This weekend was a trip to Oslo but before that, a little trouble in paradise. Another nice sunny yet cold morning in Gothenburg on Friday, I walk out to get my bike with plenty of time for a meeting with someone from my class to work on a presentation of comparing politics from Israel to Sweden and I think "Oh, where did I park my bike?"...then not too far from where I did park it, I find this:
It was locked, from the front wheel, through the frame and around the back wheel. These guys had obviously come with a nice little tool and cleaned a nice and precise slit in the chain and these things are not easy to cut off. Now I know why these Swedes have these giant steel locks that weight more than the bike itself does. God, it upset me so much...I was almost furious! Not just that my bike was stolen but that it happened at the student accommodation. I mean lets face it, we are all exchange students here and 95% of us come from countries that are not as well off as people living in Sweden. Luckily it didn't ruin the day completely. Still managed to have a good study session and was able to not be an asshole to anyone which sadly is very easy to give in to doing when you are mad.
On to the good stuff though. A lovely 5.15am alarm rings and I scurry to pack and organise myself for a 6am meet in the carpark to get on the road to Oslo. So let's do this!
Thanks to Nik's Autobahn skills we were in Oslo just after 10am. We stayed in a student apartment in this rather ghetto area thanks to Matthieu's connection from back in his home University in France. It was a good thing too, because DAMN, Norway is expensive. I mean Sweden in comparison is to the rest of the world is an expensive country but even still I felt I had crossed the Mexican border into the USA with a handful of Peso. I mean seriously, a bottle of coca-cola was literally double! The guys paid around 11Euros or AU$15 for one pint in a pub, just a regular pub, nothing special about it.
Even with Norway being the Qatar of Scandinavia with all it's oil money and expensive costs of living, it really doesn't seem to be much better off than Sweden is. If anything I think Sweden is just a little bit cleaner, a little bit nicer. Gothenburg is much more relaxed too but I guess it's unfair to compare Norway's capital city with the World's largest town. I much preferred Stockholm too, that city is amazing.
One of the coolest structures I have seen is the Oslo Opera House. The roof is slanted and is designed for you to walk over it all the way up to the top and you get a pretty good view all over Oslo and at night, it was simply breathtaking. If it wasn't so damn cold I could have stayed there from sunset to sunrise with the good company that I had.
Overall it was a great weekend trip. I think though if you are going to travel to Norway it is better to go into the north in the Summer for the stunning nature and countryside. However, the sheer cost of Norway would probably stop me from going back again, which is a shame. It was a really good way to forget about the loss of my bike too! :-D
Until next time!
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