Right on time the next train to Oslo pulled into the station, and aboard I climbed. Onward to Oslo. The wilderness along the remaining route was incredible. I grew up in some of the most beautiful natural areas northeastern Oklahoma offers, rural Adair and Cherokee Counties. And I thought I knew what miraculous nature looked like – I did; I do. But I had to reassess my definition of nature’s beauty when seeing this part of the world. I wish I could have taken some photos of this – I tried, but the speed of the train and the rain blurring the window prevented a good shot.
We, my fellow travelers and I aboard this train, rolled into Oslo around 3pm local time. Deboarding the train and exiting the station I had a different sense about this city than I had Copenhagen and Stockholm. In the previous two cities I had felt a sense of openness and friendliness. I felt welcomed and invited. Oslo felt a bit different. I was almost immediately confronted with homeless people begging for money, something I had not seen in the previous two cities. I had seen evidence of homelessness in both Copenhagen and Stockholm, but not the aggressive begging – in fact, no begging at all. The homeless in Copenhagen and Stockholm seemingly made their way through life by doing small jobs or collecting cans and such for recycling. However, Oslo had – well, bums. And they were aggressive. I encountered one “bum” (and here I use this term not in a mean spirit but it is the only word that seems to come to mind when I think of this) who when I first saw him was assertively pounding his cane on the ground. It appeared as if he could not walk, or at the least had great difficulty in walking. He was dressed, well – like a bum and sticking out his cup for coins while beating the ground with his cane. I would see this same man the next morning walking around town just fine, actually twirling the cane as he talked on his cell phone. Glad I gave him nothing the evening before.
I also got a sense of a more closed-off mindset from the city. The people I encountered were not as friendly nor open as I had enjoyed previously.
Additionally, as I was walking to the hotel where I stayed I had an encounter of a different sort, one for which I wrote the following poem:
To the near-homicidal ass
Driving his over-priced manhood compensator
While talking on the phone
I thank you for the warm greeting you gave me
As you tried to run over me
Only a few minutes after I arrived in Oslo
I know you saw me, clearly crossing the street in the crosswalk
With the pedestrian light green
Yet you gunned the car in, I assume, an effort to hit me
I wish you no ill will, but hope you find a better use for the BMW
You so dangerously used in welcoming me to Norway
Perhaps as recycled scrap metal
Following your next failed attempt to murder someone
OK, so now I have that out of my system. By the way, that quasi-poetical rendering was inspired by the poetry of the late Cherokee author Carroll Arnett, or Gogisgi as he was known around Tahlequah. As you can tell my first impressions of Oslo were not good. Perhaps it was just the place and circumstances I encountered as I departed the train, as I would later come to have a better impression of the city. I did finally find a hotel and checked in, freshened up a bit, then set out to find the healthier face of Oslo.
No comments:
Post a Comment