Oslo - National Day

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Oslo is very nice, really it is, it's just it isn't that special as capital cities go and is undoubtedly overshadowed by Bergen. It feels much like many medium size central European cities - some attractive parts and ornate buildings but they are only a scattering amongst far a more utilitarian majority. And then there's the Radhus (townhall) which makes it look like the Soviets had a hand in the architecture - so brutal and ugly it's impressive. On the plus side Oslo has a pretty island filled harbour and a very relaxed air for a capital city, where else could you pretty much walk up and knock on the door of the Royal Palace?

It turned out I'd arrived the evening before Norway's National Day too, like most of the other travellers I met there it was more a happy coincidence rather than any plan as it's not exactly well known outside of the country... National Day - 17th May - marks the date when the Norweigans finally achieved independence from Sweden after a long period of being passed back and forth between Sweden and Denmark. The Norweigan flag is even more in evidence than normal, there are street parades around the city and even an appearance by the royal family. Unfortunately the weather wasn't feeling generous but the rain wasn't much of deterrent and the streets were lined with happy crowds waving their flags from beneath a sea of umbrellas.

Almost all of the parades were made up of marching bands, in fact Norway must have more school marching bands per capita than any country in the world. Again it's all a very innocent celebration compared to the self importance of big public events in other countries, there's very little in the way of security and barriers and it's all very much focused on the kids having fun. For Norweigan sixth formers the holiday coincides with their end of school celebrations - known as Russ, they dress up in red overalls and beret and set out to make as much noise as possible 24 hours a day for several weeks. They were also handing out cards to the younger children in the parades - actually it might be more accurate to say they were being mobbed by the soaked nippers desperate to collect a bigger set than their friends (the cards all have different jokes on them).

After the finish of the parade everyone headed towards the palace where the royal family were out on the balcony waving to their public - however by the time I'd actually fought my way close enough they'd evidently had enough of the rain so I still don't know which one is which...

I headed back to the hotel to rest my aching legs for a while, sort out my photos and catch up on the Americas Cup racing on the interenet radio, then headed out for some lunch and ended up chatting to Eva from Ohio who had a month to see as much of Europe as possible. I thought that was pushing it until I met one of my new roomates - Aidan, from Melbourne, was on a round the world trip on six weeks holiday - that's really packing it in! My other roomate was Bjorn who as you might guess was a little closer to home, having come up to Oslo form his hometown to take his enrollment tests for joining the Norweigan police.

So it was this happy three, Aidan, Bjorn and myself who headed out to sample the delight of nightime Oslo. An excellent (and cheap) all you can eat mongolian buffet was the first stop, then after much procrastinating over choice of bars the evening took a slightly surreal turn. Happily putting the world to rights in a corner of the bar we were approached by a - possibly slightly inebriated - Norweigan lady who was adamant that we should should be chatting up all of the single girls in the bar - a sort of moral obligation as it were, due to our youth and good looks (she did have some fairly thick glasses on...). 'You have to say to them "I want to connect with your sex"' she insisted. As far as I could see asking a passing girl if she wanted to 'connect with my sex' was more likely to invite a black eye than anything else. However, to be fair, through this little interlude we did end up talking to some interesting Oslo girls - Ingen (Dermatologst and sometimes norweigan model) and her friends took us along to a couple of their favourite hangouts. Bjorn bailed out early to catch some Zs while Aidan and I surrendered to the reality of 6am train journeys needing to be caught and called it a night at the doors of club charging £10 entry for the 1 remaining hour of the night.

Now writing this the train is skimming along the Swedish coast through coutryside that looks very much like southern England - and it's raining too so I couldn't fee more at home...Next stop: Copehagen.

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