Oslo Fjørds and Björns!

We got to Oslo around 2:00 pm yesterday. After settling into our hotel, we wandered out into the streets to find a place to eat. Because the weather was cool and sunny we decided on a cute little pub with some outdoor seating. We ordered a personal-sized pizza, a calzone, and two beers, and the total for our order was nearly $60. Turns out Oslo is among the most expensive cities in the world. A Coca-cola at 7/11 (yeah, they have 7/11 in Oslo) is just under $5, just as a point of reference.

Last night I fought off sleep as long as I could and ended up passing out around 7:00 pm local time. Juan tried to make me stay awake longer, but when that didn't work he responded by falling asleep too. I guess he showed me. So now we've been awake since 4:00 am. That's 10:00 pm in Atlanta and 8:00 in Guatemala, so we got to call and talk to the parents, and then we meandered upstairs for Norwegian continental breakfast. That breakfast consisted of an assortment of grainy bread, ham slices, swiss cheese slices, and hard boiled eggs... yum!

So then we set off to the Swedish embassy, where they say we need passport photos for our work visas. The Swedish lady tells us that there's a place to get them in the train station, and we head off in that direction. On the way we pass a portrait studio with a sign that says "passport photos!" so we go on in and tell the lady what we need, she snaps a few shots, hands us the photos and says "Its 500 Kroners". In my head I try to estimate the cost in dollars at an exchange rate of 5.8 K to $1 and I think "wait, WHAT??" But Juan just pays the lady and we leave. A few minutes later we realize we just paid $80-something for passport photos... ouch! But then we figure that Oslo is just real expensive so we try to just shrug is off. Shrugging it off becomes impossible, though, once we pass a photo booth that takes passport photos for 60 Kroners- that's $10! I think I speak for Juan too when I say I'm still really peeved at that photo lady. She got us real good.

Anyway, we then continued on through the city, which is actually really beautiful, and we took a boat tour of the Oslofjord. It wasn't quite as dramatic as I had been lead to believe, but it was still a really cool boat ride. After that we wandered around some more and went to about 3 different H&M's and then popped into a grocery store for a bottle of water. In the grocery store we observed a couple guys open an small, empty suitcase and start loading beer into it. The situation looked a little sketch, but I tried not to assume the worst. But then Juan Carlos saw the fools walk right on out the store just like that. Who steals beer? I mean I know Oslo is expensive, but come on.

Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2207983&id=12816218&l=252f816f0b