Ellingsens Pensjonat

Wow. I'm still blown away by the contrast from Ireland and Norway.

I woke up this morning somewhat late from sleeping in. Afterwards I talked to the receptionist/hostel manager and got a map and directions to the nearest electronics store (for the EU to US physical adapter) and a shopping center to get some minor things to stuff in the fridge.

Y'see, this is one of my favorite things. A well worn hostel map with marks from my travels. I spend the first day at any city with a set pattern. I get to know the local area around the hostel. Where is the laundromat, grocery store, local pub, restaurants, tram and bus stops, ATMs, clothing, electronics, etc. Learn the landmarks and what's in the area of about a 5-6 block radius of where I'm staying. Then if worse comes to worse and I can't get a cab/bus/whatever in the city at some point, I just have to ask where the landmark is. Once in the area, I am on my home turf.

I now know where pretty much everything is and the focal point to walk to before hitting the main streets for whatever I need. Unfortunately, they are all closed on Sunday. The receptionist gave me an adapter to borrow until I get an adapter tomorrow morning. Also NEVER use a 7-11 in Norway. We're used to going down and getting cheap eats at midnight in the US from 7-11. Its the only reason they exist pretty much, for that 3am post bar closing gigantic microwave burrito that seats a family of four. Here, the prices of everything is 2-3 times what you would get anywhere else. I did manage to get a nice latte and a ham sandwich from a coffee place, and also get some cash out from the ATM (which seem to only be in 7-11 around here).

I lounged about for a while, reading as nothing was open. After about 6pm, I decided to head around the corner to a microbrew pub. I was talking to the bartender and apparently the bar was opened about 14 years ago and was one of the first microbrew pubs in the city. Get this, the owners went to Portland for college and ended up loving microbrews enough that they opened one in Oslo. The bartender was in Portland herself with the owners a couple years ago when they went back for a couple weeks for a brewers convention. I found all this out when I talked to her about microbrews and how they were popular where I came from - when I told her Portland, she told me the whole story. Awesome.

I was looking for a place to eat and nothing looked good, so I kept going farther and farther into the city. I ended up going from where I was on the west side, all the way to the city center around the central train station. This city is small and very walkable. I ended up having some kind of pepper steak that was delicious, with salad and a baked potato with some kind of herb butter. Then I walked around downtown for a while, which was not all that interesting as everything closes up mostly on a Sunday night. If I was interested in heroin or speed, I apparently know where to go as I was asked a number of times. That's pretty standard around the main train station in any European city though.

The walk back was perfect. Quiet, not a lot of people, and cool enough to make the walk brisk. So far Oslo is my favorite this trip, then Edinburgh, and then London. The Book of Kells made Dublin memorable, but other than that - I wish I would have hit Wales instead. I could have taken a overnight cruise to Oslo and enjoyed myself more.