Friday, January 8
We drove up to New York because our overnight flight to Oslo
was out of JFK, and it is a good thing we arrived early because the airport was
pretty busy and it took a while to get through security. As I have shared before, we almost always
choose window and aisle seats because I sleep and C doesn't, and sometimes we
luck out and have an empty seat between us and sometimes we don’t. Well, our flight was full, so we had someone
sit between us, but it was a nonissue because I was pretty much asleep before
the plane took off, and I slept for more than seven hours! I only woke up when there was an announcement
about beginning our descent into Oslo.
That should tell you two things:
it was a smooth and uneventful flight, and I really love to sleep. When I did wake up, I noticed these awesome
rainbow lights, which I loved!
Saturday, January 9
We arrived in Oslo just before noon, and after clearing
immigration, we took the FlyToGet train from the airport into the city. From there, we jumped in a taxi to our hotel,
which was the Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz. It
was a really nice hotel! We went out to
explore some shops and find something to eat, and we ended up at a place called
Peppe's Pizza. Despite the fact that
sunset was at about 3:35 pm and it was only about 15°F, there were lots of
people out and about!
That night, we were startled awake by the fire alarm and
about 4 am. We had to evacuate the hotel
and it was snowing and freezing and I am not the most coherent person when I
first wake up. Luckily we were only
outside for about 20 minutes! Of course
we were wide awake, so I seized the opportunity to FaceTime my mom, since we
were six hours ahead of home. I was also
able to talk to Ginny, who is pretty attentive to my voice and watches me on
the screen. It is adorable! It was the second time we did this (the first
being when C and I were in Iceland), and it is so great to be able to see our
girls when we're not home! My mom also
showed the screen to Maddy and Sadie, but they weren't as interested as Ginny was in watching me (although Maddy did lick the screen – no joke).
Sunday, January 10
We had breakfast at the hotel before heading out into town
again. It was cold and snowing, but we
didn't mind – the walk was so peaceful and quiet! It seemed like most things were closed on
Sunday, so it was relatively quiet throughout town.
We went to the Oslo Opera House and took a tour there. It was a very impressive building and it was
neat to see the behind-the-scenes areas.
After the tour, we climbed up onto the roof of the opera house, which
gave up some great views of the city and the harbor. During summer months, people actually sit on
the roof to listen to outdoor concerts!
Our next stop was Akershus Fortress (Akershus is also the
name of a restaurant at the Norway Pavilion in Epcot) and the grounds were so pretty!
Finally, we stopped at the Nobel Peace Museum, which was
both inspiring (so many accomplishments) and depressing (so much still to do)
at the same time.
On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at one of the few
places that was open for dinner – O'Learys, which is a Boston-themed sports
bar. It seemed so strange to be eating
dinner in Oslo surrounded by American paraphernalia on the walls! Oh, well – beggars can't be choosers!
Monday, January 11
We got up early, ate breakfast at the hotel again, and
bundled up for a fun adventure. C had
found a sledding run that is 2 km in length, so we took the metro out to
Korketrekkeren to rent sleds. The voice
announcing each metro stop sounded exactly like Oaken from Frozen, which was
hilarious enough on its own, but then when we arrived at the shop to rent
sleds, all I could think about was Wandering Oaken's Trading Post.
It had snowed heavily overnight, so on the upside, it was a
picturesque winter wonderland, but on the downside, the snow on the run had not
yet been packed down, so it made for slowgoing at some points. However, this did not dampen our fun at
all! What a great morning! Once you sled down to the bottom, you hop
back on the metro with your sled and ride back up to the top and do it all
again! It is also a popular ski area, so
there were loads of people on the metro with skis and sleds and dogs and it was
awesome.
After sledding, we took the metro back to the hotel, packed,
and checked out before catching the train to the airport and hopping on a plane
to fly to Paris.
I will say this about Oslo:
what a fabulous city! I can
seriously picture us living in Oslo and it is one of the best cities we've ever
visited. I was genuinely sad to leave
and we will definitely have to come back here to spend more time exploring all
Oslo has to offer. It feels cozy and
charming and I loved it!
The only thing that made it ok to leave was the knowledge
that we'd be at Disneyland Paris the next day!
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