Day 3, Oslo

'Cheese'cakes, yes I know one fell over. From left to right mango, blueberry, strawberry and chocolate and coffee

​Greetings, humans! Oh, what a day! I lament, wiping a weary paw across my forehead, as once again I am sitting in my favourite spot, overlooking Oslo from our room. As promised, it was another walking filled day. For the second time, my humans made the trek downhill into the city, first stop was a souvenir shop and then it was onto lunch – that might give you some idea as to the timings of my humans’ day if they can only make it in to the city in time for lunch. The lazy sods!
Lunch was at the Funky Fresh Café as recommended by our host and looked delicious. I can only assume it tasted good too as I wasn’t offered any – the rudeness of some people!
Anyway, my humans (but not I) tucked into an amaranth burger with paprika potato wedges, green pesto and coleslaw. As if that wasn’t enough to deny me, they then went back for a taster plate of ‘cheese’cakes. I'm not sure what the non-dairy alternative they used was, but the flavours were mango, chocolate and coffee, blueberry and strawberry. Again I wasn’t offered any and they even remembered the food selfie, of the cheesecakes anyway. We also learnt that at this café, or perhaps Norway in general, a scone is not those cake-bread things with raisins in. No, they contain oats and cocoa powder, almost a cross between an oat cookie and a non-gooey brownie. There was a sample pot of these at the till which my humans tried. Apparently they tasted good, fruity, chocolatey and oaty, but definitely not like any scone they've ever eaten before!

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The view from lunch

​Lunch over, the walk started to follow the Aker River. Sacre bleu! Mon dieu et mon droit! Water! For endless, endless miles – these people are killing me! And to make matters worse, there were waterfalls, oh the agony. At least there were some nice buildings to look at along the way, more ducks and a handful of bizarre birds Charlie and Jack have taken to calling crow-pigeons that have so far evaded capture on film. I’m not too fussed with what they are, but I would like to chase them. Anyway, there was a wonderful view of Oslo, looking back down the hill from the top of the largest waterfall I have ever seen.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough water for one lifetime, they decided they would walk all the way back along the river on the other side which somehow involved us getting even closer to the waterfall. There was a strange little shack built over the waterfall (what are humans thinking?). This bit was particularly horrible as whilst my humans took pictures, we were sprayed with water from the fall. 

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On a bench at the top of the waterfall

Hmm, a curious place to build a house...

Water, water, everywhere!

We then reached (and crossed) a slightly wobbly bridge which my humans (mostly Charlie) insisted on wobbling even more. I am currently pondering whether my humans can be deemed of sound mind and if they are really appropriate guardians to take me on this trip.
Finally we left the river and went off to explore the old streets of Damstredet og Telthusbakken (og is Norwegian for and). These houses were made some of wood and some of brick and mortar. They are some of the new style of houses built after the Great Fire of Oslo, and marked the start of vertical building and a different layout to reduce fire-spread. According to the information board anyway, to me they didn’t seem particularly vertical. We then took a break in a park on another hill overlooking Oslo (we could see all the way back to the station) and a back view of Damstredet. 

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One of the wooden houses on Damstredet built in approximately 1649 (I had to zoom right in to the plaque to read that, but it was quite blurry so I can't be certain of the date)

Walking up Damstredet

A fir tree. Or a pine tree. I don't know I'm a cat

​On leaving the park all appeared to be going well, but then, great Scott! We’re back on the river! Luckily this didn’t last too long and we ended up in the Botanical Gardens surrounding the Natural History Museums of Zoology and Geography (or perhaps it was Geology), which were closed it being 25 minutes after the closing time of 4 o’clock when we arrived.
Never mind, we wandered around the gardens instead where my humans played a long and rather pointless game of Name that Plant. Stupid as there was a name tag on every plant.
And then, oh this is too much, they took me to another river, this time in the gardens, just when I thought I was safe. What do they take me for? One is not a Turkish Van! Luckily I was distracted from the water by an opportunity to pose with Charlie’s very stylish sunglasses (see the picture of me from the first post of this blog).

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Fortunately, we escaped the water and the gardens not long after this and made the final slog back up the hill to our room. This time our host’s ginger cat deigned to interact with Charlie and Jack, and we took the opportunity for some pictures together.
The humans started packing after dinner – yes, we’re leaving Oslo tomorrow. Sad times, I will miss this place, it has been a revelation, so very green, so very hilly and so very beautiful.
Oslo is a stunning city as I have mentioned on several occasions. It is so modern, so clean and full of wonderful surprises – one of which was a deficiency of streetlights, but that’s probably because, in the summer at least, it never really gets dark here. Sunset has been around 10:30 PM, sunrise around 4:00 AM, but in between there’s still plenty of light to see quite a lot. Another surprise was the lack of old buildings (see my very accurate and informative lesson on the Great Fire of Oslo) and how, despite this being the capital city, it seems so laid back and not busy, never empty but just not crowded either. I really will be sad to leave here and hope I get the opportunity to return one day.
Our next stop is Copenhagen (that’s the capital of Denmark) and one can only hope these deranged humans stay away from water.
Until then,
Chesh.

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