Continuation of trip to Oslo--Sunday Sep 26

This is Mom/Grandma again to continue our Sunday adventure.  The young lady that sat by Tami in Relief Society and Sunday School was very special and took us under her wing.  She was a petite single girl (35). She was a new convert of about three months. She was so kind! We were unsure where we needed to go to catch the bus on to Oslo, so she offered to walk with us and show us the bus stop.  It was just a short way from the chapel.  She stayed there and visited with us until the bus came.  Our buses that we rode from Kongsberg and Drammen were both nice buses with a place underneath the bus for our luggage and a driver who helped us load it.  We drove on into Oslo and the bus stopped in the middle of the city at this big transportation terminal building with buses and trains coming and going all over the place.  Where to go to find a city bus to take us to our Youth Hostel?  Again Holly and I watched the luggage while Tami went someplace to find how we even got out of the building and to the buses were.  They suggested it was much cheaper to buy a bus ticket from somewhere else other than try to pay when we got on the bus.  So, finally we found our way out of the building and out across a plaza to the street where buses were coming and going constantly.  Again, it was (duh!), where do we buy tickets.  Throngs of people wandering around.  We couldn't spot any vending machines or anything for tickets so our 'forerunner' again goes someplace to  try and find a place we could buy tickets and to find out what bus number we needed to catch.  Tami came back still not knowing where to go but decided to go across the street where there were a few little shops etc.  This time, I decided I would go with her.  We went into this little shop and Tami asked if they sold bus tickets and he said yes and we found out the bus that we should take was #31.  We rush back over and get Holly and our luggage and get down to the bus stop and shortly our bus pulls up.  Remember now, this is a city bus and we have to take our luggage on with us.  The bus is packed and people are standing in the isles and here we are trying to get ourselves and our big luggage on.  Holly and I get on okay but the bus is packed right up to the front, so there was no room up there for any more. he closes the front doors just as Tami is about to get on and motions that the others will have to go to the back doors and try to get on.  Holly and I were just praying that Tami managed to get on the bus--we couldn't see her with all the standing people.  Fortunately Holly remembered the name of the stop where we were to get off and we were so happy to see that Tami got off also.  What an ordeal!

We can see our hostel to the left of us up on this hill. To get there we had to go down this little hill and through a tunnel that the hiway crossed over to get to the other side.  I would say that we had to go about a half mile over this asphalt trail to get up to our hostal.  It gradually got steeper and the last part was very steep.  I was puffing like a steam engine and would have to stop every little while to catch my breath.  Finally Holly took my suitcase along with hers and started up the steep slope while I caught my breath.  Some kind guy saw out plight and came down and asked Holly if he could help her.  He took my case up the rest of the way and took it clear into the hostel lobby--another angel to our rescue!  I finally made it up the hill 'dragging my tail behind me'. This hostel room had bunkbeds, of course, which was not easy for Holly, who got the honor of climbing up and down. The room was quite a bit smaller than our hostel room in Kongsberg.  We had to rent our sheets and towels.  We were happy they did serve a breakfast.

For a little while we were wishing that we didn't have two days yet to go in Oslo.  The highlight of our trip, being in Kongsberg and meeting family was over. We could have come home right then and been happy.  But we soon got over our blues and thanked our Heavenly Father for blessing and watching over us that day, and went to work planning what we wanted to see in the city the next day or two.  At least we wouldn't have our luggage to pack around and we did see some interesting things.  I don't have any pictures so hopefully Tami can put some in. Bye for now.