Winter Europe Trip 27th November 2022 (Sun) Day 1

As the previous post is getting so long and we kept traveling backwards into different timezone, the line between Day 0 and Day 1 is blurred. I'm blogging about the remaining first day experiences in this separate post. 

Very simple breakfast fare

Very huge lounge that made crowding impossible

Very big and nice toilet

The other side of the lounge with a huge water feature

After flying Qatar airways and being in their flagship lounge in Doha, the middle eastern country left a fairly good impression in me, they are rich and they have no lack of space. Clearing the immigration was unlike flying into Abu Dhabi and Istanbul, there were no long queues even for economy class. Even though they are hosting the World Cup, the crowd was not too bad and the airport is new and vibrant at wee hours. I was lucky that all three airports I was at for today all did not have long queues. 

Four hours transit seemed daunting but P and I both felt quite refreshed after this transit break. We had traveled for close to 18 hours but we actually felt much better when boarding again later on. One important thing that helped us refresh was the good shower at Al Mourjan lounge. This is not the first time I've taken a shower at the lounges but this time it was really much needed for us to get the dust off and freshen up. The lounge shower facilities was also really good, in fact its one of the best I've used. There was no queue for the ladies shower and I headed straight for it after we settled down. I noticed the queue at the men's shower so I got P to put his name down and the service staff called him after an hour or so.

The only quips I have about Doha airport is the naming of the lounges. All their lounges have these similar names which is not intuitive and doesnt make any sense to travellers like me, it was a bit hard to make sense of where to go to just by looking at the name so we had to go the information counter to find the correct lounge to go to. The food variety at the lounge is not 'wow' like the Turkish Air lounge in Istanbul, but the space and vastness inside the lounge certainly is. We were also not hungry at the moment so it did not matter much, I only had a good cup of coffee and ate some crips while waiting. I'm impressed by the cleanliness of the lounge as I saw a few service staff who came around to dust the lamps and the counters and walls etc. 

P heard about this huge Kaws statue and we came for it

Took this earlier before we went to lounge

Finally on board after 4 hours transit

2-2-2 arrangement on board

Half the number of biz passengers but its full

Wefie before we fly

Another quip that I had about Qatar airport is due to the vastness, all passengers had to take the shuttle bus to get to the plane. After leaving the lounge, we also took a shuttle train to get to the gate. There was dedicated service to get the biz class passengers to the plane but we decided to just skip that and went on with the other passengers, the shuttle bus actually went a long distance before we reached the plane. As expected, the 777-200 plane biz is in a 2-2-2 arrangement, no amenities bag and pyjamas on board like the long haul (although the hours of flight is even longer for us this leg). The crew served us welcome drinks soon after we boarded while the other biz passengers were still on the dedicated service. 

There is nice box with the amenities inside

Appetizer for our lunch

Arabic style starters

P had lamb chop and skewers

Slept well soon after lunch

I do love the design of the Qatar seat as they always make very good use of space and there are surprise nooks and storage that we didnt expect for storing bottled water, headset etc. As each leg of our flight is 7 hours, with a press of the button the seat changed into a bed and that was certainly a plus. Lunch was served soon after takeoff and honestly I was not hungry but just want to get through with this part so I can lie down and sleep. Starters and bread were presented nicely like the previous leg and I have to say actually the lunch mains tasted better than the breakfast mains we had earlier. The crew was very attentive and remembered that P wanted lamb so he got those while I had salmon. Salmon was not too bad with very nice potato gravy, it was soft and tender and P and I exchanged dishes so we can have a taste of both. 

I slept as soon as they cleared the tray and I thought I felt too full to fall asleep but I was asleep soon after that, enjoying the full flat bed and the comfort. Again, I woke up 2 hours before reaching the destination and started to listen to Jay Chou and watched Thor Thunder and Love while waiting. 

Had cafe latte just before landing

Window shades up but sun is not strong

Easily found our way to airport express train

Oslo airport station

Finally on our way to the hotel

It was past 2pm when we landed and we dreaded the moment when we have to pull up all the windows shades, however to our surprise the sun was out but not bright and glaring at all. We were treated to a snowy landscape as we landed at Oslo airport. Once we stepped out of the aircraft, everything felt very 'ikea' style to me, everything was wooden and clean and nicely designed. There were no long queues and we got out of immigration soon enough. Fortunately for me, I survived the whole journy to the Oslo Central train station with just my light jacket. Unlike our June trip in Germany, we found a very helpful ticketing information counter just before stepping into the airport express area. The ticketing booth looks really like the Germany one with similar wordings and after we bought the tickets we needed, the train arrived just as we got onto the platform. The airport express that we boarded had only one stop at Oslo Central station and it was easy enough, it was also not crowded on the train. 

