These people are way too nice to be descendants of the Vikings

I'm happy to say that my luggage and I were reunited yesterday after a three and a half-day absence, and it is a very good thing to be wearing clean clothes again. I arrived on Thursday morning, after a surprising quick flight from Newark, on which I got to sit next to a talkative 10-year old kid on his way to Zurich (via Oslo) to compete in a dirt bike race -- seriously, he's even been sponsored by Monster energy drinks. My thoughts on this were 1) I would never have been allowed to fly alone internationally at 10 years old, 2) Monster energy drinks has way too much money, and 3) do the Swiss really like dirt bike racing?

For my first couple of days, I've mostly wandered aimlessly around Oslo getting a feel for the city, and it's a pretty good feel. It doesn't hurt that yesterday and today were sunny and warm, and Oslo (just like London and Seattle) seems to get a little giddy on days like that. Imagine the first week of spring on a university campus, and it feels a lot like that; everyone seems positive, energetic, and eager to cram as much into the day as possible. Prediction for the rest of the week, by the way, is mostly cloudy and cooler.

Oslo seems like a pretty good city; laid back, walkable, and very cultured (they have a major street named after the playwright Henrik Ibsen, with quotations from his words inlaid into the ground the whole way - can you image that happening in the States...say with David Mamet?). There also seems to be a good restaurant scene, except I can't imagine how anyone can afford to eat in them without taking out a second mortgage. I was warned repeatedly and dramatically about how expensive Scandinavia is, and if anything, those warnings  didn't go far enough. I'm going to splurge before I leave for some modern-traditional Norwegian dinner, but in the meantime I'm getting the most from my hotel's free breakfast and keeping the other meals simple.

Reasons to like Oslo:

• A love of cheese that creates displays that looks more like candy or chocolates, including a description of Hjerterdame as "the one and only romantic cheese." (http://www.mathallen.no/)

• A whole row of parking for tiny, silly-looking electric vehicles

• Vikings! Or at least their ships... (http://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/viking-ship-museum/)

• The fact that it's 11pm and still dusk, and will be for another hour

Reasons not to like Oslo:

• The food prices
• Bad eurotrash haircuts on guys
• So far, that's all I've got

Tomorrow's schedule calls for the Edward Munch Museum to see "The Scream" in person, maybe a return visit to Mathallen market, and the overnight train to Bergen on the coast. Fjords, here I come!