The Eurovision retro vibe started early on our journey, with a laminated card at the check-in desk at Sydney airport announcing that there would be no in-flight entertainment on the first leg of our trip. Fortunately, I had purchased an i-pad mini for my holiday, so it was technology to the rescue.
We started with a side trip to Norway, beginning in Oslo. Taking advantage of the unexpected warm and sunny weather, we strolled around the harbour from Akershus Fortress to the Aker Brygge shopping centre, and along Karl Johan’s Gate from the Royal Palace to the yellow bricked Parliament building and beyond. Then we went to explore our favourite stores, the unfortunately named Heimen, which stocks a great range of Scandinavian produced products and the funky clothing label Moods of Norway, which beats purchasing a tacky Norwegian flag t-shirt any day. After raiding a local supermarket for Freia chocolate, we found a nice coffee shop back by the harbour with blankets placed thoughtfully on the outside chairs. Ah, the pleasantries of al-fresco dining in Norway in the springtime!
We had dinner at Kafe Celsius, which serves more modern interpretations of traditional Nordic cuisine. I had the salmon with sour cream topping and my companion had the cod with prawns. Both dishes were amazing. The sour cream topping, flavoured with basil and sun-dried tomatoes, complemented the salmon beautifully, enhancing but not overwhelming its subtle flavour. We headed on to dessert, I had the chocolate mousse with raspberry sorbet and my friend had the apple cake. The only minor issue was that they had run out of vanilla ice cream, so the apple cake also came with raspberry sorbet. In our limited experience, this place remains as our favourite restaurant in Oslo.
After our night in Oslo, we headed back to Central Station to catch the train to Bergen. We were met by a steady stream of teenage girls, some with chaperones, most wearing One Direction t-shirts heading from the station into Oslo, fortunately in the opposite direction to us. All the clothing stores we passed were playing One Direction songs. We celebrated our good fortune to be leaving town the day of the One Direction concert. I figured that as we watched the arrivals for One Direction, so people would look at us on our eventual arrival in Malmö and think “there’s another two for Eurovision”!