The overnight ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo is the first boat of our boats on this trip. The boat is lorge, with room for nearly 2,000 passengers and 450 cars. I was mildly worried we would not be able to find it somehow from its nearby station in Copenhagen, but it was extremely obvious.
Great. I need a big, obvious sign, because the combo of an extreme amount of sunshine and jet lag is a killer one. There is only so much caffeine can prop up my feeble brain.
A quick list of Things I Was Not Expecting on the ferry to Oslo, in no particular order:
- Stubbing both of my big toes going to the bathroom from the steps up (I am deceased from these mortal wounds), on two different occasions
- The shower in our cabin being actually really good for its size
- Our cabin having exactly one outlet
- People smoking cigarettes outside (I forget this is a thing people do in general)
- A big duty-free shop that had a lot of Toblerone (how often do people buy toblerone that this is a duty-free staple? Read to the end and I’ll tell you.)
- The boat being a time capsule from the 90s (in pretty good shape)
Our room was very tiny (as expected, it’s a boat), and all the hallways were an absolutely glorious shade of pink which can only be described as dark pepto bismol, popular in the early 90s. Navigating to our room was a tiny bit claustrophobic and busy as everyone settled, as the ceilings are lower and there’s no inner light on this deck.
Because Scandinavia is Expensive, I had at one point entertained the idea of all of us having one room. Thank goodness I was a little bit smart instead of cheap because with all of our luggage, that would have been just awful.
The room was great for two adults though!
There were several outdoor areas you could avail yourself of (minus the pool, which was closed) during the journey. This is where the stinky smoking people went, when they escaped from their designated smoking area to make general smells outside. Thankfully, there weren’t many smokers (just enough to be annoying), and the top deck was a nice place to watch the scenery go by.
You know, all the beauty of just seeing the flat sea, as we departed from the land, and a windmill farm. Gorgeous.
Dinner on board our boat was at the buffet. Europeans eat later usually, so our 6:00 time slot was not crowded. We were lucky to have a table close to the sunny windows by the prow. The food was pretty good, with a wide variety of vegetarian dishes that weren’t pity salads (and apparently some great pork jowls). We had chosen correctly.
And then – time for the second night of bed, the worst jet lag night. I thought that by staying up late to read a book (late being 11:30), I would force myself to at least make it through the entire night. Well, I forgot to shut the curtains and was very wrong. When I woke up at 4 (not due to light just yet), I also chose to leave them open, because I was too excited to maybe see Norway. All the things online tell you to “get up early to see the fjord as you cruise in.”
Well the internet also told me that the cruise left at 2pm, so we first started seeing fjordiness around 7:30 am. Not 6, and definitely not at 4. We watched the fjords roll by from the onboard cafe as we all pumped ourselves full of caffeine.
Disembarking at Oslo was not nearly as swift as our embarkation had been. We had to wait an eternity to go through passport control. Pro tip, don’t take the escalator. Take the stairs. It’s faster. The entire boat got off ahead of us.
While I was waiting in line, I figured we could buy our Oslo Pass via the official app – it’s a 3-day inclusive sightseeing pass that gets you in a lot of attractions and on public transit in the city. Super handy.
During this process, I discovered that none of us (except for Rhett) could buy an Oslo Pass in the app, mainly because our credit cards hated us. One of my cards failed mysteriously (while its analog worked for Rhett) (this is also behavior it had done while I was booking lodging so whatever, card), and my other card required me to send a text message to my US phone number (argh!)….so we had to go get Ye Olde Fashioned Paper Pass from the customer service part of Oslo central station.
Fortunately, they were very helpful, and even directed us to the luggage storage lockers in Oslo Station, since we had a few hours to kill til check-in.
Our waiting activity – the national museum. It’s got a great sampling of Norwegian paintings and historical artifacts from across the ages, and it houses one of the Scream paintings by Munch. I usually find the plethora of religions paintings kind of Meh in European museums (because how much Bible fanart can you make?), but Norway had a divorce with Catholicism at some point, and a lot of its painters spent time in the fabulous Norwegian landscape. While I do really enjoy the occasional angry baby Jesus and Over It Mary painting, this museum had a great collection of Not Religious art, which was just delightful.
Also, I dragged everyone to an exhibit about dresses, because I must.
After the museum we stopped for a quick bolle (bun) just outside, before attempting to head to City Hall to check out the paintings and other things inside.
Turns out City Hall was closed today, and has some weird hours for the rest of the month, due to a big event happening. At least we got to enjoy the tulip garden outside!
On our way to check in, the skies decided to open upon us, and we endured torrential rain for five minutes as we paced around, trying to find where to go. The check-in instructions were both clear and nebulous at the same time, but we made it. And we were out of the rain!
Next up: exploring Oslo!
I will leave you with this nugget, the answer to why there are so many Toblerones in duty-free: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/how-toblerone-chocolate-airports-travel/index.html