Oslo

Mooie kindly saw us off at the bus station before heading home, his con completely over. The same couldn’t be said for us though as we were bound for Oslo, on a near four-hour bus journey. I am not sure why there wasn’t a train running, but it didn’t really matter too much as the coach was comfortable enough. We did have to endure a woman directly in front of us who kept coughing and spluttering then wiping it in her hair. She then had a game of trying to sit on every available free seat on the bus before settling somewhere behind us. Meanwhile, I just enjoyed watching the snowy Swedish scenery whizz past, with it progressively getting less snowy the further north we went.

On arrival in Norway, we were stopped by a customs official in a badge, who asked us a range of questions. I wasn’t quite expecting this, but I was glad he didn’t ask us to get our fetish gear out at the bus station. He was pleasant though and after grabbing a dry hot dog from newsagents, we soon found the Radisson Blu hotel where we were staying. Knowing we had luggage and knowing we would both arrive and leave from the main railway station, I decided to spend extra pennies and go with the Radisson based predominantly on location. It was certainly one of the swankiest hotels I have ever been to, and once we had checked in, we went upstairs to the palatial rooms before having a shower. As we were drying, we watched that well-known Norwegian TV programme ‘Cruising with Jane McDonald’, which was on NRK1, Norway’s main channel, without dubbing or subtitles. Remarkable!

We had no mugs in our room so we could not get tea. I complained about this but the mugs never came. Still, after a week of socialising and constantly being with people, it was good to be alone with Wolfie for a while, even if it was just one evening (I did mention to a former colleague that I would be in Oslo but he and his wife could not meet up, nor could a fur I had met serving at the Maid Cafe at Nordic Fuzzcon either). We enjoyed chilling in the room, staying there for about two hours, but we realised that we really should go and explore the city as it had been ten years since our last visit. We knew we couldn’t really do much as we only had one evening, so we decided to focus on the trendy area of Grünerløkka, which is where the Brewdog bar is. To get there, we enjoyed a rather pleasant walk along the Akerselva, the main river in Oslo. Small and meandering, there were a number of nice bridges to look at en route, making you forget just how bitterly cold it was. On Ankerbrua, we saw some fantastic animal statues which were incredibly imposing while we also got to see the pretty Kulturkirken Jakob, which was beautifully lit up in yellow.

Ankerbrua is pretty much the gateway to Grünerløkka and soon enough, we had found the Brewdog bar. Named BD57 for licensing reasons, the only way you could tell it was a Brewdog bar was the small sandwich board sign outside. We darted in, only to discover it was absolutely rammed as it was quiz night. Still, we managed to grab samples of a local barley wine, which was served out of a moose’s head for some reason, before nabbing the only spare table in the house. We sat for one beer, the quiz being too hard for us and oddly in both Norwegian and English, which I found distracting. Still, we got the stamp, which was our primary target and it was a pleasant place to be.

We needed food so decided to avail ourselves of Trip Advisor, which recommended a varied range of restaurants in the vicinity. We decided to go to Villa Paradiso, a pizza place just up the road from the Brewdog, so as to limit Wolfie's walking. We could have gone to Eldhuset next door - a burger place recommended by both Trip Advisor and Furble's Norwegian partner - but we had yet to have pizza on our trip and we wanted some variety. Plus Villa Pardiso had coloured lights on the windows. The pizza was quite exotic, while we were delighted to see some unique beers on tap too, although at over £20 for the pizza alone, the prices were steep. Still, it was good and we did enjoy looking at the rather neat square upon which it was sat, Olaf Ryes Plass.

We visited two bars after this, one a short detour from where we were (literally up one of the streets running off the square) and one on the way back to the hotel. The Grünerløkka Brygghus stocks beers from the Grünerløkka Brewery, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to try some local brews. £19.50 for a flight of four did not come cheap though and while the beer was good, we didn't hang around for more than one flight. They were also showing Chelsea versus Bayern Munich and while the atmosphere was good, and the pub the sort of dark brooding place I love, it was something of a distraction so we headed back.

