Is Israel Sustainable?

I think that there are a lot of aspects of Israeli cities that are admirable. They also come with a lot of problems, some worse than in San Francisco. I spent most of my time in Rishon Lezziyon, but I also briefly visited Jerusalem, went to Haifa, and went a couple of times to Tel Aviv. I went by taxi, by car, by bus, by train, and by private transit “taxi” vans. I did not bike, but I did observe others biking and I have a few things to say about cycling in Israel. I also noticed a lot of things about cityscape and building design that I think are mostly admirable.

I’ll start with the city design. I didn’t see any single-family single-story homes in my stay. My mother’s family all live in apartments, even her rather wealthy relatives. There were some lower-density neighborhoods, but even there, the houses looked like they were attached duplexes, not the large-lot Eichlers uglifying Palo Alto. The other great thing about Israel is that literally nobody has a grassy yard. We don’t seem to have realized that California is a desert and should not be dotted with yards like in the ever-rainy Sweden. There is, however, still plenty of greenspace. Public parks are common (I found at least five within a ten minute walk) and most have plenty of grass. There are also a lot of fountains that I feel are a bit extravagant in a desert. Israel is big on desalinization, which is feasible but a lot more expensive than conservation and treating wastewater (read this blog post about drinking your own pee: http://www.citylab.com/weather/2014/06/why-californians-will-soon-be-drinking-their-own-pee/373014/).

One other cool thing about Israel is the prevalence of solar. Nearly every home and building has a solar hot water heater. This usually consists of a white tank on the roof that is attached to a flat-plate solar collector. Unfortunately, it looks like some of the newer buildings are forgoing solar. Keep in mind that Israel is very sunny and warm, so solar water heating is pretty much all that is needed. The water at my mother’s apartment takes a couple of minutes to warm up at some places, but it gets plenty hot. Speaking of hot, the weather is quite bad in summer. It only gets to be 85-100 degrees, but it is humid enough to feel a lot worse, and the low temperature at night is rarely below 70, at least for where I was staying. Despite that, a lot of people do not seem to use their air conditioners all that much and there are still always plenty of people outside. Stores, however, have no qualms about blasting the AC and leaving their doors wide open, to the dismay of me and whoever deals with their electric bills. 

Unfortunately, Israeli cities are lacking in a safe transportation infrastructure. Although cities are compact and mixed-use enough to warrant a pedestrian-friendly street layout, the space is just not there. Sidewalks are often narrow and bike lanes are nonexistent. Drivers are horrible-speeding, rude, honking. We saw a car crash into a scooter in Tel Aviv. I remember the crazy drivers from 15 years ago and it seems that the chorus hasn't changed much. Tel Aviv was full of traffic jams and the highways were often congested. There appeared to be a toll lane for a period on the highway but it was only used by buses and taxis while even while everyone else was stalled. Oh yeah, Israel seems to be a place for hitchhiker's-there were literally hitchhiking stops in the middle of the highway (or maybe they were just bus stops on the highway, which I also saw frequently).

Despite the car frenzy, public transit is somewhat decent. There was frequent bus service of all colors. Interestingly, the newer, fancier buses with wifi seemed to be empty while the old green buses were often quite full. There are also private vans (sheruts) that basically function as buses without set stops and for about the same fare. During Shabat (Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon), the buses don't run and the sheruts pick up the slack (for a higher price!). Train service is also decent between cities but not fully comprehensive. The trains are definitely a bit on the older side and are smelly diesel trains. Haifa actually has started a BRT system called Metronit that looks and feels just like light rail. While a pleasant experience, it was still delayed due to lack of signal priority (mentioned in the Wiki). It has also been riddled by cost overages and at the end of the day, may not actually end up much cheaper than a light rail system. I think it is a good idea though, and if properly designed, can have most of the same benefits as light rail for half the cost.

The biggest issue with transportation is the road space. I see some complain about the lack of bike lanes or sidewalks in America, but this is heavily amplified in Israel. Where I was staying was a nice mixed-use neighborhood with a lot of apartments and shops. Unfortunately, sidewalks are often too narrow to handle foot traffic, much less the bicycles and electric bikes (very common!) that invaded due to the utter lack of bike lanes. Intersections are also an annoyance for pedestrians: just to get across a relatively small 4-lane road, one must wait for the signal, reach the median, and then wait another minute to actually cross. Maybe there is some reasoning behind the crosswalk timing but it seems more of a hindrance to walking. According to some studies (look them up if you want), most pedestrian accidents occur away from crosswalks, but this is likely due to the need to walk half a block, wait a minute, cross halfway, and then wait another minute before being able to cross, just to reach a park that was literally directly across from your house.

