The Norwegian Affairs

Norway was always a country eagerly visited by my fellow Japanese tourists; for fresh seafood that it's famous for.  'The cold waters of Scandinavia tightens the meat on fishes like salmon, making it absolutely delicious', I read in a Japanese tourism book for Scandinavian countries.  Many of my close friends and family members know that I am not the biggest fan when it comes to culinary arts in the seafood department.  I'm a black sheep of half of my culture because I can't stand the very smell of raw seafood; sushi.  I gag at the taste and smell of raw fish.  I cringe at the fresh fish market, hold my nose and run for a safe haven.  You get the point.  The point being I was not going to Norway for the sake of culinary enlightenment.  To be honest, I didn't know what to expect in Oslo, the capital of Norway.  I made the mistake of thinking "Moomin" was a Norwegian creation; it's not.  We had heard rumors about Oslo being one of the most expensive cities.  And that it was abundant with daylight.


The trip to Oslo was not a simple one.  We left Copenhagen by train into Sweden, took a bus to catch a train that would have taken us to Oslo.  Unfortunately, the bus arrived at the train station 20 minutes late, and the train that left had been the last train to Oslo for the day.  After a lengthy conversation with the station master, we were told to take a bus to another bus terminal, where we could catch another bus to Oslo.  We had no Scandinavian currency with us, but we were told that our rail passes would cover for the cost of the bus tickets.  At some point in evening, I was ready to accept the fact that we would need to camp out at the bus terminal if the bus driver didn't recognize our rail passes.  Fortunately, the bus driver recognized the rail passes and let us on the bus to Oslo.  We arrived around midnight.


Oslo is a city mixed with old and new architecture; right near the central train station is the brand new Opera house, whose access to the roof is open to the public.  It's an architectural and tourism icon all in one; more people have been on the top of the roof than inside the building.  But it's also beautiful inside as it is outside.

One of the days, we booked a day tour to see the Fjords, a must-see natural landscape in Norway.  The train ride out to the country was 5 hours, plus another 1 hour train ride to go down the steep mountains.  A ferry terminal waited for us after our long train ride to take us through the narrow cliffs of the fjord.

What was unbelievable was the temperature difference.  It was cold.  Alex and I prepared ourselves and had bought sweaters and wind-proof jackets, but it was still cold.  The occasional rain and constant wind didn't help either.  

The fjords were absolutely gorgeous.  The water was a dark emerald green and the landscapes rich with deciduous green.  Some fjords had patches of snow, waiting to be melted, down a waterfall off the cliffs.  There were tiny towns spotted along the banks of the water; aside from 1 or 2 of the larger towns, most of these towns consisted only of 4 or 5 houses.

After the tour, we got back on a bus that took us to a train station, and it was another 5 hour train ride back to Oslo.  Needless to say, we were pooped.

The only Norwegian dish I was able to try was Svineribbe, a pork dish that it typically eaten around Christmas time.  It came with pickled cabbage and beets and pumpernickel bread.  I'm not a big fan of pork, but it was either that or seafood, which I didn't have much tolerance for that day.  It was tasty, a bit greasy (because its pork).

The rest of the time in Oslo were spent walking around, visiting museums of all kinds, including the Viking ship museum, and enjoying the beautiful weather on the waterfronts of Norway.  The summer time is an ideal place for vacationers, but I am curious as to how cold it gets in the winter.