Walking past the Weekday shop which had obviously accidentally ordered an M for its logo not a W, we headed down a side street which hid a little of Oslo's more industrial heritage. Here sits the Schouskjelleren Microbrewery, marked by a huge illuminated red prick thrusting into the sky. They have a basement taproom off this square run by a guy who looks like he came straight out of The Big Bang Theory. It reminded me of the bar Ralesk took us to in Budapest on our first visit, and although it was quite sparsely populated, the beers were wonderous. There was a group of loud Norwegians being larey though, shouting at and squaring up to each other which proved to be a little annoying. They were also right in the front doorway too, blocking access to the toilets and also the stairwell leading to the exit, so I was quite glad when they left. We pretty much followed them out though as we had to get back to the hotel.

We walked a different route, not by the river this time, taking in some of the general workaday streets of Oslo. It was about a fifteen minute walk to the hotel and once arrived, we decided we might as well go to the skybar to look at the view. This was stunning, and we enjoyed watching the twinkling lights of northern Oslo, with the mountains stretching into the distance. We tweeted this and Furble recognised it, which was nice, while Wolfie and I just enjoyed sitting with a beer and some peanuts, looking out at the world.

It was nearing midnight by this stage and upon going back to the room, I realised that I had not yet found a Norwegian geocache. Fortunately, there was one at the other side of the railway station so as Wolfie went to bed, I went out to find it, getting completely lost in the process. I had to take a picture of a big metal cheetah, which I did eventually manage to find and thus secure my souvenir. I also got to see the huge illuminated clock that we had seen from the skybar but had not yet seen on the ground. I was glad to tick this off as I don't think I had seen it on my one and only other visit to Oslo, some ten years ago. We were staying in a completely different part of the city.

Bed soon followed, with us getting up at about 9:30am to catch the train to the airport so we could fly to Gdansk. This was all very smooth, with the swift twenty minute journey being quite impressive. The checking in process at the airport was also smooth, with the only other thing of interest being that I was interviewed for Norwegian television about what I was doing to combat climate change. Considering the interview was taking place at an airport, I was retrospectively suspicious of the motives, but the lady who approached us seemed genuine enough. Ultimately, as I pointed out, as I don't have kids or pets, nor do I really follow the tenants of consumerism, I afford myself a few extra flights, particularly as I do carbon offset everything. Whether this came across well or not in interview I don't know, but it was interesting to note that I am far more comfortable on camera than I was on stage at Nordic Fuzzcon a few days earlier, when I was being thanked for my contribution to the Furrovision Song Contest.
 

You Put Your Granddad On Robot Wars

It's been a very quiet weekend, largely by design due to the previous two weekends being at conventions. We could have gone to Collared this weekend but we decided against it, largely because I wanted to avoid drinking, which I have successfully done all weekend thus far. Furthermore, Wolfie needed to go and see his parents before they go away for a month on vacation, plus it also afforded us a whole day yesterday in order to have some kink-based play. It was quite a day.

The only other thing I've done is meet Arcais in town earlier today to see the new Harrison Ford film, Call of the Wild. Based on the book of the same name, which Arc has read, she told me that the film was somewhat sanitized for a more child-friendly audience. Furthermore, it's odd that the main protagonist is not a German Shepherd in the film, which would have made more sense. It was a very enjoyable film though, exploring animal's co-dependence on man and the balance between obiedience and instinct, and I did thoroughly enjoy it. It was also great meeting up with Arc again and chatting, both in the Starbucks before and walking around Leeds after until she had to get her train.

This has largely been it for this week. We went to the coffee meet on Tuesday but there is very little to report there apart from meeting up with one of the guys who runs Leeds Pride, who is hoping we can do some advertising for him ahead of the parade. We are still in 200 Degrees but the venue isn't overly suitable, with us having to do a lot of furniture rearranging just to fit us all in. Furthermore, the range of teas and coffees isn't the strongest, but with no other venue of the right size or open until late, it's difficult to know what to do. That's a task for this month.

We also had to leave the coffee meet early as we had things to do, not least swing by Costco to grab some toilet paper. We were caught up in the Coronavirus hysteria here as it was all sold out, which was annoying as we were close to running out (although fortunately the local Sainsbury's did have some left). I am quite philosophical on Coronavirus, but I did work from home on Friday as I had something of a sore throat. This ended up being an over-reaction on my part, not least because the company has told us only to travel for 'non-essential' reasons (with the definition of essential being VERY fluid), but I thought it best to follow the official guidelines even if no-one else was. Still, I hope it doesn't affect any plans for the next month.