The rest of the flight was good. The stop in Paris was disapointing, I had a half hour to kill, and found my self annoyed with the communications gap inabout 5 minutes. As I borded the plane for Oslo I realized that I wasn't being fare and I was just tired and lonely. On the flight I finished reading Europe Through the Back Door. One of the points that Steves makes is that if you want meet local people you need to be agressively friendly and ask questions, even if you are normally shy. Later as I was reading about Oslo in the travel book I started thinking about that and how the woman next to me was reading an Oslo paper. The woman had tried to help me with my tray earlier so I knew she spoke English and was friendly, so I asked her if she was returning from holiday. The conversation progressed and she asked me about my plans in Oslo, I asked he if she could recomend a small hotel or hostel and she said she'd check with her son who is just a few years younger than me. He didn't have any suggestions, but by the time we landed I had a ride into Oslo, and an invitation to stay at their flat.
The flat is beautiful. It's a turn of the century apartment with leaded glass doors and hardwood floors. After a relaxing cup of tea with Tove, her son Axel took me out with him this evening as he took care of some business. Basically I got to meet several more Norwegians, see the inside of another flat, and had my first dinner in Norway (a chilli burger at the "Beach Club"). At the resteraunt I excused myself, but I go confused and had to come back to the table and ask if I was an "H" or a "D". After dinner Axel drove me up to the ski lift for a view of nightime Oslo and then showed me around enough so that I can hopefully find my way around tomorrow.
After returning to the flat we watched a couple of their favorite shows on TV ("Friends" and "Fraisure"e; with Norwegian subtitles - it is a small world). Cecila, the daughter invited me to come out with a group of her firends tomorow. I am very impressed with the Norwegian hospitality!
