Tag Archives: traveling

Jun13

Adventures in Oslo

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Tuesday, 21-May-2024, through Sunday, 26-May-2024


Oslo, the capital of Norway.

My first visit to the “mainland” Scandinavian countries, and my surprisingly abrupt transition into Summer. I mentioned how, when I stepped off the plane in Greenland, how I was blasted with gloriously cold arctic air, which immediately set my soul happily ablaze? When I stepped onto the tarmac in Oslo, the heat of Summer hit me, leeched into my bones, and warmed my core into a bright cozy fire. A different happiness than the cold, but happiness none-the-less.

The drive to my flat in Norway was about as different as it could possibly get from Greenland or Reykjavik. Unlike Greenland and Iceland, Norway is not focused primarily on Tourism. Oslo’s a working city, with a close-by airport and a population twice that of the entirety of Iceland… and 12 times that of Greenland. It was a city – a true, working, bustling city, and I couldn’t wait to explore it.



I started as I always do – just wandering around, and finding myself some food. So lets start with that – Where’d I eat, while exploring Oslo? Excluding smaller cafes and other “quick stop” options;

  • Folkets Burger – Symmetrically to Nuuk, I started Norway off with a cheap burger from a townie fast-food / greasy cafe. It was… Well, it was tasty and a nice change of pace!
  • Baken Hansen Løren – Absolutely delicious, 100% a lovely European cafe
  • Kjøkken og Bar AS – Also absolutely delicious! Super quiet, and I had an amazing chunk of salmon that was glazed to perfection
  • Kaffebrenneriet Løren – Absolutely delicious, another lovely European-style cafe
  • Barcode street food – I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed, to be honest, and just needed some simple calories that reminded me of home. I got loaded waffle fries, with pulled pork, and felt better
  • Åpent Bakeri Tranen – Nice American-style breakfast – pancakes, bacon, and eggs! Great spot to work from a cafe on photos and blog posts
  • Herregårdskroen – A quite fancy restaurant in the Vigeland sculpture park. Good, and exactly what you’d expect from an up-class museum restaurant
  • Fryd – Tasty neighborhood bar and grill. Nothing special, but perfect for what I was looking for after Herregårdskroen
  • Pepe’s Pizza – Similar to Fryd, just simple and good pizza with especially lovely and friendly staff



Let’s see… what else about Oslo?

My first exposure to the “mainland” Scandinavian capitals was definitely interesting. As I alluded to earlier, it wasn’t quite as friendly & tourist-focused as Nuuk or Reykjavik, which definitely took a bit of getting used to. I felt more isolated here, more alone in my world of speaking English. It may have been partially due to the location of my rental as well – I was staying in more of the suburbs, instead of in the center of tourism, which led to seeing more families and friend groups… which, in turn, reminded me that I was traveling solo and was hours and hours away from friends and family.

I won’t say it was bad, though. Part of this trip is the learning process – learning about Europe, and learning about myself, and learning to continue growing as a person out of the stagnancy that I’d found myself in while living in Oregon. The isolation hurt, but it helped me grow and move through some mental blockades… and slowly but surely, let me bloom back into the person that I want myself to be.


Thinking back, one of the big drivers for those isolated feelings could be just how child-friendly Oslo felt. There were countless families pushing strollers or carrying kids, all walking around nearly infinite playgrounds and child-friendly parks. It FELT like a city meant for families, far more than the cities I’ve recently been to in the United States. I tried looking up statistics to see if that feeling was enshrined in reality, but… turns out, those kind of stats are complicated, and every country uses different numbers and I just gave up. I accepted how it felt, and moved on with my exploring.





On a less introspective note, Oslo was also the first place that I really leaned in toward using Electric Scooters. I admit – I was one of the people who mocked them when they first came out… and I still mock them in some ways, and still get annoyed when people park them like crap or just do dumb things with them.

They’re amazing for tourists, though – I can grab one, get to an area I want to walk quickly, and then leave it for someone else to use… all for just a few dollars.

Another nice new thing with them – I don’t know if this is just new rules, or Scandinavia, but there’s LOTS of geofencing on these things now. You can’t park just anywhere, and you can’t ride everywhere – There’s designated “scooter only” parking spots, slow zones for pedestrians that automatically reduce your speed, and other protections in place. They don’t interfere with cycling as much anymore, or so it seems, which is pretty rad.

Aug25

My first weekend in Hood River! – The first day

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My first weekend in Hood River! – The first day

Saturday, 21-June-2015

I can’t believe it… Today should be full of crashing drums and explosions and fortuitous portent.

