Tales of fjords and other such Scandinavian things
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2005
1
22
35
Trip End
Aug 22, 2005
Oslo,
Norway
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Sarah and I spent the holiday in Oslo with my friend Elisabet at her grandmother's apartment. After our whirlwind trip through Eastern Europe we were pretty exhausted and wanted nothing more than to veg out. So when Elisabet presented us with a huge egg full of candy, made pizza and brownies for dinner, and suggested watching some movies, we thought we had died and gone to heaven.
Easter Sunday we toured Vigeland park, and took a tram about a half hour out of town to see the ski jump that was built for the 1952 Olympics in Oslo--slightly more impressive than centennial hill in etobicoke.
Monday we walked through the centre of town, saw the fortress Akershus Festning (and some great views of the fjord!), the royal palace and the changing of the guard (where Elisabet filled us in on all the royal scandals), and joined what seemed like the rest of the city down by the port
Dev and Elizabet in the park in Oslo
. The weather was gorgeous, and everyone was walking around, ice cream in hand. I spent a lot of time crashing into people, too busy admiring the ice cream to watch where I was going.Elisabet's grandma had been gone for most of the weekend, but returned home on our last night. She didn't speak very much english but we communicated through a mutual love for ABBA. She blasted the tunes, and we bobbed our heads in enjoyment.All in all the perfect Easter weekend--r & r, and a truckload of candy. Thank you so much for the good times Elisabet (and Bebe).
From Oslo we bussed our way back into Sweden's second largest city, Goteborg. We had made plans to stay with David, a friend of a friend, who I had met at birthday party this past summer. Did you get that? He had mentioned that he was studying in Sweden, and I said I might be there in the next year..... I don't know if he ever really expected me to email, but 7 months later there we were on his doorstep, staying with him and his hilarious Bulgarian housemates.
Dev and I in the port in Oslo
David is really into the arts scene in Goteborg and gave us a different kind of tour of the city. We spent our first night hanging in a cafe meeting some of his friends, and then went and checked out these movies that were being played on the outside walls of his friend's gallery. Pretty neat to just plop down on the curb of a random neighbourhood street and watch these films. The manager of the gallery, Big Love, just happened to be there, and gave us a little tour as well. Very cool.
The next day Sarah and I took a ferry out to one of the islands surrounding Goteborg. The island was really pretty and very peaceful, with kind of a Cape Cod feel to it. We strolled around the island, admiring the houses, and hoping someone might invite us in for lunch =) There were very few cars on the island--most people had motorbikes to scoot around on with huge boxes on the front for transport. It was yet again another beautiful day. David had been telling us about the dismal depressing winter months of Goteborg but somehow we had just missed them. Finally the weather gods were on our side.
From Goteborg we made one more Swedish stop in Malmo en route to Denmark
not something they sell everywhere...
. It was kind of a last minute decision to go there so we ended up spending most of our day walking to and from the train station trying to sort out accomodation. Amidst trying to get ahold of someone from the hostel on the phone, we managed to see the castle, which I'm not going to lie, wasn't all that impressive, and check out some of the cute little squares lined with cafes. The greatest find in Malmo however, was this Latin American restaurant called La Empanada. Such great food, at pretty reasonable prices (by Expensinavian standards). And we weren't the only ones singing its praises......at 11:30 am the line-up was already out the door! Our hostel in Malmo kind of had a camp feel to it, with chores included. Upon checking in we were handed a list of clean-up duties we had to do before we checked out in the morning: mop/vacuum the floor, clean the sink, take out the trash, and my personal favorite, dust the windowsill. Yeah right.
The next day was April 1st, which in the bus world means changing the schedules. Unfortunately we were not aware of this, and showed up at the station to board a bus that no longer existed. Whoops. But eventually, a little behind schedule, we were finally headed over the bridge to Copenhagen.
