Norway in the snow- the last day

Whoa, am I ever behind on these things! It's been a crazy three weeks this break, and I've spent a good portion of it with no computer or limited internet. I apologize for the barrage of posts that are going to follow, I'd really like to get this all done. I think I'll wrap up Norway, since I'm almost done, and finish up N. Wales, then it'll be Oxford (hopefully with John's help), and Pembrokeshire, and Ireland. I can't even believe how many places I got.

Ok. So the last day in Norway wasn't much better weather wise. I got up at 5am because my two new roomates had a very early train (I had to switch rooms since I had only booked two nights, and they had people moving into my old room, which I was glad about, I escaped the snores). My two new roomies were awesome though, I didn't mind. They were both studying child psychology in Norway, but were both from somewhere in Africa (Zimbabwe maybe?) and have names I didn't even catch, but they were cool. They were extremely interested in me and my life, and more than willing to talk about theirs. It was nice being with people my own age. So it was an early morning, but I had packing to do so it was ok. Got a few more hours sleep after they left, and headed down to breakfast. I ate a ton, knowing it was going to be a long day. I checked out at about 9:30 and headed into town. It was snaining (snow+rain), and was kind of miserable. Before I reached the center of town it was properly snowing, but once in the city center it changed back to rain. And I had 10 hours to kill, while carrying all my stuff.

I still had a few hours left on my Oslo pass, so I was determined to make the most of it. I wandered through the train station to rebuy the patch I had bought myself and subsequently lost. The main problem was that being so close to Easter, all the shops were closed, as were many museums, so it was hard to find something worth doing. I did quite a lot of wandering around. Accidently walked in on a guy shooting up in a doorway, which was startling as I wasn't in a sketchy area and had a family of four walking close behind me, probably the most sketchy thing I saw the whole time I was there though.

I ended up at Akershus Slott (Akershus Castle), which also was closed, but I could wander around on the walls and look at the buildings, which was enjoyable. There was a wonderful view of the harbour from the walls, which was worth seeing. The Norwegian Resistance Museum was on the same grounds (as was the Armed Forces Museum, but hat was also closed). This was a small museum detailing Norway's takeover by Germany in WWII, and the ways the people and army resisted. It was actually really well presented, enough of the signs were in English so I had a clue of the story, and some of the artefacts were really cool, especially those for concealing illegal radios or communications. I killed a lot of time in there. But eventually I needed something else to do.

View from the Castle walls Changing of the guard

Purely by chance, it was 1:30 when I left, and this is when the whole city changes the guard. Both at the royal palace (the Norwegian royal family seems pretty cool), and here at this old castle. The soldiers were no more than kids, and still really sloppy at the drills but that just made it more interesting to watch. I headed back to the train station to find something to eat. I only had 42 Kroner left so I was pretty limited. Luckily I found a little grocery store and got something chibatta like with stuff melted on it, as well as a really good Danish. I took as long as I could eating it and then proceeded to get my fill of people watching, finished my book, and listened to music. I still had hours left. Eventually it was time to walk over to the bus station next door and try to find where I was leaving from. This proved to be tricky as I couldn't tell the difference between the departure and arrivals board, and it being the weird everything closed day information wasn't open to help. I eventually found someone to ask, but then wasn't sure what my bus was. The bus I came in on, while advertising one name, is run and listed under a different company. After worrying myself needlessly, and being approached by lots of people who had the very wrong impression I knew what I was doing I found my bus and made it on time to the airport for some more waiting around. Had my passport checked about 80 times and bought a tiny chocolate bar and a jawbreaker with my last 10 Kroner.

The flight was pretty meh, and left late for no apparent reason. I did a lot of standing around in lines. I sadly didn't get to sit with the father/ 4 yr old British team that had been amusing me in the airport, but the Norwegian father/ voice cracky team I did sit with were fine. Unfortunately there was two teen girls on their way to their first time in London who were VERY excited to be going and were drinking straight from a bottle of scotch (I think). They were very screechy and loud. We landed and I walked straight onto a bus into the city after being throughly interrogated by customs. Finally found an empty cab to the hostel John had booked. It was a nice room, but it was freezing, and there was zero heat. Slept in more clothing than I had in Norway. The next morning found us on a bus to Oxford to meet up with Russell and Suzanne, some old friends of my parents. But more on that later.