Transport price is not exp

P was craving for churros once we alighted from the train

Certainly tasted good in a chilly winter night

Loved this counter with free water

Many lifts with the centralized auto assigned system 

Many things are expensive in Norway, but I would say the airport express ticket at 210 NOK (30 SGD) is quite reasonably priced. We're staying at Raddison Blu Oslo Plaza hotel which is directly linked to the station and just across from the Oslo Central Station linked by a overhead bridge. We did what we did in Berlin again and walked one super big inconvenient round before reaching our hotel. We alighted from the train before 3.30pm but it was already dark and the sun has set. P was already craving for donuts and churros as we saw one of the stands after leaving the train station, that was one of the items we first bought in Norway, other than the train tickets and I did not notice that it was rather expensive and cost about 10SGD for 6 sticks of churros. I did not go to the money changer for this trip and did not have any small change with me and was planning to pay everything by card. It is really convenient nowadays.

Courtesy of the hotel, the traditional Norway xmas glogg 

Tried Peppes pizza and saw it everywhere after that

Got this for P instead of birthday cake

Narvesen is another popular convenience store chain

We rested a bit, freshened up and decided to walk to the station area to look for dinner before we headed back and turn in for the night. As I did not have thick jackets with me, I was glad the weather was not as cold as expected. I survived the long walk earlier with just a light jacket and thicker uniqlo 'fleece like' jacket outside, I was also wearing the Uniqlo fleece lined sweatpants and these were thick enough. We got to the station and looked around, most of the stores were already closed at 6pm and most of the eateries were selling sandwiches, pizza and salad etc. There were not many cafes and restaurant choices from what we could see, so we decided to just have dinner at Peppes pizza as the huge slices of pizza displayed outside caught our eyes. There were also quite a lot of patrons when we were there. 

Many patrons went for the pizza buffet and it is quite worth the price at 169 NOK (about 20+ SGD) but we decided we could only finish one slice of pizza each so we decided to just order two slices of pizza, one milkshake and one coke ala carte. We always knew Norway is expensive, but it is at this point when it all sink in as the bill came up to be 26 SGD, actually we realised it was mainly because of the milkshake which was priced at about 11-12 SGD. We became that obsessive tourists that kept comparing and converting currency when we see the price tag, often taking out our phones to do the calculations. 

The two pieces of pizza was considered filling enough, but we popped by to Narvesen to get some water (2 bottles for 49 NOK was the cheapest we can find) as our hotel does not provide bottled water, it was about the same price as Germany but we came to treasure free drinking water and refill our bottles at the hotel lobby often after that. The service staff was grilling their store sold hotdog and it smelled so nice we had to get one with bacon and bun, it really reminded me of Copenhagen as the taste was quite good too. This extra hotdog treat cost 90 NOK and our little shopping trip of getting two bottled water, one giant Ferrero Rocher and one hotdog bun came up to 30 SGD. The hotdog bun is certainly more expensive than the street vendor we saw in Denmark but it satisfied our craving. 

It was still early but we headed back to the hotel and then finally get to sleep on the comfy bed after three plane rides. I knocked out before 8pm.

More about the hotel (Raddison Blu Oslo Plaza)

Extra bed for us (for 3 pax) and P put his luggage on it

Shower room is considered big

Huge breakfast selection

Raddison Blu is a hotel chain in Norway and we loved it, I would recommend the Oslo Plaza although its kind of pricey as it very convenient for travelers who do not drive and travelling around by train. It has a huge gym with a really nice view, indoor pool and sauna on the top floors. Once the train pulled into the station, I could already see the hotel. Unfortunately, we did not find the overhead walkway leading to it so we walked a big round.

Some expenses on Day 1:

Churros (10 SGD)

Peppes Pizza Dinner (26 SGD)

Transport from airport (60 SGD)

Narvesen (30 SGD)

2 Nights Stay at Raddison Blu: 650 SGD