A Day of Highs, Lows, and Security Guards

  Oslo, Norway
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

The second half of today sucked. Period. It was a sucky sucky day. May I reiterate, it sucked. Travel is heaps of highs and lows... like parent hood, only less babies. So brace yourself for some ranting. Yes, there were some very very cool parts in the second half of the day, but overall, it sucked. Also, we apologize for the length of the blog, but this is 48 hours worth of travellers mayhem, so we've included a readers digest version at the bottom for those of you with short attention spans (but the blog is entertaining, so please read on!)

For some reason, today was one of those bad-luck kind of days where everything seems to go wrong in a domino-effect of bad luck, but we did have a couple of really lucky moments in there just as we were losing faith in travel and world in general!

All Aboard

Dan's alarm didn't go off in the morning, so we woke up late with 15 minutes to pack, dress, eat breakfast and run to the bus. Disappointed about the lack of shower, but figuring we could have one in Oslo in the afternoon, we threw everything together, grabbed some cereal in our super wonderful Tim Hortens to-go cups (We love you Timmy's!) and slapped together some cheese-fudge sandwiches and ran. We made it to the train station just in time, and set off for Myrdal, the starting point for the Flam railway, a 20km trip through the mountains and valleys of Norway which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful train trips in the world, according to not just Norwegians. We had booked our tickets a couple of days before and discovered that we could get off the main
train in Myrdal, catch the Flam railway on a return trip, and get back to Myrdal just in time to get back on the train to Oslo, with about two minutes to spare in between each one.

Flam Valley Living

We made it onto the Flam train just in time, and set off on the steep, winding track through breathtaking scenery, sheer drops down mountainsides to lush green valleys dotted with historic stone and wooden farmhouses, mirror-still lakes ringed with birch trees, and massive waterfalls thundering down mountainsides capped with snow. We stopped at one huge waterfall, where the spray soaked the platform, for a quick photo shoot, and were treated to the slightly cheesy but entertaining spectacle of Norwegian music played over loudspeakers while blonde Scandanavian girls in glittery blue and silver dresses danced beside the waterfall, evidently acting out a Norwegian folktale about a mysterious spirit woman who lives in the mountains of the Flam Valley and tries to lure people back to her lair for something. I'm guessing some ravaging of some kind, which of course makes it into a good story instead of a bad one. They did a good job of only appearing one at a time in different areas around this distant old stone building. It gave the effect of the Siren jumping huge distances in a matter of seconds, adding to the cheesy ethereal presence of her.

Banshee at the Waterfall

We continued on the train down one of the steepest train tracks in the world' at a gradient of 1-18 (which to us meant 'you're going down a hill on a train') and were treated to some more breathtaking views down the valleys. Due to snow melting on top of the mountains, there were waterfalls about every 50m. Some of the farmers in the valleys had waterfalls in their backyards. So many waterfalls! with amazing ravines filled with flowing rivers, green green trees and more waterfalls. Hard to believe that Norway produced Vikings way back in the day if it was this beautiful. Maybe the Vikings just driven crazy by how beautiful it all was and had to go off and raid and pillage just to try and regain some sanity. Well, I guess we'll never know.

Winding Road

We hit Flam and our almost empty train filled up fast with a horde of American tourists from a cruise ship that was sitting in the Flam harbor. Gabrielle managed to sneak off the train and ran to get a picture of the view from the docks. She almost got busted without a ticket on her trying to get back on again, but due to the tourist hordes, she made it look like she was looking for her ticket and the conductor waved her on in impatience. Our trip back was just as picturesque if only slightly noiser. Our cabin seemed to avoid filling up too much with most of the tourists, and we got treated to the Siren girls again at the waterfall.

