Just a Little Jet-Lagged

We landed in Oslo at 2:30pm local time – 5:30am back home! We all slept some on the plane, but definitely not enough. About six hours into the flight, Wyatt woke me with a start to tell me he was missing his hat (which is always affixed to his head). He turned on his overhead light and searched his seat, his bag, my bag, my seat…nada. He got up and went to the back of the plane to ask the flight attendants if they had found a hat…nope. He returned to his seat in panic mode. We knew the hat was on the plane somewhere, but it was challenging to look around in the dark. I eventually fell back asleep; I think Wyatt stayed up and fretted about his hat. With 30 minutes to go before landing, Wyatt spotted his hat under an older man’s seat across the aisle, two rows back. No idea how it got there, but all was right with the world again!

After landing in Oslo, going through customs was a breeze. As we walked toward baggage claim, we admired the beautiful airport. We grabbed our one checked bag and then Tim and I decided we desperately needed coffee. We found a little café near the airport exit and bought two kaffe lattes for ourselves and a couple of pastries for the kids. Newly caffeinated, we continued outside to the taxi stand. We ordered a taxi from a kiosk and two minutes later, it showed up.

Wish I could remember what this thing is called, but it was a hit. And yes, you'll be seeing this sweatshirt on Wyatt the entire trip.

She likes chocolate, just like her mom.

Once we settled into the drive, we chatted with our taxi driver, who came to Norway from Somalia 15 years ago. We learned that Somalis are the biggest African migration group in Norway. Almost all have come to Norway as refugees of the Somali Civil War.

The scenery on the drive into Oslo was beautiful – lots of green everywhere. We drove into downtown and got dropped off at our hotel, Thon Hotel Terminus. Thon Hotels are a well-known chain in Norway. We checked into our hotel room and then fairly quickly turned around and headed back outside. We were all pretty tired, but knew we had to keep moving and stay awake. We walked around the central train station and down Karl Johans gate, the main street in Oslo, all the way to the Royal Palace, one of Norway’s most important buildings and where the king and queen live. After scoping out the Royal Palace and seeing Norway’s version of the changing of the guard, we made our way to Oslo’s harbor promenade. There were tons of restaurants and cafes and ice cream shops; there were even floating saunas on the water.

Walking down Karl Johans gate.

There's the Royal Palace!

We got up close and personal at the Royal Palace. You could basically walk up to the front door! (I mean, we didn't want to be those Americans, but you could...)

By this time, we were all getting hungry and it was the dinner hour in Norway. We popped into an authentic Norwegian restaurant – one that offered whale and mussels and cod and salmon on its menu. True to form, I had a burger; the rest of the family enjoyed a fish stew.

Turns out Oslo likes its Prime, too.

With food in our tummies, we suddenly grew super tired. But it was still too early to head for bed. So we started walking again, taking in some of the fancy yachts along the harbor, getting some soft-serve ice cream, looking around, walking some more. We made it back to our hotel about 9:30pm local time, just before it got dark. It was still too early to go to sleep (only 12:30pm back home!), so we turned on the TV. There were slim pickings, so we landed on this horribly cringey Hallmark-ish movie – but on the plus, it was in English! By 11pm, we decided we couldn’t hold out any longer, and we turned all the lights out and went to sleep. Three of us were up at various times during the night; Taylor was the only one who slept the whole night through.

The next morning, which was this morning (Monday), we were up at 8:30am local time (11:30pm in California). Breakfast was included in our hotel stay, so you’d better believe we visited that buffet. We weren’t too sure what to expect, but BREAKFAST WAS AMAZING. And there were lots of signs about “tasting, not wasting.” The coffee was incredible and because we had very small coffee mugs, Tim may have had four cups of coffee and I may have had three. By this point – a mere 18 hours into our trip – we all declared our undying love for Norway and plotted a move to Scandinavia.

We were impressed with more than our breakfast, too. While out walking around, we marveled at how clean everything was – the streets, the parks, the harbor, everything. And everything was just so efficient; things seemed to move like clockwork.

However, we did notice lots of trip hazards – literal trip hazards. Each of us has now tripped several times, as there are all these weird little steps up into bathrooms or down hallways or between doors. It’s odd. But it’s the only odd thing we’ve come across, so maybe we just need to get used to it?

At any rate, following breakfast, we went back to our room and looked out the window: Rain, lots of it. In fast, Oslo was under a heavy rain storm watch. Drat! We ended up catching a taxi over to the Natural History Museum, where we walked around for a bit looking at dinosaur bones and geodes before realizing we were all ready to fall back asleep. We got out of those buildings and then visited a newer building on the museum’s campus: The Climate House.  The Climate House is an exhibition space with climate change and the environment as a theme. It was fascinating and scary at the same time.

Posing for a quick photo before the rain starts up again in front of the Natural History Museum.

At The Climate House, you could stick stickers on a board, asking elected officials to take certain actions against climate change.

The rain had slowed down some and we caught a taxi back to downtown, walked around briefly, then picked up our bags from the hotel. From there, we walked across the street to the central train station and followed signs to the airport express train. This train gets you to the Oslo airport in 19 minutes – because it travels at 130 miles per hour. For context, our drive from the airport to downtown the day prior took us about 40 minutes.

Life on the fast train

We headed back to the Oslo airport so we could fly to Bodø, a coastal city in Northern Norway. Bodø will be our gateway to the Lofoten Islands, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Norway.

So far, we are loving our visit here. Maybe one more day and we’ll be more adjusted to the time zone. And thankfully, it seems like everyone speaks English…because I sure as heck am struggling with Norwegian. Ja?