This was a travel day for us, so I won’t bore you with the details of it, but let’s say I am glad we weren’t on “Candid Camera” (does this date me or what?)…two fairly-intelligent women attempting to use the navigation system on our rental car. We can’t even blame it to being in Norwegian! But all was finally ‘agreed’ upon between the three of us (Rebecca, “Naggie the Navigator”, and myself.) She would be upset with us when at certain points, we chose to do the route on the Maps app versus her suggestion. She would nag and nag, and finally agree with our decision. But being that she was in a new rental car, and we have been to Eggedal before, experience took priority over electronics.
Most of my entry yesterday had been written prior to meeting our relatives for dinner, and between computer crashes last night, I took a photo of what I had composed. By 1a.m., Rebecca was dictating to me what I wrote, and I re-typed it up on her computer. What I wanted to also talk about in yesterday’s blog entry were things we learned from the family. Little tidbits of information that we were so curious about. The first should be noted to our participants coming to Norway soon.
Public transportation in Oslo can be done by tram (trikk), bus, subway (T-banen), and train. We noticed on our very first ride, no one checked our Oslo passes to know that we had paid for our tickets. We asked about it and learned that there is an honor system for riding with the expectation that you have paid for your ticket. There are random checks while the transportation mode is traveling. If you get caught without a paid ticket, the fine is quite severe. Our cousin, Knut, commented that pre-covid, everyone was honest in following this rule. However, during the height of covid, officials wanted to keep their drivers safe and passengers had to enter at the back of the bus and random checks were not done. Passengers then got used to not paying for their tickets and now it’s difficult to return to having a valid pass. Advice to our participants….if you go onto any public transpiration, pay for a ticket…don’t lose your money by having to pay a fine!
You can purchase a 24, 48, or 72-hour Oslo pass which gets you into a number of museums and attractions as well as the public transportation. It was a handy thing to have and well worth the convenience. We purchased them online and activated them when we were ready to use.
We brought up the issue of almost being run over by scooters and bikes on the street. Knut said that while pedestrians are supposed to have the right away, many bikers and scooters do not follow the rules. We can’t stress enough to watch yourself around bikers and scooters. They will not stop for you! We even found that in some instances with cars. Moral of the story - do not assume that pedestrians have the right of way!
For those who were a part of my Syttende Mai presentations two years ago, I have a few tidbits of additional information for you. Some of you may recall me talking about ‘the russ’ or ‘russefeiring’ - the celebration that high school seniors do for a month from mid-April of their senior year until Syttende Mai. It’s centered on drinking, party buses, and wild challenges. Cousin Knut’s daughter, Elvina, missed this event due to the corona virus, but answered my many, MANY questions. It is indeed correct that they wear these red or blue overalls for an entire month - never washing them. It’s a ‘badge of honor’ for all the many ways in which they have celebrated. They also tie ribbons onto their hats in show of the many ‘challenges’ they have completed. This past weekend was a huge event in Stavanger where the russe from all over Norway gathered for a large festival. We only noticed three russe in Oslo…and their red overalls had 2023 on them. They must have chosen to remain home. These seniors celebrate for a month until Syttende Mai. Then they have to return to school for finals. Wow! Imagine that! I read that about about two years ago, the Norwegian government was thinking of changing the celebration period until after Syttende Mai, but nothing has changed yet.
It’s great to be able to get first hand information from those who know!
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