Greetings from London. Last week I got back from an epic week adventure around the Nordic lands of Europe. As with my last trip around New England, I thought it best if this time I simply wrote notes as I travelled, and wrote up the proper blog entries upon my return home. This worked out well again this time, as again it meant I got to spend more time travelling and seeing the wonders of these amazing countries. I had a superb time and quite an epic journey, and over weeks I plan to write up about my adventures in Norway, Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Iceland here, and also upload some photos alongside.
I left the UK in the middle of July, just as the UK was experiencing an unprecedented heatwave of 40 degrees. With any kind of extreme weather, the UK just cannot cope, it seems to go into meltdown when there is anything slightly out of the ordinary, whether it be cold weather, hot weather, snow, wind, leaves on train tracks, anything really. The media helps in no way at all with its whipping up of fear, drama and doomsday messages.
On my day of departure, a number of trains to Gatwick Airport were cancelled or delayed, but I did manage to get on one within a few minutes of arriving at the station, and it was packed to the gills with people flocking to Brighton to enjoy the weather. My flight with Norwegian Air from Gatwick to Oslo was on time and was a breeze - I did feel quite fortunate as I later read that Luton Airport, where I returned from Iceland at the end of August, had closed for a couple of hours in the afternoon due to the runway melting. I was hoping that the extreme heat would have left us by the end of August, and indeed it did. On the plane, I got talking to a nice chap next to me, a Danish university lecturer returning from a few days visiting friends in Oxford, who became the first person I practised my Norwegian with, and I dont think it was too bad! I had been learning Norwegian on the DuoLingo app for around six months prior to my trip, hoping to practise it during my travels.
than what Im used to. Due to Britain recently leaving the EU, and along with sporting my brand new blue passport which doesnt have European Union on the front cover, I joined for the first time in my life the Other Passports queue, rather than the EU one. It was actually shorter, and ended up with me getting a Norway stamp in my passport - yay! This new one needs filling up, and hopefully future trips planned to Europe will help it on its way now! The bags took over an hour to arrive though, and it seems Norway has similar issues employing airport personnel as the UK does, probably similar in a number of countries.
From the airport there was a direct train running through Oslo city centre, and onto the small town of Sandvika where I was staying, around ten miles to the of the city - I always like to stay in suburbs when I travel, avoiding the tourist hotspots and getting to know the real country. From the train station, it was a short bus ride to my Air BnB - a very peaceful, annex stuck on to the side of a
building in the sprawling suburbs of Oslo. Before settling in for the evening, I headed to a nearby Kiwi minimarket to stock up on goods for my time there, having mainly booked with kitchens, fridges, ovens and microwaves, to save money on eating out which is, along with everything else, notoriously expensive in these countries. I planned to be doing lots of over weeks.
After a good first nights sleep, I had a wonderful day around Oslo, my first full day on this trip. I wouldnt say it is a particularly attractive urban area in itself, the buildings are not particularly notable, and many seem to be of the concrete, featureless variety - it actually seemed more East European than Scandinavian to me. Its setting at the head of the Oslo fjord is quite stunning though, with the sea stretching out into the distance in front of the city, and mountains and forests overlooking it from the north.
