Oslo Cruise

Howdee guys! Finally I've got something to write about, not only the four walls in my room. Although my illness was already really annoying me it couldn't have been a better timing to get completely healthy again cause it was just one day before we were leaving for Oslo.

It’s been three days since I’m back from the Cruise and it is just now that I have fully realized that the weekend was real. I don’t know why, probably because it went over so fast, when I came back on Sunday I had the feeling that I just dreamed the Trip, instead of having really been there. The first step of the realization phase began when I was looking through all the pictures the others and I have taken. They looked quite real. Hmm probably it really happened ... Whatever let’s get away from these ghost stories and let’s talk about the facts ;)

Basic facts first: 120 students from DTU (our cool Technical University) and CBS (Copenhagen Business School), 16 hours travel there, 8 hours Oslo, 16 hours travel back, huge ship with 11 Decks, bars, disco, pool, sunny weather, fucking cold

So, Friday 12 o’clock, we are sitting in the canteen having lunch and everyone is really excited about the Cruise. Last organisational preparations are made: “Ok let’s meet at the Netto (the cheapest Supermarket) and buy all the “drinks” and something to eat”. We were told by the Buddy Coordinators (they organised the trip) that we can bring our own food and drinks, so that’s what we did. But I was told that the shop on the ship is very cheap, so I didn’t participate in the big shopping, but most of us did.

Some packing in the afternoon and meeting in the train station to go to the ship. Well only a small part of us met. Walk the last meters to the ship … and there she is ... ehm well ok ... here she is ... what a beauty! Ok, now let's go on in the story. We entered the ship at about half past three, but when we were boarding the first problems occurred (of course). The two girls from CBS who gave us the tickets so we can enter, told us that we can't enter with all the alcohol like this, we have to hide the stuff. Hmm ... well so we managed to hide some 100 cans of Carlsberg in our backpacks (which really wasn't an easy task) and then we could board the ship. The departure was at 5, so we had some time to get to know the ship. It was really huge, with the duty free shop, some bars, a disco, where we soon found out that between 11 and 12 in the night there was karaoke and after 12 the disco started. We enjoyed the departure at the sundeck, which was very nice, but as I already mentioned fucking cold and windy. Well, after the departure there was nothing special, we walked around, did some more shopping in the tax free shop, did some more ship exploration. At about 7 there suddenly was this general idea to go to sleep for one hour or so, to be fit. I felt quite tired, so I thought, good idea ... turned out to be one of those 1 hour sleeps where you are just much more tired afterwards. So it was about 8 and I was tired as hell. Counteraction had to be taken! First step, drink a big espresso! Well the coffee was very good, but the effect was a nice and round ... zero. Hmm ... let's think of some other "tricks" to get awake ... drink a lot of water ... yeah that's a good one ... well I'm sure the litres of water would have helped me in the morning (to stop the total dehydration) but as for now they only made me use the toilet more often. Ok, more "extreme" steps have to be taken! A cold shower! YES ... and it really helped ... that was perfect, I was really awake after that. Good timing again, it was 10 by now, cause we started the drinking games to quickly get "prepared" for the karaoke! We had one hour, what is a lot when playing drinking games ;) So after this hour, some beers and a good part of a martini bottle, I was in real karaoke mood and that really means something, cause I wouldn't call me a big karaoke lover.

It is 11 and we are at the disco. Next step is to choose a song ... at the beginning we (5 boys) quickly agreed on "Backstreet Boys - Everybody". But, big disappointment: they don't have it, only some other songs from the B Boys. Well that was so demotivating that we couldn't decide on another song, for the rest of the karaoke. But a lot of others did and it was really cool!

At about 12 the disco started ... not too much to tell about that part, although it definitely was the longest. In the disco it of course wasn't allowed to bring your own drinks so most of us were walking a lot between our cabins and the disco.

I went to bed at about 3; I wanted to get at least some sleep before a whole day in Oslo. The ship was to arrive in Oslo at 9 but we wanted to get up earlier to see the Fjords (although I was told these are not the real Fjords) before we reach Oslo. When I heard my alarm at about 7 I didn't even spend a single second thinking about really getting up, neither did my room mates. But we had someone in front of our cabin door who was very insisting in waking us up and after 20 minutes we finally got up. And it was worth it. The sun was shining and we saw this cool fog flying over the water. We had a nice breakfast and arrived in Oslo after that.

In Oslo we had a bus tour arranged for us, but I wanted to meet Anette, a girl I know from a Rotary Trip back in 2002. She lives in Oslo and so I had a very good and more personal tour guide. And we had a car too ;) Well after some problems finding each other (I realized that my mobile phone is not working in Norway) we had a great day! First we were sitting in a cafe and also drinking one, but the funny thing was that we were sitting outside! Yep, really ... they gave us some blankets and it was really great, the sun was shining, it had about -5°C, but there was no wind. We managed to stay there for 20 minutes, then it got too cold and the coffee as well. Next we went to the see the Ski Jumping ramp just above Oslo, cause you have a nice view from there and you have to be there if you visit Oslo (that's what I was told). Was very nice up there, actually there was a Ski Jumping event when we were there (Austria made the second, third, fourth and sixth place, but the Austrian flag was stolen ;) see here) so I saw the Holmenkollen in Action.

After that we spend some more time in a cafe, this time inside, and later we met some of the others and walked around with them. At about half past four I returned to the ship and like all the others went directly to bed. We all slept until about 8 and this time the sleeping helped a lot and I wasn't that tired afterwards. I'm not going into as much detail as in the first night, cause it was quite similar, but I'm going to point out the differences. 1) This night we managed to find a song for the karaoke. It was a good one and we were really able to fill the dance floor. We sang "The Rembrandts - I'll be there for you". Was great fun. 2) We managed to brake down the (as one of the Italian guys called it) "invisible wall" between DTU and CBS which had separated those two groups until then. 3) I wanted to make it through the whole night this time, but I was just too tired so I went to bed about half past 4 and slept until 9. When I returned home, I had breakfast, checked my mails ;) and then went to bed from 12 to 6. It was great to sleep out.

Well that was it ... long enough I guess ... pfu ... You can find much more pictures than here on the myphotoalbum page. Have fun ...