Sunday Funday

Oslo has the greatest public transportation system!  So far we have been getting around without a car just fine. It's so easy using the trains, busses, street trams and, most recently, tried out the city bikes. Throughout the city there are stations that have bikes for rent (3 hours max). You pick it up at point A and drop it off at point B. You pay either a day fee or a season fee which is good for multiple months. I've been wanting to try them out, so last Sunday we bought a season card (you get your money's worth with just 2 uses compared to a steep one day price) and took the bikes out to Bygdøy. All of the tourist museums (Norwegian Maritime, Kon Tiki, Viking Ship and Fråm museum) are located on the Bygdøy peninsula as well as the king's vacation home. It was pretty busy once we were on the peninsula but it was a beautiful ride in!

   That's a restaurant!

Case is in his second week of Norwegian classes and today was my last day of my first level. No break for me as I start the next class on Monday! I'll have a different teacher and a new group of people so hopefully I'll be able to make some new friends! 

The Great (Norwegian) Outdoors and more

With 2 weeks under our belts, I thought it would be a good time to put up another post!

Back tracking to last weekend...

On Saturday we went on a walking tour of Oslo that was lead by the wife of one of Case's co-workers. We covered a lot of the city that we had already seen but we took it as an opportunity to meet a new acquaintance. The weather was fantastic, so we took advantage and ate lunch at Frogner Park. 

We are quickly learning that Norwegians get very excited when the sun comes out (sound familiar Seattlites?) Not only do they bring out the shorts and tank tops, but they sun bathe in their swim suits in the park! For me, swimsuits are worn at the beach (which they have plenty of here) or the pool... I don't know, maybe I'm still a little prude for Europe :-/

Sunday was one of our first outings outside of the city. We took the bus to Bogstad Gård (gård=farm) which is a historical area that has a mansion on it (that now has a cafe where we enjoyed some lunch) as well as some goats, sheep and cows.  It's on a lake and has a view of a golf course and a public beach so we took our time walking around enjoying the beautiful scenery. 

This last week was our first full week of work (for Case) and school (for me). He seems to be jumping right in tackling his projects and making friends to eat lunch with. I have a lot to say about school. First of all, it's been a great experience learning a language in a class where a) the instructor avoids speaking English as much as possible and b) there are people from all over the world: Ethiopia, Bosnia, Nepal, Belgium, Portugal, Iceland, Philippines, Pakistan, Italy. For being in class for only 5 days, I feel like I know quite a bit.

Here are a few things I know:

- how to introduce myself

- say where I'm from and where I live

- how to greet someone and say good bye

- say what I do for a job/go to school for

- the alphabet

- the days of the week 

- and can count to 20!

Case and I can't converse just yet but he starts classes tomorrow! 

This last Saturday morning we walked down to the Aker Brygge and enjoyed a cup of coffee while watching the boats come in and out of the harbor. I told Case I wanted to check out the nearest IKEA and heard that there was a free bus that takes you from near the Oslo Central Station directly to the front doors of IKEA. The website didn't provide an address of where it picks you up in town, so we waited at a random spot along the road figuring we might see it. The time came and passed that it was supposed to make its pick up but we never saw it. Since Case is a public transportation master, he figured out how to get there on the subway. Long story short, after getting off the subway at the wrong stop, waiting another 15 minutes for the next one to come by and walking about 20 minutes from the subway....we finally made it to IKEA!!!!!! We were pretty exhausted so we just did a walk through to check it out. It's pretty much the same as in the states, but the kitchen and bath sections have WAY more stuff. They even sell appliances (haven't seen a Home Depot or Lowes yet so that's probably the places to do your DIY)! We took the IKEA bus back into town so now we know where the stop is. We'll be back for a date night to shop and have a meatball and potato meal! 

Sunday was another day full of walking. We took advantage of the great 70 degree weather and took the subway up the hill to where all the cross country ski trails are. During the summer they're popular for mountain bikers and hikers. 

We hiked around for a couple hours, found a tiny lake and then turned around to go to the Frognerseteren Restaurant/cafe. Here is our view while we ate lunch. 

On the subway back down the hill

As much as we miss home, each day were trying to make ourselves feel more at home here and finding the things that give us normalcy. We FaceTime a lot, email and occasionally text with our family which we are SO grateful for!  The beautiful scenery all around is something that we're really appreciating and being so close to the water makes us feel more at home. We're most likely going to start looking for more permanent housing at the beginning of August and then we can get our little (literally) abode started. We're excited for our trips to new cities and countries that we have planned in the very near future and will definitely make sure to share them with you all!! 

Becoming Locals

Since I feel that we have done quite a bit in the past 4 days or so, I figured it would be a good time to make another post before we get busy. 

Yesterday was probably the most productive as we took care of "becoming residents" business and explored the city limits a little further. Case had his first day of work on Wednesday so I had a little time to do some travel research in the morning. I hoping that our first excursion will be taking a train, bus and ferry to Bergen. Maybe next weekend (fingers crossed)!

Later in the afternoon I made my way into town to meet Case at his office. Whenever we walk into town we walk through Slottsparken. It's one of my favorite parks in the city as its full of locals laying in the grass enjoying the sun, shoppers and mothers with their children. 

   The Parliament Building

    Flower market across the street from Case's office that I will shop in someday!

Once I met up with Case we went paid for my language classes and then met the lady that helped us file for our personnel number, residence card and tax card (for Case since he's working....me too, hopefully in the NEAR future) After that business was done we went to the city center to get my textbook and workbook for class on Monday and our public transportation cards that work on the street trams, buses and ferries. We took the street tram back to our apartment and started looking at the ferries and where they go. It was only about 4pm and about 6 more hours of day light left. We put those transportation cards to work and took the ferry to Hovedøya. Leaving the ferry terminal offers some great views of Oslo! In particular the Aker Brygge. It seems to be one of the, what seems to be, busiest rows of restaurants, ice cream stands and promenade for people to leisurely stroll. 

 

    Just to give you an idea of our orientation in the city

    Aker Brygge

    Oslo 

   Ruins of a Cistercian monastery built in 1147. 

Taking the ferry was so easy, I'm hoping it will be a regular evening venture (during the summer at least!)