As I am sure you have guessed, the heading to this post is …That’s a wrap folks, in Norwegian. A language that I reLly battle to get my ear around.. Our holiday is done and dusted and its now time to come home. I am sitting in the lounge at Oslo airport, wating for our flight to Heathrow. So time to wrap up the trip and share some highlights and learnings.
Yesterday started off cold and very wet and it rained intermittently all morning, but that didn’t put us off. With waterproof shoes and a rain jacket, all is possible. We started off with a walk around the Opera house, which is very close to our hotel. In fact the view from my balcony and windows, is directly of the Opera house, a unique and angular building, with the outside in rough unpolished marble. An interesting building, but not to my taste, nothing on Sydney’s opera house.
From there we went into one or two malls, walked throught Karl Johans Gate, but it actually soon started raining quite hard. So we ducked into a little bakery for lunch. I had the most delicious carrot soup 🍜 and artisanal bread. Dawn had a toasted cheese and avo sandwich. We then decided to head back to the hotel, to get out of the rain. I had a quick detour to look for a jacket….but no luck for what I was actually looking for. The. The afternoon was spent packing and prepping for trip home. Check in for flights and other admin.
Late afternoon we went back out and saw the Oslo Cathedral (Oslo Domkirke), which dates from 1694. Again nice to look around, but not ornate or elaborate as some of the churches in Europe are. Although it has all the traditional catholic symbols and icons, the denomination is Church of Norway….which I think is more Lutheran based. From there we walked to the just opened ‘Winter wonderland’ ….the traditional Chrismas market collection of wooden structures. Foods, knitted goods, not many decorations yet. Only ones on sale were made in China, but were very cute. But the market is not fully opened yet, so perhaps it will have more soon. We did buy some reindeer salami, some moose salami. Oh and I bought some Brunost cheese to take home…hope it travels well holding thumbs✊✊
From there it was off to a local steahouse chain for dinner. Cheeseburgers and chips….was good. Then home again after a bit of a walk around.
Some intersting info. The cost of living here is exhorbitant. Even the locals bemoan the prices. Petrol is around R26 per litre. Nothing seems to cost less than 150NOK. Which is Norwegian Krone and not Nokias….private holiday joke😂😂. That is around R250…even the shortest taxi ride. Food is unbeliveably expensive. A basic lunch ie. A pizza and a colddrink, costs over R850 for two people. A 2 course dinner, cost over R1300, for normal food and no alcohol, mostly just two bottles of sparkling water. A glass of wine would cost over R130. A bottle of water or a can of coke is around R40.
The portions are generous and the fruit and veggies are of a really good quality. Obviously fish is fresh and the meat was really good. From my blog, you will note that we ate lots and lots of fish. Tried many new types. I did not like halibut and our cod was disappointing because it was not properly cooked. The coal fish and the wolf fiah were particularly yummy. Although the scallopa, mussells and king crab are my favourite. Breakfasts have been extremely generous and we partook enthusiastically. If one chose to, one could bant very easily. I loved the oats and soft boiled eggs.
On the whole we have found the Norwegians to be hospitable and helpful and in the main friendly. Although that is hard to pinpoint friendliness due to language barriers. They have a very direct communication style. Answering in absolute brief and volunteering no extra information. English is widely understood and hats off to the Norwegians for being multilingual and amking it easier for us english travellers. As mentioned, prices are exhorbitant, saw a jacket that I like very ,uch, then saw the price tag. At just over R15000, I unliked the jacket fairly quickly.
I did buy a little casual down jacket for everyday use, you know my motto….a girl just can’t have enough jackets. Not much option in the way of curios or momentos. So gifts are in the main edible.
The flight from Oslo to Heathrowstarted off a bit weirdly. We boarded on time, taxied to the runway and then the de-icing maching did its thing. While he was busy he noticed somthing loose on the wing. So we had to wait on board on the runway, until the technicians came and checked it out. About 45 late we finally took off. The flight was uneventful, we landed in Heathrow about 45 minutes late but fortunately we enough time between flights.
This my final blog…so logging out now..and see you again on th next adventure. Thanks for travelling with us and for all the comments and chirps. I really love to hear from the people at home.
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