About the sea journey to the lands of the Norse gods

Before I can even start on an entry on Oslo, I think the Copenhagen - Oslo journey itself deserves an entry of its own.

While planning for this whole trip (with the laptop in front of me), I was mulling on what would be a great way to travel to Oslo from Copenhagen with my dearest one.

Of course, we could take the plane, where it'd be cheaper and faster. We could also take the train, but it would take too long, since Norway and Denmark are separated by the sea and there is no land bridge connecting these two countries.

Finally, I settled on the ferry service that plies between these two cities. I thought that a ferry ride would make the whole experience richer (though it was very expensive - over a thousand dollars just for the two of us!). Budget is important, but experience is priceless. And so, without any further delay, I promptly booked a pair of return ferry tickets.

And so, after spending a night in Copenhagen, we were due to depart for Oslo. At 4pm (Denmark time), the giant cruise ship Crown of Scandinavia set sail for the overnight sea journey to Oslo, the capital city of Norway.




We captured some photos as the ship departed from the terminal:










Dinner was not too bad. Our initial fears that we would be eating bread again proved unfounded, as we were offered some offerings of warm food - pasta and meatballs were my favourite. Nothing that is close to Asian food, of course, but we were still able to enjoy dinner tremendously. Everyone around us seemed to be sipping copious amounts of wines and beer, and when the waiter came to our table to recommend his choicest wines, we politely declined. We would love to drink of course, but the wines were priced out of our wallets! We had skyjuice and we were more than pleased with that, of course.

Sitting next to the window made the experience much more memorable.






My dearest needed a hairdryer, so she asked the Info Desk for help in this area, and they had one hairdryer to loan us!




Our accomodation on the ship is nothing to shout about. While booking the return tickets for this trip on the internet, I had simply booked the most economical tickets, not realising that the cheapest tickets meant rooms with NO windows! We had a good laugh about it!




The next day, we got up and really looked forward to a hearty breakfast!





The coffee and tea were great and having eggs, sausages and hash browns on my plate was worth rejoicing! And nope, I didn't touch any bread at all.

The ship was very large, with ten levels. Many of the levels are set aside for bunks, while there was one level set aside for cars and tour buses, but there was a duty-free shop, numerous bars and cafes, a LAN gaming shop, a cinema and a deck that commanded a view of the sea. It's a pity that the ship did not have a gym.






We were due to arrive at Oslo at half past 9 in the morning. As we moved into the vicinity of the city, we could see countless sailboats on the gentle sea. It was clear that the Norwegians were really enjoying the summer weather.








It was with great anticipation when we breathed in the fresh air of Oslo. Nope it wasn't cold at all. It was truly pleasant weather - right in the peak of summer in northern Europe. We were all set to continue our journey. Next post!