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Our Last Morning in Poland
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May 23, 2012 5:11 am
105 Views
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On Monday morning I woke at 06:15 and got up at 06:30. It was sunny with not a cloud in the sky. Maudie woke at 7:20 and I gave her tea and biscuits and had more tea myself. We knew we had a hectic ahead of us because there was no way we could fit in everything we wanted to see and it was in our interests to get going as early as possible and fit in as much as we could. We were ready to leave at 8:30 I told Maudie that she would not need a scarf or gloves but she took them anyway.
Before we left I went to the kitchen area and there was a very pleasant girl there preparing the tables. I tried to talk to her about the lack of clean towels but she didn’t speak English and rushed off to get the man who had checked us in. When he arrived I complained to him about not getting any clean towels since we had gotten there and he looked very sheepish. He said we had to check out by noon but when I asked him if we could keep the room until 1pm he said “No problem”, just leave the key in the door." I knew then that it would be ok if we didn’t get back to the room before two.
On the way out I took a lot of pictures of the whole undeveloped area between where we get on and off the tram and the building we were staying in.
The first place we went to was the PGE Arena, where Ireland are due to play Spain in the European Soccer Championships on June 14. We got there at 9:40 and we were able to get a lot closer to the stadium than we had on Saturday and the Sun was better placed for taking pictures of the stadium than it had been then.
Rather than take the return tram from the stadium we decided to walk to the next tram stop at Mostostal so that we could get a better look at and take pictures of buildings close to the stadium. We were back on a tram at 10:08 and at the next stop, Zalogowa, two plain clothed ticket inspectors got on and they caught two guys without tickets sitting one in front if the other in single file seats directly in front of us and four seats up.
One of the guys bought a penalty ticket and was eventually left alone but the guy nearest us was held on the tram against his will when he tried to get off at the next stop. He made repeated attempts to stand up and get off but the younger of the inspectors kept him pinned into his seat. I felt sorry for the guy but wondered how many times he might have ridden the trams free of charge before getting caught. The younger inspector was very intimidating and he gave me a dirty look when he saw my camera and I quickly cancelled whatever it was I was going to take a picture of. I didn’t feel comfortable on the same tram as those inspectors and we got off a little earlier than planned at Zwarda, just two stops before our next intended stop at Solidarity Square.
That turned out to be a good move because it took us through an area not visible from the tram where there is a long wall full of murals, similar to what still exists of the Berlin Wall, even if it's a little more threadbare. I later discover that it is known as Lech Walesa's Wall.We walked from there and I took lots of pictures of the shipyard and other buildings and we passed through a very run down residential area at Jana Kolna St, the same one that we walked through after dark on Thursday night. I wouldn't ever want to be there after dark again.
When we got to the construction site at Solidarity Square some of the workers waved at us when they saw me taking pictures. We had a good look around the square that has a few monuments and memorials and also a souvenir shop. There was a striped cat there and it allowed Maudie to pet it and I took a few pictures of it.
After leaving Solidarity Square, and always walking towards the city centre, I took pictures of St James Church, St Catherine’s Church and St Bartolome’s Church and then we had tea and coffee with two small pizzas in a beautiful café and confectionery shop, Café Pellowski, on Rajska St. We got two small pizzas, a cup of tea and a latte, then Maudie went up and got another latte and a big cream filled cake and the total cost was only 32zl [€8] and the two lattes cost more than half of that at 18zl [€4.50].
There was a small circular shaped salad buffet in the centre of the floor with tuna, chicken, tomatoes and lots of greens and other vegetables and it was only 10zl (€2.50) to fill a decent sized bowl. I wanted to come back for that later but Maudie wasn't too keen on it and we never got to return there.
We went into a small park, Heveliusz Gardens, and there were a lot of school children playing around a platform that had a large statue of Jan Heveliusz, the famous Polish astronomer. As a citizen of Poland and one of its most talented historical astronomers he has been commemorated in various forms in his country of birth and nearby stands the five star Heveliusz Hotel.
We again passed across the bridge over the Radunia Canal with all the inscribed padlocks that we had seen on Thursday night and a woman passing by told us that they were connected to love and not death as we had assumed because we hadn't been able to see the inscriptions or entwined hearts in the dark.
From there we walked past a large rock memorial to Zbigeniew Herbert which led us to Piwna St which is a fascinating street that has very eye catching steps to the houses and shops on it, each has features like large mounted orbs or other items on both sides of the steps at ground level. There is a very ornate building at the river end of the street but I was unable to identify it.
We hastened to reach to St Mary’s Basilica just before noon to see its Astronomical Clock, hear the bells ring and see various figures appearing in opening windows like in Prague but we didn’t see or hear anything other than the clock itself and that was a big disappointment.
At 12:10 we crossed the Matlowa River at Zielony Most (Green Bridge) and soon I had to change the batteries in the camera. I put in a set of yellow ones that were fully charged but after about ten pictures they were showing as empty. I put in a second set of yellows and they too showed as empty after just a few pictures. That meant that all my batteries were exhausted and there was no chance to recharge any of them in time or buy new ones other than regular ones that are next to useless in a digital camera, only allowing about six pictures per set. I seemed to be stuttering and lurching from one crisis to another; first I'd had no camera and now I had no functioning batteries.
to be continued...
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Nightmare on Chelm Street
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May 21, 2012 2:39 pm
170 Views
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The #210 bus came at 9:14, five minutes ahead of schedule, and we settled down next to Leander and commenced chatting right away. He is a very interesting young guy and very talented too, if what he told us is to be believed, which I saw no reason to doubt.
He can play piano and guitar and he speaks fluent French, German and definitely English. He also has a bit of Spanish and a bit of Finnish and he is currently living in Finland. He had been on the identical same trip as us and when we crowed about only having paid €43 each for our return tickets to Oslo he trumped us by declaring that his fare had only been €25. he also told us that he had only paid €15 for the return trip from Finland to Poland.
At 9:41 the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere and when we and Leander failed to get off with everyone else on board we were informed by a young guy, translating for the driver, that we had reached the end of the line and had to get off. They told us there would be another bus coming along in about thirty minutes to take us to Gdansk and then left us semi-stranded in a desolate and lonely place in almost total darkness.
We hadn’t a clue what was going on and it took about ten minutes more before we figured out exactly what was going on. Initially, Leander and Maudie were agreed that we had just simply gone past our stop but I knew for sure that wasn’t so, for two reasons; we hadn’t been on the bus long enough for that and we couldn’t possibly have passed right through Gdansk City Centre without at least one of us spotting it no matter how wrapped up we were in our chatting, but it still took a few minutes before both of them agreed that I was right about that.
My own feeling was that we had gotten the right numbered bus but that it wasn’t going the full distance to Gdansk and the next one would be, hopefully. There was a small timetable board attached to the bus stop and with the aid of matches for illumination Leander eventually figured out, correctly, that we had gotten the right numbered bus but one that was going in the opposite direction to Gdansk.
