The last day of our trip starts little before 5 o’clock in the morning when bustling sounds of Gardemoen airport reaches our “cosy bedroom” in the corner of airport hall. Some of us preferred sleeping on ground, some on chairs, but all of us seemed to sleep quite well. During this trip I experienced my first sleeping in airport ever and have to say, to my surprise, it is possible to sleep in airport.
Early breakfast with sandwiches and little of coffee made using remains of hot water we got for free yesterday in Starbucks. They were very kind and filled our thermos for free even three times.
Our train to the Central station of Oslo departs at 7:03. Agnese says she has heard that train tickets can be used in other transport means, too. Lady who checks tickets in train confirms it is true and very kindly puts a time stamp on our tickets 08:00 thereby giving us time till 9 o’clock for using the same tickets and saving a good amount of money for us. In the station we put all our big bags and 3 suitcases in the luggage room. There are different sizes of luggage boxes and the biggest one (70NOK/24h) was big enough for luggage of six people.
After that we start our Oslo sightseeing plan. We go to metro or so called Oslo T-bane and take a train till the Majorstuen station. From there to the first point in our schedule – Frogner park is only some ten minutes by foot away. Park is mostly known by the famous Vigeland sculpture installation created by Gustav Vigeland in the first half of the last century. We’re having a nice slow walk along the east-west axis of park followed by men, women and children sculptures all together looking to me like a laud to human beings. Officially the overall theme of the park is Man’s journey from the cradle to the grave.
Metro seems to be the most convenient transport for us today, so we go back to the same metro station and take a train to the very center of Oslo – till Nationaltheateret station. We walk around the center streets enjoying buildings of Old University, Palace and modern and old ships in Oslofjord. As me and Everita already had been in Oslo we decide to walk directly to the Central station while others stay to see Akershus Fortress and uses a chance to walk on the roof of Oslo Opera House.After our short Oslo sightseeing it is time to go to the Rygge airport to start the last part of this trip. It’s 49 minutes in train and 10-15 minutes in bus and we’re already there. Enough time for lunch, trying to finish with our food left-overs, repacking of our suitcases to fit their weight in Rynair’s 15 kg, a little inconvenience for me and Agnese on safety check (put the cheese in the checked-in baggage we are later said) and in a while our plane’s taken-off. Flight is quite calm and pretty short and in an hour and half we land in Riga airport. Most of us have some greeters come to take us home, so after short farewells we part.
And that’s the end of the story?
Absolutely not. So many beautiful memories and new impressions can’t be kept inside. Just in a couple of days there will be a story about our trip told in the monthly meeting of Latvian Astronomical Society and probably some article in the popular science periodical “Zvaigžņotā debess” .
As for me personally I have to say this jorney was full of new experiences – from human attitude to nature and to each other to some activities I did first time in my life (snow mobiles, dog sledges). And that so unusual feeling when you wake up in the morning and the first thing your eyes see through the window are white mountain peaks in the whiteness that surrounds everything.