Days 84 & 85 - Oslo, Norway

This week has really flown by! Last night I hung out with the roommates and some other students in the Study Centre {about 12}, we had a pretty good time. So good in fact that I didn't bother trying to go to sleep last night since my flight was so early. Perhaps we will consider that to be a minor mistake. I am pretty tired now. It's about 4pm in Norway and the sun is very low now. Oslo is located at 59'57" North Latitude, Roughly about a half a degree south of Juneau, Alaska. The weather is very mild outside right now and I am starting to wish that I packed a second short-sleeved shirt. It's a very interesting little city.

I have spent the day walking down the Karl Johans Gate which runs from the central railroad station to the Palace. It's a pretty street with some very nice European style buildings and cobblestone streets. The city is having elections on Monday and I walked by a park which had numerous political parties all out campaigning for their candidates. I thought it was really cute that each party had a little shack-building setup and some were sort of interesting. One had a green canoe with their party's name on it. I took quite a few photos because it's much easier to show you then to describe them but since I am not presently able to upload the photos you will just have to hold tight and wait until I get back and find the time to do it.

Tonight I am staying at the Anker Hostel, it's a friendly place and the room is sparce but clean. The mattresses on the beds are hardly much, but it will work for one night. I will try to get by without the duvet because it looks like it is 100 years old...and the pillow is in roughly the same condition.

When you stay at the hostel, you actually have to bring your own sheets or rent them. It's pretty interesting. Tonight I got a private room with a bathroom, however tomorrow I am going on a train+bus+boat tour across the fjords to Bergen where I will be staying at the YMCA which didn't have any private accomodations and I will be staying in a room for 6 with a shared bathroom....hmmm......Wish I had a friend come with to share this interesting experience.

Next weekend (18-24) I have booked flights to Stockholm and intended to go there and to Copenhagen, but I am not positive because Scandanavia is VERY expensive!! I had a chicken nuggets meal at McDonald's today and it cost me 12.50...sheesh!! In London, where things are expensive that meal would have cost me about 8.00, so you see how this beautiful city is simply outrageous. . . And it's scaring me away from doing the Stockholm thing since I know that things are as bad or worse there.

I am contemplating trying to find something much less expensive, i'll let you know how that works out.

Wow, the fact that the sun is pretty much down now has me getting VERY sleepy. I think I will go back to the hostel and get some rest.

Hope that you are all doing well, write me back!!

Jenn