EuroTrip - Day 11

One Night at Oslo Station

It's 1am local time here and I am wide awake after a long and tiring day. The day in Oslo has been a good one. Let me go back in time to recount this day.

And to make it little more interesting, let me do it in the reverse order.

At around 11:30pm HotTiii brought a 'bad news' that 'it might be a case that' they won't let anyone stay on the railway station during night. It seems they perform a major cleanup work between 1 and 4 in the night. Oh that's a great news! What will we do then? And the answer that comes just like an instinct is that 'Dekh lenge!' And we continued our search for free wifi connections on the station (there are plenty of them here on every station. It just amazes me to see so much of internet all around).

The city of Oslo starts shining as the night sets in. Decoratively lit old buildings and other monuments give an appearance that has no match in any other business district in any other capital we have seen so far. The big clock on the sideboard of Freia says it's 10pm and we should start thinking about going back to central station.

The Castle closes at 9pm but we entered there at 9:30pm. Strangely nobody seemed to mind it and we could reach the main building of the Castle. It glowed in the yellow lights boasting about all its glory. Alas the museum was closed, else we could have made a brief visit to it too. And then the inevitable happened. Two Royal guards approached us and informed politely that 'it was not appropriate for us to be in there at that time'. And they offered to escort us out of palace. Interesting experience it is to walk under the surveillance of a royal guard. But that's not the end of it. There was one more police man waiting for us there at the gates. He too seemed worried about the intrusion. To our surprise none of them spoke anything except wishing us a pleasant evening. I wonder what would have happened in India in a similar circumstance!

The streets in front of the Oslo University seemed to be buzzing with activities that made us believe that we had probably missed the local city market. On enquiring, we were informed that actually there were preparations going on for the local farmer market fair called Boden Marked that is starting the next day. The setup with its designer tents and equipment looked more like a set of some hindi film. Alas we won't be here to witness the event. :-(

We never dreamt that our 'own' McDonalds can serve a mere 'veg burger' in a European country. Well it's true too. Here by default the cheese burger also contains a meat stuffing. Luckily the guy At the counter agreed to make a special cheese burger with no stuffing (they generally offer you to take one burger and remove the stuffing on your own). What more could we ask for! So aaj ka dinner, McDonalds ke naam.

BTW the guide book here gives address of some places that serve vegetarian food, although they can hardly fit a budget traveler's wallet. Search for one such place called Krishna's Cuisine (it is based on philosophy odds Iscon Movement and serves pure veg food including Khichdi) was indeed a good experience and we could find atleast two Indian restaurants on our own. We Indians are everywhere, you know.

Vigeland Park is a little away from the central Oslo. It houses innumerable sculptures of man, woman and kids. The speciality is that most of them in there birth clothes i.e. are nude. Their postures contains a variety of poses from erotic positions to the display of affection by a mother. A beautiful garden surrounds the sculptures. The main sculpture is at a platform from where one can get a very good view of the Oslo city. There is a mix of modern and old architecture on Oslo's skyline. One can just wonder how the world's most expensive city came to be like this?

Standing majestically amidst the mid of the central district and surrounded by a lush green garden, the Royal Palace is a well preserved and maintained building. It comes under control of royal guards. There is a change of guard ceremony that takes place daily at around noon. As most of the museums close by 5pm, we could not enter the palace. Still, the view from outside itself was good enough. And then we would surely get a chance to see the night lighting on our way back from the Vigeland park.

Lonely Planet gives detail of a volunteer run restaurant called Blytx that serves cheap vegetarian food here in Oslo. We decided to try our luck there. After a little search we were able to reach the address that was mentioned in LP. But we could not find any sign board. One close look and we found the non-descript restaurant in the same building. As we entered the place, we were greeted by a punk looking girl who told us that the place was about to be closed as they were to go for a demonstration against arrest of one of their guy in Pakistan. From the first look of hers, we thought that she was too drunk or high. So we safely ignored whatever she said. The menu there did have some cheap vegan offerings. And so our trip to the place was fruitful to some extent. The place has a unique environment with random posters about some activists all over. The people who were present there had a distinct look and manner too. With punks all around us, we were wondering if that girl was actually speaking sense. And when the drums and other things required for a demonstration arrived, we understood that it was all true. And the best thing to do then was to 'Kat lo'. And we did exactly the same. On our way we saw the police preparing themselves for the demonstration. Another first one in our life - to be present at a place where a demonstration is being planned and prepared.

The Opera house in Oslo oversees the harbour and is a stone's throw away from the central station. The cube shaped building is clad in white and metallic finish. The white marble on the parapets has a cold feel to it even at 3pm. The winds are not that strong, sun not so bright, still the open structure is very refreshing and a nice place to relax. You can find many skateboarders, sunbathers (ofcourse with their clothes on) and people looking for a nice and peaceful place to sitting along the slope of the Opera. The building is an architecture marvel in itself. One nice and cheap way to spend some time in an otherwise expensive city.

The tourist information center in Oslo is right outside the central station and is the right place to start your day in Oslo.

We are getting used to the trains here. Actually speaking we are liking and enjoying the trains here. Again a long but nice journey. The free juice and banana, a complimentary from the organizers of Goteborg Book Festival (that we had collected while waiting for our train) served as a nice breakfast. I am very sure the bags that they gave (again complimentary) will be of great use for our trip now onwards. :-)

The day started after a comfortable and nice sleep on wooden floor in Bansi's hostel. A warm room can make up for everything. And then we always have our blanket for such days.

It's 6am - the good morning time for the day. Time to get ready for a long day ahead.

Was I dreaming?