It transpired that the #210 buses going to and from Gdansk both approach the stop at the airport from the same direction and we had no way of knowing that and so, in our ignorance, we just hopped on the first one that came along. By then I was sure regretting Tomas' decision to deter us from taking the #110 bus to a nearby train station, and from there to Gdansk, after he had initially recommended that we did that. The next bus bound for Gdansk was scheduled to arrive at 10:18.
There was a grass roundabout at the side of the road where the bus had stopped and there was a house with some lights on about fifty yards behind us. After a few minutes Leander wandered to a hedge behind the house and announced that there was a railway station just up the road. I went and had a look and the name of the station was Osowa, which I later discovered is a town twelve miles northwest of Gdansk.
Although it was very cold and almost pitch dark we were grateful that it wasn’t raining because there was nowhere to shelter had it been wet. A little black and white cat appeared on the scene and began skipping past us, back and forth, and eventually it took closer order and allowed Maudie and I to rub its back but when Leander tried to touch it, it ran away and didn’t come back until later on when Maudie was standing on her own.
After a while I moved from the inside of the roundabout to the edge of it at the roadside to watch out sign of a bus coming and Leander soon joined me but Maudie stayed where she was and the cat returned and kept running around her without stopping. I tried to get the cat to come close to me so that Leander could take a picture but he wouldn’t oblige and kept running away when I tried to get a hold of him.
Twenty minutes after we’d been dropped there a white car pulled into the roundabout about thirty yards from us and the driver just sat in it. After a couple of minutes I went over to him to ask for information and he said he was a taxi driver and I asked him how much it would cost take us to Gdansk? After fiddling for a while with a gadget on the dashboard he said it was 23km to Gdansk and he would take us there for €50. I declined his offer and I don’t think he was a taxi driver because there were no markings on the car and the proper fare for a journey of that length in Poland would be about €20 maximum.
Just a few minutes later, bang on schedule at 10:18, a #210 bus arrived and we were all mightily relived to get aboard it and finally get headed for home. I asked the driver if he was going to Gdansk and he said “Yes.” I asked if the trams would still be running when we got there and he answered in Polish and I had no idea what he meant. Then I asked a girl sitting near the front that spoke English, if the trams would still be running in Gdansk at 11:15. She said she wasn’t sure but felt that they would be.
I told Leander and Maudie what she had told me but it made no difference to him because he was staying in a hostel right in the centre of Gdansk with nine other guys he had travelled with, for €12 a night. He phoned a friend from the bus and got it confirmed that the hostel was very close to the train station and his friend agreed to meet him at the stop beside the station. I took his email address and have since sent him copies of the pictures that I took of him.
It was a bit of a relief when the bus got back to the airport and to know for sure that we were finally back on an even keel and heading for home. It was 11:10 when we got off the bus beside Gdansk Railway Station and we were just in time to see the last #2 tram of the day, which would have taken us home, pulling away without us. The next one was at 4:13 am. We said goodbye to Leander at the tram stop and we had to get a taxi to the hotel.
The taxi driver couldn't figure out where we were staying when I told him it was beside a church or monastery in Chelm. He kept saying Chelm St? And it took another driver to work out where we wanted to go, to the monastery on Cieszynskiego St. The fare was 41.50zl but I only got 7zl change from a 50zl note. Maudie asked me to give the driver tip and I told her that he had already taken a big one himself. The fare should have been no more than 20zl. I knew that I was being ripped off but the amount involved wasn’t worth arguing about after the dreadful night we’d just had.
We got to our room at 11:30 and I was pleasantly surprised to realise that I had six cans of beer stashed away in the fridge since Friday that I had completely forgotten about. I still felt the need for a cup of tea with plenty of ginger nut biscuits before I opened the first beer at 11:55. The milk in the fridge had frozen and it was lucky that Maudie had saved two little tubs that she got on the plane and hadn’t used.
The towels hadn’t been changed while we were away and we still had the same ones since the first day. Maudie declined a glass of wine and just settled for reading a book on her Kindle. I got stuck into the beer after drinking just half a cup of tea and I filled in my diary notes for the day as I motored through the cans.
Maudie fell asleep at 12:15 and I amused myself by looking through the two guide books we had for Gdansk and figuring out where we might get to on Tuesday morning and afternoon before it would be time to head for the airport around 6pm. Many of the tourist attractions were very close together and I knew that we would get to see most of them if we got another dry day. I only finished four cans and it was 2am when I got into bed and put the light out.
to be continued...
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Heading Back To Poland
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May 19, 2012 5:19 am
199 Views
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It was just before three when we got back to Central Station from the ski slopes and from there we headed straight for the hotel to pick up our luggage and we got there at 3:15.
There was a new girl in reception and she was very nice. She allowed us to use the tea maker and took a picture of us as we ate the sandwiches and rolls that we had made that morning during breakfast and the salmon sandwiches were absolutely beautiful. When I was getting out the cases from a small unlit room under a staircase I tripped on an unseen step and almost fell flat on my face. I reported my mishap to the receptionist without anger and suggested that she ask the management to have a light installed in the room. She said she would.
We left at 3:30 and walked to the bus stop at the end of Skovveien and there was a Muslim woman sitting at the stop and she was humming songs to herself quite loudly and without pause until the bus arrived after about five minutes. It was very amusing to watch.
On the way to Central Station kept a very sharp eye out for Habibi’s Kebab Shop in order to get our bearings and help us to easily locate the nearby Folktheatre Hotel where, in the huge lobby, there was a giant statue of a blond girl that I thought might be a depiction of Brigitte Bardot but when we found that hotel we discovered that the statue was a representation of the top English model, Kate Moss. We got pictures taken beside it at 4:10 and then, although we were very tight for time, we headed for Domkirke (Oslo Cathedral) which was close to the station but on the far side of it from where we were at that time.
On the corner from where I could get the best pictures of the church a male beggar thrust a paper cup right into my face that was so dirty and wrinkled that it suggested he might have been using it since Christmas. I didn't make any contribution.
While rushing to the station after getting the pictures I got a slight pain in my chest but there was no time to stop and relax if we wanted to catch the 4:30pm bus. The pain soon intensified and I was forced to stop but, although the pain didn’t quite subside completely, we were on the move again within a minute because I was determined to be on that 4:30 bus. We hadn’t gone much further when the pain grew stronger and I had to stop again and find a spot to sit down for a minute. After a brief rest I was on the move again and it was ‘heart in the mouth’ stuff as we hurried along dragging our two small cases behind us.
We got to the bus station at 4:27, with me almost in a state of collapse, and when we checked the large schedule board there was no mention of a 4:30 bus to Moss-Rygge Airport. The schedule board was currently showing all departures up to 5:05 and all we could do was sit there looking at it and hope that the 5:10 to the airport would soon be on display.
