A breath of fresh air from Oslo |
June 26-28
My trip to Oslo to visit my friend Gael from NIU was one of the most relaxing trips I have had since being in Europe. I think especially compared to the craziness of the Barcelona trip, things were much more laid back and calm.
I had an interesting start because the flight was supposed to leave Rome at 6am, land in Munich and catch another flight to Oslo. I have learned it is SO incredibly simple to fly without checking baggage. I love it. But still, the layovers and changing flights creates opportunities to get off schedule…especially flying out of Rome, where flight are seemingly never on time.
I live near a train station that will take me to the airport for 8 euros; not bad, when a taxi costs upwards of 40. However, I received feedback from my friends that the time of my flight would warrant a taxi, for fear of being late for my flight with taking the earliest train. Thankfully, my flight was canceled and I was rescheduled to leave at 10am on a Friday morning. So I was able to sleep in a bit, catch the train and have non-stop flight to Oslo.
Once arriving in Oslo, I was a bit worried about catching the train to the city center. This was my first trip by myself to visit someone who wasn’t meeting me at the airport. Gael offered to meet me at the airport, but I felt like it was time to conquer this public transportation on my own!
There are 2 train companies available in the Oslo airport with different tracks that are right next to each other. Though, these small details I didn’t realize at the time. I had bought a ticket for one and was trying to get on the other train that was clearly heading to the Oslo city center. The other train was more vague with its destination from my perception. This was the first experience I had had where I asked someone for help and they actually gave me wrong information. But, after running around and getting many second opinions, I made it on the right train!
Gael met me at the Burger King in the train station and we had a lovely lunch at a Thai restaurant. I thought we would head to a typical Norwegian restaurant, but come to find out the cuisine in Norway isn’t super unique. They have open faced-sandwiches, sausages and generally hearty meals. It was nice to have a weekend with a variety of cuisines.
We went to the new ski lift for a wonderful view of Norway. We saw the wonderful downtown area of Oslo where the orchestra building is and the Nobel Prize building. Very cool city.
I returned from this trip feeling more refreshed than I had in months. I think in part because of seeing a good friend; the wonderful nature, though we were in the city, we were breathing fresh air and able to hike around the beautiful parks. We also skyped our friend Chris and had great discussions on business and start-ups. It has been awhile since I had been brainstorming about business models and revenue streams. There is something so refreshing about being creative and the work I had been doing the past few weeks was very detail-oriented logistics of planning a meeting. It was certainly the breath of fresh air that I needed. Thank you Gael for a wonderful weekend!
For pictures from the trip, click here.
My trip to Oslo to visit my friend Gael from NIU was one of the most relaxing trips I have had since being in Europe. I think especially compared to the craziness of the Barcelona trip, things were much more laid back and calm.
I had an interesting start because the flight was supposed to leave Rome at 6am, land in Munich and catch another flight to Oslo. I have learned it is SO incredibly simple to fly without checking baggage. I love it. But still, the layovers and changing flights creates opportunities to get off schedule…especially flying out of Rome, where flight are seemingly never on time.
I live near a train station that will take me to the airport for 8 euros; not bad, when a taxi costs upwards of 40. However, I received feedback from my friends that the time of my flight would warrant a taxi, for fear of being late for my flight with taking the earliest train. Thankfully, my flight was canceled and I was rescheduled to leave at 10am on a Friday morning. So I was able to sleep in a bit, catch the train and have non-stop flight to Oslo.
Once arriving in Oslo, I was a bit worried about catching the train to the city center. This was my first trip by myself to visit someone who wasn’t meeting me at the airport. Gael offered to meet me at the airport, but I felt like it was time to conquer this public transportation on my own!
There are 2 train companies available in the Oslo airport with different tracks that are right next to each other. Though, these small details I didn’t realize at the time. I had bought a ticket for one and was trying to get on the other train that was clearly heading to the Oslo city center. The other train was more vague with its destination from my perception. This was the first experience I had had where I asked someone for help and they actually gave me wrong information. But, after running around and getting many second opinions, I made it on the right train!
Gael met me at the Burger King in the train station and we had a lovely lunch at a Thai restaurant. I thought we would head to a typical Norwegian restaurant, but come to find out the cuisine in Norway isn’t super unique. They have open faced-sandwiches, sausages and generally hearty meals. It was nice to have a weekend with a variety of cuisines.
We went to the new ski lift for a wonderful view of Norway. We saw the wonderful downtown area of Oslo where the orchestra building is and the Nobel Prize building. Very cool city.
I returned from this trip feeling more refreshed than I had in months. I think in part because of seeing a good friend; the wonderful nature, though we were in the city, we were breathing fresh air and able to hike around the beautiful parks. We also skyped our friend Chris and had great discussions on business and start-ups. It has been awhile since I had been brainstorming about business models and revenue streams. There is something so refreshing about being creative and the work I had been doing the past few weeks was very detail-oriented logistics of planning a meeting. It was certainly the breath of fresh air that I needed. Thank you Gael for a wonderful weekend!
For pictures from the trip, click here.