Oslo; part 1

I've been spending the last few days in our not so lovely capital; Oslo. I say this because compared with Bergen, my home-town, does Oslo feel impersonal, strange and cold. But I've been told that this is the case of most capitals...or am I wrong here?
Well, arrived last Friday after a train-trip from Hell (next time I want to have a bed!). It was impossible to find a good sleeping-pose, so guess who was extremely tired at arrival? Me!. I couldn't think clearly and the only thing I wanted was a bed.
No bed for me yet , since me and my friend had to wait at the train-station for 2 hours. This was because the friend I was going to stay at wasn't up before 9:00. When I got inside his door, I immediately crashed on his bed and slept for almost 6 hours. The evening wasn't very special, so we skip that one...
Saturday I went down to the opera where I was going to meet a friend of mine who sings in the opera-choir, and he gave me a guided tour behind the stage. That place is HUGE! So i got speechless. The building is like an enormous ice-cube, covered in white marble.

Every part of this building has been discussed, thought through, loved and hated. And it will inspire for passionate discussions in the years to come.
Well, after the "tour" I made my way to the most genuine Irish pub in town; The Dubliner, to meet a friend from the university. And oh my god, this was a place with a soul. It was quite big, but still intimate. You could almost feel the warmth when you stepped inside. I ordered Irish Stew and Guinness, and I was soon in heaven. For the cooks and barmen who works there know what they are doing.

Yummy

Could it get any better? Suddenly I heard a familiar tune. I went around the corner, and what did I see? A proper Irish gig, with fiddles, tin-whistle, bodhran, spoons and button accordion! I couldn't believe my eyes or my ears. This would never happen in Bergen....

Maybe I'll start something like this in Bergen...

Check out the kilt ^ ^

The fiddler was veeeery good

I was in Heaven! But the evening wasn't over yet. Wales was beating the crap out of Italy in rugby, and I found the game rather interesting. I must admit that I have never seen Italy as a great rugby-nation, but there have to be a reason why they are in the 6-nations-tournament... When the game was over, Wales had 33 points, while Italy had only 10. But this was not the nights greatest game. That was the Battle between Ireland and Scotland. It was truly a battle, and not a game for pompous ass-holes that think a sport can only be a sport if it involve large amounts of money. This was a battle of will and strength, and it was wonderful to behold.

Everybody wants the ball

 

 Can't we make world-peace since we're stuck here?

This soon became the game with a capital G. Ireland took the lead, but Scotland caught up with them pretty fast. And suddenly was Scotland leading with 10 (!) points. The score at the break was staggering 7-17. 

Rugby is a very physical game, and sometimes I wondered how it was like for him who was lying at the bottom of the heap of men, all of them either trying to take the ball from him, or protect him from them. It was very seldom that the referee interfered. It was like all knew how the rules were, and they respected and obeyed them .

In the second period things weren't looking very bright for Ireland, since Scotland was leading with so many point. But maybe they did something during the break, because the teams attitude was somewhat different. They would fight to the very end.

They managed to catch up with Scotland and when there were 10 minutes left of the game the score was 17-17. Scotland made another goal, and Ireland hit back...

But of course,  like Rosenborg in Norway, Scotland got a late goal and won 20-23...

Quite cosy...they had an amazing collection of Irish whiskeys

When I had visited the opera earlier, I had started talking with the man in the café there, since he commented on my Scottish outfit. And he had shown me the way to maybe the most famous whisk(e)y-bar in town: Dr Jekyll. So I went there after the game, and this place had also an amazing atmosphere. Dark, with lot of red details. I felt like I had arrived in Dracula's castle...

Here I decided to try a whisky that I had never tried before: Jura. Oh my God! That was a magical whisky, and I can really recommend it to anyone who wants to try something new

This is the perfect evening: Whisky, Guinness and a lot of talking

The friend I stayed with during my visit; Henrik

So when I went to bed that night, was it with a smile on my lips. I knew that the next day would probably be quite as awesome as this one had been. The next day would be my birthday, and I will tell you about it in the next post