Having missed our return flight from Italy in October has certainly concentrated our minds and we're determined never to let that happen ever again, or even get close to happening. Moss-Rygge Airport is very much the lesser of the two that serve Oslo and information about it can be patchy and is often hidden away in the shadow of the main airport at Gardermoen
As soon as I sat down and relaxed the pain in my chest began to fade away but I was unable to just sit and relax and I was soon on the move again because when a new batch of departures appeared on the board, listing three at 5:10, there was still no mention of our intended bus at 5:10.
I went outside to the bus bay and a driver with poor English told me to check the schedule board again. A security man that had noticed my slightly distressed state volunteered to take me inside and check out the departure board for me but as soon as we re-entered the bus hall a fellow Irishman overheard me talking and moved to reassure me that there would be a bus leaving for Moss-Rygge Airport at 5:15 because he had just been given that information at the information desk, because he was taking the same 7:45 flight to Gdansk as us.
That was very same information desk where I had been given misinformation the previous evening. There had been no 4:30 bus and there was no 5:10 bus either, but mercifully, there was one at 5:15 and just a couple of minutes later confirmation of that was posted on the departure board.
I had just nok24 (€3) left and I offered it to Maudie to get a cup of tea or coffee but she declined and I used it, after borrowing a single kroner from the previously mentioned Irish guy, to buy a well stacked tub of ice cream for nok25, that we shared using two spoons.
The bus arrived at 4:40 and the female driver looked like an Oriental man until we got a very close up view of her. We were allowed to board the bus at 4:50 and at 5:40 I closed my eyes and managed to doze off for ten minutes and that freshened me up quite a lot. The bus reached the airport at 6:02 and I got a slight pain in my chest when I got off and pulled out the cases but it went away as soon as I got inside and sat down.
We went to the boarding area and went through security at 6:35. I was frisked by a very abrasive guy because my belt had set off the alarm and he made me take my shoes off too. Maudie was also frisked but she didn’t know why. There was a display of a miniature bedroom and other house rooms along one side of the area leading from the security area to the boarding gates and I took a few pictures of Maudie standing in front of them but only one came out properly.
We boarded the plane at 7:20 and there were lots of empty seats so we chose two near the back door to allow for a quick exit. Ryanair don't allocate seats to passengers unless they are paid for in advance. The best thing about being on the plane was that we were now back in the 'Euro Zone' and we had money to spend. We were quite hungry and and when the trolley rumbled along we both had chilli con carne, which was quite nice but the portions were small and I had to order a second one to stave off the hunger.
As the plane approached Gdansk Airport we passed right over the PGE Arena and either there was a match on or else the floodlights were just on for show. I couldn’t get my camera out in time to take a picture because the plane was turning. It touched down at 8:45 and we were first off at the rear at 8:50.
We just barely missed a #210 bus to Gdansk and the next one was due at 9:19. A rough looking but very friendly Polish guy, Tomas, told me that a #110 bus was due in two minutes and that it would take us to a railway station where we could get a train to Gdansk but I felt safer waiting for the #210. Then just before the #110 pulled away we decided that we’d get on it but then Tomas insisted that we get off and wait for the #210. I have no idea why he changed his mind, but we were soon to have very good cause for regretting it. A young Dutch guy, named Leander, got our bus tickets from a machine that only had instructions in Polish and we had a good chat with him on the bus.
to be continued...
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Break One Get One Free !
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May 17, 2012 5:58 am
241 Views
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After damaging my camera beyond immediate use in Vigeland Sculpture Park we headed back to the hotel. By then I had managed to straighten out the crooked lens and when we got there I went to reception and borrowed a very small thin bladed knife which I used to try and free the jammed lens, just as I had done successfully with Maudie's camera when it got similarly damaged two years ago.
Breakfast was still being served and we went into the restaurant just in time to avail of the fare on offer but all we took was tea and coffee respectively. The knife was perfect for what I had in mind to do but despite my best efforts I couldn’t get the lens to release and after a couple of minutes I admitted defeat.
Although I was badly deflated, I was very thankful that all the pictures I had already taken (1229) were safely stored in the memory card and could still be retrieved. I returned the knife with thanks and the guy that gave it to me seemed genuinely disappointed that I had failed to achieve my aim.
After having another cup of tea in the lobby we got #12 tram to Central Station and went looking for a camera shop from there. We asked several people but no one seemed to know where we could find a camera shop. We got a few bum steers and half an hour after our search had begun we still hadn't located a camera shop.
One guy sent us to a store that only sold musical instruments and the owner there sent us to a shopping mall on Karl Johan’s gate but we checked the entire place out and there was no camera shop on the premises.
While we were in the area we used the Continental Hotel toilets again and this time as we entered the conference hall ante room there was a porter, in a grey uniform complete with hat, going across the room towards a door. He looked at us with suspicion but I threw him off by saying “Good morning” very confidently, as if we belonged there. He paused for just a couple of seconds and then carried on through a door. On the way out I again swiped two Granny Smith apples from the large bowl of fruit on display in the ante room.
We went to National Theatre Metro and took a train just one stop to Stortinget which is halfway to Central Station and we resumed our search from there and when we finally found a camera shop, after searching for over an hour, they hadn't got any in stock that used AA rechargeable batteries and that was the only type I was willing to buy because all the cameras in our house, including two of mine that are still functional, use those batteries and I want all those cameras' power supply to be the same and fully interchangeable.
The guy that dealt with me was a very nice man and he wasn't a bit put out by the fact that I had changed my mind after initially agreeing to buy a camera for €135, which was the cheapest in the store. The one I had broken had cost €90 in 2010 and I had recently seen one the same on offer in Dublin for just €80. I asked him if there were any other camera shops in the area and he told me that 'Japan Photo' in a shopping mall attached to Central Station was the nearest one.
It was about a ten minute walk to that shop and soon after we went inside a guy about twenty, that immediately reminded me of Michael J Fox, attended us. Almost everything on display had the Sony brand on it and the cheapest digital camera was €120. I told him what I was looking for and he told me that they no longer stock that type of camera.
I felt caught between a rock and a hard place and while I took a moment to consider my position the guy went off to attend to another customer. The truth of the matter was that I didn't really have much choice; I couldn't bear the thought of walking around lovely little Oslo for several more hours, and later on Gdansk again, for what would almost certainly be the only time in my life, without the means of recording a visual memory of everything we saw that was worth photographing. I just had to buy that camera.
When Runar, that is his name, returned to us after a few minutes he spoke first and asked me" Can you wait for a few minutes while I check something in the storeroom ?" I told him we could and he went behind the counter and disappeared through a door. I said to Maudie that he might have some old stock back there that takes those batteries that they would sell off cheaply for maybe €50 or €60 each.
