By: Samie

Travel Date: June 6th, 2023

Total Honeymoon Travel Days: 9

Day 6

(Coffee & Breakfast at Train Station, Exploring More of Oslo, Peppe’s Pizza)

We knew as our alarms went off in the morning, we would be saying our goodbyes and departing this amazing country. However, our flight wasn’t until 6:30 that evening, so we were going to soak up and enjoy every last minute we could!

After some full days, we chose to sleep in a little bit and had an 8:42 wake up time. We had to be checked out of our Airbnb by 11, so once we were up and moving, we started repacking our suitcases, taking our final pictures, and preparing to say goodbye to what had been our home for the last 5 days.

After enjoying our Airbnb up to the very last minute, we rolled our suitcases to the train station. Since our flight wasn’t until the evening, and we wanted to be able to explore more of the city without rolling our suitcases around with us everywhere we went, we had looked into luggage storage options. Imagine our excitement and relief when we learned that there are luggage lockers available within the very train station we would need to use to get back to the airport later! There are three different size locker options, and the lockers charge by the hour. A small locker is $2.75 (29 NOK) per hour, a medium locker is $3.69 (39 NOK) per hour, and a large/ski locker is $6.53 (69 NOK) per hour. For longer periods of time, there are 24 hour or weekly renting options as well, all of which are extremely affordable with the highest price being $84.91 (897 NOK) to rent a large/ski locker for an entire week.

Once we arrived at the station, it was very easy to find where the storage lockers were because all we had to do was read and follow the signs! It took us down to a lower level. You find an open locker that will work for your luggage, and use the keypad and card reader to choose if you want to pay per hour, day, or week. You do have to pay for the first hour of storage up front. Then you close the locker and are good to go! In order to get your luggage out, you will pay the rest when you come back.

Before continuing on our way through the city, we of course had to grab some coffee and breakfast! Since we were already in the train station, we made our way up to swing through the station Starbucks. We found a cute little table and enjoyed watching the bustling people below with a changing departure board as a backdrop while we made our plans for the afternoon. We decided we would make our way to a different area of the city to do some exploring and shopping.

Once we were fully caffeinated, we made our way in the opposite direction we had traveled and previous day and started walking about 15 minutes toward a large drag of hotels, parks, and shopping centers and boutiques. We aren’t sure if the area has a specific name, but it was over by the Norwegian Parliament building. There’s a large green/park in front of the building and surrounded by lots of restaurants and shopping options. We of course did lots of weaving in and out of different shops and stores. We didn’t buy anything this time around, but we thouroughly enjoyed our time nonetheless.

After a while, we had worked up quite an appetite and were ready for some lunch. There was a popular restaurant chain called Peppe’s Pizza we had seen all around Oslo, so we decided we had better try it out! Peppe’s is a Norwegian chain that serves American style pizza, so as Americans, we felt we had an obligation to see how it stands up. We ordered the Big Shot, a pizza with marinated chicken, bacon, pepperoni, tomato and oregano. While Peppe’s may advertise American style pizza, we have to be honest, it is much higher quality than American pizza. The crust was thick and fluffy with a delightful crunch, the cheese was rich, and even the meats were chunky and full of flavor. It was a wonderful final meal in Norway!

Once we were done eating, we continued walking around until it was sadly time to head to the train station so that we could make our way to the airport. We swung by the luggage storage area to pick up our bags again. We were extremely grateful for the freedom it offered us to travel the city without our suitcases. We both needed to use the bathroom and were going to try and wait until we got to the airport, but we decided we wouldn’t quite make it that long, so we used the station bathrooms. If you’re wondering why it matters whether or not we use the station or airport bathrooms, it is because you do have to pay to use the train station bathrooms, and it does cost about $2 to use the public bathrooms in the station. After using the restrooms, we made our way to the kiosk to purchase our train ticket to the airport and enjoyed the about 20 minute ride there.

This would be our last time going through security in an unfamiliar airport during our trip, so we wanted to get there a little early since we weren’t quite sure what to expect. The line was one of the longer security lines we had been through, and we had a little confusion over which line we were supposed to be in. I also had a slight hiccup with my camera because I had tried putting it in my suitcase instead of my backpack, and they needed me to take it out, but the agent was very nice and patient about it.