Don't even get me started about bikes. Tel Aviv actually has a bike share that seems fairly popular and bikes were fairly common in most places I visited. As I said though, there are no bike lanes and it doesn't appear to be getting better. Tel Aviv has a few bi-directional bike lanes and some bike paths through parks and along the beach. These are geared more towards leisure than towards commuting-the infrastructure is pretty nonexistent closer to shops and offices. Bi-directional bike lanes are also not particularly ideal on one side of a wide road-you may have to cross the road to reach the bike lane and then cross again to reach your destination. Rishon has more bike paths near new developments, but again, they're only on one side of the street and they aren't well connected. I hope that the US (and Israel for that matter) learn to do better.

Some other things I saw were a little disturbing as well. For one, there was a lot of trash around parks and in the street. There was also a lot of smoking, often with store owners lighting up right outside their door. Overall, it was a mixed bag, but I can't say that Israel is a sustainable country. For one, war is pretty nasty for the environment. But even forgetting Israel's treatment of Palestinians and other social issues, the pedestrian/cycling support is sorely lacking in otherwise nice and dense mixed-use developments. 

Israel: Politics and Happenings

NOTE: This Post was written predating most of the violence and is about events from June 26th to July 3rd

Israel

This post is going to be a little different than the previous two. First of all, I am going to ignore some mishaps that occurred in Stockholm that led to me spending 20 minutes walking up and down stairs three times only to end up paying $4.50 to use a bathroom. Also, I thought my headphones were broken, but it turns out my laptop was just being dumb. Sorry, but that’s it for the humor in this post. Anyway, I am going to focus mostly on sustainable urban design (or lack thereof) in Israel and what I feel could be useful for California. That said, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to talk about Israel without discussing the social situation, so get ready for some political ramblings.

Let me get one thing out of the way: I am Jewish and most of my mother’s family lives in Israel. However, I would consider myself vehemently anti-Israel government, 100% opposed to settlements, and supportive of a two-state solution. My cousin is also quite liberal as well and is disappointed with Israel’s strongman Benjamin Netanyahu. Her husband is even more extreme in his disdain of Israelis, going as far to say as everyone is nice to you unless you’re Arab. I question the notion that Israelis are friendly at all, but I’ll leave that for later. I really don’t understand why we can’t just get along, but I guess some people have different ideas. I hesitate to say that I am strongly pro-Arab because I feel like that means that I have to support Hamas and believe that Israel has no right to exist. I am, however, pro-peace and pro-equality. If you want to hear more of my thoughts on the political situation, read on, otherwise I’ll talk more about Israel’s urban design in my next post.

I did not go anywhere near the settlements or the Palestinian side of Israel, both out of fear and lack of time. However, there are persecuted minorities within Israel itself. In the “Jewish” part of Israel, around 16.5% of the country is Muslim. Their status is not quite oppressed, but it is something like I imagine America’s south to be today. There is a lot of economic segregation, as the Arabs tend to be much poorer than most Jews. Think of East Palo Alto, except there literally aren’t any Arabs in many parts of Israel. That is not to say that there are no Jews who live together with Arabs, it is just almost exclusively in poorer areas. I’m getting this information from my cousin who works at a university by the way, so feel free to contradict me if I’m wrong. She also said that primary schools are segregated, even in otherwise mixed communities. I would presume that the Arab schools aren’t quite as good either. One thing that I have read about is the Israeli position on mixed-faith marriage. It is recognized in Israel, but not performed, so you’d have to fly to a nearby country, which isn’t all that easy to do if you’re already economically disadvantaged. Another example of Israel’s overt racism is the governmental makeup. There are a few Arab representatives in parliament, but no Israeli party, even the most liberal Labor Party, would seriously consider forming a coalition with Muslims, even if it would give them a majority. Anyway, that’s just semantics.

I actually was taken to a Muslim area in Jerusalem. This was just a small sample and part of a rather touristy area. It was basically an old, narrow lane for walking. You’re basically bombarded by people trying to sell you something in their store. There were a lot of sports shirts/flags or whatever (especially for the Lakers, Celtics, Yankees, etc. There was also some sarcastically pro-Israeli memorabilia (like “Don’t worry America, the Israeli Defense Forces are Behind you”, which was actually meant to be taken literally as there were soldiers everywhere). The place we ate lunch at had the “best hummus in the world” according to my cousin. It was pretty good, but I don’t know if it could merit such a title. The falafel at this place was actually quite bad too. The worst part was the waiter who served us. I saw him holding a cigarette in one hand and then proceeding to serve pita! Disgusting, and smoking wasn’t even allowed in the restaurant. At least the other shop owners had the courtesy to blow smoke in the faces of passing tourists instead of suffocating customers inside. Okay, enough story time.