When Runar returned he was holding a camera in his hand and as he reached us he said " This was used as a demonstration camera and it has been lying in the storeroom unused for over two years. You can have it for free but you would have to buy a memory card for it." I didn't need asking twice. " "How much is a memory card ?" I asked and he replied "Nok149." which was less than €20. We paid by credit card and I attempted to give Runar the only sizable bank note that I had left, Nok100 (€13), but he refused flatly to take any gratuity and told us that he was happy enough that the camera, which might well have been dumped by then, had found a good home. Then, obligingly, he told us his name and agreed to pose with us for a self-image picture.
There is no facility on the camera to imprint the time and date on the pictures but that data is still available by using the cursor when browsing through my picture files.
When we left the shop at 12:20 we went to the metro at Central Station and a girl named Mydia told us which train to get to the ski slopes at Holmenkollen and Frognerseteren. The train ride to the top slope was a very long one with twenty-one stops and it took 45 minutes. There were some beautiful views of snow covered valleys and little remote communities of small wooden houses along the way but I didn’t manage to get a decent shot of any of them because I was running a little low on batteries and couldn’t afford to keep the camera running all the time.
Every time I did get a good chance to snap a picturesque location a tree or other obstacle would appear out of nowhere just as I clicked the button. When we reached the end of the line at Frognerseteren we discovered that nothing worthwhile could be seen without trekking up a steep hill for another ten or fifteen minutes. There was only one other person in sight and he said he was going to the top of the slalom run and would guide us there and we agreed to go along with him but after just a couple of minutes I began to feel very slight chest pains and I decided it would only be asking for trouble to continue a tough uphill walk in my condition.
As soon as the man disappeared around a bend I relieved myself in a non-designated area behind a tree and then we returned to the station and while waiting for the train we decided that we’d get off five stops down the line at Holmenkollen where there is a ski jump ramp. Most of the passengers had gotten off there on the outward journey.
When we got off the train we followed a group of people that were going to the ramp, but again the route was a tough one and although we eventually caught sight of the top of the ski jump ramp it was clear that quite a distance would still need to be covered to reach a good vantage point.
It wasn’t just a matter of how I was feeling, because I was pretty ok by then, it was also to do with the time factor. We had decided to go for the 4:30 bus to the airport on the basis that if we missed that one we’d have the 5:15 one to fall back on.
It was 2:20 when we turned around and headed back to the station for a train we knew was due at 2:30 that would get us back to the city centre by three. We would then have to go back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, so to dwell any longer on that steep climb to the ski jump ramp would have been foolhardy.
We almost missed the 2:30 train by going the long way around a hairpin bend instead of cutting across it as the crowd we’d followed on the way up had done. We then took the wrong option at a fork in the road and we were totally lost until I managed to spot a couple on the railway platform through a small gap in the trees and bushes, then we had to rush as quickly as we could to reach the platform just thirty seconds before the train arrived.
to be continued...
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Monday Morning In Oslo
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May 14, 2012 1:24 pm
254 Views
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On the way back from the Folk Museum the #30 bus passed by our home stop at Skovveien but we stayed on until we got to Central Station and from there we just rambled about looking for an Asian ‘eat all you can’ or a regular Chinese restaurant.
Although we didn’t find either type of restaurant the ramble around the very centre of Oslo's shopping district was a pleasant one and eventually we came upon a kebab shop with reasonable prices, by Oslo standards, and used most of what money we had left to get a sizable take away. We had earlier noticed that the going rate for a burger in McDonald’s without chips or a soft drink.
There was a guy eating in Habibi's Kebab Shop with his dog tied up outside and he confirmed that the #30 bus passed by there. We had gotten off a lot further up the street and hadn’t noticed if it had gone on straight, the way we went, or had turned off. It took a long time for our grub to be served but as soon as we got outside we saw a #30 bus heading our way and that enabled us to get back to our room while the food was still quite hot.
While on the bus we passed the trendy Folketeateret Hotel and we could see a giant, Sphinx style, white statue of a girl in the entrance hall that we thought might be a likeness of Brigitte Bardot. We had passed by there earlier on foot but hadn't noticed the statue at that time. We were tempted to get off and get pictures of it but we stayed on the bus with promise to go back and see it on Monday morning.
We were back in our room at 7:35 and we had two very big kebabs, a bowl of salad and two boxes of chips ). The food was still reasonably hot and a tub of white sauce that came with it was very nice and went very well with the salad, so much so that it didn't require any salt. We had tea with the grub which was really nice and every morsel was cleared off both plates, although, I had to help Maudie to finish hers.
We got CNN on the TV and we saw reports of the Afghan Massacre trial; a round up of the main European sports' events and then there was a lovely little item “Fishing for Hope” about James Arruda Henry, a former illiterate lobster fisherman from Connecticut who learned to read the age of 96 and wrote two books that were published when he was 98.
Maudie was asleep by 9:45 and I decided that I would drink the two cans of beer that I had left over from last night to help me to sleep, I usually wouldn't drink cans of beer unless I had six, and also,I knew I couldn't take them back to Gdansk in a carry on case.
With Maudie fast asleep I occupied myself by watching a ridiculous superhero film, "Hancock," starring Will Smith and Charlize Theron. That kept me awake until just before midnight and it was 12:10am when I switched out the lights.
On Monday I woke at 5:40 and got up at 5:50. I had tea and biscuits at six but although Maudie woke she declined any and tried to get back asleep. She got up at 6:15 and went straight into the shower. I packed my small case while waiting to use the shower.
We went for breakfast at 7:15 and I took the usual double helping of scrambled egg, sausages and rashers, Maudie took cereal, three pancakes, fruit cocktail and yogurt. We met Rodrigo and Nancy (P) from Puerto Rico when he offered to take a picture of us. They have been living in Germany for four years and have travelled all over Europe in that time. They too strongly recommended that we visit the Sculpture Park and the ski slopes at Frognerseteren.
We took the #12 bus to Frogner Park where the Sculpture Park is contained. We met a delightful, part Chinese woman, named Honkwa, on the bus and she told us where to get off. When we went into the park I noticed a statue of an insignificant looking man named Gustav Vigeland and I took a picture of it. It was only after we got back home that I discovered that he was the sculptor of all of the 212 bronze and granite statues and other sculptures in the park and that that section of it bears his name. A lot of the items were situated on a bridge that ran across a frozen river.
There were far too many items to take individual pictures of them all but I managed to take quite a good selection before calamity struck and I let my camera fall and damaged it beyond use. Thankfully I had just taken pictures at the Monolith Platform, a platform made of steps that houses the Monolith totem itself, which, with its 121 individual figures, is undoubtedly the stand out piece in the entire park (see footnote in blue).
I was very thankful that all the pictures I had already taken were safely stored in the memory card and could still be retrieved from the broken camera.
