Sailing to Oslo!

Well, it's time to leave Denmark behind us, and make our way over to Norway!  There will be some miner changes involved with this - the language is superficially different, and we'll be using the Norwegian kroner instead of the Danish, although they're so similar in value that I'll simply use a generic "kr" unit in my financial tracking.


I started out the day by packing up and checking out, with about 6 hours to kill before the ship left.  I picked up a City Bike from one of the more hidden racks, and headed back to the shopping district to make the purchase I scouted yesterday.  Shipping will take about a month, so Greg - I don't think you'll have to look for any packages for me!  My purchase was a little bit of Danish culture that I really have enjoyed over here, and so I wanted to take it back with me.  I think Katie will like it, too.

After finalizing my selection and paying for it, I was in no mood to spend much of anything more that day!  Thankfully, I had a dinner buffet coming my way that evening, so I didn't mind going hungry during the day. I still had a lot of time to waste, so I headed up to a park and sat reading on a bench for a few hours, finishing my second book.  All I have left now is Kant, which is a dark state of affairs indeed:

At least I should have no trouble falling asleep, given that the author seems to have no inkling of how to properly break apart thoughts into cohesive sentences, preferring instead to simply chain the second thought onto the first one, and the third one to the second in turn - as well as including asides, explanations, and extended tangents, the last of which carry the reader's thoughts far beyond the initial sphere of the sentence's topic - until finally the reader's mind snaps under the weight of an innocently added metaphysical vocabulary word, representing in actuality a far weightier concept than its simple demeanor would suggest (whew).

Anyway, after reading for a bit, I biked toward the harbor to a bike rack that the bike map indicated was there.  I had extensive difficulty, however, actually finding said rack.  It simply wasn't where the map said it was.  One of the good practices that Århus and Ålborg implemented was placing metal posts with an easily discernible symbol at each city bike rack, to distinguish them from all the other bike racks in an area.  Copenhagen could benefit from this, as well as signs from major thoroughfares to bike racks slightly off the beaten paths.

After about 45 minutes, I got tired of looking and simply parked the bike at a normal rack, abandoning the 20 kr.  I got into the ship terminal about an hour and a half early, and sat around killing time while waiting for the boarding to begin.


Once on board, I went to my (tiny) room, and immediately showered.  It was an incredibly liberating experience.  Even though all the hostels I've been staying at have showers, I still can't simply take them whenever I wish.  I have to take into consideration towel and shoe dry times, which makes for some interesting mental gymnastics when combined with an exercise routine.  It's usually necessary to plan showers far enough ahead of travel that everything has a chance to properly dry.  Wanting to use my Vibrams restricts shower usage, as they double as shower shoes (and sloshing around in soaked Vibrams is very unpleasant).  Just being able to jump into the shower and dry off with a provided towel was wonderful.


After showering, shaving, and dressing for dinner, I toured the ship for a bit before heading to the dining room.  The ship is fairly small - most of the public areas are bars or dining rooms, and they want to charge for everything (which is fairly par for the course).  The dinner buffet was enjoyable - a wonderful chance to sample a wide variety of Scandinavian fare on an "as-you-see-it" basis, which removed some of the mystery of the menu.


There was a minor snafu where the waiter wanted to charge me for the glass of wine I had ordered as the "drink" portion of the "buffet +1 drink" I had purchased before the trip began.  Apparently the "1 drink" was supposed to be a specific drink value, and he wanted to charge me the difference.  I was having none of that, however, as this was specified nowhere on the website, and it wasn't as though I ordered their most expensive wine.

Sadly, most of the evening has been spent on the internet (at near dial-up speeds), because it's one of the few things that isn't charged for (surprisingly).  Even movies and such cost.  At least I'm enjoying some live entertainment while I surf!  I'll update my finances tomorrow when I have the exact cost from today's purchase available.  

Brian out.