No Way, Norway!

Norway, an absolutely amazing place (That Frozen was inspired by, hosted the 1952 Olympics, and is full of beauty). My weekend in Oslo started off quite chaotic. I apologize for having such a long post, again. This may become a regular thing.

Thursday night two of the four of us, Hannah and I, rushed out of our 4:10-5:00 class to grab our stuff and catch the last free shuttle from the manor to Grantham train station. We barely made the shuttle and there were no seats left but the shuttle driver told us to just sit on the floor. This highly reminded me of squishing in the front passenger seat with my mom as a child when avoiding taking an extra vehicle. We managed to get to the Grantham train station and our train rather easily. From Kings Cross station we explored London for a couple hours, had my computer rejected at the Apple Store (It currently will not turn on. A day trip will have to be made next week as all Apple stouts are an hour+ away from Grantham), and then caught another short train ride to the airport where we met up with Rachel and Michael. 

The decision to stay the night in the airport instead of waking up at 5:00am may have been the worst decision I will have made my entire time abroad, but getting up at 5:00am may have ended up being equally terrible. Although, I may have at least gotten some sleep then as it is very difficult to fall asleep on the floor of an airport. Many people at the airport were able to do it and seemed quite comfortable, they were definitely experts. Among those was a very nice Irish fellow, Andrew (I believe), who told us about some of the areas of Dublin. He also informed us of his unfortunate adventure of missing his check in time by 10 minutes and not being allowed on the flight. He was out of money and had traded his phone for a taxi to get to the airport from London and had no communication with home. He informed us that he had spontaneously decided to spend a few days in England and had brought a limited amount of budgeted funds. Overall, always bring a credit card or extra cash. After being let through security, sleep was much easier and we managed to get a couple hours in and a cappuccino in to keep us energized for the flight, the train ride, and finding our hostel.

Norway is an absolutely beautiful country. Most people know basic English here but will not speak it so there is an absolute language barrier. Also the majority of the signs are in Norge therefor if you visit bring a translator of some sort or previously found directions. It is so amazing to just sit on the trains and watch out the window, as well. There are so many beautiful things to see. We went to the incredible Vigeland Park full of highly detailed sculptures. Created by Gustav Vigeland, there are more than 200 sculptures. They were stunning. It was definitely worth the time to go visit this park and see the beautiful artwork. 

I also had the lovely experience of tobogganing. We went to a toboggan run that was incredibly terrifying but also completely wonderful. It was quite the experience. I flipped over once and got caught in a five-seven person crash as well, but it was completely worth the scratches or bruises that have been discovered. Korketrekkeren is the former bobsled/ski jump tea from the 1952 Olympics. In some spots of the toboggan run, you definitely could tell that this was a former professional bobsled area with some of the holes, turns, and flatter places mixed in. Korktrekkeren is 2000 metres long, and the elevation drop is 255 meters. One ride supposedly takes 8-10 minutes however it definitely felt faster. I highly enjoyed the fellow Harlaxton students I was with and their reactions to the amount of snow and experience of sledding as they are from the southern states. After tobogganing we had quite the experience. We were taking the tram back down the mountain and everyone had to get off at one stop. We assumed it was some sort of security check or something but decided to follow about half the crowd toward the buses, which was quite the walk, that took us back up the mountain. After returning our sleds, people were standing at the tram stop and assuming it was all good to go we stood at the stop for a significant amount of time. An announcement was made twice but in Norge and no one around us could tell us what it said. Some people were still waiting. Finally I overheard someone say "full stop temporarily on hold" and we didn't know how long for so we made the decision to hop on the bus again which could drop us off 250 meters from the next tram/light rail.  We got quite a significant amount of exercise from our toboggan adventure. 

On Sunday morning before catching our train at noon, we walked around Oslo and saw the beautiful cathedral, the palace (from a distance), and the amazing Opera House. The Opera House in Oslo is shaped like a ship and from the roof there is a beautiful view of the fjords and the city. We also were able to see the fjord that we went tobogganing on, which was beautiful up close and at a distance. Norway is an incredible country full of so much beauty. The snow, seagulls, and sudden changes in city and country areas reminded me greatly of home. This is definitely a country that I would visit again. Norway was an adventure where we learned how to truly adventure and explore the city in getting lost to find where we want to be.

Note: Check Facebook for pictures! Unfortunately the phone application of Blogger is not letting photos load and my laptop is currently broken. Which also means the photos on Facebook currently are strictly from my phone so more will come as soon as possible!

Love, Erin