Day 3: In search of Chili Bollocks....

Day 3: Oslo – Trondheim

Today's schedule has us transferring from Oslo to the port of Trondheim where our Hurtigruten Ferry adventure is due to begin and our search for the Northern Lights begins in earnest!!

Oslo Central Station.  Purveyor of fancy baguettes and trains.

So just in case you ever happen to be passing, Oslo train station is very fancy – its impeccably clean and with a myriad of shops that make me feel as if I’m back in the UK (Upper Crust, Boots, Ritazza coffee etc etc).  Of course, the prices are still eye-wateringly Norwegian but, given my maths is a bit iffy at the best of times, I’m not 100% sure of what I’m paying at any point in time anyway, so it feels as if it really doesn’t count (like calories consumed only by the light of the fridge door).

Pretty Christmas decorations in the station

Our train was scheduled to leave at 8.02am so we had to get up fairly early.  Breakfast didn't start properly til 6.30am at the hotel, but they had thoughtfully set out some bread, meats and cheese and jam for the early birds to forage on, so we made a couple of wedge thick sandwiches to chow down on to keep us going.  The bread was delicious - why can't we get bread this good back home, dammit?!  It really was a very short walk to the station, so we got there by about 7.15am, so had enough time to buy some food for the trip (huzzah for Upper Crust baguettes) before boarding the train just after 7.30am.

The train was as clean and well maintained as the station.  We had assigned seating, so didn't have to worry about fighting with the masses to get seats together.  I'd also booked us into Comfort class - so the seats were a bit roomier plus we got free coffee and tea for the whole trip!  The whole trip was scheduled to take just over 6hrs, getting us into Trondheim around 2.45pm.  The route would take us across the center of Norway, so we'd get to see some of the beautiful interior as well as the stunning coastline.  We'd been on the train for about an hour and a half before the sun finally rose up high enough above the horizon that we could see it, and it cast this beautifully delicate, sometime pinkish looking tinge across the landscape.  It was quite lovely.  I wouldn’t say it ever got to a full on daylight, rather more an enthusiastic twilight.

Unfortunately its a bit tough to take good pictures from a speeding train with smudgy windows, so I don't have many great pictures from the journey, I'm afraid.  I did have the realization about halfway into the trip, though, that we were basically traveling through forests and forest of Christmas trees, that were perfectly dusted with snow so that they looked exactly like the fake ones you stick on top of Christmas cakes.  I like this country.

Which came first?  Scandinavia or Vermont?

Trees a-plenty - with the sun just peeking up above the horizon

The ManpanionTM is awake!

Adorable houses litter the countryside like architectural confetti

One of the stylish, chocolate-box picturesque train stations en route
to Trondheim

My peaceful reflections were only occasionally interrupted by Satan Child, whose parents had also booked into Comfort Class (presumably with the hope of trying to keep it happy) but for whom the promise of free coffee seemed to do nothing to allay the full-on screaming tantrums it would throw at regular intervals.  "NEIN! NEIN! NEIN!!" it would yell LOUDLY.   We looked it up - "nein" is not even Norwegian for "no" so god only knows what that kid was yelling.  Perhaps he'd been kidnapped and was yelling for help.  We'll never know.

Anyway, the journey was very relaxed and easy.  I spent a couple of hours blogging while my manpanion(TM) slept.  We spent his limited waking moments eating chocolate Santas and enjoying a plastic glass of cava in the buffet car to celebrate our holiday (I know - bit of a thin excuse, but that's just how we crazy kids roll!).  Bang on time we arrive into Trondheim and, again, our hotel is only a 5 min walk from the station.  There was a bit of snow on the ground but not too much, so it only took a bit of effort to lug our cases through the station and across the street.

ManpanionTM and Oscar P. Lion in perfect harmony.

The beautiful town of Trondheim

Again, I was expecting our hotel to be a bit crappy (I don't know why) but it was pretty swanky!  The Hotel Scandic Nivelden was also well located with only a 10min walk into old town.  By the time we checked into the hotel, there was only about a half hour left of daylight, so despite being knackered, we dragged ourselves out to see the cathedral before it got completely dark.

