Off In Search of the Northern Lights!

Day 1/2: Chicago – Oslo

Oscar P. Lion and D.Mouse heading off into
adventure.
(Emirates jet purely for show)

It’s here!!!!  It’s here!!  Its Boxing day and we’re finally off on our grand adventure Chasing the Northern Lights!!  My first overseas trip with the man I love and one that coincides with our 5 monthaversary – and its going to be a corker!!  We’re heading off to Norway, by plane, train and automobile (and ferry and husky and snowhotel), following in the footsteps of the lovely A&K and taking the Hurtigruten Ferry all the way up north into the Arctic Circle, in hope of seeing the Aurora Borealis and some spectacular star gazing!  Its not going to be a fancy trip (our cabin on the ferry is almost laughably small) but it should prove to be breathtakingly beautiful with incredible scenery and stunningly festive landscapes. 

I’d spent Christmas evening at Matt’s place with the kids (he lives in the ‘burbs about 35mins drive west of Chicago) so at around midday, we said good bye to them and headed back into the city.  A quick stop via DSW and REI for boots and gloves, we got home around 2pm to enjoy a late lunch with Mumsie.  Mumsie is very kindly looking after the cats and house while I’m away – she’ll be spending the 8 or 9 days we are away figuring out her suitcases, ready for her return back to Cyprus mid-January.  It’s a thankless, Herculean task.

Anyway, after a quick post-lunch nap, it was time to finish up the last bits of packing, hail an Uber and head off to the airport.  I’d decided we should start our first international vacation together in style, so had ordered us a nice big Ford black SUV thing, so we had plenty of room for all our gear.  Given it was only 4pm on a Saturday afternoon, the traffic was very light so it only took a half hour.  We checked in our bags at the SAS counter with no line, made sure she stamped “PRIORITY” on our boarding passes so that we could fast track through security.  

The line to get through the security wasn’t that terrible – but it was moving fairly slowly.  I thought I’d initially made a Good Queue Choice, but it soon turned out I’d make a Poor Queue Choice and had failed to notice the Indian chap with a thousand children a few people ahead of us.   OK, maybe not a thousand, but he definitely had at least 5 which, at one point, all lined up in front of the scanner, tallest to smallest which was mildly entertaining.  It must have taken him and his whole entourage a good ten minutes to get themselves through the checkpoint scanner and, without any exaggeration, he must have used about 30 of those bins to corral all their stuff in.  At one point, he had so much stuff he was trying to jam through the machines, he ran out of conveyer belt to put them on, so instead single-handedly invited the new Olympic Sport of Airport Scanner Jenga, seeing just how many bins he could stack on top of each other without the whole amount coming crashing down.  The entire clan were being shepherded through the airport by an attendant of some description – she made absolutely no attempt whatsoever to hide her disdain with the entire protracted process.  I think she must have set a new world record for the number of eye rolls and bored glances per second.  

Playing for our hordes of adoring fans in the
SAS lounge

Anyway, finally they managed to get themselves squeezed through and out the other side, then a couple of minutes later we were through.  We’d overachieved on the Leaving Enough Time So We Don’t Have To Rush At The Airport front, so we had a good couple of hours to kill before our flight was due to leave.  Fortunately, due to my Extremely Important Status with United, we were able to access the lounges, despite traveling *gasp* Economy.  So we first checked out the SAS lounge which was nice enough, but virtually deserted and roastingly hot.  We camped in there for a bit with some pretzels, a nice Oregon Pinot Noir and Baby Martin, Matt’s travel guitar.  We sat in a little alcove (probably the old smoking area), joined by Oscar P. Lion and D.Mouse, and quietly picked away at a few tunes for our new band, TomatoTomato.  I’m sure the other folk in the lounge deeply appreciated the impromptu concert that was going down (who wouldn’t want to hear an acoustic version of Space Oddity, right?).  After a while, the excessive heat drove us to seek comfort in the cooler, far less friendly (but with better food) Swiss lounge.  After 10mins, we decided we preferred the SAS lounge, so back we went.  By this stage we only had about 20mins left before it was time to board our flight to Stockholm, so time for one last glass of wine before heading to the gate.

Yes.  We traveled economy. 

Yes.  It was quite cramped and shockingly devoid of flat beds and champagne.

But yes.  We survived.

Each Economy seat came with a flannel plaid shirt included.
Nice touch, SAS.

The flight was fine in that it was very smooth with no turbulence.  Despite the fairly cramped quarters, Matt managed to get some sleep while I tried, and failed, to nod off, so instead caught up on my celebrity gossip and repeatedly failed to crack level 572 on Cookie Jam.  My other main focus for the entire flight was Colonic Deflation Prevention.  Mumsie – maybe eating all those Boston Baked Beans the day before/of our flight wasn’t the best pre-flight meal plan I could have chosen.  Ah well. 

 

Which brings me to the First Rule of Flight Club: Don’t talk about Flight Club.

Which brings me to the Second rule of Flight Club: If I suddenly veer off in a different direction after a long flight and walk away from you.  Do not follow me.

Snow!  Down below!!!  Hellooooooo Oslo!!

After days and days and days (OK, about 8hrs) we finally arrived in Stockholm – and STILL no snow!!  What is going on?!  It did feel a bit chilly as we disembarked from the plane but fortunately we transferred immediately into the terminal building, so were not yet in need of our thick heavy coats that we’d packed away in our checked baggage. 

