9 days in Scandinavia
My parents wanted to piggy back on my whole post-conference kerfuffle and met us in Olso after the WWOOFing leg of our trip. If it were up to my parents, they would have signed up for a Chinese Bus Tour to sight-see some bus-accessible, ultra-touristy “Natural Wonders”. If it were up to me, well, you know what I’d be up to. The thing is, my parents travel exclusively by Chinese Bus Tours. Meanwhile, I would throw myself into a fjord if I had to go on one more Chinese Bus Tour in my life (even if they were taking me to the parts of Scandinavia with “Natural Wonders”). The only way we can reconcile this conundrum is for me to plan the trip and for them to follow along as if I were their amateur Chinese Bus Tour Guide.
Source: kisspng
As the client-oriented tour guide I am, I gave my parents two options: (a) we go to one of the Scandinavian countries in great depth (b) we go to ALL THREE countries but with no depth in anything. I was hoping my parents would go for (a); they went for (b) as if that were an obvious choice.
Come to think of it, I should have known better–the last Chinese Bus Tour we went on as a family was when I was in High School We went to Western Europe and blasted through 14 borders in 14 days, following the iconic Chinese Tour Guide flag like people who play Pokémon Go follow Pokémon ….. Come to think of it, that’s a great analogy: my parents collect experiences in different cities like people collect Pokémon for their Pokedex. I guess, 3 Scandinavian cities in 9 days is already a compromise.
Sigh, here goes.
3 days in Oslo
Meeting my parents in Oslo was no easy feat–I mean, by 21st century standards. Before we even the Tønsberg leg of our trip, both our phones have failed us and we were navigating through pictures of maps I took on my camera. Every time I needed to communicate with our AirBnB hosts and my parents, I’d have to pull out my laptop (with a very finite battery life), find WiFi, send emails, and sit there waiting for a reply.
We had coordinated with my parents to meet at a very specific place and time (thoroughly researched via Google Streetview, etc.) and bought their bus tickets from the airport for them to make sure they had the ones that stopped near our AirBnB. We were hoping that everything will turn out okay, and we can somehow meet them without needing any calls in between …. you know, however people used to meet people. On top of that, our AirBnB host was out of town herself, and coordinated her friends to leave our keys in a locker at Oslo’s train station so we could pick it up as we arrived from Tønsberg.
Problems were encountered as soon as we landed in Oslo. We couldn’t find the locker with the AirBnB / the provided code would not work in the locker that most resembled the instructions. It was now (of all times) that my laptop decided not to turn on (persisting contact problems with my power button)…. and we had spilled juice (that we dumpster dived in Tønsberg before we left) on Tim’s laptop so his won’t turn on either. We were losing time, and the AirBnB location (aka close to where my parents would meet us) is actually a non-trivial distance away from the Train Station. God forbid we don’t make it to the bus stop in time to meet my parents.
Eventually my laptop came around to turning on (I pressed the power button in just the right way to overcome the contact problem) and we got in contact with the host courtesy of Burger King’s WiFi. We found the locker, and the key, speed walked to the AirBnB, dropped our own stuff off, got WiFi/power to check if my parents flight was on time (it was). We hustled to the bus stop super-worried that something else wouldn’t go according to plan… and behold, the Airport Express bus came, and my parents got off. Apparently, my parents had been chatting with the bus driver… because as they get off, the bus driver already seemed to know who I was and joked, “You better look after ’em, these two are up to no good!”
Tell me something I don’t know.
1 hour in Bergen
During the past 3 days in Oslo, we talked about the past 1.5 months in Norway and how we would have really liked a chance to see the mountains / the north-west side of Norway. We did a bit of research on train tickets between Oslo and Bergen, because it’s apparently REALLY pretty (See: Slow TV: Tran Ride Bergen to Oslo on Netflix!) … but the train tickets were completely sold out. On the morning of our last day in Oslo, Tim made a spontaneous decision to rent a car. We were going to drive *part* of the route to Bergen and then turn back at some reasonable distance. Or so we thought.
