After the city hall tour I walked around Akker Brygge, which is down by the docks where I dance on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the summer. I didn't realize it went further down, so I explored all the way to the end and found a very small "beach" there.
Next I took a bus to the center of Grunnerlokka because that was one of the places I wanted to walk around in. I had only been to the flea market there on Sundays and one bar. I ended up just wandering around. I think I got quite a ways away from the main part. I followed the river that the club Bla is located on and eventually ended back up where I started. I had the intention of stopping in a cafe but that didn't happen. I got frozen yogurt at 7-Eleven later though :) I walked from Grunnerlokka all the way back to central station. I thought about just going home but I ended up taking the t-bane to Majorstuen and walking to Vigelandsparken. I had only seen it in the winter and it was quite a bit different. Way more people, greener. I think I almost liked it better in the winter. The statues had more meaning, I think. I explored a little bit of the park and walked down some streets I'd never been on and then at about 16:30 I decided I was pooped and needed to go home.
For some reason the internet isn't working right now and my spotty wifi was being very efficient last night so I spent most of Monday night watching Jera pack. She and her husband left around noon yesterday. I'm very sad to see them go. We spent a lot of time together this past week, mostly just hanging out in the kitchen. I hope to be able to visit them someday. Jera's masters program next takes her to Germany and from there who knows..maybe they will stay in Germany, maybe they will come back to Norway or go to Slovenia where Jera's from.
Yesterday afternoon I decided to visit the islands I had missed last week: Gressholmen and Lidoya. They were obviously less popular. Lidoya had a lot of summer houses on it. It would be a cute place to stay. Gressholmen was grassy and woody. There was one cafe/shop and some people swimming. I just walked through both the islands and caught the next ferry. Last night I went to the open swing dance at Akker Brygge. I reeeeeeally wish I had brought my camera. I never do because usually I don't have any pockets and things tend to get stolen if you bring a bag. It's just such an awesome thing to watch. A couple groups put on a show during the free dance even. And I still don't have a video of me dancing. There were more guys than girls last night so I danced for basically the whole two hours. It was a ton of fun. I danced with the old crazy guy again. Boy that guy is awesome. I have no idea what kind of dancing we were doing but I was hopping up and down and twisting with whatever he was doing. After the dance I went with some of the dancers to an Irish pub. I talked with a Filipino guy who has been living in Norway for 8 or 10 years now. It was interesting because his perspective was both foreign and Norwegian. We shared some stories from Kringsja because he used to live there too. He told me that it took him a year to learn the language and only three years to adopt the Norwegian sing-song rhythm. It seems like he fits in very well now.
Today it looked like it would rain but I didn't want to start the day cooped up in my room, so I decided to ride the T-bane. I took line 1 which is the line with the big ski jump. I had never been all the way to the end so that's what I did-took it all the way up the mountain. The scenery is awesome going up. You can see basically the whole downtown area. It started raining on the way back down and is still raining now. It's cold too. Yesterday and Monday were pretty warm. I am still dreading the weather back home. I really don't think I'll be able to handle the heat.
It's so weird that there's only a few of us in our flat. Right now I am the only one here because the Norwegian guy and his girlfriend are at work and so is my roommate. It's nice in a way, but also kind of lonely.
Lastly, I would like to wish my wonderful mother a very happy birthday today. I wish I could be home to celebrate, but I guess four days isn't too long :) Have a great day, Mom!
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