My Oslo holiday, wowzers.
Friday, December 7, 2012.
We had to gather at our workplace at 9 in the morning, which is like a whole hour later than I would usually have to be at work. An auspicious beginning, I’d say. The weather was rather cold, but since I was dressed like a polar explorer, it was not too bad.
This is what everything looked like, winter wonderland, or what? Also, our work is in the sticks.
Everyone finally gathered at 10 o’clock, all in all 24 people. We got on the bus and drove to Kiel, which was the departure point for the cruise ship. Most people started getting drunk already. I just ate my travel snack and ignored their disorderly behaviour XD
We got to Kiel at something like 11:30, and saw our ship. Nice boat, yes? XD
Our departure was scheduled at 14:00 from Norwegenkai (one of the wharfs of Kiel port), so until then we had to queue at the terminal. But at least it looked interesting and there was an amusing souvenir shop that sold stuffed seagull toys that made quite lifelike seagull noises.
Views of the terminal and of the city through the windows of the terminal.
At last we boarded the ship, and I was immediately like ‘omg this looks incredibly posh!’ because everything was shiny and looked really cool. The ship, Color Fantasy, had 15 decks, shopping arcade, restaurants, a casino, show lounge, pool and spa, golf simulator and various other entertainment possibilities.
Inside view of the ship.
I had to share the cabin with a colleague, all cabins were for 2 people. But it was a nice cabin, and even had a shower and everything.
Also, at this point it is pertinent to mention that most of the time you couldn’t even feel that you were on a ship, it barely rocked on the waves.
After leaving our luggage in the cabin, we hurried up to the sun deck to see the departure of the ship. Say goodbye to Kiel, everyone XD
It was really cold up there, and windy too, so we soon left the deck and went to eat a pizza in the ship’s Italian restaurant. I had a mushroom and ham pizza. It was good, but it cost about 18 EUR and it was too crunchy. How is that a bad thing, you ask? Well, I can’t eat crunchy foods, like bread, because I always end up scraping skin off my gums, and it really hurts. I’ve never heard of anyone else having that problem, is it like my particular kind of fail :/
After the pizza, we had some free time, during which I explored the shops and got even more acquainted with the really high prices in Norway (it is a Norwegian ship, so all prices were in Norwegian krones), and didn’t buy anything. I also went on deck again, and if I thought it had been cold before, it was absolutely unbearable now D: But it was still beautiful.
Then it was time for our first group activity - the end-of-the year celebration. So we had to dress up (lol, well, in my case wearing a skirt was enough already, everyone is so used to me wearing jeans that a skirt automatically counts as dressing up), and I had to buy me new stockings which cost 120 NOK (16,35 EUR). Yeah, me mad, it’s like 2 days worth of food.
Our co-workers gathered in one of the ship’s bars and there was a gift lottery (everyone had to bring a small present for somebody, and people had to draw numbers to find out who gets what). I got a mug and a small bag of sweets. Everyone had to give speeches too, stuff like why you like to work in our company and so on XD
And then we had dinner at the ship’s buffet. It was really good! And included in the ship ticket price too, so it was basically all you can eat XD Too bad I couldn't eat everything there was more… I decided to try a little of everything, but most of the stuff I couldn't even eat because it was too spicy or because paprika *insert rageface to show how I loathe paprika* So in the end I had some veggies, salmon in a white sauce and potatoes. And desserts! They had several kinds of cake there, but I only managed to try three before I felt I would die if I ate even a tiny bit of food more.
After that we sort of hung out at the buffet until 23:00, when everyone decided that going to the ship’s night club is a fantastic idea XD Well, it was not bad as far as discos go (we danced to Gangnam Style, I regret nothing XDD), but people were allowed to smoke there and I just can’t stand the smell, and after a couple of hours I felt completely sick already. So I left my colleagues to dancing and drinking and left. I even had to wash my hair at 2 o'clock in the night, because otherwise I would not be able to sleep because of the smell. And I packed all my clothes of the evening into plastic bags so that the smell would not contaminate the rest of my luggage XDD And that was it for Day 1.
