Norway

To do:
1. Go to Cuba
2. Go to Norway

Such was the time spent during A-Level History lessons of me and fellow communist/fjord enthusiast, Hannah Garside. We ticked the former off during a university summer holiday and the good fortune of some cheap air tickets (dragging Josephine along with us), though finding ourselves quite disappointed with the fried chicken diet and unsurprising wariness of locals to the tourists so adamant to keep away from the tourist resorts. Number 2, however, was not to be sampled until our most recent bank holiday weekend, happily coinciding with Hannah's last weekend-proper of a 6 month jaunt as a language assistant. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to revive our high school friendship group (with an enthusiastic Meghan now in tow) with a bit of Scandinavian springtime.

Although we were greeted with "another on-time Ryanair flight", our Friday evening travels meant we just scraped past the last metro to Hannah's home of the night, forcing us to sample the Oslo nightlife as we waited for the nightbus to carry us onward instead. As we exchanged our multi-yeared catch ups we couldn't help noticing the distinct lack of stereotypical aryan Norwegians spanning the bar, and instead pondering on the surplus of multiculturism in our view. And despite what one learns about Scandinavian prices before the holiday; gosh! The beer was pri-cy.

Saturday Hannah gave us the inside guide to Oslo, including an all-inclusive public transport pass allowing us access to the Oslo fjord and essentially a free boat trip around. Being as I mentioned Hannah's last weekend as resident, there were of course last weekend celebrations to accompany it, and an introduction to Hannah's co-workers and the famous statue park. While we introduced the non-Brits to Pimms No 1 (which assumedly went down well), we fulfilled our roles as tourists by taking imitating photographs of as many statues as we could.

After an extended Sunday lie-in Hannah took us down to marvel at the dug up Viking ships - every part a highlight as the guide books tell us - before paddling at the beach and taking a homemade salad to the lake by her house. And even though it was photographically proven to be frozen over a mere two months before, our arrival in Norway had apparently brought with it blue skies and a positively summer-like vibe, giving Oslo a categorical thumbs up from us all.

Hannah's blog

--Oslo's fjord--

--Statues in the statue park--

--Having fun--

--Viking ship--

--The beach--

--The lake--