- Kristiansand : Nov 5 -
I spent a day wandering through the small city that is Kristiansand, on Norway's south coast. It very much reminded me of Aalborg, in that there was the clear "shopping street" and not much else in the surrounding area. I took the opportunity to develop my mental-map-forming skill, which I knew would be handy later on, in the bigger cities. I climbed up a cliff that overlooked the city, then climbed down and wandered around aimlessly more. Bought a meal of cheese-bread and fruit out of a grocery store, and met back up with the Captain after he was finished work. We went out for Mexican food (while at the Mexican restaurant, he mentioned that the Indian restaurant next door was his absolute favourite Indian place in the world - and he's seen the world. What a bummer). I planned my voyage into Oslo the next day. I wouldn't be staying any nights there, since I hadn't found a CS host, and I had already arranged with my Stockholm host to be there on the 7th. So the plan was, morning train into Oslo, night train out, arriving in Stockholm the morning of the 7th.
- Oslo : Nov 6 -
And that's exactly what I did. Arrived in Oslo at around 9 or 10 in the morning, and just wandered. I'd occasionally stop and use my iPod touch to check for free wireless signals; if you're willing to move around and look like an idiot, it's not too hard to find some.
I think I learned the streets of Central Oslo pretty well, though not by name, just by "feel". I took the day to work on a few more skills: Mental-map-building, WiFi-detection and the ever-important free-bathroom-using. Most washrooms in Europe cost money to use. In malls, train stations and even some restaurants, this is the case. This is absolutely absurd to me, and I refuse to pay to use a washroom, which forces me to be a little bit crafty. I've generally found that the best strategy is to employ the two S's: Smile and Strut. Walk in somewhere like you own the place, and don't be afraid to make eye contact and smile at the employees there. The best places for this are movie theatres and museums - places where you have to pay to enter, but they foolishly place the bathrooms before the point of payment. If a McDonald's is busy enough, these are also good places.
I checked out the Oslo Cultural Museum, which was pretty mediocre. I saw some American tourists in my age group up at the palace. I thought about approaching them, since talking to strangers is on my list of things I've got to do more of while traveling, but I just didn't do it. I think this got me down all day, because from then on, the day was pretty bleak. I stopped at a vegetarian restaurant for lunch (which I looked up using some free WiFi) and just waited for the day to finish so I could get my night train out of there.
The day did indeed come to a close, and I got on the train, introduced myself to the two people I'd be sharing a room with and started the process of going to sleep. But, oh, was the man above me a snorer. It took me hours to get any amount of decent sleep, and even then, all my dreams were about how angry I was. In one dream, I got up and complained to the conductor that this guy was snoring.
- Stockholm : Nov 7 to 9 -
Oh, boy, did I have a good time in Stockholm. I mean, not, like, a euphoric time - by a good time, I mean my mood was good, balanced, and I really enjoyed myself in all that I was doing. I showed up at Silkybeard's house in the morning after the night train. I was tired and a little grumpy. Also, I'm always a little shy with new hosts, and it's hard to be overly polite when you're tired, because you know it would be polite to offer to do things, but you just don't want to do anything. So I was afraid that I was giving a bad impression. Well, he treated me to some muesli - which, I have noticed, seems to be a very popular breakfast here - covered with filmjolk, a Swedish sour milk. Very much like yogurt, but not sweet. Kinda gross, actually, on it's own, but with sugar and muesli, no problem. Anyway, Silkybeard was exceptionally hospitable, and after I had a shower, did my laundry and napped, we got to talking more, and went out to the CS meetup for Stockholm that week (some cities do weekly meetups, some monthly, some not at all). The meetup was great. I made plans with other travelers to explore Vaxholm the next day - an island to the north-east of Stockholm, accessible by ferry.
That night, after the meetup, another Couch Surfer arrived at Silkybeard's place - we would both be hosted by Silkybeard for the next two nights, and it was a tight fit getting all of in there, but we managed. Let's see, I need a nickname for her...
I'll think of that later, when I finish this post, and account my travels in Stockholm
For now, it is night in Berlin.
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