Now here is where things started to go downhill, which is strange because the train was going uphill (gradient of 1-18 they told us again). In looking at our tickets to continue on to Oslo, we were making sure they were comfort class and checking our seat numbers when we realized what the times on them actually were. Our train from Flam arrived at the station to switch at 12:20, and the guy who sold us the tickets had told us we transfered to the 12:25 train to Oslo, arriving at 5:30 esque. Our tickets said we LEFT for Oslo at 5:30 and arrived in Oslo after 10 pm. Crap. So we took our chances and hoped that we would be able to hop on the train anyway. Our train from Flam was late, but they held the train to Oslo for possible switching passengers. We managed to get on the train after sorting it out with a conductor and the doors closed right behind us. Just in Time! But no comfort class for us. Not a big deal, we should just be able to go to the bar and show our tickets and get tea right? We already paid for it. Nope, no tea. Cause we weren't in comfort class... but the tickets... nope, no tea. No refund, and a very crowded, slightly cramped, and sauna-ish car.
- low point

5 and a half hours later we arrived in Oslo, very hot, very sweaty, very tired, but optimistic. We'd find a place to stay, we'd shower, life would be good. We went to the info centre to see if they could get us a place. Nope, everything is booked. Everything? Absolutely everything, there was a 'conference of some kind or another and EVERYWHERE was booked in the city. The finality of which she spoke and the speed of her response clearly relayed that she had checked... a lot. So, we planned to spend the night in the train station. We locked our bags up and headed out on the town with some 24 hour bus passes. We managed to get on the wrong tram and get lost in the city for awhile before finding our way back to where we wanted.
- lower point

Pillar of Art

The Statue Park of Oslo, called 'Vigeland' after the artist and designer of the park. The park was gorgeous. The artist made a deal with the government in the late 1930's to design the entire park and fill it with statues if they would provide him with a studio and gave him the land. Deal! So the park was filled with statues, a river running through it, and a giant fountain. The main walkway led down to the fountain and then terraces up took you to the main statue, each piece carved out of solid granite. Every statue in the park was supposed to depict humanity in some stage in life. The statues at the pinnacle of the park stood in circles, leading up steps to the master piece. A giant tower, carved out of solid granite, looking as if it was a tower of bodies (not morbidly dead bodies, live people), all intertwining and leading up to the top of the tower. Even the gates around centre piece were designed by the artist, so the whole park of statues were all designed in the same style. The park was very green and sprawling, filled with people of all ages, running, walking, playing sports, cooking on cool little disposable coal cooker BBQs for picnics. The whole scene was fantastic.
- high point

Vigeland At Dusk

While looking at the statues in the pinnacle of the park, Gabrielle somehow managed to start talking to this old Swedish guy who, as it turned out, grew up right beside the sculpture park and watched the artist and his minions creating the park. He told us stories about how they did it, and what was involved, and a little about himself. Turned out his name was Rolf and he asked if we wanted to go see the ski jump in Oslo. We didn't have a bed to get back to, so why not. The ski jump in Oslo has been there in some for or another since the late 1800s and has undergone several alterations and reconstructions. It is still in use once a year and is used for the world ski jump event. It also has great views over Oslo. Rolf told us about ski jumping, which he apparently used to do in high school, and about Norwegian Royalty, which everyone loves even though they have no actually power, and then took us to another point on the hills above Oslo for some awesome sunset viewing. Once again, watching 'sunset' in Norway is actually a very long process so you kinda just go and watch the beautiful colours for awhile until you're satisfied then move on. He then took us to a cafe near the Kings farm, which sat above one of the rivers leading out to the fjord. He bought us tea and apple cake with ice cream and strawberries, despite our trying to pay for it, and we sat and talked until it was actually dark (a long time). Turned out Rolf was about to turn 80 and was having some home life problems due to his wife being ill and he was happy to have someone to talk to. He told us about growing up in Oslo while the Germans occupied it in WWII, and his work in different places in the world as an engineer. After much talking he took us back to the train station.
- high point

Moonrise Over Olso

We thought we could hole up in the train station and catch some sleep in a corner or something, but come 1am, the security guard closed up the train station and kicked us out, telling us it would reopen at 4:30 am.
- low point... very very low point

