As I had written previously, we couldn't sleep until almost in the morning of today, so we hadn't got out of the room until 1:30 pm. Today's activity started in the afternoon.
Not having lunch because we weren't very hungry, we walked out of Radisson Blu Scandinavia to Royal Palace, which is within 5 minutes walking distance I had found out when I booked this hotel 3 weeks ago.
As expected, there was a long line in front of the Palace because it is only open to public during the summer. We hadn't bought the tickets at one of the designated stores like 7-Eleven, so might not be able to buy them at spot either in such a late hour. However, we were fine for not being able to visit inside this time. My son will come to Northern Europe to attend a study abroad program in his junior or senior year at UW then he will have tons of opportunities to do it by himself. I had been in it once before, and I plan to come to this area more often. For example, I am planning to fly to Stockholm next May to watch Eurovision 2016.
Walking into the Palace Park behind the Palace, we saw a group of tourists standing in front of the pond to take pictures, which triggered my son's desire to have one as well.
Walking around the pond to the other side, I saw Royal Guards were happening to switch their shifts. Running to get closer, I videotaped the process, which is universal to all royal families in Europe. My son made a dry joke as he always likes doing but I did want to record this moment, so uploaded it anyway. At the moment we left, a lady guard was standing at the back entrance of the Palace, the scene was fantastic.
Keep walking to the other part of the park, we saw local Norwegians utilizing it as their own public garden. Some of them were lying on the grass to take nap under the sunshine, some of them were sitting on the benches chatting. It was so harmonious and peaceful.
Our next stop would be Oslo Opera House and I planned to walk there but eventually found it too far after confirming with an Asian guy, whom just parked his car by the street walking a bit ahead in front of us. He suggested us to walk to the main road then take a bus. Actually he was walking towards that direction, so wanted to be our guide for a while. Walking with him and chatting, I learned he is a Vietnamese-Norwegian whom moved to Norway at 2 years old. He told us having cousins in Texas and he had planned to visit them this summer but had to work, so didn't make it. I told him that we came from Seattle and knew many vietnamese friends there, we love eating Pho at Vietnamese restaurants. We almost approached the main street he referred to when he apparently arrived at his work, which is a Sushi Restaurant, he might be a college student being on a summer job.
I had decided to go back to hotel to drive the car to go to Opera House, so we walked along the busy and fancy main road to get back to Royal Palace, then approached our hotel nearby it. It's already 2 or 3 o'clock, I had sought a neat restaurant attached to the building of our hotel earlier, so mentioned it to my son. We walked into it, the waiter I checked with kindly asked us if we wanted to sit outside as everyone did to enjoy afternoon sunshine. We waited outside for a while, my gut told me that he didn't really plan to serve us for unknown reason. My son needed to use restroom, so he got into the restaurant to do it and I kept waiting until that waiter came out to serve the plates for a couple who had sat there before we came. I followed the waiter after he picked up the forks and knives but those were for that couple. I said to him that I thought he was leading me to a table, he smiled to bring me to another table.
I could guess why he didn't want to serve us for a couple of reasons, good or bad or misunderstandings, but I did want to eat there, especially after seeing Norwegian fish & chips on the wooden board. A waitress brought us the menu, I ordered a draft beer and Fish & Chips, my son ordered Omelet and Pepsi. After ordering, she asked me: "American?" I didn't catch it in the first place, and then caught it. I guess they thought us Chinese because a group of tourists arrived at this hotel last night happening to stay the same level as we were staying. I could imagine they might encounter some culture shocks with those tourists due to misunderstanding of the menu or whatever.
The foods definitely didn't disappoint us and the amount on the check was very reasonable. I actually ordered another draft beer later. When grabbing the coins the customers left on their table as tips, that waiter whom evidently didn't want to serve us in the first place dropped the several on the ground and snapped them but missed one under the chair he couldn't see. I raised my voice to remind him: "Buddy, there is another coin there." He took it and laughed: "Keep eyes for me!"
After two draft beers, I shouldn't drive right after and my son wanted to take a nap anyway. We didn't drive out until 3 hours later. By the way, the car was parked in a public garage in the same building.
When approaching Opera House, I just realized that we had come here even took a U-turn in front of one of its sides yesterday, but back then, as I had shared, we were struggling with the traffic to try to reach the other Radisson Blu hotel mistakenly, I hadn't paid much attention to it.
Looking for parking for several minutes, I had to drive away to find one 10 minutes walking distance away. When parking the car, I encountered the first possible accident in this trip: I was trying to turn left to park into a space, the road between the two parking lots on the right and left was very narrow and two cars already stopped behind me waiting. I hadn't expected another car ran over against the coming traffic and wasn't able to see it because the two cars behind me blocked my vision even on left back view mirror. That car probably almost hit my car because I heard the sound of car horn after I slip my car into that space. I still didn't know what the car was and how the driver looked like but learned a lesson that there are reckless drivers even on such a narrow road in a peaceful city like Oslo.
Looking at Opera House from distance, I assumed it was built compared with the one in Sydney. Though they are not alike, I could sense a similar taste of architectures. Standing by the ocean also adds more comparisons. It was built in 21 century so I never had had a chance to appreciate it before.
I did hope there would be a concert but there wasn't. The upper levels were not open to visitors inside, so we only could walk around on the ground floor. It is well designed and shows Scandinavian characteristics.
After walking out of the House, we climbed the slope to reach the top of it and were able to view the entire area.
Driving back to the hotel, we planned to go to Summit on 21st Floor in our hotel but figured on a page of hotel directory that only adult over 23 years old are allowed to dine there. Alternatively, we went out of the hotel and hopefully find another one as good as Den Glade Cris we had our lunch earlier.
As soon as walking out of the entrance, I noticed a Spanish restaurant across the street, which looked pretty authentic. The manager or the owner was very warm. Though we are very familiar with Mexican foods, not Spanish at all, and they looked pretty different. My son wanted to try a set of dishes listed on first page of the menu and the manager concurred it a great option. In addition to his first beer in his life, he had his first glass of wine in this restaurant. I actually had two myself. The dishes were very delicious and unique but plates were too small for us.
It looked like the owner is a super soccer fan because I noticed flags and decorations of Real Madrid all over the walls in addition to those of Barcelona and Chelsea.
First day in Oslo was called off in the early morning on its second day, we would fall into deep sleeps and were going to leave this beautiful city tomorrow to drive to Goteborg.
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