Friday 11th April 2008

I woke up at 5.30 on Friday 11th to have a quick wash and finish putting last-minute things in my suitcase, such as toothbrush, soap etc... My father dropped me at the Lens train station at 6.30am and I took the 6.52 train to Lille Flandres. Once there, I walked to the Lille Europe train station where I took a TGV train to the Paris - Charles de Gaulle airport at 8.46. The train journey went smoothly and I arrived at the airport at 10.22. I had only been there once, and that was for my school trip to the United States five years ago when I had just followed the teachers without giving it second thoughts. I thought I was going to get lost but I did surprisingly well, following the signs and ending up in front of a shuttle to get to terminal 1.

When I finally got to terminal 1, I looked for the SAS economy luggage registering. I was not sure how it worked because I only had a print-out receipt and was not sure where I was supposed to go first. Moreover, Lyss (my Norwegian friend, that is) had texted me in the morning asking me if I was certain I could get in to Norway with just my identity card, and I got really nervous that I had misread or misunderstood the information on the French and Norwegian embassies. But when I went to register my suitcase and handed my ID, it all went fine. Phew! I was given a boarding pass and then I had about three hours to kill before taking off.

I sat for some time but then decided to give up my seat to an old Asian lady and have a look round the airport. I was bored and curious, and tried to see if there were any vegetarian options at the many restaurants / places to eat, and there was none! Oh well...

Finally at 1pm I went through the customs and ended up sitting some more until we could get on the plane about 40mins later. The plane took off at 2.05pm and it was a pleasant flight as such, except that 1) most of the talking was in Norwegian - the pilot hardly translated anything in English, let alone French2) some annoying woman decided to sit next to her friend, that is to say between me and the friend, and she spoke fluent Norwegian so she showed off a lot. And that kind of people really annoy me.

I landed in Oslo (after seeing much snow in the forests - gorgeous!) around 4.20pm and took a shuttle to the luggage place. Of course my suitcase was one of the last to arrive. Eh. Then I followed the exit signs and came face to face with Lyss!

We took a train to central Oslo and I was surprised with myself, chatting and not feeling nervous one bit. It felt like I'd known Lyss forever! Then we took a bus to her place so that I could drop my luggage and we went back to the city centre to walk around and have a look at the shops. The weather was fairly sunny and I was confident it would last... But it didn't as you'll find out soon.

We went back to Lyss's place later in the evening after getting some food for breakfast (and me buying stamps in Norwegian - hey, I was proud that my Danish was useful at last!) and ordered pizza then I took a very much needed shower. I was exhausted as I'd woken up so early and had spent all day in transports or waiting.

Saturday 12th April 2008

When we woke up we found out that it was SNOWING! We could not believe it! So we had a lazy morning having breakfast and watching telly. When the snow stopped, leaving room for rain, we took the bus to the centre to walk along the longest shopping street. Unfortunately, not much shopping was done because everything in Norway costs a fortune! For those of you who've been to London: it is a giant bargain there. I could not believe it when Lyss said that around 30 euros was cheap for a CD! :-O

Later in the afternoon, Lyss's friend Eva joined us for Indian restaurant. I hadn't had Indian food in ages so I very much enjoyed it. I can't remember what I had exactly, it was spinach with cheese and other things. But let me tell you, it was very very yummy. Eva was so nice as well, I had a great time with her. She's this very simple, friendly person that you cannot seem to hate even if you wanted to, and I like people like her. After the restaurant, we went to Deli de Luca and had some cake (again, expensive but yummy!) and there was a very cute waiter whom I tried to take a picture of. Not an easy task, but at least I have a small memory. Then we walked through nighty Oslo and it was gorgeous. Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out good at all, despite the Photoshop.

When we got home around 11pm or so I think, I took a shower and then Lyss made me listen to Norwegian bands until 2am or something? Hehe. Well, let me tell you: they have some good music there!

Sunday 13th April 2008

It was a rainy Sunday, unfortunately. We had breakfast and left 'home' around midday or something to do some tourist things. Me loves tourist things. We went to a beautiful park called Frognerparken which is famous for having sculptures by Gustav Vigeland (whom I didn't know). It was really really beautiful and we had some sun while there. Then we went to the docks and up the hill to the Akershus castle where we had the most beautiful view over the Oslo fjord. It was truly amazing and I could have stayed there forever!

Afterwards we went back to the centre and walked up to the Royal family's castle. Very pretty indeed, and I decided I wanted one myself. Well, why not?

Lyss was going to a football game later in the afternoon so we headed back to her place after buying pizzas for tea. She left at five and I watched some telly (a documentary about Annie Leibovitz (spelling?) - very very interesting. I love her work.) and well... fell asleep. Not for long though, so when I woke up I went to take a shower and organised my suitcase for the next day. Then... House was on television! I was very excited as I love House, and watching it from abroad is always cooler, isn't it? That's when Lyss came back, so we had our pizzas in the oven while she had her shower. Her team had lost, and the game hadn't been fair so she was disappointed. We watched "King Kong" (well, more like I did because Lyss was busy on the laptop.) and it sucked. There were dinosaurs! Where the hell did they come from? Dinosaurs in the 1950s. Yeah, right. By almost midnight it was not over because of all the ads, and I was tired so the television was turned off and we went to bed.

Monday 14th April 2008

I woke up at 6 o'clock and had a quick wash before putting everything in my suitcase. I was really sad to leave because I absolutely adored every second of my stay in Oslo and my time with Lyss, but at the same time I was content because I'd taken advantage of it and Lyss didn't feel like killing me, so it was like a victory. I left quickly because I hate goodbyes, they make me cry.

I took the bus to the train station and then a train to the airport, not getting lost once. I was really good. I had to wait in the longest queue to register my suitcase at the airport, and then I went through the custom to be done with all of that. I went through all the duty free shops and was a bit gutted I had no money left to spend. I spent soooo much, and basically all on public transport.Even when I go to London I still have some pounds left to spend on Cadbury choccie.

Then I waited and waited and waited until the Paris plane was finally on the screen of my little waiting room number 47. The flight just before was to Frankfurt - oh how I was tempted! Finally got on the plane at 10.55am and was just as tired as on Friday. It felt like I was on drugs or something (or so I imagine as I've never done drugs), as if I was me but not really, I saw everything differently. I tried to sleep on the plane but it was not comfortable enough. I landed in Paris at 1.15pm and waited around 20mins for my suitcase. Then I went to take the RER train to the Gare du Nord station and basically experienced what may be my life next year, aka rude Parisians pushing you without apologising and expensive yet crappy train journeys. Oh the fun! I had about three hours until my train left so I crossed the street and went to the Quick (Belgian version of the MacDonald's, but a thousand times better and with a veggie option!) where the guy was so rude and I could be rude in return - being French does have its advantages! Then I went back to the train station, finally managed to get myself a seat and waited for two long hours. I couldn't keep my eyes open but didn't feel comfortable sleeping there with my bag and suitcase, so I struggled to keep my eyes open despite the ever-growing headache. My father had told me to get off in Arras instead of Lens as he would pick me up after work (my train stopped in Arras at 5.40pm) but I couldn't get in touch with him... only to find out later that I had the wrong mobile number! Grrrr! So my mother phoned him for me and he came to pick me up in Arras as planned. Sunny Arras, shall I say. Why wasn't it sunny while I was in Oslo?

So that was my weekend in Oslo. It was fantastic, everything was and I felt so lucky to have wonderful friends like Lyss. Made me very proud! I hope we meet again soon, and when I'm richer, jeg håber at jeg skal flyve til Norge atter.