Winter Wonderland

Sunday 11th Dec
Zlatko had some things to do at work today, so when I woke up around 10:00am, I found he’d already left. So after I fixed myself breakfast I ventured out to do some exploring on my own. Zlakto had kindly given me a one-week metro pass which gave me unlimited access to public transport in Oslo (trams, buses and subway) and a map of the city - which was all I needed!!

So, all rugged up, I set out to the nearest tram stop. It was freezing cold, but the air was so fresh and pure and though it wasn’t snowing, the snow from the previous fall still covered the ground. Two minutes from Zlatko’s apartment is a park which is completely open but it’s still cold enough for them to play ice hockey on – it’s called Frogner Stadion.

Frogner Stadion at night.

I managed to get to the city centre no problem and had a wander around – only to discover that it really is quite tiny, consisting of the main street (Karl Johans Gate), the train station which has a shopping centre complex within and a few other smaller streets and that’s about it! Basically, everything Zlato had shown me the other night! Though the population of Oslo is only 500,00 people, being the capital I thought there would be more to it, for some reason…………..

Now I don’t know if it was just because it was winter and it was dark and cold, but the Norwegians didn’t seem to enjoy a very active nightlife. Then again - I don’t really blame them – when it’s dark by 3:30pm and 0 C outside, a cosy night in by the fire watching TV sounds very appealing. It might also be due the nature of the Norwegians who have a reputation of being very reserved. But whatever it was, there wasn’t that much going on – that I could find, anyway……

But I did have a good look around and managed to find a Vulture Street CD for Zlatko for AU$40 (out of interest, I had a look and their selection of Australian music was minimal – I was lucky to even find that!). Had dinner at Burger King and then caught the tram to Oslo University to meet Zlako. He was just putting some finishing touches on his website which is a promotional/tourism website for various locations in Croatia translated into English and Norwegian – many of the photos he had taken himself. As I arrived the sun was beginning to set so we didn’t stay there long and I didn’t get a chance to see any of the labs which I would’ve liked, but oh well!

The view from Zlatko's office: it's not hard to get motivated for work when this stunning view greets you when you look out of your window.

We caught the tram back to the apartment where we watched the last half of The Two Towers. I quickly got the feeling that Zlatko sometimes gets a bit lonely - not surprising considering he lives a solitary life and lives in a county where he only knows a little of the language - he has picked up some Norwegian but because you can quite easily get by knowing only English (which is what he speaks at work anyway), he said there’s been less incentive to learn Norwegian properly. But I think he really enjoyed having some companionship and just someone to talk to – (especially in Croatian which he has been missing!!) even more so when we could talk about science, LOTR, etc. And I really enjoyed it too which I was a bit reluctant to just bail on him and leave him alone while I go out – after all, he was letting me stay there. Not that there would’ve been that much to do at night (especially on weekdays), which is why I was happy to just watch the extended LOTR films.