oslo-hagen

Yes, I decided to take the 28 hour train ride back into Germany.
My audition this morning/afternoon went very well, and yet again- I was asked for Queen after beginning with DurchZ even though they are doing Ariadne next year (although I’m sure it is cast already). The opera house is just gorgeous. I didn’t get to see much of the city seeing as how my 10 pm arrival on Thursday was followed by a 3:49 pm departure on Friday.
Oh. This is a good one—more travel tales.
My train at 3:49 left from Oslo Central. OR SO I THOUGHT.
I kept looking at the board to see what track number the train left from, and every other train before and after me for about 20 minutes was already up there. So then I look under “details” for the train. As it turns out, the train “KIND OF” leaves from Oslo! If you count an hour bus ride towards the Swedish border town of Konigsfinger (something or other)…OSLO.
Yea. That was a nice surprise. I had my first class seat all reserved and then I ended up sitting in the last row of a bus for an hour, and then getting on a regional train to….lord, where am I right now? I think it’s called Sodertalje Syd. I’m one or two stops away from Stockholm. Waiting for 2 hours in an unbelievably empty (and kind of scarily empty) train station… it’s one of those small regional stations with only 4 tracks, nothing open, no information booth, pay-to-use bathrooms, (ARGHGHGHG…why didn’t I go on the FIRST train?!), and to top it all off, someone let their dog poop right in the middle of the station. Seriously. You can’t get to track 3 or 4 without going within 5 feet of dog poop.

WHY the train schedule online thought that this 2 hour stopover connection before my night train (11:30pm-6am) to Maelmo (not Malm, you Ikea lovers), was the most convenient, I don’t know. I am PRETTY sure that the night train I’m about to take in an hour and a half starts in Stockholm. Yet I’ll be waiting for it here, at it’s 3rd stop, with dog poo.

Oh, speaking of Ikea, I almost forgot---on the way to Konigsfinger-border-town on the bus, we passed the largest Ikea I’ve ever seen (yes, larger than Elizabeth NJ, Montreal Quebec, Mall of America, MN, New Haven, CT and ALL the other ones I’ve been at that I can’t quite remember or actually care to share because that makes me sound a little crazy…but I DO love Ikea…so deal with it). It was like 3 buildings in one. I bet one whole building was just the “pick up the number tags you want” department…and one building was only to sell Lingonberry juice.
Yummmm…