Urban Giraffe

So I've had a few days experience of Oslo and my thoughts so far are:

• It's full of shiny new people and things
• It's very clean
• Oslo has big traffic congestion problems
• Norway has a lot of laws
• The hotel has free wi-fi access in all rooms - nice!
• It is expensive, but no more so than London
• I've not seen a fish anywhere (although I think they are just hiding out of sight)
• People get called Odd and Even
• I met an old Odd guy who says his father tried to assassinate Trotsky when he was living here in Norway

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I am going to Norway today, for three weeks on business. I've never been to Scandanavia before so I'm looking forward to the trip, and especially to seeing the Norwegian countryside. My flight leaves in about 3 hours and everything is packed (excepting the computer I'm typing this on). I hate this dead-time before a big trip as I'm too jittery to do anything, but too organized to leave everything until the last minute.

People keep telling me that Norway is a very expensive country, and that I should expect to eat a lot of fish. I suspect the first is very likely to be true, and the second may just be a cultural stereotype. I'll find out soon enough!

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It's been a busy month and I've barely had time to sit down, let alone write anything here. To top it all, both my parents have been hospitalized in some manner: my Dad suffered a ruptured bowel and underwent an emergency operation, and my Mum broke her shoulder.

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