Oslo is the most expensive cities in the world (see footnote in red) and I didn’t much fancy the idea of buying a camera there just so I could use it for one and a bit more days. I have a new, still unopened camera at home that my son Liam gave me at Christmas and Maudie’s old camera is still in working order.
So on one hand there was a strong reluctance to buy another camera in such an expensive place, and on the other hand, there was almost unbearable feeling that I couldn’t take any more pictures during the next day and a half in Norway or Poland. In the end the ‘other hand’ won and I decided that I had no real choice but to buy a new camera even if the price was a rip off.
The most expensive and richest cities in the world. A report by UBS 18 August 2011: Oslo, Zurich and Geneva are the most expensive cities in the most recent UBS survey. Sydney continues to move up the table, which, to some extent can be explained by the Australian dollar's continued appreciation against both the US dollar and the euro.
In the autumn of 1927 a block of granite weighing several hundred tons was delivered to the park from a stone quarry in Halden. It was erected a year later and a wooden shed was built around it to keep out the elements. Vigeland’s plaster design was set up next to it to give reference to its sculptors. Transferring of the figures began in 1929 and took 3 stone carvers 14 years to accomplish. On the Christmas of 1944 the public was allowed to admire The Monolith and 180,000 people crowded the wooden shed to get a close look at the creation. The shed was demolished shortly thereafter. The Monolith towers 14.12 meters (46.32 ft) high and is composed of 121 human figures rising towards the sky. This is meant to represent man’s desire to become closer with the spiritual and divine. It portrays a feeling of togetherness as the human figures embrace one another as they are carried toward salvation.
to be continued...
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Rambling Around in Central Oslo
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May 7, 2012 9:00 am
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Before we left the hotel at 3:45 we spoke with the receptionist, Carol Ann, and she recommended three sites for us to visit, the Norwegian Folk Museum; Vigeland Sculpture Park and the ski slopes and jump platform at Frognerseteren. She also directed us to a nearby 7/11 store where we could buy some groceries.
It had turned into a very plesant afternoon and we walked along Bygdoy Alle and then turned onto Niels Juels Gate where we found the 7/11 store but there was a very poor selection at high prices and we didn’t buy anything.
We walked up Drammensveien and on to Solli Pass where we got pictures taken beside statues of WWII war heroes Gunnar Sonsteby and Winston Churchill. At 4:02 I got a sight chest pain and Maudie had a look around Wayne’s Coffee Shop while I sat for a few minutes to keep chest pains at bay.
When we continued walking we soon ended up back at Henrik Ibsen Gate and I had get over a three feet high railing to stand beside a bust of Alfred Nobel mounted on a tall plinth. We continued along the side of the Royal Park and we got pictures with three very friendly girls that each had a very small dog, one of which was very nasty and tried to bite me.
It was only a short walk from there to the main street in Oslo, Karl Johan’s gate, which runs from the park to Central Railway Station, a distance of about a mile. The University of Oslo Faculty of Law where the Nobel Peace prize was award every year from 1947-1989 is at the top of it right across from the National Theatre. There are lots of statues in front of both buildings and I got pictures of them all.
We walked along Karl Johan’s Gate but stuck mainly to Eidsvoll Square, a park that splits the street in the centre and contains ‘Spikersuppa' (The Nail Pond) which is used as a skating rink in the winter. The Norwegian Parliament is in Stortinget which faces into the square and is fully visible from there. There are a lot of small retail units in the square but most seemed to be in disuse.
We walked up Karl Johan’s Gate as far as a statue of Christian Krohg at the corner with Lille Grensen and then we worked our way back down towards the National Theatre Metro Station. Along the way we passed a female busker who was being supported by a few of her friends. I took more pictures at the university of statues and the buildings themselves.
We finally validated our 24 hour passes at 5:03 to take a train from National theatre to Central Station because we wanted to find out the schedules for the airport buses for Monday.
Again we were on the lookout for a currency exchange and when we finally found one that was open in the train station we were informed, once again, that they too only change money for people that have photo ID. Again we had left our passports back at the hotel and so we were unable to change any money. Maudie wanted to get a cup of coffee in a Narvesen Newsagents Shop halfway between the train and bus stations so I left her there while I carried on to the adjoining bus station to find out the times of the buses to the airport.
I had great difficulty finding any information for the bus company that we were travelling with because the airport we'd flown into, Moss-Rygge, was very much the secondary airport for Oslo. Eventually, about fifteen minutes after leaving Maudie, I found a ticket desk and a man there told me that the best bus to take for our 7:45pm flight was at 5:10pm. I asked for the times of the buses either side of that one and he told me they were at 4:30pm and and 6:00pm.
Armed with that information, which was to prove inaccurate, I hurried back to to pick up Maudie and she was very relieved to see me. We went outside to get a #30 bus to the Norwegian Folk Museum at Bygdøy which contains over 150 buildings which have been relocated from different districts of Norway. The bus ride was about twenty minutes but when we got there at 6:15 it was closed but a side gate was still open and we at least got inside to have a peep,then a very pleasant girl came along and apologised because she couldn't let us in.
I found out when we got home that it would have cost €15 each for a ticket so we wouldn't have gone in even had it been oopen.
to be continued...
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Strolling Along the Waterfront in Oslo
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May 5, 2012 7:43 am
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 From City Square we headed towards the waterfront and came upon the Nobel Peace Center at Aker Brygge. We went inside but there was an dkk80 (€11.50) charge to take a tour of the building and although we declined to pay the woman in charge very graciously allowed us to take a few pictures in the entrance area.
When we went outside we met two very bubbly girls from Mexico, Esmeralda and Maria and we had a bit of a laugh with those before sending them off to view the beautiful paintings in Radhuset (City Hall) and even meet the artist. We continued to walk towards the harbour and by then the weather had brightened up and it was quite pleasant compared to what it had been like earlier on.
Maudie was soon thirsting for a cup of coffee but she was put off by a large slow moving queue at the first place we came across that was doing take away, Kaffebrenneriet. We carried on slowly along the harbour and soon we found a stall selling coffee to go and Maudie got what she wanted, just a cup of latte, for dkk40, equivalent to almost €6 or $8.
One thing that couldn't be missed as we strolled about was the large number of dog walkers and we took pictures and spoke to several of them during the course of our quayside ramble, most notably the owners of Emio, a King Charles Spaniel, who was accompanied by his mammy and daddy and his maternal grandparents,with whom we had a very enjoyable five minute chat
Aker Brygge is a very fashionable waterside area in central Oslo that was only developed on the site of an old shipyard in the 1980's and it is a very nice place for a leisurely stroll in decent weather.
Among the notable items along the shore walk where Aker Brygge merges with Stranden are the Harbour Clock; the Peace Lamp, a large upright anchor; a cannon gun; an ancient harpoon gun; generic statues at a bar; some other statues and items that couldn't be identified and a giant mural of Michael Jackson on the side wall of a triangular shaped building across the water from the end of the pedestrian access. We also saw some luxury yachts at berth and some not so luxurious.