Saturday, December 8, 2012.
We had breakfast at 8:30. Or rather, we were supposed to, but due to all the partying last night my colleague I was rooming with overslept. I should have gone to get breakfast alone, but somehow it had not occurred to me at that time XD Anyhow, we got to breakfast buffet at something like 9:00. Breakfast was nothing much to speak of, yoghurts, cheeses, sausages, scrambled eggs, cereal, the usual breakfast stuff, basically.
We approached Oslo at 10:00, and of course I had to take photos of that too XD It was still cold.
Since there were so many people getting off the ship in Oslo, we only managed to finally disembark at something like 10:30. And we had to return to the ship at 13:45, so basically, not much time left :/
Because of that I decided not to attempt to go to a museum, but just look at the city. We didn't have an organised excursion or anything, we just went to the city by ourselves.
See my account of the city visit in a separate entry.
Having safely returned on the ship, the first thing to do was, of course, to watch our departure.
Then I was overwhelmed with new impressions and took a nap after a light snack on my newly-bought Norwegian delicacies XDD After that, we had a group activity again - the big boss of our company, as it turns out, also has an interest in cinema, so he showed us bits from the films he produced and wherein he participated. According to him, some of that material is top secret, only Hollywood bosses have seen those because he is planning to release his movies worldwide. Whateverz. The viewing took place in one of the conference rooms on the ship, there are lots of those too. And they look really classy.
Then, since I knew I would have no use of Norwegian money, I spent most of the remaining krones on souvenirs, which were hideously expensive. I also saw the DVD of my dreams - “Kon-Tiki” - but it didn’t have subtitles in any language I would know, so I didn’t buy it. What is wrong with the producers of the DVD, don’t they want any foreign market for their films? D:
After that, the colleague I was rooming with offered to give me a make-over XDD She is a make-up artist, so I figured I should use the opportunity. I have to say, my hair looks really good when it’s straightened, I might even buy the hair straightening machine (what do you call them anyway?) myself. But the make-up didn’t impress me - I didn’t like pencils brought anywhere near my eyes and I think mascara looks messy. Basically, the overall effect was kind of like a drag queen, I thought XD
However, everyone else was completely impressed, told me I looked great, ‘like a completely different person’ and I should look like that all the time. Lol, not going to happen - I want to look like myself, not like a different person. Anyhow, I experienced several very embarrassing moments during which people complimented me and took photos of me XD
Then we all went to see the show - the ship offered two dancing and singing performances every night. It was interesting, kind of like a musical, with elements of various dances, the music was creative interpretations of popular tunes, so not bad at all. Too bad videos and photos were not allowed so I can’t really give you a better impression about it XD I lost all respect towards the husband of one of my colleagues, though - he was like ‘screw this dancing, let’s go drink beer, what do you think?’ I thought ‘You are an uncultured plebeian, is what I think!’ but of course I couldn’t say that XD But we managed to stay and watch all of the show anyway.
After the show, we had dinner at the ship’s buffet again. This time, I didn’t even bother with salads, I went straight for the salmon. I just love salmon, ok? XD This time, I also only managed three slices of different cakes, too bad - I wish I could taste them all…
After dinner we went to the observation lounge which during daytime offers a nice view on the sea, but at night you can’t really see anything out there through the windows. But we did see another cruise ship swim by, it looked like a UFO in the dark XD There was a jazz band playing and everyone was drinking and I was bored, so I left as soon as possible and went to sleep. And that was Day 2.
Sunday, December 9, 2012.
Had breakfast at 8:30, same food as yesterday. After that, packed my bag, took the last walk through the ship and then it was 10:00 and we arrived in Kiel. The weather that had been great during all the trip, had suddenly turned rather horrible, and there was more snow than in Norway.
We left the ship, got on the bus (and of course somebody was late again, so we didn’t manage to leave until 10:50), and pretty much everyone slept while we were going back to Hamburg.
I got home at 13:00 or so and immediately went to check what’s new on the internet. Nothing happened on the internet, it didn’t implode because of my absence. What a blow to my feelings of self-importance XD And thus, the holiday was over.