Oslo, Norway

Hey all!!

We’re in Oslo, Norway for some fuel and some needed liberty in town. This is the first port visit in over a month that hasn’t been a full fledged working port. I know what you’re thinking, but even w/ our in and out schedule, I rarely get a “day off”. However, yesterday, I got off the ship around 3pm and got to do some souvenir shopping and sightseeing. Oslo is the bustling capital of Norway. It’s a relatively small city for a national capital, but Norway itself is not a heavily populated country.

I headed out w/ my reliable liberty partner, Joe the first night. We walked most of the city. Close to the ship, there were many new-age apartment complexes w/ expensive shops on the ground level. There were a ton of outdoor bars and resteraunts throughout the city, but most of these were designer restaurants. As we made our way down the waterfront, we walked down a jetty area w/ more shops/restaurants and a nice marina. This is where I’ll catch the ferry to the Fram Museum of Polar Expeditions. Azzy sent me some info on her famous, long-lost Norwegian/Swedish relatives. Evidently, Helger is descended from a famous polar explorer named Oscar Whisting. Oscar was the partner of Rauld Armundsen (whom the Norwegian Frigate I toured in Haakonsvern is named for). Armundsen and Whisting were the first to plant a flag the south pole, and were arguably the first to fly across the true North Pole (no mention of the Santa Claus complex sightings on Wikipedia though!). At any rate, I’ll be heading to the polar expedition museum tomorrow for a nice visit, along w/ the Viking Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum. The Kon-Tiki were a South-East Asian tribe that evidently populated distance lands from their isolated islands in a small Kon-Tiki rafts and canoes all across the Pacific. I guess until recently (the last 100 years or so, that’s nothing in “historical time”), there were many doubts that the Kon-Tiki’s had traveled so far across the Pacific in their little rafts, until another Norwegian explorer proved they could make such a journey in these tiny rafts/canoes w/ the help of a few trade winds and currents. These Norwegian explorers are a tough bunch! I’m looking forward to visiting those museums tomorrow!

1-5: pics from the newer area…old architecture mixed w/ new…

Back to my travels so far…past the pier/harbor area was Oslo City Hall and the Aukershus Fortress, an old Norwegian fortress built circa 1299! We strolled through there and ended w/ a beautiful view of the harbor and restaurants below. From there we walked past the Norwegian Military Museum (closed on Sunday L) and on toward downtown where we ran into some shipmates and had a few beers at a nice Irish pub. We played darts, pool and blew off some steam. All in all, a great first night ashore!

Yesterday, I headed out around 5pm w/ Tim Bittner our Electronics Maintenance Officer and got to do some souvenir shopping. I guess this is a good time to discuss the exchange rate in Norway. Their currency is the Kroner and the dollar is relatively weak, so the exchange rate is 5 Kroner to 1 US dollar. Doesn’t sound bad till you see the price of food and goods! I attached a picture of the menu outside TGI Friday’s (yep, they’re even in Norway). Notice the price of a Friday’s Burger was 158K…that’s $31.60 for a freaking hamburger! That doesn’t even include a beer to wash it down!! That price was 100K…$20 for a Budweiser…unbelievable!! That’s not to mention the 25% food tax!! I’m not sure how anyone affords to live here w/ those prices! If that wasn’t enough…Azzy’s only request for a souvenir was to come from Norway. When her father visited here 5 or so years ago, he brought her home a nice DALE sweater. It’s a traditional “ski sweater” w/ snowflake and flower patterns and made from soft merrino wool. After some searching around, I found a shop that sold them. I turned over the price tag, and to my surprise it said 1699K!!! That’s exactly $340 for a freaking sweater… She told me to put it down and walk away when I called her with the price. She’s getting a scarf ;) I’d love to get her one, but that’s half a plane ticket to Hawaii!

After that shell shock, we headed for dinner at Pepe’s Pizza. If you don’t already know, my favorite food is pizza but, the Europeans just don’t know how to make a good American pizza. Of course it didn’t stop me from choking some down! After dinner we walked to the Central Train Station where we’d heard we could find free WIFI to SKYPE home on. Got to make a nice video chat home to Azzy and Connor!! He’s such a handsome little bugger!! And of course it was so nice to get to talk for a while (and the best part was that it was absolutely FREE). I also got to SKYPE w/ Mom and Dad for a bit. All in all, a wonderful day and some good R/R.

Tomorrow, I’m off to see how the Norwegian Vikings and Artic Explorers lived…more pictures from that tomorrow!

Hope all are well!
J.R.