Sète to Oslo

We made it!

Norwegian Flag (click it to read about it)

How did it go? It wasn't too bad! 

We were all set to leave by 5pm - the last thing to check off was to turn off our water... Well! The closet door was locked! (There's a special key that plumbers have, that we don't - no issue normally, as it's not usually locked). We scrambled around looking for a way to open it, gave up, and I tried to turn off the water supply to the toilet (it's developed issues lately). As soon as I got the valve to turn (not easy!), the dratted thing started to drip! Now what?!? Can't leave it, can't turn off the water, and can't wait for a plumber! Rick had a brainstorm, and as soon as I was able to get the valve back, he used the plier handle to open the closet - phew! We closed off one supply, and checked - no flow for us, so our neighbor's water must be just fine 🙂.

All that used up our "leave early" time, as well as my stress allowance. Or so I thought...

As usual, my GPS lost us, then put us on a different route - I pulled over, and we reset it. Lesson learned from before - I had a paper note of all the turns. And I still have it for the next airport run!

P6 parking was as simple as advertised, if a little crowded - I followed the signed, punched in my code, then meandered for a while before finding a space. About 15 minutes later, we were at our Flyr check-in (which did not open for another 25 minutes). We left our bag at check-in (no bag drop after all), a made our way through security and right to our gate (I mean, it was right there!). All went smoothly, even security - *they* were waiting for *us!* (I asked, but no, this was not usual!) I did forget to take out a large prescription liquid, but once they saw it, they let it through (a bit embarrassing though).

While waiting at the gate, we realized that we had completely forgotten our coats. It was so very hot in Sète, but we would be walking outside in 15C (59F) weather 😞.

We eventually boarded - our seats were together, but then no one had the third, so we skooched down. It was still horribly uncomfortable, and absolutely no entertainment system at all; well it's a Three-Hour Tour...

One interesting thing - the flight originated in France, but the announcements were all in Norwegian and English!

We landed on time at 8:30pm, and our bus to town was set to leave at 9:30pm - plenty of time! 🙄 Our bag was one of the last, then we had to take turns changing clothes in the bathroom (no shorts, please!) then through customs (nothing to declare), then to the ATM ($50 in kroner was the minimum), then find the bus! That turned out to be easier than it looked at first - good thing, because I saw the bus pull up before I saw the platform!

Ten minutes to spare! I tried out my Norwegian on the driver as he took our ticket - didn't seem to work, but he seemed unfazed, so we boarded. Sure enough, it was pretty clear - there was a screen showing our progress along the stops. 40-some minutes later, we got off. It's now about ten after one in the morning, and we're beat!

We followed the directions to pick up the key, then on to the apartment - I had to double-check the details, but there were no hiccups. After setting up and winding down, we finally fell into bead at 2:30 am...

Today was all about getting through the travel fuzz, getting groceries, figuring out the appliances, and getting WiFi connected.

Of note: I went to the grocery store in sunny weather (shorts and T-shirt), and came out to a thunderstorm! I was thoroughly sopping by the time I got home!

Oslo Pre-Trip

Oslo Pre-Trip

We're going to Oslo! 

Just in time, too - here's the forecast for France and for Oslo; what a difference, eh?

Here's what we have found out so far - future posts will give opinions on whether the info is right or not...

Flyr airlines (https://flyr.com) has direct 3-hour flights to and fro twice a week, between Montpellier and Oslo. We got tickets for $400 (round trip for both of us, plus one checked bag).

Oslo is a fairly expensive town, but we're happy with the Airbnb we found. It's not in the city center, but very near a transportation center, with metro, tram, bus, and airport transfers (Storo).

For getting from the airport to town (less than an hour of travel), there are several options

• Fly Bus (https://www.flybussen.no) seems to be the best option for us, as we are arriving late, and aren't staying in the center. You can buy a round-trip ticket online in advance for about $30 each
• There's also the airport train, direct to the center
• And taxis can be arranged at the airport; they give you a flat fee once they know where you're going

To get around the city, you can use just one pass for trams, metro, bus, and *even* the ferries! We can get a 7-day pass (other lengths are also available) either online or from a variety of shops. To go outside of town, you have to do something more (I haven't looked into that too much yet). Transportation stops seem to be all over (Oslo is tops on the list of cities with convenient public transportation). Apparently the Storo center can be confusing for the metro, so... Forewarned is forearmed

Given this, a few things don't make sense for us to do: 1) there is a hop-on-hop-off bus, but all we'd miss are the top-deck views and the commentary 2) there's an Oslo pass, but it's only for a few days, and includes museums; we're taking it a *lot* slower than that! No rushing around for us 🙂

We're looking at things to see and do (there are a lot!), and here's what caught my eye immediately.

• There's a Kon-tiki (Thor Heyerdahl's Pacific raft) museum, Fram (the polar boat) museum, and Folk museum, all on one island (unfortunately, the Viking ship museum is closed for another few years)
• There are *several* sculpture parks, including the 110 acre Frogner park  (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogner_Park)
• There are ancient palaces and fortresses, as well as buildings with ultra-modern architecture
• There's a food hall, called Mathallen - the funny bit is that we've been saying that we want to go to "the Mathallen food hall" - it turns out that "Mathallen" means "The food hall" so I've been saying "let's go to the The Food Hall food hall" ☺️
• Ferries are part of the public transportation system, and there's a special one that goes a bit farther down the fjord 🙂

I've started a course in Norwegian on Duolingo, and the first few lessons (really all I'll get through, I'm sure) show just how closely related Norwegian is to English - although, obviously *not* the word for food (mat) 🤣 - it's very interesting!

Det er en god dag

Means: It's a good day

Pronounced kind of like: Day are en goo dog!

New Allergies

Well, it looks like I have developed a new allergy! Last week, I had an explosion of hives, and I couldn't think of anything new to cause it - no new food, no new cleaning product, nothing! I wasn't sure what it was at first, so I treated it as eczema for a couple of days; then I thought of taking extra antihistamines, and that helped a lot.

Currently, the most probable cause is that I had an unusually great amount of orange juice (I'll have a small glass once in a great while), and that triggered a reaction. Add in our heatwave, and - hives.