39 Hours in Oslo

This will probably be quick, as it's getting a bit late, and we didn't get loads of sleep this weekend.

...so we took the night bus (9 hours) to Oslo on Friday night, and used the same method returning. It was quite an experience, but really as comfortable as you could expect such a thing to be, particularly in a country full of winding mountain roads. very good seats, pillows, blankets, and few enough people that we were able to have a pair of seats each for 12 of the 18 hours. Besides, it was the cheapest method (could argue driving would be, but we wouldn't be able to drive and sleep at the same time - and there's no guarantee we'd get a good rate on the rental), and we didn't have to front for a hotel room on Friday or Sunday.

Oslo was nice, but not overwhelming. Of course, everything in Europe is old, compared to our North American history (even coming from Newfoundland, most recently), and there were definitely still moments of wonder, but having recently (last fall) travelled to England, Wales and France, Kes and I have some experience with that. Besides, Oslo is a growing city (growing through the general wealth of the nation - Norway's interest rate went up last week, while everyone else's is going down, for example), so some of the most impressive things (like their new opera house) are actually new. However, if you're looking for new and impressive, well then, Canada has a decent amount of that, too.

So anyway, I don't want to sound too cynical or anything, but Oslo was not overwhelming from a tourist point of view. On the other hand, I think that living there would be a lot of fun - it seemed full of restaurants (the good ones of which were pretty much all non-Norwegian food!) and pubs, and we had a really good time out on Saturday with some folks from the Norwegian national rugby federation.

Speaking of rugby, that's why we were there, nominally - I was getting my Level 2 IRB (International Rugby Board) referee certification. I am hoping that, even though we're a long way away from the nearest club, here in Ulsteinvik, I may be able to use my refereeing as a vehicle to see some more of Europe. For example, there are tournaments through much of the summer that I may attempt to link up with, as a referee.

We did see some of the negative side of Oslo - some neighbourhoods had extreme amounts of grafitti, and I would say that there is an immigrant immigration problem - there are lots of people of colour in Oslo, but we didn't see very many instances where people of different colours were walking together.

Of course, the large number of immigrants makes for great food, and there is Turkish restaurant that has become our new favourite restaurant in Norway.

'night,

Ashley