The camp we stayed at called Rustberg Camping had several very tame rabbits in a cage. I felt sorry for them as their base was a kind of dirt and stone and we hadn’t seen much grass in the time we were there and rabbits can eat grass almost all day. So on the way to the showers I took some pieces of veges and as much grass as I could rip off for the poor things.
We decided to visit the Olympic bobsled at Hunderfossen before heading off to Oslo. It looked a bit deserted but we went and had a look. They were offering rides on a summer (or Cool Runnings) style bobsled on the snow track without the snow, so I told Scot he should have a go as they needed one more person. They travel about 100kms/hr in the summer style one and about 120kms in the snow. He had a go and enjoyed it, but said they got jolted around quite a bit and the big guy behind him was digging his elbows into his shins as you sit very intimately in the sled. It something most people will never have a chance to do in their life so I thought it was a great thing to do (even if I wasn’t game to have a go).
We then headed off to Oslo. It was a couple of hours drive and Oslo was very busy – as all cities are I guess – as we hit the highway. The camp ground was right near the city and like all city campsites didn’t have great reviews but you stay there for a purpose and not for the great campsite. It was really a huge paddock with electricity around the outside for vans and you just parked where ever you could find a spot. We parked up beside the roadway which was fine. I spied what I thought were dodgy people in the campsite. Scot said I thought everyone was dodgy, but you get a feel for those that don’t seem kosher. I have been told by others that we were lucky in Voss where the gypsies were camping that we hadn’t been ‘targeted’, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Anyway I was back up at reception as the wifi was non existent after paying $10 for 24hr access and the dodgys were standing behind me when a lady came in and stood behind them. She asked where they were from and one guy said they were ‘Esperanto – Gypsies’, it was funny the lady said ‘Oh’ and didn’t speak further. In a typical camp ground everyone leaves their chairs, tables etc outside even when they go away for the day. We have seen it in all camps including city camps we have stayed at, but at this camp not a soul left anything outside their vans which was very strange indeed. But I figured it may have been due to the large number of gypsies living in this campsite. There were a lot of them all camped together.
11 August
We bought a 24 hour bus pass the next morning and headed off into the city early. Oslo had on a jazz festival so we had hoped we might get to see some free concerts in the town centre. We walked around the town for a bit and found a bus that could take us out to an area that had a few museums. We don’t normally do museums because they take so much time to see things and you don’t end up seeing much of anything else which is not ideal when you only have a day or so in a city. But we did decide to have a look at the polar museum where Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott’s North and South Pole adventures and the ship Fram was displayed. They had preserved the ship and built the whole museum around it – really well done. It was an excellent complete history of their polar expeditions and we both enjoyed it. The only downside was a large group of young children who were visiting the museum were not being supervised and we had to put up with every one of about the 100 or so ringing the bell of the ship very loudly continuously for about an hour which was so annoying.
We caught the bus back to the city, but we had only gone about a km and the bus driver stopped the bus, turned off the engine and sat there. No word, no nothing and we were all looking at each other wondering what was going on. Then on the screen it said the bus was moving on in 45mins. Eventually he said something in Norwegian which we realised meant we needed to leave and get another bus that was sitting near. We walked around the fort area near the docks and then walked down to the main street where they were about to have a jazz session play. We needed to try and get wifi access so we headed to a café for a coffee and thought we would head back to the jazz in a short while. Unfortunately the jazz only played for a short time and we missed out. They were packing up the stage when we walked back – we weren’t that long. I was disappointed. We had a walk around the city some more and took in some of the atmosphere before catching a bus back to the camp. Oslo isn’t a very big city and there isn’t a lot of old buildings. I can’t remember but I think we were told that Oslo was bombed in the war because the Germans used the Norwegians and most buildings were destroyed. Only Bergen has all it’s old historic buildings still left. The architecture of some of the modern city buildings is quite different and interesting in Oslo.
