Oslo +8C

Hello, everyone! I am Yuji from Oslo!
Fortunately, since two families can be offered me to stay at their place, I have been in Oslo for four nights. This is the last night in Oslo as well as Norway, probably.

The first day at city center I had a big problem for my bike. When I came back from a GS after I asked a man the way to take, I noticed that my bicycle had some problems at the front tire. It seemed that couldn't be running well. I thought that I had put too much air inside the tire(since I make it up at the airport) and tried to get rid of a little bit of air. Suddenly, a big noise came and my wheel split into two at some part. At that time, I had no idea what to do and had a little bit of panic because I haven't expected that my tire would split. Then, I thought I cannot go anywhere before changing for a new wheel. I asked a man again the way to get to the bicycle shop and finally I could find a shop where they sell some wheels and bicycle giar.

I would say I am a really lucky man because I can find a bicycle shop at that time. The day when I asked another host and I was supposed to take another 15km from the city center but it has already dark and it was a little bit late than the arrival time which I told them before. However, cost for repairing for the bike as not cheap and tried to cut the price to the clerk. But he just told me that "this wheel cost 600Kr. and you have to buy another brake and will cost 200Kr. So, you have to pay 800Kr. altoghther."
And I said "Don't you have a student price?" and he said "No." without smiling. He was a little bit business-oriented (maybe cause it's in the capital )but I didn't say anymore. The question was simple "either I pay for 800Kr. or give up cycling on the bike" I paid and repaired.
But it feels like very fine because I thought it should be paid to repair even though it is not cheap. And another thing why I thought I am a lucky man was my bike didn't break in the mountain or hill. If I couldn't ride on my bike in that kind of place, I would be hard to find a place to fix it. At the same time, I recognized that I have to check it and pay attention to my bike more often than that. Otherwise, I have to push my bike for a couple of km which must be tough.

Today, I arrived at the city center from the place where I stayed, which is located 15km from the city and almost on top of the hill. When I go to the city center, it was easy to ride onto but on the back way I have to keep up on the hill, which reminds me of the north cape!!

At the city center, I was at Norbel Peace Prize center where is located near the port. In front of the building, there was a big flag, which was written "from King to Obama" both in Norwagian and English. When I saw the sign, I thought that "Does King means Norwagian King? Do they have still power to give a prize to the winner?"
As you know, since Obama got the prize there was a exbition about what he have done during this period. But on the other side of exbition, there was another guy who I saw before but I couldn't find out who he is. But finally when I read about the story of him I got the meaning of "King", he is Martin Ruther King Jr. who fought civil rights movement during the 1960 and he got the Prize in 1964. So, the exbition tell us about how we got an impact from the King to Obama which inspired us how peaceful activity is important instead of weapon or war as we saw in Iraq and Afganistan.

To tell the truth, I learned much about King at high school and I even don't have to get some information from there. Even so, some video and speech were wroth watching and feel like how important to make an activity without weapons. But, when it comes to Obama I haven't been listening to much time of his speech except for victory one. The speech which I watched on the video was about Islamic society which he have done in this June when I was in eastern Europe!

The speech was really good even that was a little bit long. He talked about how we, people not only in the State but also in everywhere in the world should fight with problems which we are facing with in 21st century. His speech aren't based on national interest. I think that is the one of the reason why he is loved by the people all over the world as well as he got the prize. In some part of the speech, he tried to tell to younger generation in all over the world, which I even feel like that he is trying to talk to me, that feels very good!! I spend nearly four hours in the hall, anyway.

The first impression in Oslo was wide. City is wide which they don't make a lot of tall buildings or maybe they don't have to because of the population. In some part of the city there are a lot of beautiful architectures and churches as well as green space, which I haven't seen a lot of these past several weeks. But at the same time, there were several people trying to get some money out of the people on the street. Actually, I didn't put any money to them when I saw them, but I feel like the reason why I didn't gave any money to them was that it might be get any trouble, I mean when I put some money to a guy and another guy saw me when I do so. Then, he might also try to ask me some money. I think almost everybody who are walking on the street they have little money to give them but they don't do that. Why? Because they want to keep some money to buy foods. No!! Mostly, I think people don't want to make any trouble with them. Or even just because they think nothing would be change if I gave some money. People have different reason but mostly they are less attention to the poor people. Or even in Norway people might think government should support to those poor people from my experience.

Tomorrow, I will head for Sweden.
The first day in Norway as on 2nd of Sept. Even I took a flight, I spend more than one month in Norway! How big country it is!!!

Yuji @ Oslo, Norway

One of my host at this place is Chinese and there is a electric kettle to make steamed rice as well as gas ring which remind me to Japan!! Sometimes when I touch or even just meet the people from Asia, I feel really like I am from Asia, feel be fine!!