Wikings in Norway

My mom's going to get mad at this semi-public disclosure, but hey, I'm a 15 hour flight away from her and probably won't see her for another 8 months so I'll deal with the consequences later! Some of you know that my mother has a problem pronouncing the letter V, ironic, then, that she named my older sister Vanessa. She also loves American football, and in particular has an affinity for the Minnesota Wikings, I mean, Vikings. The point of this disclosure is that throughout my travels, every person I've met has told me how incredibly expensive Norway is so I decided early on to say forget it, I'll go some other time when I hit the lottery or something. However, I found a cheap flight while I was staying in Denmark and decided why not go and wisit the wikings for my mom!

It was a pleasant surprise then, when I landed in Oslo and was given a free apple and a stamp from the Post Office to announce a new stamp! This would never happen in the US. Anyway, I checked into my hostel (completely stoked to see that I got a double bed AND it wasn't a bunk!) and headed to the nearest bar just in time for beer o'clock. Unfortunately, I believe I set the Guinness Book of World Records for the most expensive Guinness-- 16 bucks!! Needless to say, I decided to double up on my record breaking day and set the Guinness Book of World Records for slowest sip. I went back to the hostel, bummed and not at all buzzed and read a book instead and played a fairly entertaining crossword puzzle with my fellow roommates. (I assume they also came to the same sad conclusion that I did about drinking in Norway.) Given that I had five days, I needed to get creative with entertainment and how I was going to spend my time there.

Fortunately, Norway's wealth offers many free museums and exhibits, things I NORMALLY wouldn't really check out. I mean, you've seen one Picasso, you've seen em all right? Nobel Peace Museum, check. National Gallery, check. Museum of Contemporary Art, check. Ski Jump Museum, City Hall, Wiking Ship Museum, Frogner Park-- check, check, check, and check. I actually took the time to read everything too-- something I would normally not do, because I had a lot of time to kill.

For such a wealthy nation, I was really surprised at the number of homeless begging for money. Out of the four Scandinavian capitals, I'd say Oslo has the worst problem. You don't see many in Copenhagen, nor Stockholm -- even Helsinki seems to be relatively ok. Just boggles my mind that they're the richest Scandinavian country, but seemingly has the worst homeless problem. I could be wrong, but just my initial impression.

Anyway, apologies for the brief post, I really want to write more and put some thought into it but my buddies from LA are coming into town and I know that I won't be blogging for a bit as we travel from Copenhagen to Amsterdam to Oktoberfest!!! Wish us luck!! And...."Hi Mom, love you lots!!"