One thing you notice about Israel is that there are military people everywhere. That’s because every Israeli citizen (except Arabs and some super religious people) has to serve in the army. This reinforces the notion of Israel as a police state, and it doesn’t really make me feel comfortable to see so many soldiers (some armed with assault rifles) everywhere. I’m not so worried about surveillance, but the more guns there are, there more likely that I’ll get shot. As I write this, I think that Israel is trading rocket fire with Hamas. I don’t at all support Hamas, but neither do I think that Israel’s deadly blasts are justified on the basis of deterrence. There is literally no reason that we can’t live together, but barring that, Palestinians need their own country with freedom of trade, travel,. Etc. Oh yeah, the settlements are just horrible and racist and reflect an 1840s Andrew Jackson philosophy. Unfortunately, the current government is only stoking the fire further and the US is not exactly threatening to pull aid to Israel. I don’t really feel like boycotts of Israeli companies (or of Caterpillar or HP or whatever) are really going to make a difference-the solution will have to be through political reconciliation. My cousin’s husband (also Jewish by the way) seemed more supportive of the idea though. It’s good to know that not everyone in Israel is racist.

I’ve been rambling too long about socio-political hogwash, but there is one more thing that I found interesting. Israel is largely a mishmash of various European immigrants who were pushed out of Nazi Germany and not necessarily welcomed in the United States. However, besides the Arabs, there are a good number of African (nearly all Ethiopian) immigrants as well. Israel has admitted to even recently giving the Ethiopians birth control without their consent. Many of the Ethiopians can’t read or write Hebrew and they tend to do the jobs that Mexicans would do in America. Even though they are Jews, they are still basically second-class citizens, perhaps slightly more respected than the Arabs.

Oslo

Date: June 23^rd - June 25^th (Oslo time)

Time: 10:15 PM-6:40 PM (June 24^th, 2014)

I’ll start where I left off before-taking the plane. I am always a bit nervous on airplanes but I guess I was too stressed out about other stuff to worry too much. I was seated in the middle seat between a Dutch guy and a British guy. I think they were both a little older than me. Neither had been to Oslo and they were just going this time to transfer at the airport. Norwegian Airlines is super cheap so this makes a lot of sense. What didn’t make a lot of sense is why the British guy ordered dinner, a cheese baguette, orange juice, yogurt, and coffee that he didn’t even finish. That’s quite a waste of something like $80. At least he didn’t get a pack of cigarettes for $59. The plane was actually quite big and new (a 787). I was excited by the legroom in first class, but I think I have more legroom in my dad’s old Prius than I had on the flight. We were also promised free WiFi but this never materialized either.

Fortunately, this meant that I had nothing to do so I could really try to get some sleep. Despite the lack of room, I was able to sleep for at least 8 hours of the 10 hour 15 minute flight. We didn’t actually leave until 11 PM, so we got to Oslo at 6:15 PM their time (which is my time at the date of this blog post). I had wanted to stay a full day in Oslo but I probably saved some money on food at least. Although they were a bit slow checking us our passports at Oslo Gardermoen (about 20 miles from Oslo proper), the airport was not all that interesting.

Time: 7:00 PM-10 PM

I ate my last Chipotle burrito after retrieving my luggage and was glad that I didn’t have more-it was pretty soggy and didn’t taste great. I briefly got Internet access while waiting for my passport to get checked, but the rest of the airport would only allow you to have WiFi if you send a code you get on your phone. I don’t plan on using my phone at all (although I can still talk for free from my number using Google Voice on my computer!), so I didn’t receive the confirmation code.

I kind of panicked regarding how to get to Oslo from the airport. I had actually researched this back home and found that taking the Norwegian railway would be my cheapest option at around $15. Instead, I paid $33 for the slightly-higher-speed Airport Express at a ticket machine, which wasn’t as straightforward as it should have been since I needed a PIN for the credit card my dad gave me (which he didn’t actually know). In the end, I used my debit card and purchased the ticket. If there is a next time, I’ll just take the local train.

One of the first things I noticed getting to the station is how American everything was. There were two 7/11s (although they seem a bit different in Oslo), a Subway, and a Burger King. This wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for in such an advanced country. On a positive note, I did see a few people emerge from Norwegian trains with their bikes. Interestingly, no one seemed to mind them biking on the platform. The Grand Central Station in Oslo did have Internet, so I was able to look stuff up there. I also confirmed that Google Voice works fine, almost as well as in America. I was actually about to talk to my dad and hear more clearly than I can on my cell phone. I love how unbreakable my phone is but the reception is no very good. I actually first went to an Internet café to ask if I had to pay to use my laptop and he said it was free.