12 August
We left Norway the next day and headed back to Sweden. In countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden where they have their own currency it is really difficult to manage having some cash and leaving with none so that you have spent it all and you aren’t wasting any. We normally buy groceries or a coffee or something if we have any money left over. We stopped just inside the Norway border at a supermarket to buy some groceries, particularly some Salmon which is so cheap in Norway – about $20 a kilo. The lady stuffed up though as I wanted to pay some cash and the balance on card, but she put the whole lot on card and I was still left with the 120nok, so we had coffee and pastries that we didn’t really want and it was quite awful too, so I was a bit cranky about that.
I am going to sum up my experience in Norway expense wise since there are so many people saying how terribly expensive it is. We got told that the wages are high in Norway so prices don’t seem bad to citizens. I don’t shop at the cheap shops as I have said before I like variety and fresh fruit and veges and I cant get this at Aldi style supermarkets. Fresh veges and fruit is a good price – in fact on the whole generally cheaper than Australia even with the dreadful exchange rate we are getting. Fish is ridiculously cheap and fresh. Chicken is about twice our price and meat seemed to be comparable to Aus. Packet foods like rice, pasta, soup, biscuits, tea, chips etc – not that we buy much is comparable to Australia prices. Bread appears to be expensive but you never see much of it so I don’t think it is part of their staple diet. Alcohol is definitely very expensive (so don’t drink J) and so is chocolate – that’s sad. We looked at the price of holiday houses in desirable areas near ski fields and they were quite reasonable. These houses wouldn’t necessarily be for just holiday as they were near enough to places where there would be work. There were houses for the equivalent of $40,000 and they went up from there. Yes the $40,000 house wouldn’t be much, but if you look at what isn’t much in Aust then you will still be looking at a lot more than that near to towns. The average would have been between $200,000 -$300,000. I am sure if you looked in Oslo you would see prices closer to our high city prices though. We saw cars in car yards and the prices were also about the same as what we would pay in Aus for second hand cars. We saw plenty of clothes for 100 – 200 nok (15-30aud) which is about the same and you can pay equally larger amounts for designer clothing and shoes. I don’t know a lot of the other prices, but on the whole I would say that Norway is not as expensive a city as people say, but is about on average no different to what we pay in Australia, but they definitely get paid more than we do based on what we have been told about the wages. Norway has been the more expensive country we have visited which just proves to me how expensive Australia has become over the last few years.
I have to say though that I absolutely love the summer fruit season here – raspberries, blueberries and strawberries are so cheap. I am paying about $5 for a huge punnet of raspberries – would cost me about $50 for the same amount in Aus (and yes I used to buy them), so I am enjoying them everyday, so yummy.
On to Sweden. We were heading over to Ringerum which is just south of Soderkoping (pronounced Sodershopping) to call in on Lloyd’s family (I work with Lloyd) before we head up to Stockholm. It is a long journey right across Sweden so after 6 hours on the road we saw a sign on the side of the road for a campsite so we headed off the highway for the night. We found this lovely little camp ground right on a lake front and it had a beach and walkways around an area so that kids could swim safely. It was a lovely hot day so when we arrived we decided we had to go for a swim. It is often hottest about 5pm. The swim was welcome and the lake temp was about 22deg so was just lovely. No wifi at this place and nothing to concentrate on other than relaxing and reading. We loved the lake environment so much we decided we needed to stop driving for at least one more day so stayed on the next day. We had a few swims out to the little island just off the beach and sat in the sun reading. We did get a bit burnt though as we hadn’t realised just how long we had been sitting in the sun. They had yummy ice creams which we enjoyed late in the day. What I like most about here is the fact that there were young and old bulgy bouncy ladies in bikinis who had no hangups about their size or age. I felt much better and wished I had bought a bikini top and not just the long two piece I bought for 3 euro in Coevorden, Netherlands. (This was from a shop that had a sale on and I wasn’t sure I would wear the two, two pieces I bought but who can turn down 1.50euro per piece for bathers! Glad I now did.)
