OSLO

sorry, too tired to make up witty headings.

This is, without a doubt, my most poorly organised holiday ever. I was debating with myself whether to reveal some examples to you, my reading family and friends, but as I am trying to stick with the new life philosophy that 'nothing is embarrassing unless you are embarrassed' here we go.

- Firstly, I forgot to change Swedish Krona into Norwegian Krona before I left(p.s. i don't know how to spell kronor/krona/kroner so please choose your own ending) leaving me with no legal tender to use on the 5 hr trip from Gotenberg to Oslo. For someone with a voracious appetite, this is akin to torture.

- Even though I thoughtfully packed my contact lenses cleaner and my contact lenses storage solution, I somehow forgot to pack my actual contact LENSES. Ditto my pensioner glasses. This is deeply distressing (will see the rest of Norway through a -1.5 dioctaves haze) however I am cheering myself with the fact that some people out there have it worse than me i.e. they are blind.

- I forgot to bring any form of jumper. I have bought 3 t-shirts though, a skirt and the screws for my bike lights (??). I bought a replacement one for 6 dollars at a super dodgy Supre-esque polyester bargain shop.

- Instead of booking tonight's accommodation last night like a conscientious traveller, I instead chatted up Christian the German so I could borrow his lonely planet guide. Upon going to the reception desk this morning I found that the hostel was in fact fully booked, just like (as I found out after an hour and a half of calls) the rest of Oslo and surrounding regions. The only option available to me now is taking the 23.11 overnight train to Bergen. I've got a seat too, not a sleeper. Which brings me quite aptly to where I am now, in a cheap internet cafe in Oslo Sentralstajion

Despite all the dramas, I am quite enjoying this mini-holiday. It's quite fun going by the seat of my pants. The combination of mystery, opportunity, spontaneousity and pure anxiety that has coloured my couple of days here is quite addictive. So I am leaving Oslo tonight after a brief but thoroughly pleasing visit.

Oslo is a pretty crazy city. Compared to the rest of Scannie (yes! another Australianism!) that I have seen so far, it's very very multicultural. It also has a confronting number of beggars and drug addicts. It's hugely expensive, but I am getting around this by living on chocolate chip cookies, packed lunches sneaked out past the youth hostel staff and going to the toilet only in museums. Museum's toilets, that is.

I went on the 92 ferry today from Vippetangen out to the island Hovedøya in the Oslofjord and chilled out in the very picturesque naturesque beaches. I also went to the National Gallery and the National Museum for Contemporary Art and saw in the flesh (amongst other things) Munch's 'The Scream', Rodin's 'The Thinker' and the cool twisted gun barrel thing sculpture. The art here is amazing and, quite frankly, leaves the NGV for dead. I also went to grønland and ate cheap Indian, and sat in a park. Then I rode some suburban train line to its final stop and came back in again, just to check out life in the 'burbs.

I'm meeting Dave in Bergen tomorrow morning. He's arriving there tonight at about 9.45. I don't think he'll find a room. The Rolling Stones, of all things, are in town tonight, and everywhere there is booked too, as I have been told repeatedly by their youth hostel staff. I can't wait to hear how HE makes it through tonight.

over and out!