The small little vacation I had after my fourth sem was spent on helping my parents move to Mumbai. (Yes, yours truly is once again a Mumbaikar). And immediately the next morning (Friday the 29th), I was off. I met Quaddro at Mumbai Airport and after a little shopping at the duty free shops, we boarded our Finn Air flight to Helsinki. He slept for most of the 8 hour flight, while I busied myself with the personal TV provided. The flight turned out to be surprisingly good in spite of the cheap tickets we managed to buy, however 8 hours is too long a time to be sitting in one place. Understandably by the time we landed at Helsinki, we were jet-lagged and tired. And the walk across the whole of Helsinki airport from terminal 33 to terminal 12 for our connecting flight to Oslo only made things worse.
While we were not allowed to go out of the airport (nor did we have the time), the landing itself give us a picturesque view of Helsinki city, typical of a Scandinavian city. Green coniferous trees, smooth roads, sparse population, pleasant sunshine and vast spans of greenery. It was quite chilly and all my winter clothes were checked in at the Mumbai airport (we were supposed to pick them up in Oslo directly), so Quaddro suggested I put on the coat of my suit that I had in my hand. A little respite, but suits are not the most comfortable piece of clothing. A 3 Euro coffee and a couple of futile attempts to connect to airport wi-fi later, I though the time would be better spent in clicking some pics of the airport. Here are a few. First the inside, then the outside.
We then undertook the next part of our journey, the 1.5hrs flight from Helsinki to Oslo. Compared to the 8 hr flight we had previously, this one got over pretty soon. And thus we landed in Oslo at 4:15 pm local time. We now needed to reach Oslo Central Station, from where we had to take our train to Bergen. We found out that the Airport basement is directly connected to a local train station (wonder when this would happen in India), and we took the train to Oslo Sentrum. Once there, we had 5 hours till our train departed. So we found out the locker room on the first floor of the station, dumped our bags in the automatic lockers and headed for the tourist information centre just outside the station. The lady at the counter gave us a map of Oslo, and suggested a few places. We soon figured out that all the major attractions in Oslo could be covered by foot from the station. How convenient!
Now while putting out stuff in the lockers, we did not think of taking out our cameras. Jet lagged and tired, we were just concentrating on getting rid of those huge bags of ours. So we had to make do with the camera on our mobile phones. We first visited the Oslo Opera house situated on the banks of one of the fjords. Shaped as a glacier or a ship, the building seems to float by the inlet Bjorvika, giving a stunning impression. We then headed over to Akershus Fesnting, a medieval castle which now acts as a centre for the Norwegian military. Since it was already past 6, most of the castle was closed but we spent our time roaming in the castle grounds. We came across used tanks, beautiful sculptures and the royal guards marching, with a unique and impressive attire. The next stop was Aker Brygge, which was once was a harbour, now filled with shopping malls and pubs. Hundreds of people were sitting in the outside tables of these pubs, enjoying the sunset and their drinks. We too entered one of these places to while away some time. The sun set at 9, and we started walking back towards the station. On the way, we saw the Nobel Peace Centre and the Norwegian Parliament (The Stortinget). Dinner at Burger King and we headed for our platform, where we were expecting Landy to meet us (his British Airways flight was via London). He did turn up, but we were surprised by Gilli who was out visiting Norway in his first weekend at the Stockholm School of Economics. We boarded the train, and I was too exhausted for any chitchat. I saw blinds, ear plugs and blanket in my seat. I put the blinds over my eyes, wrapped myself in the blanket and dozed off...Zzzzzz
P.S.: I reached Bergen at 7 in the morning, and spent the Saturday and Sunday exploring Bergen and visiting the Sognefjord. Details and pics in the next post.
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