I needed to buy my tickets to Stockholm for the next day. I was a bit uneasy getting the youth discount in case I needed some international ID, but I settled on the youth ticket in the end for 274 SEK which is actually quite a good price (about $41 for a nearly 6 hour train ride). It would have been even cheaper (195 SEK possibly) if I had booked in advance. I wasn’t sure where to pick up the tickets exactly and didn’t want to use the machine to buy them and run into more credit card problems. The 7/11s that supposedly would print out tickets said that they wouldn’t, even if I paid the ~$3 service fee. I went back to the Internet café to print out a PDF of the ticket. This turned out to be cheaper anyways since I could just give him the file on a USB flash drive and pay under $1 instead of ~$3.50 for using Internet. Upon seeing my computer, the manager of the computer station told me that I should send it to the Holocaust. I said that technically I am because I plan on visiting Berlin. He was not amused and told me to just go home.

When I got downstairs, I realized that I did not have my suitcase full of clothes with me. I hoped that they weren’t upstairs because then I would have to talk to the condescending computer guy again. Fortunately, they were at a previous place I was sitting down and nobody had taken anything. I sat down again to find out where I was going to spend the night. I settled on a hostel that was about $65 for the night including bed sheets and breakfast buffet. It was also only a 9 minute walk from the station, so I wouldn’t have to buy a transit ticket.

Time: 10 PM-11 PM

My tablet’s navigation was great in giving me walking directions right to the hostel. It was not so great when I lost WiFi leaving the station and it turned off the directions. Oh well, the map still worked and it was still light outside. I took some pictures of the station as it was quite a bit more interesting than San Jose Diridon, the closest pathetic excuse to a major transit center that I have been to in the US (to be fair, there are better examples on the east coast). The first thing outside the station that I noticed was all the smoking. I knew that it would be more prevalent than back home, but it was still really disgusting. Fortunately, smoking does not seem to be permitted indoors anywhere (even in the hostel), but it is quite a bit more common outside than in San Francisco or Berkeley. There were quite a few places to buy tobacco, although I guess there are still tobacco shops in Palo Alto and the convenience stores are similar to US 7/11s or gas station marts. Interestingly, I did not see any gas stations in Central Oslo, but I’m sure there are some.

 In any case, I also noticed that there were quite a few bikes at the station. I peered closer and saw that there was a bike share kiosk there. Oslo’s bike share is run a bit differently than most. They are operated by Clear Channel and the bikes are full of various advertisements on wheel caps, This helps bring the price to 110 NOK per year  for Norwegian citizens, which is under $20, not even enough to buy a cheap dinner at most places. However, it is 100 NOK for 24 hours for non-citizens. I don’t think I would consider this option even if I came back another time for much longer. There were a few people using it even at 10 PM at night. I’ll talk more about biking later, but I will say now that even at night, it was pretty common to see cyclists. There were plenty of public bike racks, including a few that were actually inside the store. I did see coming out of the station that there was a street with no vehicles and hundreds of walkers. This is the stuff of urban planner’s dreams and it actually exists in some places. I think that was the only such pedestrian-only throughway though.

The main road coming out of the train station is literally only wide enough for the trams to operate. However, the headway between trams left room for many buses, some taxis, and the occasional car as well. There were very few actual private vehicles at night. I did see one Tesla (that may have been a taxi actually) and one Nissan Leaf. All of the double busses and metro cars looked full. I never took public transit though nor did I go underground to explore subway stations. Still, it was pretty cool to see road space devoted primarily for transit when it is so difficult to convince people to add bus lanes to expressways in the US. I attempted to follow my map to get to the hostel, but I could not see any street signs. My GPS system appeared to work and it didn’t seem to like the direction I was going in. I proceeded to double back and ask a local for directions. She told me to go back towards the central station a take a tram. Not wanting to pay $6 for a half mile tram ride, I asked someone (a Norwegian Railway conductor from the looks of it) to tell me how to get there and she gave me some understandable directions. I was able to find the hostel and check in.

Time: 10:30 PM to 7:30 AM

 Along the way, I walked past a TGI Friday’s another Subway, a McDonald’s, and several other recognizable places. There were also a bunch of small places I could get falafel the next day if I so desired. When I got to the hostel, I wanted to call my friends to show how well it worked when I was abroad. In the middle of a conversation, I realized I was running out of battery (under 10% in fact). I had to close the computer before it shut down on me. I reached into my backpack only to find that the charger wasn’t there! I almost certainly left it at Oakland Airport because that was the last place I used the charger. I should have contacted the train station in Oslo to see if they had it before I spent $66 on a new one (patient! I’ll get to it), but I haven’t really been thinking that well about my stuff as you already know.

 I could have gone to sleep before midnight if not for this predicament, but instead was preoccupied texting my dad on my tablet about this predicament. Interestingly, I was the last person in my 8 person dorm to arrive, and this was only at 12:30 AM. I thought at first that the universal adapter I got didn’t work, but it turns out I was just using it the wrong way. I may have partially broken this too in the process (it still works now though). I actually saw a guy using a Toshiba laptop so I asked on a whim if I could borrow his charger. He let me use it and it worked! This wasn’t a long term solution, but it allowed me emergency use of phone calls, especially if I needed to call my mother. After he was done, I set off back to my dorm.

