Oslo: Christmas Lights, Lassi and Tandoori Chicken!

I was just given a fright by melting ice in a glass. I guess it's awfully quiet in here. So quiet, my own breathing sounds like a loud wheezing. Lie down flat and close my eyes. Clamp a pillow on top of my head for good measure, and in a little while I can hear my hear beating. Thumping dully, and thankfully, regularly. I feel the blood rush into my face, the ears growing warm till it's uncomfortable. I'm upside-down.

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Last night I thought I felt the tiniest flakes of snow settle on my face. I was planning to sleep early. I was hoping it would begin to snow more heavily overnight. And that when I woke up in the morning I would see the world covered over with a white blanket.

Instead, I took the hour-long bus ride to Oslo. Someone said they'd put up Christmas lights on the streets already! And sure enough all the streets from the National Theatre - Oslo University area to the Oslo Sentralstasjon were festooned with lights. The magnifiscent buildings had lights all over. And there were Christmas trees. All lit up and everything.

Near Oslo S we found a rather spetacular setup: a tall thin strip of artificially set up snow. And people were snowboarding and skiing down this. At the bottom the inclie was turned up, so each person ended up in a leap 10-15 feet into the air. Of course not all of them managed to land on their feet again, but it's snow, so they weren't exactly in the danger of breaking their necks :).

Oh, there was this guy filming the whole thing, and he'd found himself a rather nice perch:

After that when some others in our bunch began feeling really hungry (I'd already had dinner), we headed for this bit of Oslo called Gronland. And I could not believe my eyes when they spied this restaurant called Punjab Tandoori!! I really hadn't realised I was missing Indian food so much :D!! A tandoori chicken and a glass of fine lassi was all I could fit in, sadly :(.

I was actually hoping to stay a while out in the city. But I think I underestimated the cold a bit. And then it had to start raining of course... more like sleet actually. So we just headed back around midnight. No snow though. That would have been just perfect I guess....

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Somebody somewhere said: "Anxiety is excitement holding it's breath". Wonder what he'd call excitement choked to death.