After leaving Germany, I headed up to Oslo, Norway. Yes, a bit random, but I have a wonderful friend there, Cait Kipp. I've realized that going to see friends in foreign countries is about ten times better than going to somewhere where you know no one. The first perk is that they pick you up from the airport. Score! It's a lot nicer looking for a friendly face at the airport than a sign that tells you how to get to the bus. The second perk of going to foreign countries to see friends, they live in cool places. Cait's family has a cabin right up the hill from a fjord. Cabin in the Norwegian country side with a beautiful view of a fjord or a hostel? Isn't a hard choice if you ask me. Probably the best thing about the cabin, I had a bed! An actual bed! With a mattress! And a pillow! I even had a big, fluffy towel, which really topped my little dinky camping towel. Oh it really is the little things in life that make it worth living. I hope I will never take a bed for granted again. They are amazing things.
Cait, like the rest of us college folk in Europe, is taking classes for the summer. So I was blessed enough to go to class with her the next day. Hence why I said in a previous post that I had to go to class. It was actually fascinating sitting in on a Norwegian language class. I did not understand a word, but it certainly sounded cool. Though while I was sitting there, I was thinking about how hard it was to get around in Germany not speaking any German, and now Norway without speaking any Norwegian. At least in Italy I could kind of understand things, thanks to knowing another romance language. But in these countries, I was completely lost. All I kept saying to myself was, darn those babylonians. Language can be quite a barrier, but at least with good acting and charades skills, you can get around. After the language class we went to Cait's culture class. Who knew you could listen to an hour and a half lecture on Norwegian music? I do have to admit though, I did not know that A-ha was from Norway. I guess you do learn something new everyday.
After three hours of language class and an hour and a half of Norwegian culture class, I was starting to feel a little Norse myself. We went shopping in downtown Oslo. Norwegian fashion is awesome, but I have to say that my favorite store was a souvenir shop full of troll things! Apparently trolls are huge in Norwegian legends. And they are everywhere. I would have bought the whole shop if I could. But it was a tourist shop, so sadly things were a bit expensive. But this is when I decided that Norway should not be the land of the vikings, but the land of the trolls instead.
The next day I got to go to Cait's language class again, and this time I actually got some of it. I can understand some pronouns and random verbs. I was quite proud. Afterwards we got to be tourists and get on a tour bus! They are becoming some of my favorite things, I think. We stopped at Viegland's garden, which is basically a huge park full or statues by a guy named Viegland. They were really neat looking, that's for sure. For some reason, the most famous one is of a grumpy little baby boy stomping his feet and screaming. Why you might ask? No one knows. People just tend to like to steal him and touch his hand. Rather odd if you ask me. On the rest of our tour we got to drive by the Viking ship museum and the opera house where Justin Bieber performed. I can admit it, I have Bieber fever. And I have really high hopes for the Viking ship museum and I really want to go there someday and hopefully not be let down. How cool would it be to see the viking ships?!?!?! I think it'd be awesome.
Something else that I'm doing when I go back to Norway, and yes, that is a when and not if, is swim in a fjord. This time I only got to dip my feet in, but next time, I'm going all out. The fjords are beautiful, along with the rest of Norway. It is definitely something that everyone should see. So go do it.
My trip to Norway was way too short, which is why I need to go back again. But I guess when you're doing a euro tour, you can't stay in every place for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment