Trainspotting in Scandinavia

If there was any doubt about my dual commitment to my masters program and seeing my girlfriend, it surely would have been resolved over the past two weeks. This is my third consecutive weekend I have spent in Lund, but I have by no means missed classes in Oslo. Through a combination of trains, boats and planes, I have travelled to and from Oslo to Lund 3 times in 16 days, on one occasion returning to Oslo for a solitary seminar. It may sound like a whole lot of travel (and it certainly is), but what else am I going to do with all my spare time as a professional student?

They say that you should treat university like a job, but I can assure you that if I was to treat this course as I would my previous employment, I would have used up my sick days by now. To keep things in perspective, I have to remind myself that I am getting paid to do this course, so I do feel obligated to turn up to my classes, even if it means all this travel. Overall, the university course is only a minor inconvenience for my European holiday, it’s mostly 3-4 days a week with a week off to study, write assignments or travel every couple of weeks or so. The added bonus is that I am required to submit my assignments online, meaning I don’t have to be in Oslo to hand in my work. Also, all this time on the train has meant that, for the first time in my life, I am actually well ahead of the required readings for my uni course.

My 8 hour journey from Oslo to Lund proceeds with a 20 min ride on the Oslo subway (pictured above), which is the most expensive public transport I have ever experienced, at 22 Norwegian kronor ($4.60 Australian) per ticket. Judging by the age and dirtiness of the subway cart, it is clear that the ticket revenue is not reinvested into the subway infrastructure. I then catch two trains (pictured below) between Oslo and Gothenburg (the red train on the left, a comfortable 4 hour journey), and from Gothenburg to Lund (the grey one on the right, a less comfortable 3 hour ride).

On my previous trip to Lund I stopped in Helsingborg for some duty free alcohol. My rail pass allows free travel on the Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish transport networks, and by stopping in Helsingborg (Sweden) and boarding a boat for a round trip to Helsingor (Denmark), I was able to buy some super-cheap alcohol on my way to Lund. Scandlines operate the boats between the two very close harbours (see the pic below) and legitimately claim to be Europe's most frequent ferry line, as they are literally a floating dutyfree shop. By comparison, 24 of the cheapest beer in Oslo would cost around 270 Norwegian kronor ($55 AUD), on the boat in Helsingborg, it costs 150 Swedish Kronor ($25 AUD). Throw a bottle of gin into the equation (which I have no idea how much it costs in Norway as they only sell liquor in government bottleshops I have never seen) and you can imagine that I have plenty of friends around the student residence when I return from Sweden.

While in Lund I have also been able to party with the Finnish community and again enjoy one of my favourite new foods, the Karelian pie. Katri's friend Rami, baked a whole lot of these savoury pastries, which I was only too keen to indulge in as they are difficult to find in Oslo. Below is a pic of me with my uniquely Finnish food and wearing my uniquely Finnish Marimekko shirt, not a Collingwood FC shirt, though given the Docker's 2007 season I may be ready to switch teams again!

Norwegian bureaucracy has yet again dominated my time in Oslo. Last week I had to wait in a 3 hour queue for a passport sticker, which I previously waited 4 hours for on a day when their computers were down. This time I arrived at 7:45AM, half an hour before the immigration office opened, only to be number 98 in the queue.

However despite all the travel and bureaucracy, I’ve actually never been happier at university than I am right now. I'm studying something that I am genuinely interested in, getting paid to travel to different countries and truly enjoying living in the moment. Maybe I can not expect to continue living this lifestyle for ever, but then again, maybe not. Apparently the European Commission are thinking of funding Erasmus Mundus programmes at the PhD level in the next couple of years. Cha-ching!$!$!$