And Outside The Rain Fell...

Today. Extraordinary. That's the only word I can think of. Outrageous Oslo.

Oslo is a capital that possibly is the smallest capital city in the world. And for the capital of one of the most visited countries in the world, it has surprisingly little to offer. Perhaps not.

We started the day at Stockholm. This is my 7 countries so far in roughly 10 days. Germany, France, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. And to think I was content and happy with the thought of being in India before IIMA happened. And staying here in Europe, I just realized how much I love India!

Starting at Stockholm, we left Stockholm University early morning to the station, again avoiding tickets and even picking up complementary bags offered by a book exhibition. The bags are going to be immense help here, and we get a banana and juices (a single banana costs 50 bucks in Scandinavian Europe. 200ml of Fruit juice is around 70 bucks). Living on the shoestring that we are, having some part of our breakfast sponsored made us think, wow, and a nice start to the day.

We board the Intercity Express, using our Eurail passes and flowing into Norway. And how. The entire 6 hour journey was dotted with at least a 1000 lakes, beautiful serene lakes, crystal clear water, flanked by tall windswept pine trees, the sun shimmering on the water. And the train dotted and curved alongside these lakes, until a mighty river came along that we followed for the rest of our journey. And to top it all, beautiful black tiled sloping roof houses dotted the countryside; the houses often nestled deep in the trees or on the lake banks.

We reached Oslo at 2.30p.m, did some painful conversions to Norwegian Kroner and finally landed up at the tourist information centre, picking up our customary maps.

The Oslo journey was to be completely on foot. Few capitals can boast of having a glorious medieval history, a sea shore and mountains dotting it all side like Oslo. We first hopped over to the adjoining Opera House, a marble and metal structure, shimmering in the blazing autumn sun. Cold wind blew across the adjoining sea, and the sloped terrace offered excellent vantage points of the city.

Hungry now, we began our walk to this place called Blitz. This neo-activist place was something we were totally unprepared for.

For starters, some facts- Oslo is the most expensive city on Earth, so claim the statistics. We needed food. Vegetarian food. And our travel guide recommended this place, Blitz.

Going to the road where this was supposed to be, we hardly could find the place. A bit of searching, a bit of asking later, we figured it was this totally unmarked white building with some graffiti on its walls. Entering, I encountered the weirdest people ever. Punk rock stars, tattooed arms, a million piercings and outrageous green and pink hair, they told us they were about to protest against the establishment in 15 minutes, so we should hurry with the cafe. They wanted us to join them- apparently a Pakistani national had been arrested. This only vegetarian cafe offered sandwiches, bread, coffee and juice at steal away prices- entirely volunteer run, they were now waiting to leave for the protest, drums and placards in hand.

Watching the goth punk people, we were half scared, thoroughly amused, and our stomachs partly full, we left to the city palace, admiring the armed guards patrol the area. Beautifully uniformed and walking in absolute sync, their batons and feathered caps, their black uniforms and white stripes immediately commanded respect.

The early evening atmosphere was rather insipid, with few people on the streets, no activity absolutely. What this gave us was little to observe except cars- from Saabs to Citroen, Volvo to Audi, and good old Mercedes, always designated to being a taxi here, as we walked along the roads from the City Palace to a landmark garden.

We next headed out to Vigeland's Sculpture Park, a landscaped park with pseudo erotic male, female and child sculptures depicting the various phases of life. It really was striking, watching those stone sculptures in fantastic poses against lush green trees, superb gardens and a lake passing underneath. We came across a huge tower of human bodies them, beautifully intertwined, flanked with humans in various postures- depicting, as I saw it, grace, power, solitude and the cycle of life. With the evening sun glowing on one side of the tower, the effect of light and shadows on the sculptures was mesmerizing. It's difficult to describe a moment when you just stand and stare in awe at human figures so beautifully carved. I stood there for several minutes, lost in thought, before proceeding to explore the rest of the garden, comfortably watching a gang of skateboarders performing stunts with the sun setting as a backdrop.

