Weekend in Oslo (Part 3)

We emerged from 7-11 men on a mission.  Piling into our taxis we sped off into downtown Oslo in silence, somberly nursing our hangovers and begrudgingly admitting defeat in the search of that elusive Norwegian metro.   The taxi ride took what seemed like an eternity.  The marathon had shut down roads and forced our confused cabby to take alternate routes.  When we finally arrived at the hostel, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the hostel. We were greeted by sleek black and white modern furnishings, a fully stocked bar (at which no one could even muster a good look at that time) and a fully staffed reception desk.  Our brief euphoria was suddenly shattered with the realization that we would not actually be able to check in until 3 hours later, but, as we decided, we would leave our bags locked with the hostel and we would go explore the city that was beckoning to us outside the rain-streaked windows of the hostel lobby.

Once at the metro (yes, we actually found it on the hostel-end) we bought our 24-hour passes and were ready to go. Except we weren’t.  Our group of 12 was like a pack of ADD 9 year olds.  When 10 of us may have been ready, 2 were wandering into the convenience store.  Once those 2 returned and were ready to go, someone wanted to take pictures of the scenic underground metro station. When that was over, someone lost their phone and we all had to join in the search.  FINALLY, we were ready to go and we submerged ourselves in the underground labyrinth that was the path to our far-off metro platform. 

This next segment was the part of the trip that will haunt me most forever.  Walking through the tunnels I remember myself commenting, “I’m surprised how clean these tunnels are. I haven’t seen any puddles of homeless-man piss on the ground, or piles of trash in the corner.”  These words were barely out of my mouth; they had just seen the light of day, fresh from my noggin; they were still hanging in the air when we turned the corner and quite literally stumbled upon the most shockingly horrifying sight I have ever beheld.  There, squatting on the ground, needle in arm, was a man shooting up heroine.  We sprinted past him, some of us close to jumping right over him and hustled through that labyrinth which suddenly became a scary, scary place until we reached the platform and simply stared at each other in utter disbelief of the sight we had just witnessed.

When we managed to regain our composure, we stumbled onto the train and traveled the 3 stops to the city center, whose stop was, guess what, called “city-center.” With no plan and almost three hours to kill we wandered the streets stopping in stores when we felt and taking pictures along the way.  It was actually quite nice coming to an intersection, looking each way and deciding on a whim which direction we thought would prove to be most interesting.  Eventually I found my obligatory elephant (I buy a small elephant figurine in every country I visit) and I could officially call my visit to Norway a success, no matter what was to happen.  We ended up finding an outdoor food market where we each grabbed some samples and a snack and by then it was time to head back to our hostel. 

Back at the hostel, we checked in and each room-group silently retreated into our respective suites and when I say we all took naps I mean we slept as if our lives depended on it, because at that point, we legitimately thought they did.