Home > On Tour > Jungle Adventures > The Europe Tour 2000-2001 > Oslo, Norway
	Oslo, Norway Goteborg, Sweden <<<   Helsinki, Finland >>>   After a fairly short bus ride to Oslo on a very crowded bus, we arrived to lovely Oslo, a city many of us have been waiting for for a multitude of reasons. OK, so maybe just one reason...the locals who work here are top. When I checked in, I found out I was on the 29th floor. The 29th floor is one of those floors where you have to have a special key to get to. I feel special! I know it's because I'm rooming with the new Russian skater and because our tour coordinator loves Russians. Do you think it's coincidence that the only people on these special floors were staff people and the two new Russian skaters? Anyway, I got to my door and saw a "Business Class" sign on the door. Oh, things just keep getting better! Well, it's the same room as any other. i think "Business Class" means "You have a modem jack in your phone." That's the only difference I could find! Anyway, after a short online session, I crashed into bed! I woke up late the next day and decided to get some lunch. I went to the ATM right outside the hotel, but it wouldn't give me money. It turns out later that the ATM didn't give me money, but DID charge my bank account, and had done this to several other people as well. I think all in all, about $3000 was lost to this machine amongst our cast!! So I exchanged what money I had so I could pick up some lunch. I wandered in search of the Burger King I knew was around, but never found it, so I resorted to McDonalds. Now, while every other country seems to be cheaper than I remember it years ago, Norway is not!! It STILL costs almost $9 for a fast food combo. All I got was a McFeast combo and some nuggets, and it cost me $14!!! Yikes! I had just enough time to eat before going right back to work!! Work sucked. Period. End of story. Rigging had started 3 hours earlier, or so it was supposed to. The trucks didn't ever arrive. The first truck arrived right as I arrived. So we started by unloading trucks, rather than starting with loadin as usual. Rigging, however, went extremely fast. In fact, before we had even unloaded the second truck, they were basically done. It helps when a building has an entire roof that is motorized, with every point able to move back and forth, up and down. So everything started very slowly, and we ended up doing things completely out of order, because we just did stuff as it came off the truck, rather than in typical build order. Another problem it that the seating is so close to the ice, certain parts of out lighting grid cannot be put on until the grid is several feet in the air...a pain in the ass!! Although we worked like crazy today, we still only got about halfway done. We didn't even get all the lights hung. After work, I decided to go get some food at the kebab shop across the street, and ran into several people with the same idea! I was going to go to Queens Pub (a landmark for Disney in Oslo), but it didn't sound like anyone was going. Turns out a bunch of people went. Oh well, no loss. The next morning we continued with loadin and finished in due time for the show. Right after the show, a friend from two years ago, Marthe, came up and said hi, so we chatted for a few minutes. I told her she should go to the Queens Pub for a few drinks, although I had to stay for a few minutes to finish up some work. She agreed to go for one coke!! After I finished what I was doing, in much more than a few minutes, I booked it over to the Queens and caught up with Marthe and one of her friends, Trude. Before too long (and after more than one coke), it was time to go home! I visited the kebab shop and picked up some munchies before returning home for a short online session and bed. The next day, Wednesday, was a nothing day. I looked out the window first thing in the morning as the sun was rising (that's about 9am here!) and the sight was really beautiful, since the mountain in the distance was lit in orange and the rest of the city was still dark. I went to get my digital camera out of my bag, and found that it was not here. I knew I had left work with it the night before. I must have left it in the pub. It contained my digital camera, my regular camera, my CD player, my MD player, and all my CDs, MDs, and DVDs. And my passport. Holy hell was I stressing now!! After breakfast, I walked over to the pub to see if they were open yet, but they didn't open until 3pm, so I would have to wait and see. I went to work early to work on some programming amonst other things. At 3pm, I went over to the pub and found that my bag was there. Whew!! I returned to work, did the show, and then went to the Queens, which was slightly more populated tonight. Nothing interesting really, except that I ran into another friend from two years ago who told me that my real good friend from then, Hanne, would be coming in tomorrow night. After a while at the Queens, I returned back to bed! Thursday, blah. However, when I got to work, Hanne appeared