WEEK 4 IN OSLO - ALEX

 November 4 to November 10, 2024 – Election Results are Big News

The week was overshadowed by the election news in the US. Living abroad did not shield us from the political discourse. It was a closely watched election in Europe where the results were met by people in our orbit with confusion and concern. As Americans it made us, particularly Morgan at work, the center of attention in many conversations.

Meeting New Friends

Last weekend when we visited Fjellvang, we met a few other internationals living in Norway and made friends. We were able to catch up with them again this week as we work on building out our social circle. On Thursday, Alex went on a bike ride through Nordmarka with a German economics student studying in Oslo. And on Friday we met up with a couple from Bulgaria and the UK for some bar trivia with a group of their friends as well. Trivia was for internationals in Oslo and therefore in English, however the whole experience was a real trip and made for an enjoyable, if not odd, evening. The organizer/presenter was a Greek woman that would occasionally trip up on an English word or phrase and note that she only knew how to say it in French. Questions were given and recorded in English, but scoring was done on a piece of paper with instructions in Norwegian. The scoring system was completely arbitrary and based on her own perceived difficulty of the question. Questions were tough and we struggled, but evidently so did everyone else because our team came in third out of six. We intend to return in the future.

Left: Alex making his first Norwegian friend at Trivia.

Right: Morgan waiting for the next Trivia question.

It is nice to be developing social connections with people here. Alex especially is socially isolated throughout the week, so meeting people and conversing with someone other than Morgan is a welcomed change of pace. Meeting other internationals with relative ease is not all that surprising. Norwegians, although very kind, are reserved and come off as cold. In an effort to be as polite as possible social interactions with those other than close friends and family are generally avoided. This breeds an environment conducive for non-Norwegians to meet and mingle with one another since making connections with natives is much more difficult.

Another Hut Adventure

After the success of last week’s hut trip we decided to venture out to the woods again. Itching to get out of Oslo we took a train to Vestfold, a neighboring county, of which there are 15 total, in the south of the country. The train ride was about 90 minutes and stopped at different towns along the coast ranging in population from 5,000 to 100,000. We exited in Sandefjord and from the station biked nearly 30 miles inland to a lake, Trollsvannet. What we imagine is a popular summer destination that was nice and quiet this time of year. We stayed in a DNT hut at the lake’s edge that we shared with 3 middle aged Norwegian women enjoying a girl’s weekend away. Less modern than our previous experience, we cooked over a Coleman style gas stove and spent the evening relaxing by candlelight.

Left: Morgan biking past one of the many farms on the way to Trollsvannhytta.

Right: Alex standing next to a traditional Stave Chruch outside of Hoyjord.

Adjacent to the cabin was Trollsvannstua, a volunteer-led café that during the fall months is only open on Sundays. We were treated to waffles and coffee by the kind man running the café. Volunteering at DNT huts and in other outdoor recreational capacities is very popular. This particular individual has spent 700 hours volunteering at Trollsvannstua within the last year, despite living 30 minutes away and working a full time job. We were appreciative of his generosity and effort in showing the foreigners a good time, which was fortuitous because without Vipps we were unable to pay anyways.

Clockwise from upper left: Looking at the outside of Trollsvannhytta, road along Trollsvannet, Morgan reading by candlelight in the cabin, note bunk bed sleeping accommodations behind her, Alex happily walking out of the cafe after a coffee and waffle.

From the café we biked back to the coast to start our commute home. Heading a different way than we arrived, we spent most of the ride on the shoulder of low traffic county roads pedaling through a landscape that looks almost identical to that of southwest Wisconsin. It is no surprise that so many Norwegians, like Morgan’s great grandparents, settled there. Our ride ended at the Horton ferry terminal, where we took the free ferry (for non-motorized users) as an opportunity to see Oslofjord from a different vantage point. From the east side of the fjord we caught a train back into the city, completing our route.

Left: View from the deck on the ferry ride from Horton to Moss crossing Oslofjord.

Right: Morgan reading a bookon her phone during our train ride to Sandefjord.

Overview of the route and mode of transportation to Trollsvannhytta and back.

Other News

We picked up our resident cards on Friday, a few weeks sooner than we anticipated. Our understanding is that the resident card is nothing more than a Norwegian ID. When picking up the cards we were told that additional information would be sent to us via the Post. We’re not sure what this is, but it is apparently important and so they wanted to make sure our address is registered with the Post, which it is not, leading to additional confusion with the immigration processes on our end.

The Post heavily implies that you need a BankID (bank account) to verify your identity before registering an account. Immigration services tell us this isn’t true, which is partially true. Upon further investigation there are other forms of identification that can be used to login in to a Post account and make changes. Unfortunately, it appears that to set up any of these other identification services you need to already have a registered address with the Post. After about a month it’s fair to say that we are still caught circling the immigration funnel waiting to get to the other side. In the end, we believe the importance of address registration, at least for this matter, is overblown. We have already received domestic mail and can’t imagine our immigration related mail wouldn’t be delivered.

In more cheerful news, Christmas spirit has reached Norway. Decorations are being set up around the city and markets are beginning to open. Stores are adding Sunday hours to account for additional shopping. Maybe this will extend to basic necessities and allow for Sunday grocery shopping?

Christmas decorations setup in the Oslo Central Train Station.

Views from Alex’s different bike rides throughout the week. Lakes are commonplace throughout the forest. In the winter, ski trails are made over their frozen surfaces. The photo in the upper right is from the smaller ski jumping complex at Holmenkollen and provides a nice vista over the city and Oslofjord.