Oslo, Norway

September 8, 2009, Tuesday
Oslo, Norway

We got up early, took the laundry downstairs and then went walking. We walked until I felt like my feet were going to fall off but Oslo is really a rather small city and we were able to see most of the city high-lights.

We found a wonderful little bakery and stopped and had a pastry and a HUGE cup of latte. They serve the lattes in a bowl, not a cup and the bowl is the size you would use for cereal!! Even though it is quite cool here, people are sitting outdoors at little cafes and bakeries all over the city. I guess that this is warm weather to them and they are going to enjoy every minute of it!

I’m fascinated by the way they park here. It doesn’t matter whether you park going the right way or not. Even on two way streets, you find cars parked going the wrong way on the wrong side of the street. So you can’t tell if a street is a one way or two way by looking at the parked cars because everybody just pulls in to parking spots any old which way!!

Prices here are steep and I can’t help but wonder who much these folks earn. It is expensive to live here so they either must not have many of the things we take for granted or they earn more than we earn. I suspect they don’t have many of the things we think are absolute necessities.

At dinner tonight we sat next to a couple of women who spoke to us at length and said that the wages here in Norway are MUCH higher than in other parts of Europe. They were not specific but did agree that the taxes here were VERY high. They also said that they were not worried by the Muslim population but did state that they understood why some people might be uncomfortable. We notice a HUGE number of Muslims here in Oslo and can’t help but wonder if they are moving here in great numbers or if we are simply seeing a large number of tourist groups.

The laundry is finally back---after 10 hours. God only knows what took so long but it is back and we have re-folded all of it and it is a bit rumpled but appears to be clean. I think their dryer is not built for the quantity of clothing that we had and it just took forever to dry the clothes!! Ah well. Tomorrow I go shopping for gift for all the staff that ran up and down to check on my laundry.