Having reached that point there was no other option but to retrace our steps back to city hall and with the Sun having shifted a fair bit I was able to get better pictures of certain things than had possible earlier,
By 1:50, when we had reached the furthest point of the harbour that is accessible on foot, the weather had continued to improve greatly and it was to remain quite pleasant for the rest of the afternoon. Having reached that point there was no option but to retrace our steps back towards City Hall and with the Sun having shifted a fair bit I was able to get better pictures of certain things than had possible earlier.
As attractive and charming as the area was, the main delight for us during that ramble was meeting with and chatting to some of the friendly people of Oslo, almost all of whom it would seem, speak excellent English.
One thing we discovered on the way back was the source the loud music we had heard earlier, it was coming from a single person, a South American Indian, playing a small piped wind instrument and using a small but quite powerful amplifier.
We were on the lookout for a currency exchange and when we finally found one we were informed that they only deal with people that have photo ID. As our passports were tucked away in a case back at the hotel we were unable to change any euros for Norwegian kroners at that stage.
We didn’t have sufficient money to eat in the expensive restaurants along the quayside so we found a small grocery store and used what little cash we had to buy some rolls, cheese and cold meat then we took it back to the room and dined on it there with tea. After eating we just relaxed for about half an hour and then we set off again on foot even though we were now inside what would be the 24 hour limit of validation for the use of our public transport passes.
to be continued...
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FOTO FRIDAY : BLUE
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May 4, 2012 3:20 pm
461 Views
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I think it's only fitting that what may well be my final entry to Foto Friday should take the form of a simple but heartfelt tribute to its founder and nurturist - Gentleben.
I'm sure he is there somewhere in the upper region of the unknown celestial that I may have captured in this picture that I took on a flight en route from Ireland to Poland in March this year.
GOODBYE GENTLEMAN BEN - aka Mike Graham
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It Was So Cold in Lovely Oslo
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May 3, 2012 6:39 am
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On Sunday March 18th, I woke up at 6:45 and Maudie woke at 7:05 without any prompting from me. We didn't have any reason to get out extra early but it was in our own interests to get going as early as we could, to have a good look around, without rushing things.
We went to breakfast at 8:25 and I got the usual mixture of rashers, tiny sausages and scrambled egg, which was the nicest I've ever tasted and I soon realised that was because there were bits of tomatoes in it. Naturally I went up twice and once again I managed to have my complete fill without overdoing it. Maudie had her usual mixture of cereal, toast, croissant, yogurt and fruit cocktail and she also partook of some hot pancakes. When I had told her how nice the egg was she tasted a bit and requested that I get her some when I was going up for my second helping.
We left at 9:30 and I took a few pictures outside and we were about to head off when Maudie implored me to put some warmer clothes on instead of the shorts and tee shirt I was wearing with just a light jacket. The receptionist told us that it was -6° Celsius (21° Fahrenheit) and it was to stay at that all day but that there was no threat of rain or snow. I went back to the room on my own and just barely squeezed into a pair of white cord trousers and I put on a jumper too.
Almost as soon as I got back outside to Maudie I got a very strong pain in my chest and I had to stand still to avoid making it any worse. I wanted to sit down at the outdoor tables for smokers but the seats were still wet from yesterday's rain. After standing outside for about five minutes I decided that I'd have to go back inside and sit down. The receptionist, Carol Ann, offered me a glass of water and asked if I wanted her to ring a doctor but I declined both of her offers. I asked her if she was English and she told me that she was from Kent but that her husband was Norwegian.
At 9:50 I decided to go to our room and sit there in peace while Maudie went back to the restaurant for more coffee. After five minutes in the room I wasn't really feeling any better but I was very mindful that time was passing by and we needed to get out and do some sightseeing while we had the chance. I went back down and after the Carol Ann had given me a phone number for an emergency doctor or an ambulance we left the hotel. Maudie later told me that she had said to her that I was crazy not to have gone to a hospital.
We entered the nearby Royal Park and, apart from the Royal Palace itself, the first attraction we spotted was a statue of Queen Maud, affectionately known as Maudie, who was queen consort from 1905 until her death in 1938. She was the daughter of Edward VII and granddaughter of Victoria.
There was clear evidence of maintenance work in progress on the top floor and the roof of the four storey palace. There were three sentry guards marching up and down outside the palace and although they were all separated by about fifty or sixty yards and weren't always facing in the same direction, their movements were identical and perfectly synchronised. While we were in the park my chest pains were at their worst and that is the only reason I can think of to account for not having gotten closer pictures of those sentries.
There were several mounds of snow scattered around the park grounds and the current temperature wasn't going to help them to melt. We were in the Royal Park for about fifteen minutes and from there it was a natural progression, downhill, to the National Theatre where I took lots of pictures of Maudie in front of the theatre itself and at various statues of famous actors, writers and composers that adorn its grounds.
I took a picture of a three figure monument to Ludvig Holberg and just to the right of it there was a shady looking group of six guys of Arab appearance and we turned back rather than get any closer to them. Then we were bothered by a Romanian gypsy woman who asked us for money and wouldn't take no for an answer until I shouted into her face "No".
We went into the metro station and there was a convenience shop in the entrance hall. A guy there helped us to buy two 24 hour passes at dkk75 (€10.50) each and told us we must activate them just before we make the first journey. We decided to keep them unused until 4pm so that we could then use them right up to the time we had to go to the bus station for the airport bus on Monday.
By 11:25 both of us were under pressure to use a toilet and I suggested to Maudie that our best bet was to walk into the foyer of the prestigious, five star Hotel Continental as if we were staying there and turn either to the left or right and hope that it took us to where there were toilets for general use. Maudie, of course, was mortified and almost appalled by such a proposal but when I gave her completely free rein and offered to carry out the sortie alone she agreed to become an unwilling accomplice in the plan.
In the event we walked in and turned to the right and there was no sign of a toilet but there was a bar in operation and I quickly realised that that gave us some cover. We probed a few corridors without connecting with a toilet and had all but given up of finding one when I spotted a sign leading to a conference room up a short flight of stairs. We followed the arrow and entered a luxuriously appointed ante room leading to a large function room where about 150 seats had been laid out.
There were toilets in both the front room and the conference room and, being so spoiled for choice as we were, we tossed a coin to determine which 'johns' we would use. I got in and out of the little rooms much quicker than Maudie and while I was waiting impatiently for her re-appearance I took a self-image picture and then pocketed two grass green Granny Smith apples from a selection of fruit laid out in a large bowl. When Maudie eventually emerged I set up another self-image picture and then we exited the room/area as discreetly and unobtrusively as we had entered it.
