Oslo: Power Naps, Brown Cheese and the Struggle to Keep Clean

 Even when you are away on holiday, what is happening at home always affects you, no matter where you are and how much fun you are having. That is how we felt yesterday when our phones received the message from across the ocean that the rites of American women had just been dealt a blow and for the time being, will take a terrible giant step backwards due to the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.  Our sadness was compounded this morning when we heard about a senseless shooting just a block from our hotel in Oslo at a gay bar in which two people were killed and 19 injured. We had heard screaming and sirens during the night but just thought that it was due to the enormous gay pride celebration that was being planned this weekend in Norway’s capitol.  During our two days in Oslo, we repeatedly witnessed a city that embraced their nation’s differences and it was frankly, a wonderful thing to see. What a world we live in. 

Even with all the world’s events, we enjoyed every minute of our time in this beautiful city.  It is a walkers’ dream.  All the sites that can be seen in 36 hours are easy to get to with just a good city map and a comfortable pair of walking shoes.  On top of that, we had perfect weather and in fact, it was a bit hot! Once again, the Weather app failed me because it had been predicting cooler temperatures for ten days.  I trusted it and the clothes in my overpacked suitcase reflect my reliance on that incorrect information.

As we sit in the train station, waiting to board our train to Bergen, here are just a few of my latest travel realizations and observations:

1. The days of the post-arrival “power nap” are over.  In past trips to Europe, we would arrive and if we were lucky,  the room would be ready and we would sleep for a few hours and wake refreshed ready to soldier on and enjoy Day 1 of our adventures.  This was not the case this time.  My phone alarm went off two hours later and I was ready to throw it out the window.  He only thing that saved it was that I couldn’t move because I was still stiff from trying to sleep in the plane.  I was bleary eyed for the remaining part of the day and the thought of taking on a museum or a two or three mile walk to get “the lay of the land,” made me queasy.  I am so sad of my latest realization that my body is beginning to increasingly reflect my ever-advancing age. 

2. There are a lot fewer blondes here than I thought. I was under a lifelong misconception that nearly all Scandinavians were blonde and I thought that the three of us would stick out like sore thumbs with our dark/grey hair, that clearly once had been dark. I was dead wrong. Besides being an incredibly diverse population, there were just as many Norwegian brunettes, if not more, than blondes. Could I have been misinformed for six decades and all the blondes live in Sweden? I will give a hair update as we visit other parts of the country…I’m sure everyone will be holding their breath. 

3. COVID did not appear to happen here. I say this because no one, I mean, no one is wearing masks.  Our tour guide in Oslo, said that in February, the government lifted  COVID restrictions and said that COVID was virtually over.  I don’t know if people were dancing in the streets then, but they were sure doing that while we walked around. 

4. Like other European nations, Norway seems adverse to the use of shower curtains.  I try to fully embrace the customs of the nation in which we are visiting. For example, I have been daily eating Norway’s brown cheese, which we all thought initially was very hard peanut butter.  Or not taking it personally when in some restaurants, orders are taken at the bar and no one comes by to tell the foreigners, i.e. us, of this custom, even though we have been sitting at the table, at first quizzically and then angrily, waiting for someone to wait on us. I can’t however, get past the shower situation.  We were staying at a lovely Oslo hotel which had a huge bathtub that took gymnastic-like moves to enter safely and a glass partition that only covered 1/3 of the length of the shower. In our bathroom, the glass was not staying in place and tilted outwards. Even when working correctly, the gymnastics must continue because so much water is streaming into the floor causing one of two problems: 1. You have begun a small tributary that is headed  towards the closest body of water; or 2. You have ignored all of the hotel’s eco-friendly recommendations and used every dry towel to wipe up the water mess. Give me a good, old-fashioned American shower curtain any day. 

5. We have yet to site the Viking River Cruise’s “little red house at the edge of a forest.” For anyone who has watched any PBS Masterpiece show in the last two years, you will know what I am talking about because PBS showS that commercial 6 or 700 times during each episode. 

Next stop..Bergen!

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