I write this as I sit on the plane approximately 2 hours out of St. John’s. My trip has come to an end, and quite frankly I am happy to be going home. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Oslo, on the contrary, I found it to be a great place to visit and if it was not so far from home, a nice place to live. However, it is always better to travel, especially with the one you love.

For most of my first week in Oslo, I did not do much in the evening (except the before mentioned concert) other than eat and head back to my room. I had taken all of my file for my research (a complete carry on filed) and tried to get some work done on my thesis. I did in fact get a good bit of work done on one chapter which I hope to finish up this weekend so I can send it to my supervisors (possibly with this comic).

Last weekend I finally caught up with Jason Barron, a fellow Engineer (whom I have know since before high school) now working for TrollTech in Oslo. He invited me out Friday with some of the guys from work, for a bit to eat. At least I thought it was just for a bit to eat. We ate, talk, drank, and then decided to visit a few clubs. It was a great night (if the guys from TrollTech are like that at work, I would recommend working there to anyone) that just kept going. We started at about 8pm in the light. We moved on to a few clubs at 11:30pm in the dark (sun goes down around 11pm in Oslo right now). And then went to get Kabobs at with the sun coming up again (3:30am). By the time I got back to my room, it was light out and my head was messed up.

This no doubt had an effect on my sleeping, and I did not get up Saturday until 12pm (about 2:30hr behind my intended schedule). Once I finally did get up, I wandered of to the Palace grounds for the changing of the guards, then down Karl Johan Gate for some shopping. Found myself a late lunch at McDonald’s (Norwegian McNuggets are oddly similar to Canadian ), and then head to the Viegland sculpture park to see lots of naked people. By the time all that was done, I was spent and headed back to my room for some sleep. However, by the time I finally did get close to sleep, there was an announcement in the hotel that the fire alarm had been pulled, and we should wait for further instructions. So, I waited… and waited… and nothing. At 3am (about an hour had passed) I finally call the front desk to find out that it had been a false alarm. I guess they didn’t want to annoy people with a further announcement :S.

On Sunday, I decided to take it easy and limited myself the to Munch Museum. This holds the largest single collect of any one artists (in this case Edvard Munch) in the world. Unfortunately, it does not hold his two famous works, The Madonna and The Scream, as they were stolen from the build in broad daylight two years earlier. The evidence of this is obvious when you reach the medal detectors and air lock style doors as you work through the exhibit. Even without the paintings though (I knew they weren’t there before I went), the tour was quite informative and I feel I gained a better appreciation for the art.

Monday it was back to work, which was highly productive (thankfully, since it was the main purpose for the trip), but I will spear you the details. On Tuesday night, Bjorn, Yens, Knut and I went of for kind of a farewell supper. We decided on a place called The Mona Lisa, which server both Norwegian and Italian food. So, keeping with my “try new things” resolution this year, I decide to try a traditional Norwegian dish, reindeer. It may even have been Rudolf, but they don’t serve the nose, so I have no way of knowing.

Wednesday was my last full day in Norway. I took a little time in the morning to get some pictures of the harbour and then headed over to the National Museum. It was there I finally had a chance to see The Scream and The Madonna (the copies that were not currently in the hands of criminals). Then I headed to work, after which I headed to my new hotel to get some sleep for the flight home.