Tagged Walls and Interesting Statuary
I moved on from Edinburgh by hopping a plane to Oslo, Norway. The flight itself was nothing out of the ordinary, but the ninety minute delay in departure was annoying. We didn’t wait while on the plane, thankfully. The plane itself was late arriving, due to fog at it’s originating airport. I guess summer is really done with.
The scenery we flew over was impressive. Talk about lakes. Damn. I guess that’s what happens when rain falls and collects on rock. No absorption happening there. I could also see a lot of waterfalls, but they were all too small from thirty-five thousand feet to take any photos. I took a stab at a time lapse though, and I think this one turned out decently.
Once on the ground, I found the train into town and walked to my stay. This time, I’m staying in a hostel. It’s basic, but clean, and on the upside, it’s a lot cheaper than the hotels. On the downside, the internet connectivity is generally bad. Maybe it’s to do with the number of people using it? For whatever reason, it’s ungood.
Have I mentioned how expensive it is here? $18 for a Chipolte-style burrito. $8 for a bubble tea. Yikes. At least the 7-11 hot dogs are only $2.50, but an accompanying bag of potato chips doubles the price. A 500 ml soda in a kebab place is $4 on top of the kebab itself at $15. I’m looking forward to heading further south in a couple of weeks both for warmer weather and more affordable costs. It’s not terribly cold here, yet, since it’s in the 50s, but “winter is coming,” and I don’t want to it to find me.
Three things became immediately apparent to me as I walked from train station to hostel.
There were a lot of rough characters on my street at the end nearest the train station;
There was a significant police presence in the immediate vicinity of said rough characters;
There is a lot of tagging on buildings, kind of everywhere downtown. It’s not the artistic graffiti I’ve seen in other places like Bogota, it’s just ugly tagging.
The rough folks weren’t a problem for me. They pretty much ignored me as I ignored them as I passed. I didn’t go out past dark, so there were no worries there either. In that way, I guess I’m less adventurous, or simply old: it gets dark and I get tired and want to stay in. That’s a silver lining to traveling solo: nobody to complain about being in at 7:00 pm, streaming a show, or reading a book. (Currently 1883 & Tulsa King, and Immense World & The Secret, for two of each.) My only discussions about what to do and when are internal. I won’t air the laundry on any arguments there, though. What happens in my head, stays (mostly, with some exceptions) in my head.
I noticed a lot more tagging as I walked in other parts of the city as well the next day. Unfortunate. As happens everywhere, it is on public infrastructure like bridges, and walls, and old, perhaps abandoned, buildings.
Some of the new architecture is impressive, maybe making up for there not being a lot of old stuff, like there was in European cities I’ve blown through in the last few weeks. Maybe that’s also why there are so, so many sculptures.
They’re everywhere. On bridges, on corners, in the bay, and, in Ekeberg Park, scattered throughout the grounds. Sometimes beside a paved path, sometimes near a bench, and sometimes hidden in the woods. I loved walking around and discovering them today. If I was running, that park would be a great place to go. As it was, walking the paths and trails with the forest beginning to change color was a lovely experience, even if there weren’t all the sculptures. A few were meh, some were just not my style, and some were simply astounding to me. I enjoyed the more active ones so much I took videos.
The Botanical Gardens were really nice, as well. I can only imagine how amazeballs the grounds would be in spring or summer given how they looked today.
While walking the grounds I spotted a nice pair of tits I hadn’t seen before. One was Great, and the other one was Blue. No, I’m not talking about some mismatched woman, these are birds that were not yet on my life list. They are now. Along with a European robin (nothing like the US version) and a Fieldfare. Four new species in the span of about twenty minutes. Not bad.
Tomorrow is another day in the city. I wonder what I’ll see.
Be kind and take care of yourselves. If you can, care for someone else, too.
Slang, out.
Did not expect that level of variety in the sculptures.