Hiking Trip to Trolltunga

Kyle and I take the night bus from Oslo bus terminal to Odda, a city close to the Trolltunga trailhead. We've packed our backpacks with enough water,  snacks, and clothing for a day hike. I expect that the bus ride, which leaves around 10pm, will not allow for a scenic view of Norway along the way. I'm mistaken; tonight is one phase away from a full moon, and the fjords and lakeside towns under the moonlight are really magical.

We finally get off the bus in Odda at 5:30am. The sun is not up yet, and the town is still sleeping. We are alone at the bus stop and must wait 3 hours for another bus to take us to the trailhead. We have not packed warm clothes since the weather reports said it would be perfectly clear and in the 60s.

Sunrise in Odda

The bus finally arrives and we wind up through a mountainside neighborhood to the trailhead. There, a guide hands us a trail map and tells us that the funicular steps, which start at the trailhead, are illegal to use. We look up at the steps and notice people all along them who did not heed her warning. We take the trail instead, since the stairs look tedious and too steep, even for someone like me who has no fear of heights.

Steps on the Funicular

The hike is 11km to Trolltunga, 11km back the same way. The first few km consist of going over 2 mountains; on the first, the trail is all rocks and boulders, mixed with some tree roots and mud. The trail is dangerous and tiring, but it only takes us about a half hour to go up.

Trail for the First Mountain

Then we come to where the stairs end at the top. There is a huge flat area where vacation cabins are. It's not a neighborhood with streets or yards, but just cabins scattered throughout this rocky meadow. I assume the owners only go there during winter time to ski.

Flat Area with Vacation Cabins

Next we climb the second mountain, which takes much more time. Most of it is just slabs of rock, and there are too many times when we think we've reached the top only to find there is still more to go. Once we make it to the top, it is relatively flat from there to Trolltunga, but still plenty to go. We follow the red Ts that are painted on the rocks to point out the trail. The trail is a bit crowded, as Trolltunga is a popular hike and it is a summer weekend. We see people from teenagers to people in their 60s, some in serious hiking gear and some in Vans. I recommend to anyone planning this hike to buy hiking boots. The trail is muddy in a lot of places, and running shoes would not cut it. The only thing I had close to hiking boots were my snow boots, and they worked fine.

Sneak Peak of the Fjord Below from the Trail

After about 4 hours of hiking, we finally make it to the Trolltunga cliff! There are already plenty of hikers there eating lunch. We started around 9am and it is now 1pm. We come to the Trolltunga from above, where people are already taking pictures. There is a line of about 4-5 people waiting to go on the cliff itself, so that you can get your picture taken on it without having anyone else in it. 

Trolltunga

After a 1.5 hour break, we start to go back. The way is long, and we see some backpackers set up camp for the rest of the day. We get to the two mountains and begin the climb down. We expect that since it is all downhill from there, it should be easy. We are seriously mistaken, and it takes us more time to go down than it did to go up. By the time we reach the bottom, our knees are about to give out and I walk around the trailhead parking lot like a 90-year-old woman. We make it back by 6:30pm, a total of 9.5 hours including breaks. There are still some backpackers starting the hike at this time, most likely because they want to go when the trail is not so crowded. 

The bus takes us back to Odda bus terminal, where we must wait 4 hours until midnight for our other overnight bus to take us back to Oslo. We sit in the terminal alone, which makes me worried. Eventually it arrives, and we make it back to our apartment in Oslo around 8am. It was a difficult hike, a long journey to and from Trolltunga, but we are glad we made it. Trolltunga is definitely a must-see if you've got the time (and the strength). 

First Day of School at the University of Oslo

Today I start my first day of classes at the University of Oslo (UiO for short). I only have one class today on the philosophy of action. I have never taken a philosophy class before, but in most of my English literature classes there are usually some sort of philosophical readings and discussions. However, in this upper division course, there are quite a few philosophy majors (though it is not a requirement). When the professor asks a question, the answer I come up with in my head is much more straightforward than what some of the philosophy majors put out to the class. For example, the professor asks, "If we are to define what makes a person capable of being responsible for their actions, what might we consider?" My answer includes the person's age, their mental health, and their state of mind at the time of the action. A philosophy major instead answers that we must first define what a human is, and then what an action is. I think for this course I will need to think more theoretically and less practically.

At points I zone out (as students are prone to do) and look out the window at the lawn roomba crawling across the grass of the house next door. It's the little differences that I notice in Norway.

