Off to Risoer, May 2017

05-16-17 Off to Risoer

  After several airport stops and hours later, I finally arrived at the Oslo airport. Customs in Frankfort, Germany was quick. No Passport check in Oslo, also no custom check. I walked out with my luggage through the exist doors. Oddleif was waiting for me. We bought tickets for the train that took us to Oslo. The airport is north west of the city.

While we waited for the time to enter the train, I had my first meal in Norway. I chuckled when Oddleif suggested Burger King. I don't have Burger King in the States. Interesting that Europe is focused on reducing the fat contents in the food they sell. So no Tomato, definitely no mayonnaise. Made the burger a bit drier than the American version but they make each batch of french fries fresh for each order, so the fries were crisp and hot.

To compete with McDonald's, Burger King is offering 50% off your next  burger order if you'll fill out the survey online. It is the same thing we've done with Wendy's deluxe burgers in the States. I couldn't resist taking this picture
since marketing hasn't changed all over the world.

  On the train to Oslo, I looked out the window and saw Snow! That was a surprise. When the plane pulled onto the airport runway, there was no sign of snow.

As the train sped toward Oslo, the snow disappeared. That was a nice relief.




 Since we were in the central portion of Oslo, Oddleif took me outside to show me a portion of Oslo.

Here is what the architecture looked like. Clean crisp lines, which just enough embellishments to know you are not looking at a building in the States.






 The other thing that he showed me was the "Symbol of Oslo". The Symbol turned out to be a Tiger. Oslo's symbol is the Tiger.


This Tiger was huge. It sat by itself in a square so the children could touch it, climb on it and enjoy the enormous symbol.

 The next leg of the journey in Oslo was to walk to the Bus terminal and wait for the correct bus to Risoer. There were two choices of service.

One dropped you off at the main road closest to the Kiwi grocery store which was a closer walk to the apartment building. The other bus took you to downtown Risoer for a longer walk.

We got off at the main road and hopped on another bus that took us to the Kiwi grocery store. It is the closest dropping off point to the apartment. There are two ways to get up to the Apartment building. The shortest route is the steepest incline. We stopped to pick up groceries at the Kiwi store so we had my checked suitcase, the carry on suitcase, my backpack purse and the groceries in the backpack Oddleif had. He decided it would be easier to take the longer route up to the apartment building.

So we walked up hills, around curves, up more hills until I looked like I was gonna drop from exhaustion. Oddleif ended up pulling both suitcases as well as the groceries up the last uphill inclines to the apartment building. Luckily there is an entrance on the 3rd floor as well as the first floor. So once I got inside the building, I only had to walk up one more flight of stairs.

So after a long journey, I finally arrived. Needless to say, I slept like a rock that first night. There were too many distractions on the plane to fall asleep for a long period of time. The viewing screen at each seat has movies, tv programs, music, etc to listen and view. The airline hostesses were constantly coming by with drinks, snacks as well as a meal. So there wasn't much time to sleep.

Oddleif recently moved into a 2 bedroom with two full bathrooms. He has been doing a lot of repairs and fixing up the apartment. After taking a few days off to show me various portions of Risoer, we started painting the kitchen and a bedroom. It was a good day to do that since it rained all day long.

This is the view from the kitchen table on a cloudy overcast day. The road goes downhill towards the center of Risoer.

This photo is difficult to see the center of town as well as the Sea.

On a clear day, this is what you can see from the apartment window. It is a gorgeous view of the city center plus the Fiord, the islands, then the North Sea. Across the Sea is Denmark. Too far away to see but the expanse of the blue sky and water is incredible.

Copyright 2017, Teena Akiyama
All Rights Reserved