I made it!

So, I made it. The plane was a bit late, but that didn't matter too much. I had plenty of time anyway. As we arrived at Gardermoen airport, the clouds lifted and I was able to see Oslo from the sky. I had been talking to a Dutch woman (who looked very Norwegian by the way), who herself had lived in Norway for about 7 years. As we got off the plane, the luggage arrived soon and I then made my way to the car rental place. 

I had decided that I would not speak English if I could in any way help it, so I started off in Norwegian and fortunately the guy behind the desk didn't mind too much about my atrocious accent or my wrong usage of the words. I understood him (kan du gjenta det?) and he understood me. My car is a really nice Toyota Auris and apart from the missing cruise control and many many chips on the outside of the car, I am quite happy with it. 

As I drove into Oslo, it was a bit confusing. First of all I didn't have a map and I hadn't really bothered with printing out a route, so I had to depend solely on my gps. Which have the tendency to not work while in tunnels. And Oslo has a lot of tunnels. In the end I just took an exit and lo and behold: I was nearly there! When I finally managed to park my car and ask in the hotel about where to park, they didn't have any record of me! None whatsoever!! Turned out I needed the hotel 250 meters away. *Sigh*

That hotel was even worse to park my car in front of though, since there were tramlines right in front. So, I drove around, found a parking garage and parked it in there. I got all my stuff out, then walked up to the exit and was completely lost. According to my gps I was less than 400 meters from the hotel, but I couldn't find my way. In the end I asked a lady and she showed me, all the time talking in a mixture of Norwegian and Danish (she was from Denmark). Of course I didn't understood most of what she said, just something about the Norwegian government having enough money for some fancy something or other and nothing else. 

Anyway, I am in my hotel now and haven't once spoken English. I have mixed my limited Norwegian knowledge with Italian (si si), but I have a car and a hotel room. Oh and a map, so I can go explore the center of Oslo tomorrow. Today only a photo of my hotel room, tomorrow I hope a few more photos.