The Norwegian airport was smaller than the other airports, and there wasn’t a lot of seating options. We still had a little while before our flight boarding time, and our gate wasn’t up on the board yet. We made our way to an empty gate to sit down so that we didn’t take seats of people that were waiting for their flights so that we could relax while we waited. We anticipated the weather in Reykjavik being just a little different from the weather we had been experiencing in Oslo, so I went to change into something a little warmer while we waited.

After a while, the gate we were sitting at became less empty, and it was about time for our gate to show up on the board, so we left the seats we had been enjoying in order to head to our gate and find some new seats to get cozy in for a little while. Boarding and departure was right on time, and we got to enjoy a pleasant 3 hour flight back to Reykjavik. While we had thoroughly enjoyed our time in Norway, we couldn’t help but feel excited to be returning to Iceland, even if it was only for a short time.

The descent into Reykjavik was one of my favorite airplane descents of all time! It started up high in a clear sky above a full and thick blanket of clouds. As we began to drop altitude, we were then surrounded by the layer of wispy white for much longer than we expected. Then, suddenly, we popped out underneath the clouds to the stunning view of the island of Iceland. It was wonderful!

Day 4

(Supper in Iceland)

Once back on the ground, we made the now fairly familiar trip through the airport and to a bus that would take us into Reykjavik city center. We had decided to book a different Airbnb for our one night here on our way back to the United States. We thought it would be fun to switch things up and try something new, but we were unprepared for how much we would love and enjoy our first Airbnb in Reykjavik.

We started making our way down the streets toward our apartment for the night. Fortunately, it was only a couple blocks down the street from where we had stayed the first time, so we were able to find it pretty easily. Even though it was around 7:30pm, because we were officially into the summer season, it was still light out and wouldn’t get much darker throughout the evening. We settled into our Airbnb before getting ready to head out for some supper. I should mention there was another reason we had picked this Airbnb. That reason is that this particular Airbnb came with a cat! Our host had a pet cat named Mia, and I was extremely excited to meet her! She was a little shy when we first arrived, which is absolutely fair because I would probably hide too if a couple of strangers showed up in my home.

Finally, our hunger began to get the best of us, and we started looking for a place to have a late supper. Something we had learned about Iceland during our research before our trip is that it is known to be an expensive place. We had taken this into consideration and done all our food shopping at grocery stores because it is the most affordable option. However, since it was the last full day of our honeymoon, we decided we would treat ourselves to an actual sit-down meal.

We took a nice stroll to a place called Bastard Food and Brew. We started with a couple of cocktails. I ordered a drink called the Honey Pot, a bees wax infused Brennivín, limoncello, Chartreause, lemon, bitters, and lemon zest syrup. Luke ordered a drink called the Bastard Zombie, which we were surprised to find came in an extremely fun tiki glass and was even set on fire by our waitress! His drink was a rum blend, falernum, orange, pineapple and cinnamon syrup, lime, absinthe, tiki bitters and raspberry syrup. Living up to its reputation of being expensive, my cocktail cost about $23, and Luke’s cost about $22.

For food, we ordered a soft pretzel with a jalapeño cheese dip as an appetizer. However, had we known the size of the pretzels and amount of dip, we probably could’ve ordered this as a meal in itself. The pretzel and dip cost around $20. Finally, we were there on a Tuesday, so they had a Taco Tuesday special! Normally, 3 tacos cost $27.72 and 2 tacos cost $21.53. Lucky for us, with the Taco Tuesday promotion, it was about half off! I got 2 tacos for $10.86, and Luke got 3 tacos for $15.93! We both got a beef brisket and pulled pork taco, and Luke got a crispy chicken tenderloin for his third taco.

While the cocktails were expensive, they were also strong, and one was plenty, especially for me! We were both delightfully giggly and full and our splurge was worth every cent for a lovely date in Reykjavik! After we were finished, we made our way back to our Airbnb for the evening and gained Mia’s trust so that the 3 of got to spend the rest of the night relaxing and watching some TV together before calling it a night.

Next time will be all about our very last day of our honeymoon, so stay tuned for the bittersweet end!