Welcome to Oslo

I just got to Oslo.  I’ve been trying to learn the basics of Norwegian before getting here and thought I was doing okay.  Now that I am here I realize that I cannot understand, speak or read anything in Norwegian so I’m still at square one but its okay, I have 5 months to practice  :)   As I was waiting for my luggage at the carousel at the airport I decided to have a snack since I had been awake since 4am and only had coffee.  I pulled a banana out of my bag and was about to open it when the man standing next to me collapsed and started seizing on the ground.  His wife starts yelling “sukkar” (my Norwegian is no good but it was obvious she was yelling “sugar”).  Id like to say that I was heroic and offered up my banana but it took me a little while to figure out what was going on.  By the time I got that he had gone into diabetic shock, his wife had yanked the banana out of my hand.  Anyways, I’m glad that I could help but that was the only food I had to eat  :(

I took the train to central Oslo and then a bus to my hostel.  I got there just before 1pm but couldn’t check in until 3pm so I left my luggage there and went for a wander around the area.  I was looking for a local café with free wifi but after 30 minutes of looking, I broke my rule of not going to American type fast foods while I’m in another country, and got a good ole’ sub to replace my banana.  English is the server’s 3^rd language, so it took communicate what I wanted but it all worked out. 

I’ve been in Oslo for about 2 hours and so far I have seen three girls, all separately, walking about, downtown Oslo, with XC skiis slung over their shoulders. I feel like that is a very Norwegian thing to see, especially in the middle of a big city! Right now, the weather feels like a nice spring day.  I think it will be more difficult to get around here then in Reykjavik.  Although mostly everyone here speaks English, it is such a big city that not everyone is used to tourists where was downtown Reykjavik was very centered around tourism and conversations began in English because there was an understanding that everyone was a tourist.  I have my Norwegian phrasebook in my purse so I will be just fine.  Im going to go find some geocaches, check out the Nobel Peace center then check in to the hostel.

WOAH!! Just as I was about to sign out, I was looking out the window and saw a tram run right into a car!  It’d be really insensitive and touristy of me to take a picture but it looks brutal! Yowzers