Everyone was sound asleep at 2:15 AM, so I had to be careful to be quiet. The shower looked unappetizing right next to the toilet, so I only stuck to brushing teeth. I could have changed but didn’t really feel like dealing with dirty clothes, so I just got upstairs, but the pillow in the pillowcase they gave me, threw some sheets on the mattress, and threw some sheets on me (it was too warm to wear the blanket). I proceeded to sleep for approximately two hours before I woke up and I didn’t really go back to sleep, instead texting my friend and looking up places to go. I got up for good at 7:30, the rest of my room still sound asleep. They must have been experienced youth hostelers or have grown up with seven siblings in the same bedroom.

Time: 7:40 AM-8:45 AM

 I checked out of the hostel and headed over to the breakfast place. The place I was staying (Anker Hostel) was basically a whole block that included a hostel, a hotel, a café, and some shops. I realized that my blister from running a few days ago was still really bothering me, but I wasn’t going to sit on my butt and miss a chance to sightsee. The breakfast buffet was presumably Norway’s equivalent of a continental breakfast, except it was an extra $10. The food included cornflakes, some whole grain Scandinavian cracker, whole grain bread, marmalade, butter, hard-boiled eggs, two cheeses (one Norwegian), some wafers with vanilla crème filling, pineapple rings, raw cucumber and bell pepper slices, and slices of deli-style turkey breast. It looked quite healthy, a contrast from the doughnuts and muffins that usually dominate in America. I tried everything except for the turkey breast and butter. I had one bowl of cornflakes with milk. I had a couple of more cups of milk as well. I had three plates consisting of two slices of bread, both types of cheeses, two crackers with marmalade (they had both orange and berry), and a small amount of pineapple or vegetables. I felt a little guilty eating so much, but then I saw the café manager outside smoking, so I don’t care if I was breaking some sort of unwritten rule by actually taking advantage of the buffet. Hygiene is not hyper-monitored as in the US-it was fine to reuse the same plate and there was no utensil to pick up the bread or crackers.

 Time: 8:45 AM-10:30 AM

Satisfied with my third plate, I proceeded to set off to the Botanical Gardens that were part of the Natural History Museum. The receptionist at the hostel had told me about a tech store where I could get a charger, but it did not open until 10 AM, and it was only 8:30. I again had trouble reading my map, so again I asked a local for directions. I passed many Mediterranean cafes and pizza places (some were both) along with a couple of Indian restaurants. As I am typing this, I wish I had gotten something to go; it was even relatively affordable at $8-$12 depending on what I wanted.  I also was able to observe transportation at what would be rush hour in the US. However, there was not much traffic and the busses were not full, although I wasn’t quite at the city center to make it a valid comparison. I did see a few Teslas and a bunch of Nissan Leafs, including at a public charging station. I even saw the BMW I Series that I just spotted in Palo Alto for the first time less than a week earlier.

I also saw plenty of people biking. Children biked too although mostly with their parents. Bike lanes were either on the street or next to the sidewalk usually, but many narrow streets were simply shared roads. Although there were a few Dutch cruiser-style bikes, Oslo is actually rather hilly, much more so than most of the Bay Area peninsula. Although the lycra crowd is not as prevalent as in SF (I only saw one or two the whole time), most people were zipping about on hybrids or road bikes. I think more than half of the people were wearing helmets too, which is quite different than I expected. A lot of cycling advocates in Europe are adamantly opposed to helmet usage, largely on the grounds that it creates the perception that bicycling is normally unsafe. Although bikes were plentiful, so were cars. I’d estimate a cycling mode share of roughly 10% compared to 30-40% for cars and 30-40% public transit, and 20-30% walking.

Time: 10:30 AM-11:30 AM

Surprisingly, even the higher parts of Oslo were full of fairly tall (5-10 stories) buildings. However, Oslo as a whole has a relatively low population density, largely attributable to the vast parks and open space areas, which I did not get much of a chance to see. I eventually got to the Botanical Gardens and explored a bit. It wasn’t as impressive as what I’ve seen in San Francisco or Berkeley actually-there were mostly just some old local flowers. There were some good views of the city though and a few interesting sights. I tried an old-fashioned apple (there were two kinds of apples and pears). The fruits were even smaller than the ones on my apple tree in Palo Alto, kind of similar in size to the apple trees at the Jewish place on Manuela near Gunn. It was next to the Munch Museum, which is supposed to be a good place to look at Munch’s art, but I didn’t have the time nor did I wish to pay.

