Norway

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Today I left England for Norway and I knew it was going to be cold I was just unsure how cold. The weather report said avg of -3℃ so that's not bad I can deal. Landed and everyone was pulling jackets and scarves and hats out of their bags. Reminded me of people from So-Cal when it hits 50℉ just layer upon layer. So I was a bit worried I under planned for the cold with only my leather jacket and hat. But as I walked off the plane onto the runway and the cold was about want I expected and it was a bit nippy but nothing with worrying about. I had a plan to take the train up to Oslo but the hourly shuttle had just left so I found a bus that goes up there for only kr150. Now as my plans were from the train station in Oslo and I was now arriving at the central bus hub I had a bit of figuring out to do. Naturally there was no Wi-Fi to connect to so I was looking at the map on my phone and finally my location updated and I had a good feeling about heading to the west for what I was pretty sure to be the tram station. It was and I procured a 7 day unlimited rides card, (in town for 5 days still cheaper than paper). Figured out what number and what place to find my tram and I was off, (I hoped). Got to what I thought was my stop and wohoo it was just a short 1/2 mile walk uphill to the hostel in -3℃ and dropping no problem. Got checked in and headed out to wander the streets for some food. Now I want some Norwegian food but everything was closed so I settled for a burger and went home for the night.
Today I got up and made my way to the Viking ship museum. It was pretty cool, they had 3 ships that they had found and 2 were well preserved the last was barely identifiable as a Viking ship but it was, really. The ship's had been used in burials for people they don't know who but from what they can gather so far they were rather important folks. Some of the items in the ships were well preserved as well and there were these animal head carvings that were so intricately carved it was quite a marvel to see. Also one ship had a fully assembled cart and that is the only one that has been found so far that is in such good condition. Again the carving on it is so amazing with the detail and how much time and effort must have gone into making it. I am glad I went buy there and while it was a small place it was definitely worth the visit. After this I walked down to the maritime museum to check it out as it was only a 3/4 mile walk and it was warm outside, (2℃). This was interesting as well lots of cool models of the history of ships for like the last several thousand years. They also had a full-size section of the ways ships hulls have been made over the years. And a block one cubic foot of each material made with over the time so you could pick it up and feel the difference in weight, from wood, steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, and fiberglass. There were a few old diesel engines that were there in working movements that were cool. Another engine that was too far gone to have in working order was about 4 ft. by 3 ft. and was a 2 cylinder diesel engine that boasted a whopping 13 up. Oh how motors have changed. This place was just awesome the time spent making all those ship models with the amount of detail in them, crazy. I eventually left and headed back to town Centre and just wandered around till I was good and lost and found a hole in the wall place that made kebabs and went to get some late lunch. I got a medium kebab and this thing had to weigh like 3 lbs and it sure was good. Wandered around and found a few sights like the royal palace and parliament and just really wandered nowhere till it seemed like time to go look for dinner and I found a nice Japanese restaurant. I felt a bit under dressed with my long-sleeved t-shirt on but others weren't wearing much nicer clothes than me so it's all good. It's just one of those places that by the look you think super nice. Had some amazing sushi and a good beer before wandering off again eventually making it back to the hostel for bed.
Today is snowboarding day! Grabbed all my cold weather gear and headed out to take the various trains to get up to the mountain. Finally about 45 minutes later I got to the ski resort and was amazed by all the skiers. They were everywhere, in the states it's mostly boarders with a few skiers, but not here. Anywho I got my rental board which sucked it was super stiff and was going to make my experience a bit more difficult. But I have skills and know how to ride with a stiff board, I just don't like to. Now as I haven't been here before I didn't know what route to take so I looked at a map to find they have 4 colours for skill ranges. Easy, med-easy, med-hard, and hard. So I headed off to a hard'ish one and it was good with about a foot of fresh powder and it still coming down it was a good ride. I then tried the hard route as they only had one and it was good not hard but fun and rather long. This is where I knew I was going to be spending most of my day. The only downside to a long ride down is the long ride back up. And it was only about -2℃ bit there was about a 20mph headwind when going up the lifts. So it sucked, a lot. But a bit of cold won't stop me from riding I boarded in AK in -25℃ weather so this was just fine. Got a good pizza at what they were calling the lodge, it was basically a building around a very basic kitchen that served pizza and a few bottled drinks. Finally headed back out and tried the rest if the slopes they had to offer, only to realize that I had been on the best one all morning. They did have a pretty decent terrain park with a good few rails and jumps. Oh and another thing that is odd, in the states only the people that plan on crashing hard or doing some crazy fun stuff wear helmets. Not here, everyone was wearing a helmet it was like me and maybe a dozen others that didn't have one. But that's me gotta be the different one out there, that and helmets are stupid. Finally my day was over at 1700 after the sun went down at 1600 so I got to do a bit of night boarding and that's always fun. When I got back to town I had been told about a place that does traditional Norwegian dishes and I figured I would go there. They had a menu in English but I didn't bother to read it I just asked for whatever it was seriously I was reading it and trying to pronounce it but whatever I got some food and it was pretty good. It ended up being some pork, mash, veggies, and sauce, good stuff.
Here is a note about the Norwegian language, its crazy hard to speak, and every word has like 4 syllables minimum. So they took about 4 English words jumbled the letters added a few strange symbols to some of the letters and called it one word. Seriously I did better in Germany with all their crazy words than I did in Norway. But one word that I can say was the basic greeting. I don't know how it was spelled but it's said hi hi, how simple is that? Every other word not even worth trying to say.

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Photos

Chair Lift
Chilling out going to the top

Castle?
Not exactly what I'd expect from such a rich country

Viking Ship
One of the well preserved ships

Old Cart
This this was so well preserved its awesome