Upon arriving back in the sparsely populated bar area I took advantage of a need to sit down and to that end we took two seats in a spot that can be seen from the outside on the right of the Hotel Continental picture. The first seat I sat on, in front of a large window, was far too soft for my needs and I quickly moved to a different one close by that had a much more solid base. I was only sitting on that seat for about a minute when I got a really strong belch and the pain in my chest, by then lasting almost two hours, began to dissipate and within a further minute or two it had gone completely, at 11:40.
When we left the hotel we went to the left and then turned left on to Olav V's Gate and rambled along that, stopping to take pictures of the window displays of a large toy store. It was still bitterly cold and very misty ahead where the sea was.
We carried on into a large waterfront square, Radhusplassen (City Square), with lots of statues all over the place. Radhuset (City Hall) is the main building there and there was a park high up on the eastern side. President Obama made an impassioned speech in City Hall on December 10 2009 on the 113th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Nobel was Swedish and the reason the Nobel Peace Center was located in Oslo is because for ninety-one years, up until 1905, Norway and Sweden were united as one country.
After taking some pictures of the exterior we went into Radhuset and the ground floor was open plan with a display of paintings on the walls. There was a man at a table distributing pamphlets and selling books, on behalf of the Oslo Commune. He was engaging freely with the public and when we spoke to him just before we left he told us that he painted all the pictures on display and we took one of him talking to two women in front of his current work which depicted a raging sea. He told us that he had been working on it for three weeks at an average of about eight hours a day. Unfortunately, we didn't catch his name and I haven't been able to trace him on the Internet.
When we went outside I took pictures of lots of statues in the square, many of them of naked women and children. We had to go up a steep set of steps to reach the edge of the elevated park and there was a monument to Franklin D Roosevelt half way up. I took a picture of Maudie standing beside it but I couldn't fit it all in to a self-image of us. I decided to sit a moment and eat one of the apples I'd taken in the hotel and Maudie declined the other one. I suggested that she should venture up the rest of the steps and decide if the park was worth spending some time in. She did so and the verdict was, no.
Just then the sound of music began to fill the air and it sounded more like piped music than a live performance and the song Lambada, a tune I'm very partial to, was played repeatedly. At the bottom of the steps there was a statue of George Marshall that I would never have recognised as him had I not seen his name on a plaque beneath the statue.
to be continued...
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It Was Still St Patrick's Day
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May 1, 2012 9:08 pm
422 Views
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 The first tram to come along was #11 and we boarded that in expectation of riding it back to the city centre but it transpired that it was going in the opposite direction and we had to get off at the end of the line at Zaspa. We asked a girl that was sitting on a low wall, what was the quickest way to get to the city centre and she told us to take a #2 tram because its route was much shorter than that of #11. That girl was the most beautiful girl either of us has ever seen with our own eyes up close. I got a picture of her but only from behind. She was chatted to by almost every guy that passed where she was sitting and eventually she went off with an older woman that she had obviously been waiting on.
We got a #2 tram back to the Train Station and we had to sit apart for most of the journey. I had to use the toilet at the station and it cost 2.5zl, (65¢) a ridiculous amount given the cost of food and drink and public transport in Poland, but, having said that, I must admit that it was in state of the art condition and probably the nicest toilet that I've ever been in.
We went into McDonald's and had burgers and chips with soft drinks for our dinner. I only drank half of my Fanta there and took the rest with me when we left. We met two guys outside McDonald's, Paul and Tomas, that were very receptive and obliging, but not very helpful to us in our quest to find the city's soccer stadium. We spent about ten minutes with them as they consulted their iPhones for information about getting to the stadium but, ultimately, they told us there was no bus or tram stop at the stadium and that we would have to take a taxi.
Before we parted guided us to a tourist information office in the tunnel below the street and as soon as we asked the lone girl there how to get to the stadium she replied instantly "Take the #14 tram" and then she wrote down the tram number and the name of the stadium, PGE Arena, on a piece of paper. It was nine stops and a fifteen minute ride to the stadium and along the way we passed the Solidarity Site, where in1970 Lech Walesa and his colleagues set up the seminal Solidarity Trade Union that eventually played a big part in bringing about the demise of communism in Europe.
A man sitting opposite heard us asking for direction and told us he would tell us where to get off. I dont know what those two guys were on about because the tram stop for the stadium is actually named after it, exactly. The stadium itself was quite a walk from the tram stop but the car park and approach area was just across the road. There was construction work going on and there were tall barriers blocking all entrance to the stadium grounds. We walked for about five minutes on a road to the right and could see a team of workmen with heavy equipment in the distance. As we walked along we saw four cyclists going right by the front of the stadium and it was apparent that there must be a usable entrance further down the road but we could see quite a distance ahead and there was no visible break in the barriers. Bearing in mind that we were booked on a 5:30 flight to Oslo and needed to be on our way from the hotel no later than 2:45, we decided to turn back and catch the next tram.
As we got close to the stop we saw the cyclists emerge from the near end of the stadium grounds and we were tempted to venture closer to it but time was running against us and we did the prudent thing by continuing to the stop. I got the fifth mild chest pain of the day as we rushed a bit on the way to the tram stop, but we made the mistake of going to a bus stop first before realising our error and we just barely caught the next tram because the female driver saw us rushing towards it and kindly held the door open for us. I took a lot of pictures from the tram of the Solidarity site and other places but there was a faint pattern on the windows that blurred those pictures, but not beyond some of them being worth keeping.
When we reached the railway station stop we got a #2 tram immediately and I got my sixth slight chest pain of the day on the walk uphill to our room. We had tea and biscuits and then packed the small cases. I packed the kettle and the two small medicine bottles filled with milk that we would claim was medicine, either Maalox or Milk of Magnesia if we were questioned about it. Once again no clean towels had been supplied and before we left I looked for the guy in charge in the kitchen area then I tried to contact him via the intercom but all I got was an electronic voice telling me to "Please wait" with still no follow up to that after about three minutes.
By the time we left at 2:35 it had developed into a beautiful afternoon and Maudie dispensed with her jumper too. On the way to the tram terminal I got my seventh chest pain of the day and I had to stop for a minute to let it pass. Again we barely caught a #2 tram because the driver held the door open for us. We got off at Centrum but we couldn't see any sign of a bus stop. Then we decided that the immediate area was a bit too remote to feel comfortably that you were in the right place to catch an airport bus from there and we didn't even know which side of the road we needed to be on. We crossed the road and asked girl and guy where the bus stop was and they didn't know.
There was no one else around to ask for directions and so we made our own way down a very steep hill towards the city centre, rather than wait for the next tram. We were at the bus stop at 3:07 and the timetable told us that there was a bus every hour at 14 minutes past on Saturdays and Sundays. While waiting for the bus I got chest pain #8 but again it was mild and didn't last long. Again I reminded Maudie that it was still St Patrick’s Day
The bus came bang on time and at 3:20 we passed a park with a playground, but no sign of any grass or statues, and we agreed that we might pay a visit there on Tuesday morning. The bus got to the airport at 3:50 and although it was fully packed only six people got off including us, which surprised us. There were a lot of people waiting at the stop and we assumed they were waiting on a bus to Gdansk. Another 210 bus came along just a minute later and most of the people boarded that.
