The Comfort is run more like the latest commercialized hostel. The staff are dressed quite informally. Check-in can actually be done with a automated machine that scan your passport and read your credit card. The only problem that morning was the credit card seemed to be running into some problem. It also have a youth hostel vibe. Color posters and stickers can be found on the walls, asking to be environmentally conscious or to say Hi! to the guests next to you in the elevator.
I headed out to the city opera house by the waterfront right behind the train station.
The opera house has inspiration to be another Sydney Opera House. It is supposed to be one of the latest architectural showpiece in the city. While the Sydney Opera House has its iconic overlapping "shells", the Oslo counterpart has a sloping roof that is accessible to the public. It's like an artificial hill, and the top of the slope is a good lookout of the bay area. Sign warn of the gradient of the sloping roof, although on a dry day, it was a easy climb. I even saw one guy in a wheel chair on it. How he made it up there, I am not sure.
On one side of the bay is the view of the bay flowing out into sea. A cruise ship can be seen. A cruise between Denmark and Norway is supposed to be popular. A cruise of a few days out at the sea gave the Norweigens a chance to pruchase duty-free goods. This looks like a good alternative to a rail trip back south to Denmark.
Another view from the opera house is the Carl Johans side of the station.
The other side of the station looks like the residential area. Most of the building are low-rises, but some highrises are coming up on the shoreline.
I left the Opera House, cross over to the station and back on the Carl Johans.
I am getting back to the city hall marina. The evening before, I have seen the tourist booth on the marina advertising Inner Fjord cruise. I would like to see the Fjord, although Inner Fjord probably means we aren't going too far from the marina. I would love to see the spectacular "outer" fjord on Norway's coast, but given the time I have, the Inner fjord would do.
By the time I arrived at the tourist booth, a queue were already forming for the next cruise. I paid for a seat and got in the queue. It's free-seating on the ship, so those on the front of the queue gets the best seat.
We are off, leaving the city hall behind us.
Very soon, we left the Opera House behind. The building is so unassuming, I think the Sydney Opera House has nothing to worry about the Oslo one giving her a run of her money .
Most were on the cruise for a relaxing day out at sea. Others seems to be on a hunt for water-front properties. When the guides mention a certain interesting house, (say...the summer house of the princess, who actually spend the rest of the year outside Norway) they rush to the side of the ship, and started snapping with their camera.
The two guides were filling in lots of details about the fjord, but too bad both were from eastern europe, and I had some difficulty understand their English.
The number of ships and vessels we met on the cruise is a reminder that this is Viking country.
From sail boat to power boat to jetski, vessels of all shape and size and color were taken out for a spin under the summer sky.
Good times fly, and very soon, the little spin out on the fjord was over and we are back on terra firma.
波光粼粼
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