So we headed out to the streets with 50 Kroner in our pocket (about the equivalent of not quite $2) and looked for an all night cafe. Finding only pubs, we picked the best looking one and had enough to get a one cup of coffee between the two of us. It would have been enough for two cups, but Dan forgot to get the change back when he paid for the first one and we didn't realize it till much later. So we sat outside with our cup of coffee and watched the local night life. It was a weeknight, and pretty quiet, but the regulars were out. It took us a sec to be sure, but prostitutes filled up the street, mostly immigrant women who grabbed on to any guy who walked by and tried to poor enough honey in his ear to make a buck. The reason it took us a sec is because they were mostly dressed in pants, flat shoes, and tops that didn't really have low necklines. Most of them also wore light jackets or sweaters. Meaning that they were dressed much more conservatively than most of the other women that walked by. They also tended to stay fairly close to each other. We figured it was probably in case cops came by, so they could pack up as a group and say that they were just hanging out and obviously not dressed up for hooking. There were also a lot of drunk guys or couples, and pedicab drivers on little tripod bikes with seating in the back for passengers. The pedicab drivers looked like university students, and did fairly well for themselves through the night.
- dodgy, but interesting

At about 3 am we decided to go for a walk, which turned out to coincide with the bar closing. It was starting to get light by then so most of the dark lurkers were disappearing. After an hour of wandering, and an interesting experience with a public urinal, we headed back to the train station to wait it out till 4:30 and hopefully a couple of hours of sleep. We settled in to a good spot in the station and Gabrielle managed to fall asleep while Dan kept watch and kept her upright so the security didn't bother us. Unfortunately this only lasted about an hour and a half until he fell asleep too, at which point a gaggle of security guards woke him up with a shake and he woke Gabrielle up lest they feel the gaggles wrath. At this point of being tired, hungary, and smelly, we ate the last of our food (a tin of fruit salad) and Dan had went for another go at the now long time nemesis of the bathroom attendant. A surly looking man who, with his electronic gate, charged 10 Kroner for every bathroom stop. Together, we devised managed to figure out that if you push on the electronic gate it opens, so we took to putting 1 Kroner coins in and charging through the gate with confidence of paying.
- Very very low point

Viking Ship

We headed out to the Viking Ship Museum and the weather turned out to be gorgeous again. The museum was small but very interesting, filled the three viking burial ships and artifacts that were recovered inside. One of the ships was much to damaged to repair, but the other two had been restored very well. Not too many artifacts remained, as all of the burial sites had been looted years ago and all of the valuables stolen, but some very interesting pieces managed to escape the looters, including a gilded bridal for a horse, an ornatly carved wagon and sleds, some jewelry, and a few other items. We headed back to the train station via ferry and enjoyed the view of Oslo from the water.
- high point but tired

So we got our bags and tried to get the tax back for the Mac. Of course, more problems. Turned out that it was too much for them to reimburse us on the spot, so now we had to mail something in to Finland when we got home, but we weren't going home so we had to get stuff photocopied there and the guy had to call this lady and we got given her number but he would only give us one name, not her full name cause the number was her cell, as if that wasn't dodgy, but she was the one who could help us, so we mail this thing with passport photocopies and other forms and receipts, etc, and we would get our money mailed back to us in 5 weeks... meaning it will go to New Zealand. Right, we have absolutely no money, no food, and a 6 hour train ride ahead of us.
- So sick of low points

Good news is, we can open the mac! Unsure of if we had any money we could pull out, Gabrielle managed to find some and got a few groceries. Dan, meanwhile, used the free wireless internet in the train station and got the mac set up and we both had some fun upon Gabrielle's return. We boarded our train to Gothenburg shortly after some wireless emailing and headed for Sweden. We arrived and managed to find the tourist info office after getting some Swedish money. They normally charge a booking fee, but the nice lady booked us the last bed at a hostel in town for free. We caught the bus there and both had very very long hot showers. Soooooooo nice! The room was two bunk beds, but it was private so that was worth it. We stopped at a nearby grocery store and grabbed a late night dinner and that was it. Good Night.

We again apologize for the length of the blog. Any physical or emotional damage caused by the reading of this blog is the sole responsibility of the reader.

Readers Digest Version

Flam Railway - Good!
NSB Railway to Oslo - Bad
Vigelan Sculpture Park - Good
No Accommodation in Oslo - Bad
Random Norwegian named Rolf - Good
Oslo Railway Security Guards - Very Bad!
Street life in Oslo at 3am - Dodgy but interesting
Oslo Railway Security Guards again - Again Very Bad!
Viking Ship Museum - Good but tired
Tax Return Office - Very Bad, but not as bad as security guards
Opening Macbook - Exciting... mostly for Dan
Food - Exciting - mostly for Gabrielle
Train to Sweden - Asleep