Early evening brought with it a cold chilly weather, and as always, hunger. We hunted for an Indian Restaurant- encountering several - Gandhi's India, Krishna's Cuisine and Gateway of India. Exorbitantly priced, we moved on to McD'S, unable to find a Subway, munching on cheese burgers. It was a bland dinner, but until we get to Paris, it satisfies. On an average, we are doing walking tours of European cities at the rate of at least 15 kilometres a day.

We walked, comfortably getting lost in the streets of Oslo. And the atmosphere of the city had changed in its entirety. Cars zipped by on roads, pretty pretty women wore their Friday night fineries heading to the nearest clubs, the buildings were wonderfully lit, and the posh shopping streets seemed alive.

Boisterous young chaps hung around pubs, and we could hardly believe it was the same city we were walking in in the morning. Street music rung through the roads - violens, flutes, even a tabla. Love was in the air, everywhere.

We stopped by often, breathing in the atmosphere of this new city.

At 9.30, we walked over to the royal castle, closed sometime earlier, which looked quite eerie in its solitude and strong halogens lights creating a wonderful collage of lights and shadows. As we loitered around, two royal guards found us, and told us we were not supposed to be there (I was waving a flashlight reading castle sign boards). They actually gave us a full escort to the gate, almost giving us a sense of royalty, with their heels clicking in unison and their hands swinging in tandem. Never once would I have imagined being escorted (out, but what the heck) by the guards of HM! Never.

We walked on exploring, tiring ourselves out. Finally heading to the station, where we would be spending the night in peace, waking up for a 6.30 train to the fjords.

I found internet access at the station, and made good use of it.

But little did we know this would the most exciting European night we had as yet experienced.

At 1.30 a.m., an announcement rung that the station would now close and open again at 4.30 a.m. cursing under our breath, we asked the Politi (police) where we were to spend the night. He gladly suggested the streets!

Outside, on the streets, the three of us contemplated several options. The stairs and the benches around the station were far too cold, with an icy gust blowing across. Realizing the open space around the station was far too open; we realized the only other option at that hour of the night was to spend the rest of the 3 hours walking the streets of Oslo.

And we were in such a shock. The only street that was alive was full of punk BOYS and girls, sporting weird tattoos, hairdos and terribly drunk. The cold hit us hard, and if things couldn't get worse, some kind of a police case occurred right where we were standing. Few cafes were open, the ones that were seemed too shady. And the only road that wasn't deserted was.. it was lined with hookers.

In retrospect, and to be honest, we were scared. 3 hours in an unknown city with what seemed like an aggressive crowd can never be funny.

We needed a refuge, and shuttled between the station and that road, and finally decided we were going to spend the night in... hold your breath, a Seven Eleven(7-11). We explained our situation for this 24 hour open store, and he allowed us to stay the night there. The problem was there were no chairs, the store was the size of an average bedroom, and it was stacked with goods. It was the safest place we could find that night, and as things go, it was popular with the punks too.

From then on, it got amusing. Not one character we saw seemed what may be described as normal- gay youth in a merry mood, hookers with their customers, policemen, and drunk men, they all dropped in and out. And the three of us, standing in one corner of the store, blessed the cashier attendant for allowing us that comfort of the store- it was warm, and I had internet. And terrible company.

Standing continuously for 3 hours, we were tired, miserable and bored. We ran for our lives to station the moment the clock struck 4.15 am, thanking the cashier for his asylum.

Dead tired, we crashed at the station, the other two sleeping and I writing this.

This was an experience liked no other.

Thinking back, there was nothing at all to be scared off, we were three guys, not once did anyone threaten us or was aggressive, cops were all around us because we were at the scene of a crime, the we were at least warm. Still, I knew I would never want to experience this again, doing all this in a totally unknown city, with almost no one you could rely upon; it scared us at one point.

I guess it is all part of the great European experience. It is 6.30 now, the train to Myrdal is about to leave.

Love, peace, tranquillity, and stay warm.