Anniversary, Quiz Night, Kopenhagen & Partypartyparty

... so much for my great plan: "next week I'll start studying"

I thought that at some point I will be exhausted from being gone every evening from wednesday-sunday for trips, parties and other activites. But oh well, the last weeks offered tooooo many opportunities to enjoy my Oslo life, that obviously I couldn't resist to continue with it. Also I was eager to spend more time in Oslo and less on travelling, which was possible cause the last weeks was only one small trip in comparison to the others. And tomorrow I will make a library day (I am only writing this down here so that I really go. Pressure on me now, so I have to!!!), so then I can make up for everything, haha :-P

Seriously, one has to love Norway. They are simply the sweetest. They celebrate everything. In Germany one would probably have lots of dicussions about wasting money, when the University offers free cake to all their students because of it's 202nd anniversary, but Norwegians love to share some love, drinks and food on occasions that don't even have to be special.

Last wednesday it was one of those days. The main student organization turned 200. Since everyone was really excited about this birthday (ironic, yes) there was obvioulsy the neeeed to celebrate it :-P
Therefore they engaged four music acts for a great concert, fireworks late in the evening, free drinks for the first 1500 visitors, and cheap beer all night long (until it was gone ...). We had a fun filled evening with some Norwegian hip hop bands, and a perfect ending with fireworks. Thanks Oslo for making it so easy to love you!

Friday nightwas Quiz night at the Social Science Pub U1. Another Norwegian thing that amazes me. You know, it's friday night, you would think about going out to a club, or having a datenight with your girlfriend/boyfriend, ... but of course you could also pack some selfmade sandwiches, go to University and do some quizzes in order to keep your brain cells active :-D. Okay, although I am making fun of it right now, I actually liked this way of spending the evening and one has to add that the quiz if ofcourse made in a nice and funny way with videos and music etc.. We had a nice group and grabbed some beers (except of the people having a hangover that had to stay with Pepsi..sure not meee ;)) and thanks to our Norwegian translator Kamilla we were also able to participate at the quiz :) Bad news: We didn't win. Good news: We didn't loose.

On saturday another trip was on the plan. My friends and I booked a trip to Kopenhagen for about 25 Euros. It was a special offer that took us to Kopenhagen by cruise over night, than we had a six hour stay in the city and then overnight back home. So I know you keep thinking that I travel soo much, but well, I had to take this special offer!!
Also, it was my first time on the cruiseship and I loved it. I've never considered doing a cruise vacation before, cause the prices are normally extraordinary high and I love exploring a city in more than 1 or 2 days. But I have to say, I loved crusing around haha. It's really like a little town. They had a spa and pool area, three clubs and several bars, restaurants, a duty free shop etc.. After a visit in the duty free shop and just a few drinks.. we rocked the karaoke nights with hits like Mamma Mia and Say my name. SO!!! much fun. Thanks for this amazing night to my friends, I love that wherever we go we have such a great time. Even when no one dances in clubs, no one sings at the Karaoke bar -- they manage to start the party. Glad, to be part of this wonderful group of people, really :)

 

Kopenhagen was simply amazing. We were lucky with the weather, sunshine during the whole time!! We started our tour ( a route recommended by Mark!! Many thanks!!) at the old port Nyhavn. So many nice restaurants and cafés were located at the port and I would have loved to stay a little longer and have dinner outside at one of the nice looking restaurants!! We passed the opera house and the theater and after a break with the probably best Bagels in town and passing two churches, we arrived at castle Amalienborg just in time for the royal guard change. Afterwards, we headed out to a parc with a little castle inside. Again, would have loved to sit down, but oh well, 6 hours in Kopenhagen were still enough to get a first impression :-).

 

At the end of our stay we headed off to Christiana. Everyone seemed to be eager to go to Christiana, or the "free town". It's a place in Kopenhagen that is occupied by a commune, who sets their own rules (rather) separate from the rest of the city. I imagined it to be really creative and colorful, to be inspirational. Of course I also expected a lot of drugs, but I didn't know it was mainly about drugs. Going into the "free city" didn't make me feel free at all (maybe I was lacking the drugs...). I felt like people are less smiling, less chatting as in the city and the smell of drugs was everywhere. Yes, there were some house paintings and interesting sculptures out of trash, but it's not like they were extraordinary and you couldn't find that elsewhere. 

This week was also filled of many great evenings. After a short night out on friday that made us realize that Norwegian securities are a little strict when it comes to paper passports, friday night worked much better. First we attended the gig of my friend Emre at U1, unfortunetly it was not too busy, but we had some beers and enjoyed listening to his music anyways. Afterwards I continued with some friends in a bar (name? I really don't know) in Grynerlokka. It has the longest bar in the Northern hemisphere as my friend Steve explained me, and yes, took some time to pass the bar. It was such a nice place and upstairs people where dancing to some really funky music. Enjoyed this evening a lot and looking forward to repeat it :).

After a walk at Sognsvann with my lovely roomate Naomi on Saturday, we were heading for one great night in the city. We had predrinks at our place with our friends and since many of us had visitors the last weeks or went to places in Sweden and Denmark were Alcohol is comparably cheap (can't believe i call Sweden cheap...), there were alcoholic drinks on the table other than beer, haha. In addition, my roomate Gogo also pulled out some strong Macedonian Liquer, that let's say guranteed a night to remember. Around 12 we arrived at Nivou, a club in Oslo's city center. The music was really good and the evening turned out to be really really nice. Another place I would love to come back to...why is it already October??

As you see, I am doing fine :-). I am grateful for the chances life offered me lately. As some of you know, the original plan was not to come to Oslo. I am thankful it turned out that I got here. Partly because of Norway, sure, but also because of my friends here. I'd rather have the ugliest city for my exchange but great people I can laugh with, than a beautiful city without them. Fortunetly, I got both, and even more. I can say that life is treating me well and I do my best to enjoy every minute. Again, Oslo and also the wonderful golden autumn here, makes it hard not to.

Ending with those cheesy but true words, I wish you a good night (or wherever you are, maybe also morning/...) :-))