I walked up a bit further and came upon a couple of playgrounds and a neat array of grass. The playgrounds were a little different than most in the US, with an emphasis on boats and tire swings. There wasn’t anything supremely out of the ordinary though. Satisfied with my height, I went back down towards the city center. Not wanting to see the same sights, I proceeded down a different street in the right general direction but not really sure where I was going. This seemed to be a poorer part of Oslo. There were a few beggars and some graffiti (perhaps anti-Israeli occupation in Gaza). There were a lot more falafel and kebab places and a Punjab café. Again, the food was not all outrageously expensive but I do not know how the portions compare. There are no places to get burritos either (cheap or otherwise). McDonalds charges more than $12 for some meals even and I doubt the quality is much better than in America.

I stumbled on a mobile phone repair shop on the way, hoping that they would have my charging cable. Although these places are common, there do not appear to be any that cater to the old-style bulky computer crowd. The store owner pointed me to a bazaar that had a bigger store. They didn’t have either, but they did have more good food that I still refused to eat (this was around 11 now or so, check pictures to be sure).  There is another thing that surprised me during this trip: Oslo is quite diverse. I don’t know where everyone comes from originally, but there were plenty of blacks, Asians, and Arabs. There were some very Muslim women wearing full body garb who didn’t seem to be chastised by anyone around. Some people say that the US can’t maintain equality like in Scandinavia due to the homogeneity of culture, but Oslo does not fit this narrative. However, there does seem to be some segregation-my later trip to the other side of the city center found less variation in skin color. Anyway, the guy at the bazaar told me to go to Oslo City, a giant shopping mall.

Time: 11:30-12:15

 I was not too pleased, but they did have a branch of the same electronics store that the hostel clerk recommended a lifetime ago (well, 9.5 hours). Lo and behold, they actually had a universal charger-it comes with 10 different plugs that should fit into every laptop. Unfortunately, it was 399 NOK and plugs into a European outlet only, although maybe I could get a US laptop plug-adaptor to work with it. I took a little bit of a rest on a head-shaped chair, passing a fro-yo place that was very reminiscent of Yogurtland, very touristy considering everything was shown in English. I headed downstairs and found a place to charge my laptop and tablet. This process was slow but it gave me a bit more of a chance to rest before heading out again. By 12:15, I decided that I should probably go out again and visit some more. I wanted to go to the fjord, but it is not really in Oslo. However, there is a body of water that eventually does meet up with the fjord, so I figured I could follow that.

Time: 12:15-1

I saw a really cool-looking building that I thought was the famous Opera House, but I decided I’d explore that later and kept going away from the station on the waterfront. I passed a bunch of people who biked over and were fishing, although it was unclear if any of them intended to be successful. I saw another cool building out in the distance and asked the nearest person what that was.

Time: 1:00-1:30

The American responded that the far building was the Opera House and it would take me 20 minutes to walk there. I didn’t really stop to consider that the hostel I was at clearly said that the Opera House was a 10 minute walk away, but I wanted to keep going further anyway. I passed the boats including the fjord cruse. It would be about $40 for two hours. I definitely would have taken it if I had time, but it was past 1:00 by now (the most recent cruise) and my train to Stockholm left at 3:41. It might have worked out if not for the charger fiasco, but I think I still had a good time. I passed a cool old castle that people walked up to, but I did not feel up to it and I wanted to walk up the building from before (spoiler alert: it was the opera house) instead. I also passed a both setting up for a gay pride festival (it’s gay pride week in Norway or maybe in all of Europe). Again, I would have seen some of it if I had the time, but I don’t think my train was willing to wait for me.

Time: 1:30-2:20

I kept on walking further and further until I reached the not-opera-house building that was still pretty cool. (Addendum: this building was the Museum of Modern Art) It also gave me a different view of the water, maybe even hinting at a fjord in the distance. If I had all day, I would have walked further in that direction, but I didn’t, so after resting for a couple of minutes, I turned back. Again, I took a little bit of a different route, but this was not particularly more interesting than walking along the water. I did get a back view of the castle, but resisted the temptation to climb up. I turned back towards the water a little early and passed a small block of diagonal parking that consisted of three Teslas (one just pulling in), two Nissan Leafs, and a Mitsubishi iMiev. I saw at least half a dozen Mitsubishi electric cars, a bit surprising since they are a rare occurrence in the Tesla-laden Bay Area peninsula.

Time: 2:20-2:50

Soon, I was again strutting in sight of the Opera House. It was a bit steep to go up, especially with a heavy backpack and a rolling suitcase (I decided midway through the day that rolling luggage is a lot more comfortable than carrying it as a second backpack, which this suitcase was very flexible with, at least until I broke one of the backpack straps). The view of Oslo from the top of the Opera House was amazing, a good final sight. It was around 2:40 by now and I really had to go to the bathroom, so I hurried back down and just headed to the nearby Oslo Central train station. My thoughts of a utopian traffic-free street system were quashed when a massive traffic jam on the road connecting to the highway greeted me.

