Oslo
NORWAY
Norwegians in a Nutshell
By LYNDI
Monday, March 30, 2015
It had been nearly four long years since Aaron and I had left U.S. soil – and a trip abroad was long overdue. So we dusted off our passports, traded our trip to Kentucky for a trip to Norway, and set off to the land of a thousand trolls and “Frozen” references.
We had found unbelievably priced tickets from LA to Oslo on Norwegian Airlines ($350!), which told us that a) the plane might fall out of the sky enroute, or b) March is a bitterly cold, wet and depressing time to visit Scandinavia and they needed to fill seats. Luckily, neither was true, as Norwegian Airlines was modern, comfortable and clean (though you do have to pay for drinks, meals, etc.) and late March turned out to be a beautiful time of year and we felt like we had the tourist spots to ourselves.
We arrived into Oslo late on 30 March and took the train into town. Since Aaron and I were wearing our big-boy pants on this trip and not cutting costs at every corner, we had booked a hotel reservation at the Comfort Hotel Xpress in the central city. That was the only real plan we had, and we figured we would take our first day in Norway to figure out the rest of the details. Turns out that you have to travel a little differently when you are on a 10 day trip rather than a 10 month trip.
When we got up the next morning we looked at buying train tickets to Bergen, only to find that they were all sold out days in advance. In the past, we would have shrugged and just hung out in Oslo a little longer, but when you have a short amount of time to fit in an epic vacation, panic started to set in. On top of that, we discovered that several things would be closed on Easter weekend and some sights didn’t start running until a few days in to April, so we spent the first couple of hours that first morning working with the hotel staff to help us navigate the different obstacles and still get in all of our “must-sees”.
This was to be our first lesson in Flashpacking: you need to plan ahead.
When you have finite vacation days you can’t necessarily just make it up as you go along. Trains sell out, attractions close, and weather is unpredictable – so you have to have a plan. We had planned on doing the famous “Norway in a Nutshell” tour, but ended up finding availability if we did everything backwards, so it all worked out, but it took quite a bit of time to work it out!
Once an itinerary was in place, we set out to explore the city. Oslo was a really nice capital city, but a big city nonetheless, which is never a huge draw for the two of us.
The downtown area was exactly what a Norwegian town looks like in your imagination: full of polite people, churches, cobblestone streets, sweater shops, and impeccably clean. We were surprised to see a few beggars – we had assumed that Norway basically gives every citizen welfare, a pension, amazing healthcare, and probably a dog for free.
Norwegians are the best at a lot of stuff – so here is my list (also in a nutshell):
Coffee. I don’t know why this surprised me – the cold, dark climate would lend itself well to a good cup of joe. But Norwegians do it right. First, by consuming it en masse – the average Norwegian drinks 4 cups of coffee per day. Second, by making it accessible everywhere. Hotels, vending machines and 20 minute ferry rides make a cup of coffee cheap and easy.
Food in tubes. I can’t really explain it – much less understand it – but Norwegians seem to love their food in toothpaste-shaped containers. You can find caviar, shrimp, ham – even bacon (is nothing sacred??!!) in tubes to make for easy spreading and sharing.
Keeping kids warm. Where I’m from – we freak out about our kids catching a cold and keep them inside if it’s cold and rainy. Where Aaron’s from – it doesn’t dip below 50 degrees, so it’s not much of a concern. In Norway, we lost count of the number of strollers with a collection of blankets and little sleeping bags (and I’m assuming a baby?) and little kids walking around like Ralphie’s little brother in “A Christmas Story”. And I bet all those bundled up babies and kids turn out just fine and score much lower on the “wussy scale” than most American kids.
Sobriety. You have to work HARD to get past even a slight buzz in this country. Beer and cider is only available in limited hours in grocery stores, and anything harder will take a special trip to a liquor store. Then add on some super high taxes on an already strong currency, and you have a great incentive for backpackers and flashpackers alike to practice sobriety.
