Oslo, echoes of the old WInd Street

 

It could be said we ended the day in an upmarket version of the old Swansea Coach House, shame that the gentrification of Wind Street didn't take this particular turn. Thrash Metal, diverse culture and an Oslo Mule to cap off a great day of traditional travel and uncovering a very quirky city.

We left home around 8 and the what is now patented 'Somersall routine' of Reading Service pit stop, and Purple Parking got us fairly swifly to Heathrow Terminal 3.

We experimented with the Aspire Free for all lounge.  There was method in our madness. £70 odd quid got us pretty much unlimited food and booze for a couple of hours.  We would have paid that for a meal and a drink anyway.  It was a pretty cramped experience though for an airport lounge and I would have not placed it much higher than our usual Wetherspoons fun, but we did get a bit more bang for our buck, eating both breakfast and dinner before departure and having one wicked Blood Mary amongst a random assortment of other drinkies.

Our BA flight was soon calling and we were up, up and away for a 2 hr shift across to Oslo. Knowing nothing about pilots but I am making an assumption that we had a bit of a learner in the cockpit, as to use a bit of car analogy, some of the up and down jolting felt like clutch control was still being mastered.  Obviously its probably all fly by wire but that's how it felt. I tried to take my mind off things with a bit of good old fashioned reading.

Always great to touch down in a new country, take in the immediate topography on landing and indeed we also had the privilege on the first of what will be a few train journeys out here into the City Centre. Still a bit of snow lying around that adds a bit of otherness to our experience.

Our hotel, the Spectrum (sounds like a James Bond theme, and you know how much I like to work a bit of Bond into our travels) was well appointed, got a bit of character and has very small rooms.  Vegas don't want you to hang around in rooms, they could learn a bit from this place, we were straight out on the streets!

Didn't really know where we were but its not the biggest of places and we soon found ourselves on Fred Olsen street, that could only mean we were heading portside.  Funny, I didn't know the shipping magnate was Norwegian but it all made perfect sense

What made less sense were the group of locals throwing themselves into the ice blue water and then jumping straight out into a harbourside sauna.  Not for me that one thank you very much, but clearly part of the Friday fun factory in these parts.

Across the water was the very interesting Oslo Opera House. Now, it didn't quite provide the awestruck experience I have every time I emerge from the Rocks in Sydney but it did allow you to walk on its roof, and that is pretty cool right?  It also gave some nice views across Oslo from the top as the sun was beginning to set.

As if I hadn't eaten enough earlier I was beginning to feel quite hungry.  Now weirdly a lot of my research on good places to eat in Oslo kept referencing Indian cuisine. Not sure of the connection, but there does seem to be a colonial piece (similar to the UK) when Norway was part of Denmark and they were trading/occupying that part of the world.  We looked around the city a bit and pretty much took our chances on the first one we came across called the Mantra by Mr India and it proved a lucky choice,although I genuinely have read there is a good selection across the city. A nice bit of gin, good starters, crispy onions that put the bhaji back in the 19th century, and lovely tikka chunks with assorted sauces and flavours. 

We'd managed to take in quite a bit of the city in one evening I thought, but the long day was catching up with us so needed a bit of thrash metal to see us home. The fusion of 80s and 2023 coming together nicely with the bars Wifi password Satan666. Nothing ever changes in the world of metal, no one takes themselves too seriously.