Instead, I was up just like any other day… maybe a little more tired, thanks to how late we stayed up the night before. But overall? The same as any other day of the road trip.

But today’s the last day that I’m traveling. The last day that I’ll be living out of my highly organized car; the last day that I’ll know exactly where everything is, and the last day that I’ll be sleeping on a tiny sleeping pad, unable to turn over without carefully adjusting myself to stay on the comfy part.

So we left Wyeth campground earlier than we expected, but later than I’d hoped that we’d leave. I’d been loosing my “wake up early” rhythm, thanks to later nights and conversation (not a bad thing), but I’d still kind of hoped to get moving super early, to maximize the time I had with Mike and Liz before they had to head back on the road toward California.

We hung out. Chatted as we packed up camp, then chatted and joked around while sitting at Yelp’s favorite Hood River diner. Bette’s place, if I remember right, and it was definitely a good “Stick to your ribs, huge portions, delicious down home cooking” style diner. We got a cinnamon bun at the end – literally a bun the size of a normal dinner plate. We could barely make a dent in it, after our main meals… and that’s with us all being ravenous after a night of music and drinking.

But it’s still sort of early, and Mike and Liz don’t seem to be in a rush… exploration time! Checking out the breweries quick; just a walk-by really, just to get an idea of the area.

Then the game shop – and ohh man does this town have a game store. D&D, Dragonlance, RC drones, board games… seriously, this place has it all. And right next door is a low-key book shop, and next to that are a few cool coffee bars… Man, Hood River is everything that I enjoyed about Cambridge! I mean, I’m sure it’ll be kinda bad in the winter, but for now… I think I’ll enjoy it here.

With Mike and Liz back on the road, I keep wandering around town, waiting for the call from my Airbnb host saying that they’re ready for me to pop by.

I’m new to the town, to the state, hell even to the general geographic area. So I enjoyed the chance to just… wander. People watching, and exploring small shops, is my favorite way to get to know an area. Seeing what’s expensive, seeing what’s available and what’s not… all the little things that affect how people live their lives. It’s neat – especially in new areas and cultures. Which, let’s be honest, the Pacific Northwest is definitely a different culture than New England.

A few calls home, and a few real-estate agent visits later, I get the call from the Airbnb folks that everythings set. So I head over to meet and greet and see where I’ll be living for two weeks while I look for a new home.

And it’s beautiful! The hosts are lovely – a married retired couple, who rent out the spare apartment / room in their gorgeous house. It’s actually a renovated church, and the apartment that I’m renting is a solid quarter of the floor space. Two bathrooms, a bedroom, and two sitting rooms.

Unpacking takes longer than I expected – much longer, if we’re being honest. But it happens, and I slowly decompress my life out from the convertible that it’d been jammed into, and into an actual house.

Then I relax, walk up the hill that Hood River is perched on, eat dinner, and watch the sunset over my new town.

Oct12

Notes on Venezuela

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Notes from Venezuela:

 

  • Venezuelans are born lucky. They must be to survive driving the way they do.
  • Gol Varig is an awesome airline: they gave me a Sandwich! For free! Without me asking!
  • Not many people seem to actually like Chavez
  • The whole socialism thing is really strange when you think about it from a capitalist standpoint… just so many things are different. Upside? Free parties, sandwiches and beers. Downside? Enforced minimum lease terms of three years, and massive sanctions for “the rich”, as defined as… whatever they feel like?
  • Strange side of Socialism: since the government owns everything, they can do whatever they want with it. Example: Some of the hotels in La Guira were closed and turned into refugee apartments after a natural disaster in the interior. I honestly don’t know how I feel about that, since my capitalist side is saying that it cost them a ton in tourism (directly and indirectly), but my “help the world” side is saying that our country should be able to help our citizens that way.
  • Salsa dancing is FUN! Especially when you’re being taught by a Venezuelan girl 😀
  • People are nice: everyone I met was pretty friendly, from the taxi drivers to the random guy on the street who stopped me not to steal my stuff, but to ask for directions. One older couple even helped me and Ana write down some important Spanish phrases.
  • Hipsters have invaded every country. Heaven help us.
  • Fanny packs have invaded Venezuela, and have attached themselves to everyone. Seriously. Pretty much every random person I passed on the street had a fanny pack, worn in the front.
  • The beaches are totally rad, we need more of this.
  • Tts strange what super-cheap gas does. Seriously, Gas in Venezuela is ~$0.25 a gallon, and thus public transportation is just $0.125 per trip on the Metro, and $1 for a 1 hour bus ride outside of the city.