Chapter III

 June 20, 2014

 Oslo

 My flight to Oslo left at 7:00 AM. I was up late the previous night enjoying the pleasures of London and I couldn't decide if it was better to stay up all night or try to get a few hours of sleep. Unfortunately, I did neither successfully and unintentionally fell asleep and woke up an hour before the flight left the gate. In a rush I gathered all (hopefully) of my things and rushed out the door. I ordered a taxi because it was impossible to make it on time by train, and one showed it showed up with no time to spare. It was about twenty minutes to the airport and with about forty minutes to departure.

I wasn't sure what the British equivalent of "step on it" was so I just said "step on it." He understood. Only half way there did I realize that he did not accept credit cards. Somberly I pulled all my English money out of my varied pockets to get a total amount. I had thirty-three pounds. Not only did I not want to spend that much on transportation, I was relatively sure that was only enough to get me half way there. Keeping an eye on the meter I decided to just have him stop when it reached thirty-three.

While sitting in the back of the little black taxi trying to keep my two suitcases under control as we careened through the early morning traffic of London I thought that there were a number of ways I could this experience to improve future international travel. You have to start somewhere though.

Lampposts and foliage raced past the windows as the meter climbed steadily towards the threshold. The sun began to rise just as Heathrow airport came into view, a hopeful scene. The meter inched ever closer to thirty-three. My mind wanders. Jesus is sometimes thought to have died at age thirty-three. I had just read Eugene Pushkin which was first published in 1833. I thought one of the Pre-Raphaelite painters was born in 1833 as well, but I couldn't remember which one. I guessed Holman Hunt: I was wrong.

The driver pulled into the terminal for Scandinavian Airlines. The meter stopped at thirty-three pounds exactly. I dumped all my cash into his hands and leaped from the cab. There was fifteen minutes to spare. The attendant at check-in raised an eyebrow when I said which flight I was on, she said I should wait for the next one. I said could I please try to make it. She made a phone call and let me through. No one was in line at security and at a full run I made it to my gate just as they were boarding.

Part II

The flight was uneventful. It was about three hours before we touched down. I had an aisle seat so I could not see the view and so just sat in a sort of comatose position neither fully awake or asleep the whole way. The airport was very clean and pleasant. It was still somewhat early in the day so it was not too busy. While I was in line at Customs I heard one of the other passengers talking to the check-in officer who was trying to get him to say "Blindern" in a correctly Norwegian manner. It is a hard word to get right and the officer was relentless. It was in this exchange that I realized this was a fellow American and student who was attending the University of Oslo's program like me. I caught up with him and joined with some other students we made our way via train to Blindern. The public transportation in and around Oslo (and most of Norway, I think) is very nice and easy to use and we made it without any trouble. Finally in Oslo and settled down for a bit in my room in Blindern Studenterhjem I brace myself - the adventure is just beginning. 

Blindern Studenterhjem