 |
| Walking from Oslo Central Station to Oslo Hotel |
 |
| Tami tired at the thought of having to leave again with all the luggage |
Your probably wondering why so many pictures of luggage (we call them the beauties) they wanted me to tell you more of the stories. Well let me start at the beginning. Elwin dropped us off at the airport in Seattle. We were worried about meeting the 50 lbs limit. So we are getting as close as we can without going over. (Dumb! we know now) The first problem came with Tami's backpack. Since it was 2stories wide and weight one building, that extra suitcase we brought came in handy. So Tami is busy trying to decide what she can take in the back pack because now the little suitcase has to be checked in. So T throws all her 10 plus lbs of candy in the little suitcase and about everything but the computer. It's still over weight but the nice lady lets her check in the backpack now. T is so flusted that she doesn't realize that her candy and snacks are in the checked in baggage. So now she has to buy the candy at the Seattle airport. Whoops! She also got the fisk down. I mean all the way. They made her take everything out of her 2stories wide bag and they checked everything down to the orangejuice. Mom and I just went thru slick as can be. We waited a good 20 minutes for T to get through. We got to iceland and stood in line to check in and then found out that we didn't need to check in, just wait for the plane. When we got to Oslo airport we need to get to Oslo the city. We have to catch a train and this is when our troubles with the luggage begins. We get our tickets and find a cart to haul the luggage and hoped we could take the cart with us. We did try to get it on the train but it was so heavy and large we couldn't. We laugh because we couldn't even lift 1 suitcase let alone the whole cart. But it was a thought. Finding a place to even put it makes us laugh now. You have to realize that everyone else had a diaper bag size suitcase, so you can imagine what we looked like. Out next adventure was getting into Oslo city and we were told that it was a short walk to the Hostel from the train station. Believe it we found another cart. (picture with the building behind us.) So we start out pushing this cart. About 10 minutes into this short walk we dump the cart, ask several people for the next set of directions, go over cobblestone walks, walk through a crowed bus transport waiting station, take a hill huffing and puffing with the looks. Yes this is where our luggage got their names. I kept telling the girls that we must be being looked at because of our beauty. And then I said for our beautiful luggage. We still laugh so hard everytime we think of it. We about killed ourselves getting to our hotel and dreaded thinking how we were going to get back to the train station early the next morning for the cruise part. We did keep the cart in the hotel room so we could get back in the morning. No way were we going to get an expensive Taxi. By the way with the cart and our luggage we practially had to walk on our beds to get to the bathroom. Yes that big, ha ha! We really wanted to take that cart with us again. We struggled onto the train and tried to find a place to put them and ourselves when we realized that it was assigned seating. Where we didn't know. We sent out T to find out for us. Finally she comes running back and says we can't be on this car #7, we are on car #3 seats 96-98. By the way I had been loading heaving and lifting to get this luggage on a rack, and told M to just get a seat. Then T comes back and says hurry we have to run 4-5 train cars up and the train is leaving in minutes. Boy was that a rush. We really just barely lifted the last luggage into the train as it is leaving. We were pooped and just wanted to plop into any o seat. But no we have to now try stuffing our beauties somewhere where no one would trip over and then find a seat. This is the train ride (6hrs) that we met Kristin (an answer to Mom's prayer).
 |
| Kristin Garaas Lochen |
The next train change went pretty well but we were commenting on several items that we wished we had left home. We even laughed about sending a big box back home but being cheap and all, you know! This train ride took us from about sea level to thousands of feet(can't remember). It winds and makes its way up and over this mountain. It goes through dozens of tunnels they have built into the mountain, we saw beautiful waterfalls and scenic views that can't be discribed. The train slowed several times just so you could take pictures. This next part of the story I did tell you about getting on the slow ferry instead of the fast air boat ferry. We did get to see the scenery better until we found we were on the wrong one. And boy they had us docked and on the other ferry so fast it was amazing. It's a good thing because we were one pathetic piece of scenery. We had two ferry boats worth of on lookers! I hope you don't think this is all we did. I'm just telling you the beauties story. Luckily we didn't have to take them with us for the next days ferry cruise. What a relief that was. As I said we prayed nightly for help and strength. The Lord has really blessed us because we still have walked to all our hostels but one. After walking to our Bergen hostel from the Ferry going across and over and around and up hill both ways that we would not be able to walk the longer walk to the train station early the next morning. We talked with the receptionist and she said that it would be a long walk so we pre-ordered a Taxi. We told her to get a big one because look at us and our beauties. She said that it would be ready for us at 7:15 am. So we got up early and had breakfast. All of the hotels and hostels have offered amazing breakfasts. They have everything from cereal to goat cheese and cavier, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers. I mean they have it all. So we eat this amazing breakfast and then wait for the taxi. Up pulls this small car, in the rain. Oh dear! The taxi driver had this look! After lifting and rearranging the luggage several times. We pile in with our large backpacks in out laps and T's smaller luggage in her lap as well. The door almost doesn't close. We would have never made it walking. The poor taxi driver was probably glad to see us there. T did give him a good tip. It was cheaper than we had anticipated. We got to our train in Bergen to go to Drammen and then catch another to arrive in Kongsberg. When we pulled into Drammen we knew that we would have to buy a ticket to catch the Kongsberg train. So I stayed with the beauties while T and M go to look for tickets. All of a sudden they come running back and say get on the train behind you, and hurry its leaving and we can buy our tickets aboard. That was another run run, huff, puff, but we did do it. We still continue to about kill ourselves getting it places. When we finally got to Kongsberg we again chose to walk, it was longer again then we thought. We had another angel help us take M luggage up the hill. He walked with us the whole way. We are so grateful. Everyone has been so friendly and helpful. It has been wonderful, eventful and we are doing it. We are now in Kongsberg now for 5 nights. We are grateful for that. Well we have much more to say and tell you. But we just had to give you a little insite on the luggage thing. Thankfully we can laugh about it.
