Preparations and the Decision to go to Oslo
Trip Start
Mar 2007
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3
Trip End
Mar 2007
Aix en Provence, France
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
But during my second semester in Aix-en-Provence, this eventually changed. Shortly after my trip to Italy I had become aquainted with a 19 year old from New York City art major at IAU's Marchutz School (IAU's art school) who also loved to travel and ironically happened to be of Polish decent (well she thinks that she is; her family history is more mysterious than mine). Eventually the both of us began to talk and eventually a friendship began to blossom from these short accidental meetings. We hadn't known each other for very long, but I remember that shortly after we had met my new friend had offered me to join her on a weekend trip to Oslo, Norway. Like me, she had always wanted to go to Norway and also she wanted the chance to travel with someone. I at first was going to turn her down, but I decided to talk with my mother first. My mom ironically gave me permission but she said as long as I could make the arrangements cheaply. I had already discussed with my mom some of the flights my new friend and I had looked at and the prices and my mom was okay with them. So the next day, my friend and I met in the computer room and started to discuss plane tickets and hostel arragements. She and I had decided to purchase tickets with Scandanavian Airlines to Oslo (was about 280 euros plus plane fees, which made it more like around 300 euros) and I booked an all female dorm for her and I for Saturday and Sunday. Even though I had booked the hotel, my friend still had to buy her plane ticket but she had to run off to class so I told her to go ahead and purchase her ticket later. I would have purchased it myself, but mom would have killed me if I had done that.
Well the next day I called up my friend to ask her if she had been able to buy the tickets. I had an odd feeling that something wasn't right, but I figured that I'd call her up anyways. Well my friend had some bad news for me. Her mother at the last minute decided that she felt that it sounded too expensive and she wouldn't let her go if we found a cheaper way. Sadly I had already purchased the tickets and they were unrefundable so I couldn't get out of it. Also most of the other methods of travel, such as train and bus, would not have been any cheaper and would have taken longer than plane, and the cheapest option, to fly with Ryan Air, happened to not have an available flight that would have worked with our school schedules and there's no way my mom would have let me fly with Ryan Air because it's a discount airplane company and my mom doesn't trust those kind of carries (neither do I personally). So I now had to go alone, but it was okay. Now my mother was upset with me because she as well began to complain about the plane fair and the hostel fair as well (which was about 40 dollars a night) but I couldn't back out of it now. I felt kinda bad now not only because of the plane fare and the hostel, but also because my friend wasn't going to be able to come, but I told her that I would help her plan her spring break so that she could go to Oslo (I had already made my Spring Break plans by now and I had purchased my plane tickts for that, too).
So, now I had to get ready for a trip that I had not originally planned to take nor did could I really afford to go, but at the same time I was excited. I was finally going to get to go to Norway, not originally as I had intended but I was going to get to go. Mom finally began to feel excited for me as well, because she had always wanted to go to Norway as well, and the fact that I was going was exciting for her too now.
Packing up for the trip wasn't a big deal but I did have to pack a lot of warm sweaters and an additional coat, so even though I was going to be in Oslo for only 2 days I needed the warm clothing, especially since I've never been near the Artic Circle before. Remember I'm from Southwest Florida, I'm not used to cold weather, well nothing like that at least. I also packed a small amount of toiletries and of course my camera. As the day came closer, I also began to realize that I needed to make a hotel reservation near Marseille's airport (I was going to leave from Marseille) because my flight was due to leave at 6 A.M. and I figured it would be easier and faster if I left for the airport from close by than all the way from Aix en Provence.
Finally the Friday before my departure for Oslo came. After class I went back to the apartment, grabbed my backpack, and took the public bus back to centre ville so that I could pick up a taxi there. From there, I took a taxi to my hotel, which happened to be 10 minutes away rather than right at the airport complex, but they offered a shuttle service and they could also call a taxi for me, so it was alright. I didn't do anything special at the hotel, except watch TV, called up my mother and ate a sandwich that I had purchased in town earlier. I went to bed early that night because I had plans to leave for the hotel by 4:30 A.M., which meant that I was going to get up between 2-3 A.M.! I wasn't looking forward to that, in fact I was a little worried that I would have problems getting up but it was the only way. I was excited about Saturday and about my flight, but as to whether or not I was going to sleep well or get up on time was a big question. Hopefully tomorrow was going work out okay and as planned......
