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Europe 2007 Day 2 – London to Oslo

Arriving at Heathrow Airport, we had a 15 minute circling delay due to traffic around the airport. I counted four planes circling out my window. We finally landed and we made the connection to Terminal 4 for our connecting flight to Oslo. Terminal 4 is a it dumpy compared to some of the other terminals – probably because it has a large number of international passengers going through it. After using the restroom we soon discovered just how expensive things are here. For example, a normally $39 Nintendo DS game was about $60. Some other things were not as pricey as I thought but it should et interesting when we are back on Saturday.

I wish that high speed internet was free at Heathrow, but sadly it is all pay and I didn’t want to waste the money. After what seemed like an eternity in the airport, we finally boarded our flight to Oslo. Right before, I broke down and bought some drinks for the fight. Had I noticed the sign earlier, Daniel would have been able to buy some postcards and stamps. The flight to Oslo was one of the worst I have been on in a long time. It was a cramped Airbus 319 and I got stuck in the middle between Daniel and some guy who was sick and spent most of the flight half into my personal space with his paper or rubbing his socks all over me – and let me tell you his feet were nice and stinky too. I immediately decided to take some Emergen-C to counter effect whatever the guy had.

Oslo airport was nice and IKEA-ish as I had expected. Going through customs, the agent asked me about my Nemo hat and seemed to think it was funny someone had an amusement ride with submarines. After a stop at the Info booth we decided to pony up the cash for the express train to Oslo Central rather than the 40 minute bus ride. We actually exited into the cold night air at the National Theater. Oslo’s first impression wasn’t the greatest, but it was nice to be finally out of the airplane and into the night air.

We made it to the hotel with little difficulty, and was reminiscent of our attempt in Tokyo to find our hotel. The staff at the counter was helpful and we were in our room in record time. I was hungry so we wandered down Karl Johan Gate to try and find some food. I could not believe a hamburger at the Hard Rock was $30! Norway is definitely one of the most expensive places to visit. We settled on some sub-par Burger King mainly out of cost rather than food choice. I think we will be using the free breakfast at the hotel a lot. Tomorrow we are going to try and get tickets for some tours and take the ferry out to the Viking and the Kon-Tiki Museums.