We were both pretty knackered by this stage – it was about 11am local time, so 3am in our heads but we shuffled through the terminal, passing through the immigration checkpoint fairly quickly (“just passing through!”) before we then ground to a halt for what seemed to be an entirely pointless security checkpoint.  WHY?  Why do you need to screen our bags and shoes and miniature musical instruments again?  We’ve only just got off the plane!  And, if its so vital, why do you only have 2 people manning one tiny scanner and a total of about 7 bins?!   But,  ah well, such are the vagaries of travel so nothing else to do other than wait patiently until we finally shuffled through and were out the other side. 

The enigmatic shops at Stockholm airport.  Wonder what they sold?
(fortunately they didn't employ the same sign-writers to let people
know where the loos where....)

By this time, we had just over an hour to wait until our flight from Stockholm to Oslo which, as I’d discovered while watching the in-flight map, was annoyingly back the way we’d just come!  We’d flown over Oslo on our way to Stockholm so it wasn’t that long a flight, just 50 mins or so.  Stockholm airport was very nice, with some fancy shops and, most importantly, several coffee shops so we refueled a bit and sat around like zombies until our flight.  It was lucky we made sure we were at the gate early – the flight wasn’t supposed to start boarding until 12.30pm, according to our boarding passes, but at 12.15pm, they opened up the doors and by 12.31pm announced that boarding was complete and we were off!! 

We finally arrived in Oslo just after 2pm and, because we’d already cleared immigration when we’d arrived in Stockholm, we just decamped off the plane straight into the arrivals hall (finally, that bit made sense!).  Our bags had the good manners to join us less than 20mins later and, after figuring out the best transportation options into the centre of Oslo (Airport Express train), we were finally on the last leg of our very long journey!  The train was supereasy and deposited us right into the centre of Oslo, the Central Station.  We took a cab to our hotel, the Clarion Hotel Royal Christiana, which was only 5 mins and $20 away (as we found out later, it was only a 2min walk from the hotel, so the cabbie obviously took the scenic route – ah well).  I was expecting it to be a bit crappy, but it was actually pretty nice, so that was a pleasant surprise.

The standard here in Norway appears to be twin rooms (chaste bunch, obviously, the Norwegians) but I managed to sweet talk the fresh-faced trainee who was checking us in at the hotel to switch us to a double room (or as he phrased it “the twin beds pushed together, ya?”).   So it was with much relief that we finally checked into our room and collapsed in a heap on the bed, asleep almost before our heads touched the pillows!

Well, hello there, friendly toilet.

The bed was very comfy (although by this stage, I think anything would have felt comfortable as long as I could lie down on it) but the doubleness of the bed curiously didn’t extend to the duvets, which were still twin bed sized, with two of them neatly tucked side by side.  (its actually pretty smart if you think about it – no more disproportionate stealing of duvets and the ability for individual temperature control!).  It also became apparent why this room was available – it was a mobility-assisted room so the bathroom was ginormous with a very interesting looking loo contraption.  I wasn’t sure whether to sit on it or shake its hand.  The general bathroom friendliness continued with a note printed on the top of the mirror above the sink which read “YOU LOOK GREAT”.  It was very kind to say so, but I can assure you, dear blogwatcher, after a full day’s traveling with bugger all sleep, I was not looking, in the least, great.

We slept for a couple of hours til about 6pm then dragged our unwilling, jetlagged asses out of bed, showered the grime of the journey off us til we vaguely resembled human beings again and then headed out into Oslo to explore and find something to eat.  I’d looked up places online via Yelp and my guidebook also recommended this place called Café Sara which was about a 10min walk from the hotel and was described as “dark but warm English-style pub serving a hearty mix of Norwegian dishes as well as pizzas, Turkish and tex-mex,  The house special is a meat stew with corn, rice and potatoes – perfect for a cold winter’s night”.  Alrighty then  - sounded perfect to us (despite the lack of an H), so off we crunched out into the night.

We were bundled up to within an inch of our lives and were very grateful for the various fluffy animals adorned about our persons, so it was a nice amble to the pub-restaurant.  I discovered I’d forgotten my inner liner gloves (doh!) but at least I’d remembered my hair conditioner this trip (see Barcelona blogpost).  I’m sure I’ll be able to pick up some suitably Norwegianly patterned ones at some point during this trip, so I’m not too bothered about it.  

Anyway, Café Sara’s was excellent, as advertised, and the food was very tasty.  We shared a delicious steak, smothered in some cheesy topping with yummy potatoes and a thick brown gravy, as well as a very juicy, succulent chicken skewer with pita and salad.  It was just the right amount of food for our confused, jet-lagged tummies and washed down with a flagon of crisp Bulmers cider, our restoration was complete.  Our adrenaline system got a nice jolt too when the bill turned up – this was one of the most modest priced places to eat but the check was still an eye-wateringly expensive $100 for the two of us!  Even the cheap eateries in Norway are not what anyone other than a Norwegian (bar, perhaps, the Swiss) would call cheap.  But c’est la vie – it is what is is.  After dinner, we wandered back to the hotel and had one final beverage in the hotel bar, staffed by a very chirpy hostess, before agreeing we’d done enough to have stayed up til 9.30pm and that it was, finally, time to call it a day and head off to bed. 

Last line on the menu,  Sounds fair.

The blissfully dark, welcoming interior of Cafe
Sara.  Norway - you are shaping up nicely.

Day 1 and we did good.  Tomorrow, Trondheim!

Vital Stats of the Day:

Oslo sunrise: 9.19am

Oslo sunset:3.17pm

Pickled Fish Quotient: 0 (none consumed)

Holy Crap Its Cold Index: 1 (warm and toasty throughout the day)