Time: 2:50-3:25

Unfortunately, it was not easy to find a bathroom at the station. None existed on the first floor and the one on the second floor that was in close proximity was a paid restroom. It was more than $1.50, which I would have gladly paid in my situation but I didn’t have any Norwegian coins. I attempted to swipe my credit card, but I am not sure it registered. The guy behind me was though, so I entered when the next person exited in haste. I hope that my payment didn’t work because despite the bathroom being nearly empty, the floor of the stall I entered was littered with liquid. The stalls in Norway are more private than in the US. This bathroom wasn’t very comforting though. I could barely see in the really dim blue light. It didn’t smell good and did not seem to be at all high-tech, so I am not sure why it was so expensive. Finally relieved, I decided not to go anywhere else since I had only 40 minutes before the train left. I considered looking for my charger but it was too late really. Instead, I walked as far down the train terminal as far as I could and saw some cool newer-looking buildings that I might have seen last night too. When I saw my train arriving at 3:25, I final quit walking around and waited patiently for the train to come.

Time: 3:40-9:45

Surprisingly, the train was not at all full. Nor was it particularly modern-looking. However, the whole route is electric to Stockholm and the journey is about the same length of time as by car. The ride has been quite smooth and I’ve gotten some nice views of some more suburban and rural areas. There is a lot of grass in Norway, replacing forests whenever anyone is living fairly close by. Clearly, there is no water scarcity here; I certainly would not like to see California emulate Norway in irrigating vast, sparsely populated fields. The power lines must also be quite expensive per capita, although I’m not sure how it compares to rural America.

I have just been rambling on so I don’t have a good conclusion to my story really. Oslo was really cool and I would love to visit more. The smoking was really not cool and would be a big deterrent of me considering living there even if money was not a consideration. The street system was pretty interesting as well. It appeared that there are “ring” roads that loop around the city and are used by cars to get to the highways. There are no freeways in central Oslo above ground, but there are a couple of car bridges and some car tunnels. Despite low traffic compared to San Francisco, car exhaust (and bus exhaust) was quite noticeable, perhaps because of the prevalence of diesel cars. Most of the buildings look very old, but there are some glimpses of modernity. I wish I could have seen the Tech Museum that was a 25 minute metro ride away, but that too will have to wait for another day if I ever go back. I think that about wraps it up. There is no way I will go into anything near this kind of detail for the rest of my trip, but I will still try to record what I can and take as many pictures as I can for my own purposes. I hope you didn’t actually read all of this, Derek. Bye. I should really eat something. I’ve been working on this for more than 5.5 hours. I’m almost in Stockholm already. Okay, I should really stop. Still, 1,000 words an hour is pretty good for me I think.  

Two addendums looking back:

1) Public restrooms are not nearly as plentiful as in the US and the bathrooms they have are not very comfortable. Stalls are completely private, very dimly lit rooms. The same appears true in Sweden as well.

2) There are no (or very few) public drinking fountains.

Pre-Flight Shenanigans

Date: June 23^rd, 2014

Time: June 15^th-June 22^nd

So I have been having my fun going on bike rides and running at Rancho a couple of times each. Obviously, I should have been packing and planning my trip (especially for my one day in Oslo), but since when do I ever do things on time? So I am lounging about, and I don’t really have any sort of computer device the day I am supposed to leave. I had brought my laptop to a repair shop and he said he would let me know by Saturday if it needs additional parts, but it was Monday now and now response. I’m not going to show a picture of it, but you really don’t want to see it. I’ll talk more about it in my next post.

Time:  June 23^rd, 10 AM

Anyways, I did call the store and they said it would need a new part since it has a broken hinge. Well, I didn’t have 2-4 days to wait for it to arrive, so I said forget it, I’ll take it even though it’s hanging by a thread. I was still goofing off on the Internet at home though even though my dad said he was coming to pick me up at 2:30. I actually did have a plan in case my laptop stopped working (hasn’t happened yet as I am typing on it right now): I ordered a 2012 Nexus 7” tablet and a keyboard and some cables that would allow me to use the flash drive and upload pictures on it. However, despite the fact that Amazon Prime never fails, only the case and the keyboard had arrived by the promised Friday date.             

Time: 11 AM-12:30 PM

I attempted to track the package, and it was in a Sunnyvale delivery facility by 10 PM on Friday. Clearly pretty close by, but I could not get confirmation that it would arrive before 9 PM on Monday (no weekend deliveries). I attempted to contact UPS and they said I could arrange to have it picked up. However, I was soon informed that this meant I would come back to Sunnyvale to pick it up at 8 PM. Well, I was going to be long gone by then (my flight was scheduled for 6:45). I asked if I could meet up with the driver and fortunately, he was just a couple of minutes from my house. Not wanting to take the risk that he would not deliver it within 2 hours (it was around noon), I biked over and found the van. After maybe 10 minutes, he emerged and he gave me the package. Phew, glad that’s over with.             

