The Dreamer's Way: In Oslo- The Voyage and Lodgings

On the glorious Wednesday 10th day of August, Ash the Viking embarked upon a wondrous quest to a faraway land. She fearlessly set out in a steel bird to traverse the swan-road of the air. Leaving her homeland and many beloved behind for many seasons, Ash looked only forward towards the next grand adventure. The dangerous beast and capable foe: GRAD SCHOOL. dun dun dun.

Well, that's enough of that. I miraculously have nothing to complain about the flights, no complaints about Icelandair and none about my fellow passengers. The only kids that cried thankfully did it during the main portion of the flight and not during take-off and landing so it was simply a matter of turning up the music. I was able to watch the take-off, read a few chapters of A Dance with Dragons on my new Kindle, and sleep a little. Flying through Reykjavik is much much better than going through Frankfurt, so much more direct. It was a painless 5 1/2 hours to Keflavik airport and another 2 1/2 to Oslo. I had been worried about only having an hour and twenty minutes between flights but it turned out to be more than enough.

Over Iceland

I knew that the chaos would begin once I arrived in Oslo. Keep in mind that I have over 100 pounds in luggage in two suitcases and a backpack. Disembarked, went through duty-free and got some cheap rum and beer (no cigarettes to the chagrin of a friend :P), and waited around for baggage. A little part of me worried I would be pulled aside. One of my bags contained a drinking horn and a bullet belt. I had checked that belts made of fake bullets are allowed to be in checked luggage but I didn't know if they'd be able to tell from outside the bag that they were in fact fake. Of course my bags eventually came out unopened and I was on my way. I took the flytoget (airport train) to Oslo S/ Jernbanetorget (the main train station in Oslo) where I paid for two lockers to put all my baggage in.
I then went and bought a transit pass and from there took the subway to Kringså which is quite North of the city to pick up my keys. I then took a bus from Kringså to Bjerke to make sure all my keys and such worked. I quickly met my bathroom mate (she's from Ethiopia) and then took another bus back to Oslo S. I picked up my luggage and because I'm stubborn and now knew the bus route decided to take my luggage back to residence on the bus instead of taking the logical taxi. (Thanks to the nice boy who helped me lift a suitcase onto the bus, my arms were jelly by then). Finally got my stuff upstairs and dumped them where they now still currently lie.
You probably don't know where Oslo S, Kringså, and Bjerke are in relation to one another but just take my word that they're not close. Or google map it if you don't believe me. I live in a very inconvenient location.
On to the Apartment.


My room.

My room is quite nice. The biggest of all student rooms I've lived in. Bed's quite comfy and so is that red chair (despite it being covered in stains :S). No closet in the room only a big cube-y shelving unit thing that I know will get very disorganized very quickly.

The bathroom: quite small. Doesn't really have a shower stall which is slightly annoying. Only a shower curtain that divides the room but doesn't really prevent water from spreading and the toilet gets soaked as well. There's also a heating element on the wall that I haven't fully figured out yet but is probably the best thing ever in the winter.

The Kitchen: Pretty big and nice. It's covered in notes about cleaning up after yourself. Big red-flag. I'm not exactly sure how many people I share this with. The bathroom-mate said 5 but she didn't seem sure and there's definitely more rooms down the hallway. I tried to draw a little picture to show what the hallway looked like...but it didn't work out. Probably because I'm still not sure. The first time I wanted to leave the apartment I felt lost in the hallway because it's just a sea of closed doors and you can't just open a knob you have to turn the lock as well so I was worried about getting caught trying to get into someone's apartment. But the maze was not enough to vanquish Ash the Viking.
From the picture of the kitchen you may be able to notice the best thing about this apartment.
THE VIEW!

From the 12th floor I can see from the Oslofjord to Homenkollen ski jump to all over Marka. It's beautiful. Of course you have to look past a construction site and two giant cranes...but it's beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice and I really wish I had a card reader to show you pictures from the other camera (I got a dslr cam from my brother- thanks Mark). There's a horse race track just beside the building so I can also look down into the horse paddocks and see part of the track.

The view from my room is also pretty awesome, especially at night. After the sun sets there's a beautiful light blue/ greenish glow from behind the mountain forest. Pretty sure it's not the northern lights but it's pretty nonetheless.