To start my Saturday, I accompanied Helene to her dressage lesson in Ski (the name of the town not the sport). I got to see what a proper Norwegian horse stable looks like, and I have to say, it definitely beats New England stables.
We made it back by around noon, and decided that we could head into Oslo for lunch. I was joined by my gracious host, Helene, and her friend Wibeka and Sebastian from Germany. We left from the apartment by one of the three modes of transport (bus, tram, or subway) all linked by their unified transportation pass, the #Reuter.
Two things to know about Norway: 1. Everyone seems to speak English, which makes it very easy considering their language is extremely hard to comprehend without any knowledge of Germanic languages. 2. Everything is significantly more expensive here. A coffee is around $5, and a sandwich will cost $12-15. Its definitely worth it though. The bread they sell here is just about worth the asking price for the sandwich.
Anyway, on with the trip into Oslo. We took the tram, which is an above ground rail. We sped past steep pitched roofed houses, all adorned with the traditional Norwegian embellishing.
The train made its way through the city center, halting at traffic lights and stuttering along to oncoming foot traffic. We stopped at Schous Plass (a tram stop near the Oslo downtown) where we meandered down city streets until a passed a gentleman's facial hair grooming place. I jumped at the opportunity to replace the mustache wax I left at home. The store clerk asked me if I wanted to style it like a circus entertainer or to soften the hair. I said circus entertainer.
With mustache wax in hand, we marched on to Mathallen (an indoor artisan food court). It reminded me a bit of New York's Chelsea Market. It was filled with stands serving local cheese, of which there is an abundance of, breads, and meats. We spent an hour eating a delicious duck confit sandwich and talking about where we each came from and what our future plans were.
We headed out and walked about the Grunerlokka area of Oslo. We hopped into a local tavern/bar where I finally got a taste of Norwegian beer. I'm not entirely sure what kind of beer it was, but it was heavy like a porter, but light in malts like an english ale. The taste was a bit sour giving it a slight taste of pickle juice. Not exactly the things you want to hear when describing a beer, but it wasn't bad. As we walked to our next destination, I was able to capture a couple pictures.
Warm beer and warm cocoa in our stomachs, we hopped on the train to venture off into the sea port area, otherwise known as Stortorvet, where we braved an inland breeze to snap a handful of pictures. By the time we finished, the sun was getting low on the horizon and my guides were in desperate need of a warm drink. We walked down Aker Brygge, which is a strip of high end restaurants and apartments on the harbor. We all had tea or coffee before splitting up and heading back for the night.
Before the night was over, I had one more surprise. Helene's sister studies at the national veterinarian college. We were allowed a quick glimpse of the production animal facilities they have and the systems and processes in place to make sure the farms that supply livestock to markets are actually adhering to strict standards.
Although I have a lot to say about how nice the facilities are, and all the interesting questions I got to ask, I will instead end with the awesomeness that is getting to feed baby cows from a bottle.
More stories to come.
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