Time: 12:30 PM-2:15 PM

Well, I opened up the tablet and attempted to turn it on to no avail. So I tried to plug it in and turn it on, but this did not solve the problem either. I turned it on and it immediately turned off again. I panicked, called my dad and said it didn’t work. In the end, this was just my impatience and it was really slow at charging. However, my frustrations led to some additional complications. I tried out one of the cables that I bought that was supposed to connect the tablet to a USB acceptor port (since it only can take micro-USB cables. This was a rather small thing and I proceeded to lose it immediately. I spent most of the rest of the time before my dad came scrambling around my terribly messed up house (this could get a story of its own from my week there, but I will spare you the sorrows).

Time: 2:15 PM-3:45 PM

I still hadn’t completely packed everything and still hadn’t taken a shower for over a day. I had to go to the Y for a shower (about the house again, don’t ask).When my dad came and helped me pack up the rest of my stuff, he said there was no time. I said that I would rather miss my flight than not shower (the time wasn’t an issue; I was just correctly worried that I wouldn’t shower once I got to Oslo either). He ended up dropping me off at the Y while he got me Chipotle for lunch and dinner. Actually, he got me three burritos but I didn’t want that much of a mess in my backpack so I just asked for two. I asked to pick up the laptop too but he said we had no time. I thought we were alright (around 3:15 leaving the Y now) and I could use a laptop even if my tablet could technically suffice. We went and I quickly picked it up.                                                                                                                                                                             

Time: 3:30 PM-4:45 PM

I am always scared of my dad’s driving when we are in a rush. He lets his nervousness turn him into a really fast and terrible driver. I honestly would rather have driven. My fears came to life when he decided to listen to his car’s GPS’s directions to stay on the highway when his traffic-coherent phone said to take a detour. Realizing his mistake too late, he proceeded to change lanes well after the exit split off. This pushed the oncoming car into the middle of the roadway and I was afraid that he would (kind of justifiably) ram into us. My dad kept his distance and turned left onto the detour while the other guy went right back onto the freeway into a bunch of cars that were not moving freely. We then proceeded to make it to the airport by around 4:40, which was actually in plenty of time. Upon looking at my flight, I saw that to the right of the scheduled flight time, it said that the actual flight time was 10:30. We were informed after we landed in Oslo that all the delays emanated out of a French transit strike. It’s always those lazy French people.

Time: 4:45 PM-7:00 PM

It seemed that the airport required meal vouchers to be handed out by the offending airline for significantly delayed flights (an unrelated airline flying to Portland gave out vouchers too). So in addition to my two Chipotle burritos, I got $20 to spend at my airport terminal. The only choices for me really were Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and Chinese fast food. While margarita pizza looked tempting, I’m sure Pizza Hut could mess that up so I decided to go through security and take my chances at the 3-star rated Chinese place. When I was at security, I realized that I had misplaced my meal slip. I looked around a bit but I figured I left it in a bin and someone else had taken it. The TSA people kindly looked through the bins for me but there was nothing there except an old ticket. Fortunately, it was actually in my backpack in a place where it could easily slip into the abyss of electronic plugs.

7:00 PM-10:00 PM

I got lemongrass tofu, and elephant ear cookie, and a Naked Juice blend of kale, apple, cucumber, orange, and some ginger extract. It wasn’t very good but I figured I could use something healthy. The meal was alright for free but of course I would never spend $20 (or even $10 unless I was truly desperate) on unglorified Panda Express-type food. Still with a couple of hours to kill, I wandered about to find an outlet for my tablet and laptop and goofed off on the Internet some more. I also talked some to my dad and informed him of my status. The rest of the night leading up to the plane boarding was uneventful, so I will leave this post to die off on that note. Oh, I guess I did eat the first Chipotle burrito about an hour before scheduled takeoff that would keep my full for the flight.

Introduction

This isn't going to be a super well-thought-out blog, so don't expect perfect grammar or very good flow. I'll just post whatever I feel like regarding my travels and I may leave out some details that are kind of important, so if you want to be super stalkerish, ask me and I will clarify. Don't expect all the posts to be as detailed as the first two-it took me being stuck on a train for six hours with no Internet to write those. Also, I will be taking a class later, so I'll have to do other work as well and will have to be with other people. I'll try to give a good overview of what I think of every place though, including a bit about Israel where I am now. Since the primary focus of my class is urban sustainability, I'm trying to pay particular attention to what works and what might not work so well, both where I am visiting and whether the US (or the Bay Area specifically) can learn from it.