiet for a summer day in Scandinavia.

I walked through the crowded walking street of Karl Johans Gate, lugging an unwieldy green sausage to the hostal. As my shoulders strove to keep my bags coming with me, I remembered my arrival into Huashida in the fall of 2000 and taking my extra large green sausage through the main gates, all the back to the secluded foreign students' dorm. Luckily I found the hostal and set to taking a relaxing shower before heading out to the streets for exploration. On my way to the hostal, people gathered around the entrance to a hotel, apparently a well known Bollywood star was about to make an exit. I didn't stay as I thought my time better spent in exploration of the local sites.

Oslo was rainy, the gray skies present for most of the time. On my walk to the Akershus Festning, it started to downpour for a while, reminding me why I had brought my rain coat with me. I stopped off in a music store to escape the rain, and when it died down to a drizzle I went on to the old fortress. I decided to just do my own walking tour around the place, saving money and brain space. The paths were cobbled, and my sandals walked clumsily onwards. Some views of Oslo harbor and the city itself were found along the way. It was 3 pm by the time I had finished the Akershus, so I headed on out to try to find Cafe Blitx, a place known for radicals and against-the-grain people. As luck would have it, it was closed for my one day in Oslo, so I headed off to find another cafe to eat at.

I finally found a small off the road cafe where I had a double americano and a turkey wrap for about 15 USD. The wrap was pretty good, it was ground turkey with a lightly tangy sauce and fresh yellow peppers and greens. A light salad of alfalfa and dandelion leaves topped the wrap, and the meal was a welcome one after the long and wet trip of the day. Afterwards I headed back to my hostal for an afternoon nap. It was about 6 pm when I got back, and after my nap and some lazing around it was already about 8. I read for a while, my book being Hemmingway's "The Sun Also Rises." After getting into the book for a while, I went for a 7-11 light dinner of ham and cheese calzone before resting again, prepping myself for some Oslo pubbing.

It was a fun night watching the locals dance and sing. The beer a pilsner that was good enough. I left when the pub finally closed, satisfied with my romp through Oslo. In the morning it will be time to pack up and move on to Amsterdam, time to leave the lilting tongue of Oslo and head on towards the softer 'German.'