More Scandinavia………….

Listening to Stars right now…completely recommend them…

From the ridiculously long travel day, I finally end up in Oslo.  The intent, back on Tuesday was to make it to a surfing beach on the middle west coast of Norway.  Hoddevik.  It’s so small that it’s not in any guide books and it’s tough to find a map detailed enough to show it.
So, I took an overnight train (last entry) and it let me out in Otta.  Cool…so the really kind older woman at the tourist info stand set me up with some cardboard and wrote Målø (pronounced like mole, the Mexican chocolate sauce) and i was off to the streets!  Wow.  Hitch hiking.  Twice in two days…and before that I think I was 16 and my car wasn’t working in Rhode Island…So, over an hour later a guy picks me up.  He’s very kind and we go for about two hours (a fourth of the way!) and that’s it.  Drops me off at the foot of a beautifully snow crested glacier and tells me to be careful not to get stuck “out here in the mountains.  It can get real cold at night.”  Stuck?  You mean like what you just did by dropping me off out here midway between two 500 person towns.  Ok.  I’ll keep that in mind.  So I get the sign out again.  Only six hours left.  It’s now 2:30 PM.  It’s getting dark and it’s been cold.  Two hours later I gave up.  Took the bus (the ONLY bus) going the other way…it said Oslo on the marquee, so I thought that sounded good to me.  Ha.

Oslo.  The most expensive city in the world…
So i make my way to the tram…through the sea of disgusting prostitutes and flurry of homeless that is the train station exit.  The hostel is 4 km from town center.  Fine, the tram stop is a 5-min walk…as long as you don’t miss the last one…
So I check into the hostel and make my way up to my (our) room.  The smell is overwhelming.  I mean, how is it I always get this?  It CAN’T be normal!  Right?  Anyway.  It’s midnight, so I prepare myself for the last crowning moment of my nearly 4-day journey getting here from the north; it’s now time to wake up all the poor sleeping travelers in my (our) room.  So, 5 dirty looks later, I’ve managed to make my bed and get in.  Alarm set for 30 minutes before included buffet breakfast ends.

Not the worst place after all.  I mean, the city, not the hostel!  Went out for a walk around town, looking for a cool T-shirt with something in Norwegian written on it…no success.  Heard about a cool pub that was showing some soccer games, and ended meeting a bunch of nice guys and I joined them in yelling at the TV for a few hours…took a couple pictures.  Good times.

Next morning…off to Gothenburg, Sweden…less expensive.
Love it here.  Staying in another hostel near the best streets for exploring the older parts of town and right next to the biggest park in town…been running every day here.  GREAT!!  Wandered up to the top of a hill along a maze of winding paths.  There’s a ski jump there.  The kind you hike up and get one shot before hiking up again.  Similar to what we had in New Hampshire at Dartmouth.  It was the Hanover High School practice jump.  Insane.  Looking at that jump from the top…no thanks!
Gothenburg is young, cool, and with lots going on.  I hear that this is the favorite Scandinavian city among many travelers.  It’s up there, with Stockholm in my opinion.   Off now to try to get tickets to tonight’s hockey game here in town…
Not too many new pictures since northern Norway.  I haven’t met anyone in a few days, so it’s a bit tough…I’m sort of medium shy about taking solo pictures with some big monument/boat/donkey in the background….

This entry was posted on October 21, 2006 at 7:00 am and is filed under Scandinavia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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