We move on to punishment for actions. The professor says that to punish someone is to respect him or her, showing that the community thinks the criminal is worthy of being responsible for his or her actions. To not punish someone is to dehumanize him or her, as if to say that that person is not worthy of being a part of society. I smirk as I think of how celebrities are always being excused from their punishments.

The class ends after an hour and 45 minutes, and Kyle and I head to the library to see if we can find some of our textbooks there.

University library exterior

 Interior

A little about UiO: It was established in 1811 and is the oldest and largest university in Norway. It has several campuses spread out through the city, and my classes are at the Blindern Campus where the Humanities faculty is. All classes can be taught in English if there is even one student in the class who does not speak or understand Norwegian.

A pathway on the Blindern Campus

Healthy People, Little Kids, and Smokers

(Apologies in advance for the generalizations)

As anyone who has been to Europe might have noticed, smokers are much more omnipresent than in America. Whereas there are McDonald's and Starbucks on every American corner, in Oslo these appear to be replaced by smokers. Smokers smoke on the balcony next to yours, they smoke around children, they ruin your perfect sunset moment at the Oslo harbor, they smoke in the bathrooms of the Eurail trains, they litter their cigarette butts all over the street, and they make you move inside the restaurant just as you were beginning to get comfortable on the terrace. I'm sure there are some smokers who are also nice people, but in my experience I have never seen a polite smoker. Because smoking is more common in Europe than in the U.S., I might be overreacting, but I really think that there should be a mandatory course on smoking etiquette. Before you buy a pack of cigarettes, you should be required to show a certificate that proves you passed said course. This would make everyone's lives a lot nicer.

To appearances, smoking seems like the only health issue here in Oslo. It has only been a few days since I arrived, but I have already noticed that most people here are fit and active. At Sognsvann lake there is always a multitude of joggers and even the occasional brave swimmer, as well as students playing volleyball and soccer on the grass. Whereas America's obesity epidemic is quite visible everywhere you go, here, I must say I can't remember noticing any such thing yet. (This is not to say that everyone is model-thin, of course.)

I have noticed an unusually high number of pregnant women and young children in just the short time I have been here. Intrigued, I looked up Norway's fertility rate, and it turns out they have one of the highest in Europe. This does not surprise me, as Norway's standard of living is high, therefore making it a great place to raise a family, and Kringsja Village has a huge number of young families housed in it. There is even a daycare center and quite a few playgrounds. (This is new for me, because at UCSB the students who have families are usually housed away from the other students, who usually live in party-central Isla Vista or freshman dorms. I prefer that separation, because here it is a little disruptive when you have 20 kids screaming outside your apartment.)

Sognsvann Lake

Sognsvann is a lake near Kringsja Village with a path that runs all the way around it and a dock for swimming (and I would assume boating, but I have yet to see any boats). Each time I have been there, I always see a lot of joggers. The lake path also has plenty of trails that branch off into the surrounding wilderness, some leading to university-owned cabins that can be rented for a night or weekend, or to neighboring lakes.

For my Sonoma County readers, the lake is a bit like Spring Lake, which is one of my favorite places back home. Sognsvann lake is a little more wooded and wild, cleaner and peaceful.

In the summer, it is a popular place for barbecues, and there was actually a meteor shower a couple nights ago. A group of students went there to see it, but since it has been raining this week, the sky was too cloudy. The lake freezes over during the wintertime, so much so that you can walk on it (but I probably won't risk it). In the winter, joggers are replaced by skiers.

First Day of Sightseeing

Kyle and I meet Gabrielle at the T-bane station and we get off at the National Theatre stop. We walk down to the harbor and take the public ferry, which is free with your ruter card (the monthly subway pass). The ferry takes us to Bygdoy peninsula where a lot of Oslo's museums are located.

The ferry drops us off at the end of a wealthy street, where there are lots of gorgeous houses with pristine white wraparound porches and shiny black winter rooftops. 

We head to the Viking Ship Museum first, where entrance is free for university students. The museum houses three viking ships that were buried around 900 AD with one holding two women and another holding two men. They were likely wealthy people and were buried with food, clothing, animals, and jewels, the necessary items for the afterlife. One ship that is the best preserved is massive and built for ocean travel.

 Next we go to the Norwegian Folk Museum, which is like a Scandinavian Colonial Williamsburg complete with actors in costume and wood cutting demonstrations. We walk to Stave Church, a Scandinavian church with Christian paintings inside, and then walk around the quaint little country village with grass-roofed cottages and horse carriage rides.