When we got inside the terminal I got a guy at the Lufthansa desk to weigh our cases and they were both well within the 10kg limit at 6.4kg and 7.9kg respectively. At the only cafe in the terminal which only had bar stool seating, Maudie got a latte and a roll and an ice cream for me. We were sitting at the side of the counter and there was a guy about twenty sitting in the middle of the counter and he never stopped staring at us all the time we were there.
We went through security at 4:30 and both of us were roughly frisked by very stern guards before being allowed through. The milk bottles weren't touched or even mentioned.
I bought an eight pack of Carlsberg Lager in a shop beside the duty free for 40zl which was very dear by Polish standards but I was glad to have them for later. We had been told that duty free could be carried on board separately but a Ryanair girl told us that it must go into our cases. There was a guy at the boarding gate weighing all the cases and because of the beer we were slightly overweight at 10.02kg and 10.32kg but he let us pass through without penalty. Again I reminded Maudie that it was still St Patrick’s Day
We boarded from the rear and sat in the very back seats. The plane moved at 5:20 and was in the air at 5:33. There was a very friendly hostess on the plane that strongly resembled a niece of mine and she told me that they have to do four flights a day, but only two to places like Greece that take four hours. There were three girls sitting across from us but apart from those it was mostly men on board. All Ryanair planes hold 196 and there were about forty empty seats.
It was quite foggy when he plane touched down at 6:40 and it was a very bumpy landing. We were off the plane by 6:47 and through immigration by 6:55, where the policeman that checked my passport was amused at the idea of an Irishman arriving in Norway from Poland he jokingly asked me if I had boarded the wrong plane. A woman at the tourist desk gave me a large folding map of Oslo and told me that there were no trains to there at present due to maintenance work and she said the bus fare was 140dkk (€20) single and 250dkk (€36) return, almost as much as we had paid for the return flights (€43).
The young bus driver was very helpful when I asked him if he knew how we could get to our hotel. There was another bus outside the terminal belonging to the same company, Unibuss Express, and the other driver came along and used an iPhone to locate the street, Skovveien, on a map of Oslo. Between the two of them they worked out how best to get to the hotel. They pinpointed the street on a map our driver had and said we could either take a taxi or get a metro train from the bus station and ride two stops to the National Theatre and then it would be a ten minute walk along either side of the Royal Park which would be facing us when we walked out of the station and that information proved to be very accurate.
The bus left at 7:20 and it got to Oslo at 8:10. The airport is thirty-seven miles from Oslo and the route was completely dark, poorly lit and rural along a normal road all the way to the outskirts of the city and we didn't pass a single town or village along the way. It was only in the last few minutes that we got a glimpse of the city lights and after passing by the drab docks area some very impressive looking tall and well lit buildings came into view. A few minutes later we were at the bus station which was connected to the central train station. Again I reminded Maudie that it was still St Patrick’s Day
The driver came inside and directed us over a bridge to the train station and the metro. An Asian guy told us which platform to use for a train to the National Theatre and we rode the two stops without tickets. The road at the left side of the park was named after Henrik Ibsen and it has quite a steep hill. I got a few mild pains walking up it and I had to stop to three times to let each one pass before it got bad. I had difficulty seeing the detail of the map in street lighting and I had to use the glow of a low floodlight under a mounted bust of Alfred Nobel to get our bearings on where we needed to get to. The ground everywhere was wet and there were a lot of big puddles in evidence and it was quite obvious that there had been a lot of rain in Oslo not long before we’d gotten there.
It was 8:50 when we got to the hotel foyer of the Best Western Hotel and Maudie had to type in her credit card number before we were given the key to room 413 by a male receptionist. He told us that breakfast was served from 8-11 on Sunday morning but 7-10 every other day. He told us that the rain had stopped about an hour ago.
We took a tiny lift to the fourth floor and got unpacked and changed for bed while the kettle was boiling. There were tea making facilities in the room with Lipton's tea bags and four little tubs of milk and we didn't bother using our own kettle. It was handy to have the extra milk in case we wanted more tea later on and again before breakfast time.
First we had soup with cheese rolls and then tea with ginger nut biscuits. Again I reminded Maudie that it was St Patrick's Day. Maudie turned on the TV and we got news that soccer star Fabrice Muamba of Bolton Wanderers had taken a heart attack on the pitch and game was abandoned before half time and there was coverage of the impending republican primary in Puerto Rico on CNN.
There was no mini-bar fridge to use for the beer and I put two cans out on the window sill before I discovered a fridge in what I had thought was a locker. Maudie looked through some leaflets and a magazine that I'd picked up at the airports in Oslo and Gdansk then she had another look at the thin guide we had gotten off Simon when we arrived in Gdansk.
I filled in my diary notes before I opened the first can of beer at 10:10. I tried to get Maudie to join me in drinking a beer but she declined because she'd had a touch of cystitis from around 9:30 and was afraid to risk aggravating it.
By 10:20 Maudie was asleep with her glasses still on and the book in her hand and I was left to my own resources yet again. I had another look through that thin book and I realised that the first spot on the Tourist Trail is Upland Gate which is right next door to Rossmann's Pharmacy where we often get off the trams. I looked at a map of the entire public transport system in Oslo, including on the water. Then I read the blurb in the hotel's information and rules folder that stated that the hotel was located in the fashionable Frogner residential area.
There was some very useful info in the folder such as the availability of a 24 hours public transport pass for just 70dkk (€10) and that was hard to believe because the cheapest fare for any ride, no matter how short, is almost €4 and that increases to €6.50 if you buy your ticket on the bus. I then decided that we should buy two of those passes but not activate them until 24 hours before we're due to make our last journey on Monday afternoon.
With Maudie out of the game I just amused myself as best I could while I drank the
usual six beers. At 12:10 I wrote in my notes "Apart from my chest pains, all things considered; I think things have gone as well as could have been expected so far because we've had some good luck and no disasters.”
At 12:32 I got two lovely big belches and then soon after I got a huge burp that settled my stomach well -Yippee!
And now St Patrick’s Day had come and gone too and it was the first time that either of us had been out of Ireland on that special day.
I looked though a thick little book that was in the room that listed pictures and some very interesting information on a lot of the Best Western Hotels in the World, including China; USA; Russia and lots of other European countries. At 11:57 I opened my fifth can of beer. At 12:08 Maudie tossed and turned a lot and I thought that she might sit up and chat a bit but she settled down and was soon restfully asleep again. At 12:21 I opened the sixth can of beer. It was 12:40 when I took the last picture and I got into bed and turned out the light at 12:50.
to be continued...
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