In order to get to Norway I made two stops after leaving LA, one in Chicago, and the other in Copenhagen. The one in Chicago was basically me frantically trying to make it across to the international terminal, only to realize that I had set my watch an hour ahead so I actually had plenty of time. I have to say, flying into Copenhagen airport was really nice, I know the airport really well (90% of the stamps in my passport are from Copenhagen). Besides the fact that I've been there before, it is one of the nicest airports I've ever been in. In Chicago, the international terminal consists of a poorly lit, carpeted hallway, Copenhagen airport has all dark wood floors, and windows everywhere, making it very welcoming.
By this point, I was really exhausted, I wasn't able to sleep on the first two flights so I was not looking forward to getting on another plane... especially a really small one.... But the time finally came, and I walked out onto the tarmac into the chilly but sunny day to board the plane. I had the pleasure of watching the ground crew load my bass into the cargo hold, which was just about the most terrifying experience ever! They put it on a little ramp and just send it on up- in my mind I saw it crashing to the ground, with my bass rolling down the runway... luckily, everything went smoothly. As we took off, we came out of the cloud cover and got to see the clouds sparkling in the sunlight... it was beautiful. And just like that, as tired and gross as I felt from all the traveling, I was excited again. Flying into Kristiansand was really great, there are fjords that make up the city, which you can see as you fly in. It was so cool to see all the houses scattered up in the hills and along the water. When we came in for the final approach, it looked as if we were going to land on the frozen ocean, but we made it to the runway. The airport here is tiny- one building with pretty much only one terminal. I had a conversation with the custom agent, in which he basically casually walked by and asked if I was playing a concert in the city and I told him about the audition. I didn't realize that he was a customs agent until halfway through the conversation. He didn't even ask to see my passport...
After negotiating with a cab driver and maneuvering the bass into the Mercedes van taxi, I was off to the city centrum. There are lots of industrial factories (or at least that's what they looked like...) on the outskirts of the city. Once in the city, I went to the hotel to check in. It was a little different than I expected it to be.... there was no one at reception (I'm glad I remembered to print the confirmation e-mail that had the door code or I would have never gotten through the front door!), so I had to find my own room and guess what- it was on the second floor. Of joy, stairs! I managed to get both the bass and flight case up to my little room... and little may be somewhat of an understatement.....
So the pic above and below are taken from the bed.... and to answer the pressing question on everyone's mind- yes, I have to move my bass in order to open the bathroom door.
I like to think of it as cozy.... yeah, I'm gonna stick with that... at least it's a queen size bed, which is nice.
After getting settled in (or crammed in as the case may be....) I went for a walk to see a little bit of the city, but mainly to get some real food! The hotel I'm staying at is only a block from the water, which is really nice. The two pics below are right down the street from where I'm staying- you can see the hills I was talking about earlier in the background. The city reminds me a lot of Sweden, both in construction and attitude. It was also just really great to get to walk after 20 hours of traveling! I found a nice little coffee shop to have dinner in- I had a chicken pesto sandwich with really good fresh ingredients. It turned out the girl who was working there was from Sweden, so we had a conversation in Swedish! I was so happy that I was able to remember enough to carry on a real conversation! After dinner I went back to my room and tried to stay awake for a while so I would sleep through the night-and if anyone has figured out the time difference, you realize that that clearly didn't work since it's 3:30AM here and I'm awake... I was able to sleep, but not long enough, hopefully I can get back to sleep so I can sort of be adjusted by Friday! I'll take some more pictures on my walks tomorrow!
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