Good Night Oslo....

Today was our last full day in Oslo, Norway, or Europe at all for that matter. Tomorrow, we will board our 8 hour plane ride back to the US of A. It rained all day pretty much, with the exception of 20 minutes during our dinner hour. Pooh! Anyway, today was all about shopping for last minute gifts. We didn't really shop for any in Paris because we were so excited over our engagement. It was hard to buy things in Belgium because my relatives literally had other plans for us....and this was the only place to really find stuff. We also visited the Opera House, where Leonard said that he nearly broke his neck. The Opera House has a slanted roof that people can climb up onto. It was even more dangerous with the rain on the marble roof. We also saw an awesome dress store where we purchased a nice party dress for me to wear for an engagement party/theater date/ etc. I am totally stoked. 

We had dinner at Liv's house. She made the most delicious tilapia wrapped around asparagus....yummy. And home made ice cream. We also discussed my parents' coin collection back home and she gave me some expired Kroner for me to take back to Paso, along with the coins I have gotten from this trip already.

After dinner, Aaron and I went to the movies for "Mamma Mia!" It was all right... it was either that or Dark Knight and we didn't want strange subtitles on such a dark and twisted movie. What was most interesting about our Norweigan movies experience was that they have assigned seating. Since we arrive 15 minutes before the movie started, we had to sit one in front of the other. It was fine though, and we will never show up that late to a movie in Oslo again.

Oslo really was slow...lots of museums

Today was very kicked back. We woke up, met up with Leonard and Rick, had breakfast at the hotel and then walked through town to the docks so we could sail on the Fjord. We first stopped at a museum that housed something called "The Fram." Turns out there is a Norweigan boat that traveled through the arctic waters and all the way to the South Pole before returning to its home in Oslo. We saw pictures of the building and how it was built around the boat which is over 100 years old....Seeing the steel reinforcements on the front of the ship was crazy. It looked like a thin layer of metal between ice and the wood in the ship. The cabins were oh so tiny too. I felt bad for everyone that had to sleep there. 

We also checked out a museum that housed a ship called the Con Tiki. Apparently, a man thought that he could make a raft/ship out of natural materials without a motor from Polynesia to South America.....and he did it....I didn't really get to go INSIDE the museum, but from what I could see, it looked like a brush house from Africa. 

Then it was off the Holocaust museum. There I was in the Holocaust museum among an entire family of Jews who were strongly affected by Hitler's movement. Although Leonard, Rick, Aaron and myself behave ourselves, Freda, Aaron's grandmother, recalled many of her memories of the 1940's in Norway. There was supposed to be real footage of Leonard's grandmother at her own wedding, but the machine was broken which made me truly sad for him. He was so excited to see him grandmother move, as he has only seen still photos of her. The museum is going to try to send him the footage through email. We found a wall that had all the names of all the Norweigan Jews who were killed by the Nazis. There are on the wall are many of Aaron's family members. I feel like after meeting everyone here, I am closer to those who have been lost. 

We also went to another museum after this...one that contained a Viking Ship. Again, I did not walk INTO the actual museum, but I got to see the exhibit from up high and took some photos of the ship. It was unearthed in the early 19th century years. It was in great condition too. I saw no Vikings however....I am so pissed about that. I came all this way to see a Viking....if I went to Japan, I would expect to see a ninja....All I saw were Trolls....who likes trolls anyways? No one!

There was a crazy incident with bees today! I got quite scared of a bee that was chasing my food and myself. It ended in a crying fit because I got so scared. Just thought I would take note of this for the future.

We had dinner tonight at Arve Isaksen's tonight. We had a traditional meal, fish! Getting to the house was quite an adventure. Arve had a friend come pick us up in a boat. We sped on water for an hour and a half, seeing Oslo from a whole different view. The whole evening was great and the food was delicious....BTW, raspberries here are ENORMOUS!!!! I am not even kidding. They are at least 3 times the size we have back home. If we have some tomorrow night, I will have to take a picture. 

Bye Bye Trondheim.....off to Oslo.

Today was slow moving. We woke up and bought breakfast at the supermarket...(which cost us about 200 kroner which means that it actually cost us about $40 US bucks!) Norway is the most expensive country I have ever been to, no questions asked. I thought France was expensive....yikes! 

Our stay at the Thon hotel in Trondheim was the WORST, hands down. First off, we were staying on the 7th floor, but the elevator only went up to the 6th. We had to walk our bags up and down the stairs....second, there was no air conditioning which made it so that we had to sleep with the window open. It would not have been so bad had it not been during the part of the year where the sun rarely goes down. The birds were all confused and so they would squawk in the night....YIKES! The worst had to be this morning though. There was construction going on in the hotel, precisely right below our bed. We were awoken to a loud drill sound. When Aaron called downstairs to complain, the woman merely responded, "In Norway, it is legal to start work at 8:00 AM." And when Aaron told her that we were still trying to sleep at 9:30 and that it was a hotel, she only confirmed, "yes, I know it's a hotel..." We will not be staying there again. For that same price in America, we could get 4 motel 6 rooms for 3 days and have air conditioning.....

We picked up Aaron's grandmother Freda and took a train through the Norweigan countryside for 6 1/2 hours. It made Aaron and myself a little sick, but the scenery was beautiful. I don't take enough trains. It really is a little depressing that the only mode of transportation that I take is the subway. So now we're in Oslo, which Aaron said is THE MOST expensive place ever. I believe it too....our sub par dinner was over $70 US dollars! I am starting to miss that Euro price!

I forgot to add....when we woke up this morning, I noticed a confused fly who kept flying in triangular formations. Aaron found it quite amusing and we named him Trip....I wanted to name him Pip because I like the name and Aaron wanted to name him Tri as in Triangle....so we compromised.....bye Trip!!!!