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Published: June 18th 2014
On the islandWe arrived in oslo early in the afternoon after a beautiful train ride through the Norwegian countryside. Other than customs jumping on the train and questioning us about where we were going and having a dog sniff the carriage it was a peaceful journey and didn't require any changes which was nice.
We decided we would find a spot to camp before sorting food and drinks and after some discussion decided to take a bus and then commuter ferry to an island to the south of oslo.
We found loads of other campers on one side of the island, it was like a city of tents, some looked like they had just set up but others seemed to be of a far more permanent nature. We had a chat with a Frenchman who happened to be from the town where most of our camping gear is made and he expressed a gratitude towards Winston Churchill, a curiosity about why so many people are knighted in the uk and a shared view on the current state of the eu. Quite possibly the most friendly upbeat person from France I've ever met!
We also
Bear grylls stylespent some time talking with a couple of English guys who are living on the island while looking for work in oslo. This confirmed our suspicions that some of the campers where spending more than a few nights there!
Having set up camp we decided two of us would go and get food from the mainland while Rachel watched our stuff. Unfortunately when we got back to the ferry drop off point we realised we had missed the last ferry off the island. Some Norwegian girls where stuck as well and offered to share a water taxi with us, but at £50 each it was way out of our budget.
So we had to settle with no drinks and only some rice for food.
We decided we would bear grylls things up a bit and scoured the coastline for edible food. The crabs we were able to get where too small to eat, the snails too and the vast majority of the shell fish had been eaten by the circling seagulls. We did manage to find a handful of muscles though.
So we cooked up a bowl of
Viking long boatrice each (it was the weirdest brown rice imaginable and did not make a great meal without any sauce, meat or veg!) and then boiled up the muscles. They opened fine, smelt good and cooked through but we chickened out of eating them as the risk of getting ill and ruining the trip seemed too high!
Some of our fellow island inhabitants turned out to be a group of alcoholics. They spent the night wandering through the sea of tents, slurring to themselves and returning to there tent only to open fresh cans! It gave the whole area a strange shanti town feeling!
The following day we went into oslo and visited the Viking long boat museum. It looked rather small but was packed with really interesting items and great explanations in English. They had boats, tools, burial chambers, dog leashes, tapestries and more. And then outside for a proper Viking style experience we ate whale steak and moose burgers. They tasted great and where served with really sweet onions and a baked potato.
Then we head back into Central oslo to visit the palace and explore the city. It really
The Viking cafegrew on us as a place and the more we saw the more we appreciated the city.
Next it was time to go and set up camp. We decided against a night on "alcohol island" (we had none, the drunks had loads!) and instead got the metro north of the city to sognsvann lake which I had read about previously.
Finding the lake was easy and within 5 minutes we had a great spot overlooking the lake and forests. We got a fire going, set up the cooker and enjoyed listening to music, eating some pasta and chicken and drinking a couple of bottles of wine. (I've never seen a country where alcohol costs so much, the cheapest bottle of wine was over £10, bottles of spirits were £40+ and single cans of beer where priced between £3-5).
Even late at night we had joggers and other campers going past, each giving us a wave or a quick shout of "hi" (a greeting we have found works anywhere - though when you say cheers instead of thanks you get some very funny looks!).
And that's when we met
Moose burger and whale steakmychael the Italian (though he wore a Spanish top and spoke of his brothers in northern Africa). He looked incredibly cold and came over to ask for a roll up. He walked off but soon found his way back to us. He clearly wanted to sit by the fire so we asked him over. Soon enough we realised he was a troubled individual. He was very open and honest with us and told us how he had been treated in what he called a "hotel hospital" for psychosis brought on by previous drug problems. He had felt very nervous, panicked and left the hospital and escaped into the woods where he had been walking around on his own in the cold all night. He was sure they where looking for him with helicopters which we assume was a paranoid delusion as we had neither seen or heard anything that would suggest a man hunt was in progress. And he kept muttering to himself.
Despite clearly having mental health issues he didn't seem dangerous and was very friendly, even handing us our mini speaker which we had forgot to pack into our tents when we went to sleep.
In oslo being a tourist! We felt bad for him and he clearly needed someone to help him out. We collected more fire wood and got the fire burning hot to help him get warmed up and gave him roll ups whenever he asked. I spent a good while talking with him and trying to convince him the best thing was to return to hospital and talk with them. He agreed but then changed his mind. We let him sleep between our tents so he could keep warm but he didn't sleep at all through the night (which made it rather difficult for us to sleep).
In the morning a group with disabilities and a couple of carers had come for a BBQ nearby and we felt far better about leaving him there when he went over and started to talk with them. We were almost at the point of calling an ambulance for him but the arrival of these people along with a police officer put our minds at rest.
By this point he was calling us his brothers and the last thing he said to us was "Thank you, I am glad to have met your little family, I hope one day we can meet again" to which I replied "your welcome, please go to the hospital, even if it doesn't feel like it, they can help you". He gave me a nod and a double handed handshake, with a look of real appreciation. And then we parted ways.
After a couple of crazy days in Norway it was time to leave. So this morning we got a train to Gothenburg where we had a Chinese buffet (and overrate ridiculously, leaving us struggling to carry our bags!) and then after a short wait, onto the high speed rail to Malmo where we hope to camp tonight before making the long trip down to Berlin.
You really can't guess what will happen when your off in the world!
(P.s. Some pictures seem to be upside down and I'm not getting the option to rotate them, but I will keep trying!)
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Jackie
non-member comment
Editor!
Loving your adventures Cam but think you need me to do your editing for you! Think the alcohol fumes must have been getting to you if you were thing of eating muscles rather than mussels - cannibal island?! I did laugh at you adventures! Make sure you keep us posted as can't wait for next installment! Did you remember it was James' birthday today? Toast him wherever you are! Pleased you made it to the Viking museum. So what did whale taste like? Pleased you are having such a good time and meeting such interesting people. Love to Rachel &Mark. M xx