Norway Day 2 Oslo. I woke up at 4 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. I noticed Marc was also awake so we both took an Ambien but it didn’t help. We got ready at 8 AM and went to breakfast at 9 AM. The breakfast buffet had pickled herring, egg salad, rolls, meats, cheeses, cereals, toast, juice, and hard-boiled eggs. There were also tomato, cucumber, and sliced bell peppers. The pickled herring was good! It tasted sweet. I had 2 cups of coffee with cream and sugar. We decided to take the hop on, hop off bus. Marc checked the weather and it was supposed to be raining when we were supposed to start the bike tour at 1 PM. I e-mailed Viking Biking and explained why we weren’t doing the tour and apologized for the late cancellation.

We walked to Oslo central station and got tickets for the bus. We took it to the Viggeland sculpture park. It was a bit of a walk, 15 to 20 minutes to reach the park from where the bus dropped us off. I had taped my feet for extra support and they were feeling OK. I had also started taking prescription strength Naprosyn before the trip. I sat near the obelisk while Marc took a lot of pictures. It was cloudy but not raining. I was wearing base layers, a sweater and a rain jacket and was too cold and realized I should’ve worn warmer base layers. Vans of tourist kept showing up. There were some interesting birds around. We walked back to where the bus dropped us off and had to wait 15 minutes for a new bus. I had my collapsible stool with me and sat while we waited for the bus.

We took it to the Viking ship museum. It is a small museum with great ambiance and we spent an hour or two here. We sat on some picnic benches waiting for another bus and it started to rain at noon just has Marc said it would. We huddled under our umbrellas in the bus finally showed up. I was craving a hot bath! The owner of Viking Biking contacted me and said although their tours are “rain or shine,” he would issue a refund because they weren’t full that day. This was very nice of him!

We took the bus to the National Gallery and along the way I noticed that we passed a restaurant that I had read about and wanted to try. We jumped off the bus at the next stop. Kafffistova serves Norwegian comfort food and it’s served cafeteria-style. I had meat cakes, and Marc had reindeer cakes! I kept teasing him that he was eating Rudolph. With a coffee and a 7-Up we paid 370 kroner or about US $50! The meat cakes were good and the gravy, potatoes, and lingonberries. It came with some sort of mashed beans that were bland, later I would find out they were mashed turnips.

The National Gallery was two blocks away. I could feel my energy fading even though it was only 4 PM. The National Gallery was enjoyable and we appreciated the paintings by local Norwegian artists.

We decided to walk back to the hostel since it was close by and the bus will take forever to do almost the whole loop. Back in the room by five. My feet could be worse… The only thing we missed is the opera house which we can do tomorrow morning before we check out. We fell asleep at 6 PM. Woke up at 8 PM. Had some Luna bars for dinner that I had packed and played Quiddler. At 10 PM I was wide awake… I took an Ambien and I almost immediately had a weird hallucination where I thought that Marc’s jacket was moving. It was weird and freaked out Marc a little! But I fell asleep almost immediately after.

Go on the next part of the journey!