The establishment circled on the map were all hotels with dorm. I followed the map I tried out two of the hostel. Both told me there were no more rooms nor bed right at the counter. One of the building housing the largest budget hostel was under renovation. It looks like the hostel has gone bust, probably too good for the tourist's budget to be sustainable in a city like Oslo.
The next option would be a budget hotel. Well, the word "budget" is relative. There is a Comfort hotel right at the watefront. It looks brand new. I went in and asked. No room. "So how much a room if there is one?" Turns out the price wasn't that bad. Definitely higher than anywhere between Milan and Frankfurt, but taking into account the fact that I will have the privacy a dorm lacks, it was a good hotel, if I could get a room.
The city seems to be dotted with Thon hotels. Most has fancy name tagged to the Thon brand (like Panorama and Astoria). I decide to check one out when I saw a "Thon Budget". I assume this is a business hotel, and from what I have read about Oslo, the business hotels come with discount on weekend, when the business type leaves the city. Well, that was not the case, a room come to slightly higher than S$200. Nothing budget at all in most cities. This was higher than what was advertised on the banner outside, the same one that entice me to walk in and ask. Not wanting to waste more time looking, I settle for a room here.
The girl at the reception looks darker than the usual blonde in Norway. It's not only her complexion and the color of her hair and eyes, but her facial features kind of look more "exotic" then what I would imagine a Norwegian would be. I imagine she could be an tribal Sami from the Arctic north. But, I could be wrong, she could be from any of the southern european countries. What was for sure is she is quite well-endowed, the top button undone, her bossom was strain against her light blue blouse. Between her neck and the bosom was a handiplast. Oh, what a night it must had been. But I stray.....
The price may not have been budget, but the room area was. There was enough room for a narrow bed, a narrow desk, walking space in between and a small shower room. The room came with free Wifi though, and the first thing I did as to book online a room for the next day at the Comfort hotel. With that settled, I went out into the city.
The train station and its tracks divide up the city nicely for the tourist. On one side of the track is the waterfront with the Oslo city Opera House. On the other side is the start of the main thoroughfare Carl Johans Street. From my experience in the last few european cities, I was sure most of the places of interest to a casual journey will be along or near this street.
The sign that I was right came in the form of the Hard Rock Cafe. Don't believe in "Love all, Serve all" or "No Nuke", or the memobilia hanging on it's franchises' walls. Those are all gimmicks. The real recipe for the franchise success is simply to plong itself in the most busy, most touristy and most commercialize street in the city. Just hit the town, ask or the most touristy area in town, wander its street, and if there is a HRC in town, you will find it there. I have been to the HRCs in Munich and Copenhagen, with teddy bears to show for it, and there they work on the same formula. It may be interesting to do a city-by-city comparison of the HRC and the defuncted Planet Hollywood (in Singapore, at least), just to compare if it was really about location, location, and location.
Along the street were the usual suspects: shops, restaurant, theatres. On the wide divider of the boulevard were patches of blooming flower, fountains, beer garden and snack bars.
It was a bright blue sunny and the mercury hovering at 10 deg. C. It must be a great time for the locals who went through a long winter.
At the end of the Carl Johans Street is the Royal Palace. It's the usual scene of sentry on parade, and tourists taking pictures with one of the guards.
Looking outward from the palace ground, the Carl Johans slope down all the way to the train station, and the waterfront behind it. Even here in the far north, I saw one shopping swinging a H&M shopping bag. The Swedish seems to be the in-thing all across Europe.
To the right of the Palace is the City Hall, which overlooks the waterfront.
On one side of the waterfront is a old fortress, and on the other were old wharves converted into a, borrowing marketing languages of the day, lifestyle enclave. That means shopping malls and restaurants.
It may be coming to 7 in the evening, but the sun is still out. And it would be another 3 hours or so before the sky turned dark.
I wander back to the hotel through the side streets instead of the Carl Johans.
There was a English football match going on, and it looks like Liverpool is a well-supported club this far north. In many of the watering holes on the side streets, fans in the red jerseys packed the pubs with live telecast of the game. The game went 2-1 to Chelsea, who took home the 2012 FA Cup.
I went back to the train station to check that the maintenance work would be done by the end of the weekend. Some of the tracks were still being worked on, but a poster has reassuring news that the work stops the next day.
Great, that means I could get out from Oslo on a train. It's time to get those tickets to Frankfurt. At the Norwegian railway counters, the same scene as in Munich and Copenhagen played out. The railway staff really deliberate on the best route to get between Oslo and Copenhagen. It's a monologue between the railway guy and his computer, with me a seemingly unconcerned third party:
Oh, this looks like a good one...
Mmmm...no, no, the transfer is too rushed....
how about this..yes, yes...good transfer time....
oh, oh...that means you would need to start very early in the morning....
Let me find you a better route....
And so it went on until he came up the perfect route and show what is on the screen to me, to confirm that I was as satisfied with it as he apparently was. I gave my approval and he printed the ticket out. A left with a sincere thank you.
Back on Carl Johans, a comic shop staff dressed in a giant Lego figurine was holding a board announcing Free Comic Book Day at the local Outland shop. I went in to check out the Oslo comic scene.
I went back to the hotel early, even though the long summer days meant I could spent another couple of hours outside. But with a S$200-per-night bed waiting for me back in the hotel, I would like to spend more time with it.
The next day, I woke up to another bright sunny day. I went down to the breakfast room. A free spread awaits. It was a fine spread to make the 200 bucks worthwhile. Some of the free breakfast served at european hotels really reflects the current age of austerity: thin slices of coldcuts and cheeses, hard boil eggs and bread. The Thon is serving more, with fish and meat, and it was all-you-can-eat. While my heart were aching a bit from the room rate, my stomach was completely soothed.
Over breakfast, I scanned the local papers for news of what is likely the trial of the century in Oslo. The trial of Anders Behring Breivik for the massacre in Oslo and the island of Utøya has started in the Oslo court. Surprisely, there weren't much coverage of the Friday proceedings.
(Notes: I cheated a bit. Oslo is on latitude 59.9494° N.)
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