In the land of the Fjords

The good thing with Gothenburg's location in the geographical scheme of things , apart from it being the biggest port in Scandinavia and all that , is that it is located almost equidistant to 3 different Capital cities

Copenhagen is about 3 and a half hours to the south , Stockholm is about the same time to the North East , and Oslo is about 4 hours by road up North. While there are not many others thing to write home about Gothenburg ( being the home of Volvo, Saab, SKF and the Frolunda Indians isnt going to get the excitement going is it ) this nice locational advantage has helped to plan trips to these capital cities.

Since Copenhagen has been an oft visited place and a sort of been there done that feel attached to it , i turned the attention to visiting Oslo and Stockholm.

THE ONE DAY ROAD TRIP TO NORWAY :

The 17th of May is the Norwegian independence day and from what i heard from a few reliable sources , as good a day as any to visit the capital city. Since it was a day trip only it was decided to drive down to Norway and not bother with trains , hostels and stuff. ( funny, it s always "drive down " , even though like in this case we may be driving North). Moi plus my two Czech friends Zdeneck and Vitazlav ( i know there is a bit too much of Z there ) started out from Gothenburg at 5 am. We hit the E6 highway after doing a circle around the city searching for it and we were on our way to the land of the Fjords. The Czechs took turn at the wheel while i lazed away at the back seat - i stil dont have an international license you see - and we hit the Norway border after about 150 minutes.

A good sign that you are nearing a city in these parts of the world ,is the sight of an IKEA store. As soon as we passed one , we were in the Oslo limits. Soon we found a place to park the car and proceeded to follow the crowd that was making its way to the city centre. And i have to tell you about the crowd. Almost all of them were in their best suits and traditional clothes. Almost whereever i turned i could see a Norwegian flag fluttering , from rooftops , on cars , on people's hats ,in the hands of kids. As we walked on , soon I was i guess in the South Asian zone or suburb, for all i could see was Bollywood DVD shops, Pakistani jewellry shops, and an incredible number of people walking around talking in Lankan Tamil . No wonder the peace negotiator between the Tamil tigers and the Lankan government is the Govt of Norway.

Soon we reached the Royal Palace. The palace courtyard, the road leading into it and the park surrounding it was chock a block with flag waving Norwegians. The main event of this day is the Parades. The main event of this day is the Parades. People drawn from all walks of life were walking in a procession, playing music, dancing and generally having a merry time. These bands apparently come from all over town and all of them mil past the palace to salute the Royalty. There seemed to be a never ending stream of the parades and they were being cheered lustily by the crowd. The atmosphere and the general verve around the place were absolutely amazing. It was a wise decision to visit Oslo that day I felt.

It is generally believed that in Scandinavia that the more north you go, the more costly it gets. Denmark is costly, Sweden costlier, Norway costliest. I can only pity those dudes up in the Faroe Islands. And the belief is true. We checked out the prices in McDonalds, Subway and a few restaurants. Costliest is the word. After just about eating the bare minimum to go on, we trudged on. We visited a Fort near the harbor, which has a good view of the harbor and the sea front in Oslo. On that day, the magnificent Cruise liner - "Jewel of the Seas " was docked next to the wharf running along the fort. And OMG what a magnificent sight it was. For someone used to seeing Container vessels of all sizes, this one was an amazing sight. My "to do" list had just got bigger.

Fredrikstad was about an hour from Oslo. It is a quiet little city, the main tourist attraction there being a 17th Century town still preserved as it is. The place has typical cobbled streets, a fairly large square with a statue in the middle and rows of houses built touching each other. The place also had a slew of Canons mounted on the walls and looking out into the river and beyond along its boundary. Next stop was Halden. I was pretty much interested to see this place because the lonely planet book we were referring to said that Halden was situated on a fjord and that meant I could catch my first sighting of a Fjord. Also as part of my work I have to deal with the port at Halden quite often and so I was pretty excited.

Halden was just awesome. It was rich, unspoiled, natural beauty at its best. A friend of mine always used to say that Scandinavia was one of those unexplored and untouched of naturally beautiful places of the world and I must say that she was being right. A quaint little town with beautiful houses, clean roads, lots of greenery and looking straight out of a picture postcard. Halden also had a fort atop a hill. A band was playing the ABBA greatest hits as part of the Independence Day celebrations. (A touch ironic, ABBA is a Swedish band and the independence being celebrated was the one from Sweden). We walked up to the top of the hill and were left speechless at the magnificent view of the Halden fjord. At one side, the fjord, with the sea coming in, the small islands covered in green, surrounded by sparking blue water and on the other side the town with the red tiled houses and asphalt grey roads. And people say the best fjords are on the West Coast of Norway !!!!

After spending sometime atop the hill and drinking in the marvelous sight, we set off back to Gothenburg. We returned around 12 in the night. . It was a day well spent. Norway rocked. Oslo was like many other European towns I felt and a day certainly was not enough and the small little towns along the way, the fjords, those lovely beautiful villages and fields... they were amazing and out of the world. It is a place to visit again.