I'm going to see if I can get this more off the ground here. Well I've moved. I had been in Japan, Utsunomiya, for a little more than three years. Found lots of amazing cafes, restaurants, little shops, fantastic places to sit, and fabulous places to relax in. I will certainly be back, there is more to be seen there and many of my close friends are there.
More on that later, for now I'm going to talk some about the necessary bits of moving to a new place. No, not the duldrum "job, language, cat food, train stations" bits. We all know that those are there. I'm talking about the fundamental things that I need to function as a more happy little human in a new area regardless of the place. I have also found that I can do this with more ease than lots of people, something having to do with a wanderlust in the blood, but enough about that.
Ok, needs for Lyn life. I'm actually a pretty simple person after a fashion. Coffee, exercise, accomplish something, internet.
1. Internet- Well I'm lucky to have great friends who have marvelous internet in their house. I of course can't stay here all the time, so I pack up my little netbook and shuffle onto the train for a ride into Oslo proper. There are actually several places that I've found that have internet available, libraries of course have wireless internet available if you get a guest pass from them. Also various shops or cafes might have it. They have signs stating as such. I found one cafe that has wireless internet and nice chairs, so it is very adequate for my needs.
2. Exercise- With the abundance of parks and natural areas with walking paths, exercise here is easy to do. Pretty much everyone does. Men, women, and children in exercise clothes and with gear accompanying get on trains and off, bike to work, ski after cars in the street, ride skooters around town agilely avoiding pedestrians, joggers are everywhere. People in exercise clothes are never given a second glance by other travelers because at one point or another everyone is one. Shops tote various grades of clothes for the occasion from sweatpants to casual professional grade gear. It's extremely impressive.
I've looked into lots of different things to do, I bike in the apartment on a stationary bike, walk for hours too, and ran less than I liked. I looked into Krav Maga. I might try that once I'm a bit more settled. I found a bellydancing studio that was holding Zumba classes during the summer months. I figured I'd try the zumba, and get to know the teacher. Zumba being upbeat music, latin in origin usually and lots of dancing style choreography. Also, since my teacher is a bellydancing teacher I'm pretty sure we are doing things that other more standard zumba classes don't. It is pretty challenging and I find that when the older ladies in the class are schooling me I get pretty embarrassed. I am learning fast though and am doing much better with the various routines than when I started.
I saw a man going into the class after mine with this girlfriend and I smiled and wished him luck and all the best. He was sure to have fun at least. It certainly makes one chuckle trying to keep up.
Oslo Magendans Studio (in Norwegian)
3. Accomplish something- Other than meeting people and making connections as to where things are or how to get from one place to another, or slowly hearing different words and understanding them. I like more concrete accomplishments, things I can say "I did" Well I'm doing zumba right now and I'm surviving and thriving at it. It is very out of my normal set of things. It's not rock climbing, jogging, swimming, or my normal things. Some times it's a bit frustrating, but I find that continuing to try and pushing myself to learn the various parts gives me a sense of accomplishment at the end.
4. Coffee- Saved the most important for last. Coffee.. You'd think that this was standard, but similar to the canned, instant varieties that you find in Japan, good coffee isn't a right. It's a privilege. Also noting that canned coffee you drink like a shot, hoping it never hits your tongue. Yes, it really is that unpleasant. Ok, so coffee in Oslo. Not bad, but not dark.
Right before I left Japan the Starbucks in the mall (and already I hear some people going Starbucks nooooo!!! But bear with me) started carrying a blonde roast of coffee as standard. Now, generally when I make coffee at home I can drink it black just fine, but Starbuck's coffee is usually a very dark roast so I require milk. That's still alright. I tried the blonde roast, strangely not having done the research on it, thinking that it would be lighter in flavor just a bit.
I was so very wrong.
It was nigh undrinkable for me. I've been inundated by dark roasts my whole life and now this. It's almost vinegary in flavor and after a few sips actually starts hurting my stomach.
How is this relevant you ask? Well if you ask for coffee (straight coffee) from a shop and they go to a carafe to pour it out, 9 times out of 10, it's going to be this blonde roast. The coffee will not only have been sitting in that pot for a while, but it will be that lovely vinegar flavor that I love so much. I accidentally got a cup at a cafe not realizing and couldn't even power through it. I drank half of it, and had to push it away.
Not to say there isn't good coffee around, generally in that instance any cafe will have an espresso machine and it will have that lovely dark roast coffee. Obviously because you can't make espresso out of blonde roast. So when in doubt order a double americano (2 espresso shots with hot water). That will get you pretty close to a cup of coffee if you are desperate.
A couple of places are standardly good and I'll continue looking for more, but for right now, my go-tos are: Wayne's Coffee.
Wayne's is a pretty standard (we have coffee, and chairs) kind of shop. They are pretty much everywhere, within walking distance from any train station. They are also laced with free wifi, added bonus. This makes them a favored spot for me. I particularly like the Wayne's down the street from National Theatre Station. I've sat and written on my story for a long time. It's a very nice place. Cup of coffee 27nok($4.50), refill 7nok($1.17) and yes that's pretty cheap.
In stations or in malls you'll run across BIT (bee-t), a very nice coffee/cafe thing. They have good coffee, pastries, very good sandwiches, fresh-made breads that you can choose how wholegrain you want it (light, medium, full grain). They also have a full on salad bar that you can order anything from. It's a very good choice in the morning or in the afternoon on a commute.
I found other interesting things I hope to get around to looking at as I go. I'll tell you about them as I do. I guess one of my points here is that it is pretty good at giving you what you want for a city. It's actually extremely good at it. There's a little bit of looking around required of course, but very worth it. I really think this place has a bit of something for everyone. Cheers.