Nidaros cathedral

Nidaros cathedral is the largest and northernmost cathedral in Scandinavia, built over the tomb of St. Olav.  The oldest parts are from the 12th century, though it had to be rebuilt in parts several times due to fire.  For the history buffs among you, here's the link to some more deets about the cathedral:  http://www.nidarosdomen.no/en-GB/  Unfortunately by the time we got there it was pretty dark and was closed, so we couldn't go inside (though we did hear someone inside banging away at the organ, which was nice) but it was good to see it.  We walked around for a bit more, exploring, but the whole town seemed very dead and sleepy, with most of the shops closed.  Presumably this was because of the holiday season, rather than regular life in Norway, given it was only mid-afternoon on a Monday!  It is a bit odd - we're walking around, there's nobody about and its completely dark - and its 4pm!

The famous flying buttocks of Nidaros cathedral

Matt practices for his alternate career as
a traffic crossing attendant

To keep ourselves going, we stopped and had a coffee and sat outside, wrapped up in our warm coats, under a heat lamp with a fleecy blanket draped across our knees.  It felt very Nordic and daring.

So, after wandering back along the river and admiring how beautiful the town looked, with the lights reflecting in the water, we got back to the hotel and completely crashed out.  Unlike my manpanion, I hadn't slept at all, so it was starting to catch up on me, so I pretty much passed out from 4.30pm to 7pm.  

Waking up, we both felt much more human again, so we headed out to find food for supper.  Yelp had served us well yesterday, so we decided to consult it again for today's selection - and found ourselves intrigued by Bare Blaber which offered the following description:

 "Join the throng that packs both the interior and dockside terrace of this popular place over near the Solsden waterfront area.  Its renowned for its cocktails, shorts and juleps - and for preparing what many believe to be the finest pizzas in town, including the intriguing chili bollocks (presumably a wintertime special)" 

Chili bollocks??  Well, that just sounded like an offer we couldn't pass up - plus it was again just a short walk from our hotel, so off we went in search of said frosty balls.  We found the place with no probs and grabbed a menu - but bollocks to the bollocks!  There was no such thing to be found!  It was all obviously a marketing ruse!  (or instead a description of what to expect on the walk over to the restaurant?).  They did, though, make spectacularly good pizzas, so with only the most marginal assistance from the waitstaff, I picked a Bacon-themed one and a chorizo pizza - and both were delicious!!  Very thin crust which was crispy and chewy and very tasty!  Washed down with some icy cold dry cider, and dinner was a success!

Duly stuffed, we waddled back to the hotel around 9.30 or so - to find that our gaff had become completely jampacked with lots of earnest looking types in fairly smart attire attending a jazz festival (JuleJazz or something).  We did contemplate for a brief moment or two bringing our Wicker Park/La Grange hipster groove to the throng and going down to join in the festivities but post-prandial sleepiness combined with jet lag had us saying bugger it to that idea in fairly short order.   So instead, it was Ocean's Eleven on the hotel movie channel.  Tomorrow, we need to be at the ferry terminal by midday, so at last we get to sleep in for a bit!  And - apparently - our hotel has been voted as having the best breakfast buffet in town, so I'm sure the pickled fish quotient will have significantly improved by then!

Pretending not to be cold as we sit outside and drink our coffee
just like the locals...

Umm...OK.

OK.  Are we sure we're not in Disney Epcot version of Norway?
This is almost too picture perfec to be real!

Another picture of... um.. perfection

Looking for the chili bollocks.
Finding only delicious pizza.

Our swanky-pants waterfront hotel

Day 3: Scores on the doors:

Pickled Fish Quotient: remarkably still a 0 (though I suspect this may be broken tomorrow!)

Bloody Hell Its Cold Score: 2 (a bit nippy walking around town, with some definite pretending not to be as cold as you really are in places)

Trondheim sunrise: 10.01am

Trondheim sunset:  2.40pm (that's a whole 4hrs 39mins of daylight, kids! count 'em!)