out of nowhere and said hi. It was great to see that smiling face again. After work, I went to the Queens again, and ran into a large group there, including Hanne who introduced me to her boyfriend (EH? DAMMIT!). We talked for a while, then I went and talked to some others before going home to bed. Oh! Just before work, I got a call from Cecilia (read the Goteborg entry), who said if I wanted, she would come over the next day on a bus. I of course said yes, and we made plans to get together Friday night. Friday started with two shows. After the last show, I stayed to do a little work, then went to the bus station to pick up Cecilia. This bus station was quite confusing. While everything around this country has English under the Norwegian, the bus station does not. Only Norwegian. and nothing says where busses are arriving, only where they are departing. I wandered around for a bit before finding someone who spoke English waiting on the same bus. He told me it was always very late, so I sat and waited. For an hour. It was an hour late! Grr. Anyway, from there we returned to the hotel, not to emerge until the nxt morning. Saturday started with 3 shows. Cecilia came to the first one, then had to leave. So I walked her to the bus station between shows, and we said goodbye until the next visit. Right before the last show, Marthe and Trude came up and askd me if I wanted to go out to dinner that night at a sushi restaurant. Although I do not eat anything related to sushi, I decided I would indeed go (who would pass up an inviation from these girls!??!). I hadn't even packed yet, but oh well!! After the shows, i had to stay to do a few extra things I promised some friends I'd help them with, then ran home to change and meet the girls at the Queens for our dinner out. We were joined by one of the concessions guys and another one of the girls' friends, Ane. After one drink at the Queens, we headed to the sushi place. I had chicken, which was amazing...I could have eaten it all night! We had a lot of fun sitting and talking and being crazy. After we finished, we walked back to the pub, being even crazier than before (Ane especially). We had another drink or two in the pub, then Marthe, myself, the concessions guy, and Ane went back to the hotel to hang out. We woke up the concessions guy's roommate, who wasn't too pleased, so we just picked up a room for the night and went there to hang out. We were joined for a little while by some others we ran into in the hallway. After about 2 hours, the girls stumbled home (grrrrrrrr). I still had not packed, but I couldn't even stand up straight, so I went to bed. I made it to work half an hour late the next day, amongst many jeers from my coworkers. I managed to make it through the three shows, then a fairly quick and painless loadout. I seem to remember it taking forever last time, but things went very fast this time. In the middle of loadout, I got a visit and a big hug from Marthe and Trude, but Hanne was nowhere to be found. Oh, well. After we finished, I made a stop at the kebab shop to get some food (it's the only place open until 5am!). This guy running it seemed to be trying his hand at swindling tonight. He took everyones orders, then tried to give them their orders without fries or with smaller drinks or something like that. When anyone tried to argue it, he would kind of stare blankly at them, before shrugging like "Well, I shouldn't HAVE to give it to you but I will." He tried it on me with my drink (I ordered a BIIIIG drink, he gave me a SMAALLLL drink) and with my fries (he didn't give me any!). Finally I got my full order and munched away. About halfway through my meal, Renee came in and asked "Hey, have you lost anything?" I said, "No." She said "Something you lost earlier in the week?" I said, "No." She asked, "Where is your backpack?" I pointed at the trash can, which I thought I had set it by. She said "Umm...nope. You left it at work in the building, but I have it in my room." Dammit! I left it again...I'm not doing too well this week, but at least I have someone else looking out for me! :) From the kebab shop, I went home and took a shower before having to pack. My roommate had already been asleep for several hours, and it was now 3:30am, with the luggage call at 5:15am, so I had to do some inventive packing while staying as quiet as possible. Since i had not packed before, I had nowhere to put anything that didn't fit in my suitcase. Luckily, however, it was a bus trip out, so I could just put my laundry bag on the bus (that makes an extra bag I guess). I finally finished and made my way down to luggage call, then for a bite to eat at breakfast. After a little while it was time to board the bus. I had not slept more than 4 hours in the past 3 days, so I figured I would sleep off most of the 9 hour trip to Stockholm. And I did! Except for the food breaks, I slept about 75% of the trip. We finally arrived in Stockholm and got ready to board the travel many of us have been waiting months for, the "ferry" to Helsinki, Finland.