You might think to yourself, "They definitely didn't get up the next morning to see the rest of Oslo. They probably slept clear through the afternoon and just went partying in the night." Well, do I have news for you! By some miracle, we were up and gone by 10am. Don't ask me how. I don't have the answer.
The day was beautiful and sunny with less chill than the day before. When we left the hostel we were cheerful and excited and the day went a lot easier than the previous one which seemed to take an extraordinary amount of effort to get through. It even felt like it took a lot of effort to write about it. It's funny how you can still feel how you felt on a particular day when you sit down and reflect on it. Anyway, we found a small record store that had these interesting old Norwegian photos to look at before we found a great little cafe to have breakfast in. I'm not sure if it was because we were really hungry, happy or if it was real, but I swear it was the best thing I'd ever eaten. Fresh squeezed orange juice, a cafe americano, and the most amazing croissant ever. Ever. After eating, we all split up and the girls went shopping while Kevin went to a museum and the other guys went to a music store. On our part, Nicole, Lilla and I hit up H&M, Gina Tricot, and some souvenir shops. The shopping was much better in Oslo, than in Tallinn but the prices were higher. A bag each in hand, we met up with the others of our group and prepared to continue on. We were on our way to the ferry terminal to go see some islands when we met with a parade in the street. As it turns out there was a military tattoo that day and everyone was out to see it. It lasted for a long time and was really interesting. There were representations from every branch of the military, foreign and local, located in Norway. So there were Brits, Russians, the UN, the EU and a slew of others such as the Swedes and Scots. It was a really large event that lasted throughout the morning into the afternoon but it was really interesting. It ended while we were waiting for our ferry so we conveniently had something to watch.
We decided, before we embarked, that we'd have lunch on the mainland and so we got in line at another, you guessed it, McDonald's. This time I got a flurry, and no I don't feel guilty about it thank you very much. We ate on board the ferry and I think I ate more hair than food. Having completed both the food and boat missions we disembarked on the island and started to look around. A few feet in, I stopped and looked quizzically at something that seemed very, very familiar. My eyes widened, I took in a sharp breath and ran excitedly toward a very Canadian sight. An INUKSHUK! On this foolish Norwegian island there was a large, ridiculously out of place inukshuk. I blinked a few times to make sure I had it right and then tried to explain to the 5 other people I was with what on earth an inukshuk was. I even rein-acted the heritage moment commercial. You know the one, "Now the people will know we were here! Hay yaw hay yaw...." I can hear your stupefied silence. Yup, that's pretty well what they did too. But I thought it was really cool.
After the inukshuk incident, we wandered around this amazingly beautiful island that was remote yet quite populated. Norwegians appear to have a lot of money and so have very beautiful houses and boats. So many boats! And not little ones either, I mean the large yacht sized ones. I had so much fun here looking around. The scenery and views of the mainland were spectacular. On the way back to get the ferry, we encountered the viking museum that had two real, ancient viking ships hanging on the inside. Kevin went in and paid to get a full good look but the rest of us were satisfied with a quick glimpse and then a lay-down in the parking lot. Taking the ferry back was a good wind-down to that part of the journey. We had done a lot of walking and were starting to get tired. Once we were back on the mainland we decided to buy shrimp off of the back of a boat in the harbour and eat it sitting on the docks. I think that might have been my favourite part, sitting with friends, peeling shrimp and throwing the shells to the birds. The sun was starting to get lower and it was lighting everything up really nicely so we though that once we were back done we would take in the oldest part of Oslo, a fortress situated on a cliff facing the fjord.
Its fortress wall was up high enough to enable us to take a few amazing shots of the city but other than the grounds being fairly pretty, that part was a flop as it had closed before we got there. That night we ate at a very nice restaurant, ending our budget food run and went back to the hostel. Our plane was leaving at around 4am so there was no point in sleeping. We grabbed some drinks, went outside and tried to drown the cold in alcohol. Later on we met up with four more Canadians, this time from Toronto, who were in town for a medical conference. They were looking for a good time in Oslo so we went to the bar with them and closed the place out before heaving our bags over our shoulders and walking back to the shuttle that would take us to the plane.
This next part entails a lot of waiting for airplanes and features my iPod heavily since I was too tired to even talk. Our group separated in Riga with the other girls staying for some sightseeing while the rest of us went by bus back to Tallinn. I was sick for a week after I arrived back home so I guess that means that I wasn't so resilient after all. But I had so much fun and wouldn't have missed it for the world! It was one of the best trips of my Estonia experience. I just wish it could have lasted a little longer.
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