Getting Adjusted

Kyle and I meet with our buddy group on the University of Oslo campus. International students are encouraged to join a buddy group where 3-4 buddies (either Norwegian students or international students who have already been at the university for some time) show new students around. Our buddies are Manuel from Spain and Rima from Lithuania. We all sit on the lawn, very university-catalog-esque, and introduce ourselves. There are a lot of students from Germany, but also Spain, Italy, Finland, France, Brazil, South Korea, and Australia in our group. We also meet Gabrielle, a fellow USAC program student. She is from Canada but goes to Humbolt State. Our group all gets coffee at cafe on campus, mostly to take shelter from the heavy rain shower that sneaked up on us and overthrew the sunny morning.

We have plans to take the T-bane to the central station where the mayor will give a welcome speech to new international students, but the rain makes Kyle, Gabrielle, and me a little reluctant to stand in what is likely a partially flooded square for a long speech. Instead, we get off the T-bane and get a pizza lunch. Unused to the Norwegian krone-U.S. dollar conversion and the tipping custom in Norway, combined with the usually confusion that goes with splitting a check amongst students, we unwittingly tip the waitress $10 for our shared pizza.

Having made the waitress's day, we take the free bus to IKEA where we marvel at the low prices. The conversion is about 6 kroner to $1, so we stock up on the kitchenware and bedding that our airline-regulation-size luggage did not allow us to bring. On our way home, we stop by KIWI which is a grocery store in Kringsja Village, so it is actually in our apartment complex. The store has pretty low prices as well, and pretty much all the necessary foods and cleaning/grooming supplies a student will need. Considering the prices at IKEA and KIWI, combined with my single room's monthly rent of about $500, it appears that Oslo's notorious high prices can only be found in restaurants (and I've heard gasoline as well).

The rain has stopped, and things are looking up finance-wise. Before leaving the U.S., I was preparing myself to spend quite a bit more on things, but it seems that if I steer clear of restaurants or visit them sparingly, I might be able to manage living in Oslo at about the same price I live as a student at UCSB. (But then again, this might be saying something about the rent in Isla Vista where rent for a shared room is usually around $600.)

Arriving in Oslo

After our mini vacation in Interlaken, Switzerland, Kyle and I arrive at Gardermoen Airport in Oslo at midnight Saturday night. We've decided it is best to sleep at the airport, and according to this website, it is one of the best airports for sleeping: http://www.sleepinginairports.net/europe/oslo.htm.

We take cover from the fluorescent lights and duck into the caverns of a pizza restaurant, where a few sleepers have already spread out on the leather booths. We find two spots for ourselves and try to catch some sleep. At around 5am we awake and take the airport express train to Oslo Central Station, where we take the T-bane (subway in Norwegian) to Kringsja, our student village. Kringsja is where most international students at the university are housed, and the rent is actually cheaper than what I pay in Isla Vista (which is surprising, considering that Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in the world).

In Kringsja, the apartments consist of 4-5 suites that are connected by a kitchen and dining room. Each suite includes two single bedrooms, which share one bathroom. I arrive at my apartment and meet my suitemate who is a graduate student from Ukraine. She gives me some helpful tips on how to get a student subway pass and where the cheapest grocery stores are. Even though it is still early in the day, Kyle and I decide to just unpack our things and take a nap as we are still jet lagged.

We awake around dinner time and eat some ramen noodles we bought at the only store that was open on a Sunday. We expect to eat a lot of cheap food like this, as Oslo is extremely expensive. Another roommate, Sylvia, is sitting at the dining table when we come into the kitchen to make our food. She tells me she is from Romania, and I ask her what it is like there. She tells me that it snows, and she is not looking forward to the first snow here. She also says that most people in Romania do not drink the tap water there, so she is getting used to doing it here in Oslo.

This is the view from my apartment in Kringsja Village. We will compare it in a few months to the snow-covered version.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hello!
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Joanne and I am a 3rd year English major at UC Santa Barbara. I am studying abroad in Oslo, Norway at the University of Oslo for the autumn 2013 semester. I am here with my boyfriend of 3 years, Kyle, and he will appear in a lot of my posts.

Just a few things about me: I am a vegetarian, so we will see how that goes while I am in a country that predominantly eats fish. As I said, I am an English major and I like to write, so this blog is just to get myself writing and to remember my time here. I also come from sunny California, so it will be a big change living in Norway once it starts snowing. I have also traveled moderately, and this is my third time to Europe, so I feel somewhat confident in getting around. I chose Norway because the university offers a huge number of courses in English, and because I thought that a drastic change in climate would be fun (or at least interesting). I don't know any Norwegian, but I've signed up for an introductory course.

In Norway, I will also be taking a philosophy course and an English literature course. Classes start in a week, and I will update you more on what each course is like.