Oslo, Norway

Tanya and I had a pretty full day for our first day in Oslo. We arrived around noon, got an express train from the airport to the city, found a hotel, took my work suitcase to the *expensive* hotel that I'm staying at for the conference duration; and then checked out Oslo.

Walked around the downtown core; like most other cities (except Toronto) there are major pedestrian-only areas which are very busy and nice to walk through. Got a europe-backpacker lunch of bread, cheese and cold cuts from a grocery store; except here it cost the equivalent of 16 dollars (I can't find the dollar sign on this keyboard) for the two of us.

Went to the National Gallery and saw (amongst other paintings) The Scream; there was also an untitled large painting of a brown rectangle. I could have painted that with some a short visit to Home Depot. And I could have given it a title.

Walked around and took many pictures (the lighting is optimal here most of the time, with the sun low in the horizon). Had a two-hour nap; then headed out to see Oslo at night (although still lit by the sun).

Stumbled across a bar that was filled with Swedish expats watching the Swedish-Czech hockey game. At first we thought all of Norway was cheering for Sweden, but after talking to a few people realized that it was Swedes cheering. Unfortunately Sweden lost in OT; otherwise they would have faced Canada in the final and that would have been interesting to see here.

After went to another bar in the university area. They were playing cool music, although I mistook Black Sabbath for ACDC (it's all the same to me). Around 1:00ish the bar got really busy. We are catching a plane to Bødo tomorrow so took it easy and went home earlyish.