Oslo
Even then, you won’t have enough.
Apart from money, I spent the guts of four days there, but didn’t even see the local currency. I paid for everything on credit card, used nothing else. It saved me pushing around wheelbarrows of cash, or gold bars, or whatever it is they use. I suspect they all use plastic.
“We don’t have beer.”
“WHAAAA?????!!”
“No beer for sale after 8pm.”
I left thinking I may have found a hellhole even worse than Munich. At least they have beer in Munich.
I wandered on. It was my first night in Oslo and I’d just finished my day’s work.
It was all very off-putting and not conducive to report-writing, so I had to find refuge in the nearby park if I was to have any hope of getting the damn report done. I finally got it done. The relief!
I guess I wanted to treat myself. It would have been a bit shit just to go home and go to bed. It was my first night in Oslo, I wanted to live it up a bit!
So I walked and walked, looking for a reasonable pub until my legs were stumps. I kneed my way, bloody and stumpy, into a bar near my house and at that stage I just wanted a beer. I couldn’t go any further.
€16.77. Sixteen seventy-fucking-seven. Easily the most expensive beer I ever bought, will ever buy again. Of course, I only had the one.
The next day I went to the supermarket for breakfast. Müsli, coffee, milk, yoghurt, cheese, ham, pasta, sauce, frozen pizza, apples and shower gel cost €38.47. The coffee was “Fairtrade” coffee. Yeah right.
I returned later for six-pack of beer. Also extortionate but at least they weren’t €16.77.
At least there’s more to Oslo than beer – unlike Munich. The city itself is pretty pretty, especially when the sun shines, though the shops are all brands and/or chains, same as any other city. It’s remarkably unremarkable, probably the reason I remembered nothing from my previous visit to Oslo. All I could remember was that it was the worst New Year’s Eve I ever spent. Now it’s only the second worst.
“Why did you give Obama a peace prize?”
Your man was pretty apologetic, explained it was something to do with his commitment to reducing the number of nuclear weapons, but yeah, it had been a mistake to give it to him. Two members of the Nobel peace prize board are strenuously campaigning to have the award revoked, he said. If it happens it’ll make more of a statement than any prize they ever awarded.
“I would be lying if I said I don’t like looking at the women,” he said when he was asked why he kept going back to Oslo.
It's not just Oslo, the whole country has a background noise of cash being sucked out of your wallet. When we went skiing there 10 years ago we planned our meals ahead and brought most our food with us, but still, you want to go out once in a while. A €25 pizza put a stop to that real quick.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame really because the country itself looks very nice. I'd love to go north to see the whales etc. but alas, I am neither rich nor famous...
Deletedude all europa is pricey ,no? is it worth the cost not the price? i also had a new year up there, really depends on your idea of fun., and company. To cope with all that northern fun i read unsung hero in smoke doning a dickens suits and fireworks dazzled the sky
ReplyDeletepassed out
out of context, bolt was less than a cultural ambassador with that comment, how pedestrian and dull, thats all he can say about the country? the ladies are hot,,,
best thing about euro for me is not being euro, we irish are no euros, I've always thought. best thing about neighbors is the distance being able to pop in then pop right back out...keeps its interesting
It occurred to me that the grog is $$$'y to keep folks off it?
who knows, good to see you getting out of berlin by an by
Its a cool place, in winter