View from hospital window, watching the rain
The whole time we were in Oslo I had a bit of a sinus thing I attributed to the new plants and spores of a new country. But I was also unusually tired, having weird nightmares, falling out of bed and being even more confused than usual, like leaving my purse in a taxi and spending all day retracing my steps to find my lost pills that were in my backpack all along.
Bob and his mom went to Latvia and I planned to do Bergen and Kristiansand, with awesome activities and trippy restaurants. This is where I was going to go.
and stay here
But it was not to be. After my first day doing art museums in Bergen, I noticed I get tired so fast “these days” I thought maybe I’m getting too old to travel.
Well, I woke up in the night sick as a dog. It’s a good thing I missed that ferry to an isolated island. I managed to get the hospital on the phone in the morning and the advice nurse said, “Take a paracetemol” and left me on my own. So I went to their version of Urgent Care.
The doctor walked in and confirmed, “You’re Elise, and you’re a Taurus?” I thought, what, we are doing astrology now? Then I realized she had said tourist.
They didn’t like my “vitals” so they sent me to the hospital ER and I was delirious from fever. It’s all a haze of people sticking me with so many needles, trying to get blood from my impossible veins and asking me confusing questions. They could never hit a vein. The nurse who finally succeeded in getting blood from me softly sang to herself, “Ok, I got it, here comes the blood…” I loved that she had a blood song.
At the ER I was in a daze, hallucinating. I thought my brother Greg was in the room, and since he had died of pneumonia, I thought I was taking his place in a Twilight Zone kind of way. I also thought I was cursed for having tried whale.
This was on the wall, and I knew it wasn’t the phases of the moon. I asked, “Are those the phases of the winter sun or something?”
The nurse replied, “That is the air vent.” So yeah, phases of the sun? I was delirious.
I also threw up and needed clean clothes. But their hospital clothes are pajamas, none of these robes with your ass hanging out. They were very cozy.
They admitted me for pneumonia. I had lung x rays and they were clear, so they downgraded it to bronchitis. They were obsessed with my high heart rate, low blood pressure and something about my oxygen. My blood tests showed an infection. The health care here in Norway is better, in that they see you immediately in the waiting room, and none of the nurses or doctors are harried or overworked. They have time to chat with you.
The food is very simple but delicious, like this butternut squash/carrot soup with little pieces of fresh ginger. Most meals were two slices of bread, a slice of cheese and a slice of an unfamiliar lunchmeat. They were pleased when I asked for brown cheese. I was in the hospital overnight, and they wanted to keep me one more night to be sure I was OK, but I really wanted out of there. I had already paid for a nonrefundable hotel room for the night. And they kept checking my blood with fingersticks and sticking me with needles and could never hit a vein, so I wanted out.
I sometimes wished I had stayed in the hospital so someone would be bringing me cold water all night. I am slowly getting better, my voice is still a croak, but I’m coughing less. I feel like I just need 24 hours of sleep and I’ll be OK. There was a nice green area outside my window.
So, I lost out on a lot of prepaid hotels and things in Kristiansand, since we all decided it was best if I just stay in Bergen for the last 3 days of the trip and recuperate. So, with Bergen hotels, I am basically paying for that week of vacation twice. “I will never recover from this financially” from Tiger King comes into my head.
Bergen is beautiful and although I am stuck in a hotel room there are way worse places to be. Zander K is an amazing hotel, seriously the quietest place I’ve ever been, and the staff is bending over backwards to cater to me. They even moved my nonrefundable/nonchangeable reservation after they heard my situation. I can’t recommend it enough. It is a bit pricier than others, but if you can afford it, stay here. I also discovered room service is not a thing in Norway. I might not have left the hospital if I knew that. But they made exceptions for me.
I had this nice tagliatelle and a confusing deconstructed dessert. Deconstructed desserts are HUGE here right now.
I guess this beam got in the way of the curtains. They cut the curtains around it.
TL/DR: I’m slowly getting better and will never make nonrefundable reservations again.
And the good news is I am not getting old and tired. I was just sick, and I will get my energy back again.