I really wish we could have had more time in Bergen (obviously) as well as the roads between Oslo and Bergen. I am still pissed about the construction that made us turn back before Odda and return to Oslo the same way we went … I periodically Google Earth the segment between Odda and Oslo to see what I missed out on. Not to mention all they great hiking trails we must have passed that I never set foot on.
But all these regrets come second to my regret that I didn’t allocate more gaps in the schedule to give more chances for last-minute Tim to work his magic. Last-six-months debbie will know better next time.
3 days in Copenhagen
After the walking I made them do in Oslo, my parents immediately bought 3-day bus passes in Copenhagen. I’m glad they did because it turns out Copenhagen is so much more spread out than Oslo … which I’m guessing has some causal relationship to the prolific use of bikes in the city (not sure in which direction).
2 days in Stockholm
The trip from Copenhagen to Stockholm was stressful. The route requires a changing to the Swedish train system at Malmö and, therefore, two train tickets. We had purchased train tickets from the Swedish system online (which didn’t prove to be simple with the language barrier) and the online confirmation number we were given was explicitly NOT the train ticket, BUT promised that the confirmation number could be exchanged for real tickets in Sweden (ie. the stopover at Malmö). Of course, at Malmö, the automated ticketing machines did not recognize our confirmation number and the info desk had already been closed for hours. We asked the staff manning the washrooms (you need to pay to use them)–absolutely useless. Eventually, I asked a security guard what I should do in our situation, and he advised us to wait for the ticketing people for the train to come (half and hour before boarding) so we can explain our situation. Ultimately, the ticketing people came, I explained myself, showed them our confirmation number, and (thank God) they found a match on their system, and let us in!
We tried our best to sleep through the night … as we were expected to arrive in Stockholm around 5 am in the morning. However, one or two stops short of Stockholm, our train stalls in a tunnel for a loooong time. The PA system comes on and we are informed that the train is experiencing signal problems and we are halfway between two stops. More time passes. We are informed that the signal problems have not been fixed and we need to move the train backwards to the previous stop. We see a train attendant come through the aisles to the back of the train (we were at the back of the train), and we literally see her looking intensely out the back and reporting the conditions to the conductor with a walkie talkie. The train inches backwards. The train reaches the previous station. Time passes. We are informed that the signal problems persist, and buses are being arranged to transport the passengers to Stockholm. Other passengers comment that it’ll be hard/expensive to get bus drivers on demand on a Sunday morning like this.
We unboard the train. We board the bus. One bus is CLEARLY not large enough for a whole train full of passengers. A train attendant comes on the bus and announces that for which Stockholm is NOT the final destination should be on the bus. Stockholm is supposed to be our final destination, so we get off the bus and join the masses that are waiting for the next bus. Shortly after the first bus leaves, an attendant comes from the train station runs out and announces that the signal problems were clear. We re-board the train. We arrive in Stockholm at 9 am.
For most of the other cities we went to, we got a chance to go far enough outside of the city to experience some of the nature reserves …but not here :(. We definitely did not spend enough time in Stockholm and I do hope I get a second chance!
Some final remarks…
I loved how we made use of different forms of overnight transportation to get to different cities AND save on accommodation:
- By overnight ship from Oslo to Copenhagen
- By overnight train from Copenhagen to Stockholm
- By “overnight” flight from Stockholm to … Reykjavik!
More on that next time.
Ultimately, it was really special to be able to go to these places with my parents. Traveling gives me so much insight to the relationship I have with those I am travel with. As this was first time traveling abroad with my parents as an adult (after a hiatus of 9 years?!), the experience illuminated the new ways I relate to my parents (for one, we went with a Chinese Bus Tour last time). On hindsight, it’s really shocking how much both my parents and I have changed (probably more me than them?) and consequently how much my relationship with them has changed. To even see my parents as evolving beings of their own is new to adulthood…. and I am still processing ….
Too bad all of us seem to be changing faster than I can process it.