Alt for Norge Daily Journal: Day 23 - May 15, 2012 (Episode 4)

Today, we ventured into Oslo for the first time. We also had a crazy first team competition!

Our first walk into the heart of Oslo! The larger building
to the right is The Grand Hotel. To the left and at the end
of the street is the Royal Palace!

We got started at 8:45 and caught a taxi to a train station on the outskirts of Oslo. Once there, we were filmed getting on the train and taking a ride into the heart of the capital city. They had us sit two by two and filmed us having various discussions, which were supposed to pertain to how excited we were to go into the city. However, as with most of our “reality” filming, I had a hard time staying on topic and noticed the cameras drifting to those that were a little more “focused”. Soon, we were there and split into two groups to film us walking from the train station down to the Royal Palace! Oslo is a very cool looking city. Not as big as I was expecting, with there being only a few buildings built hire than four stories, but a really busy, yet warm feeling city!

The Royal Palace! You can see the camera crews getting set up for our
introduction to the first team challenge.

We arrived at the Palace and it was there that they filmed Henriette introducing us to our first team challenge for Episode 4. It would be a scavenger hunt! Each team would get five clues and a map of

the city. Using our own knowledge and anything gained from talking with people in the street, the first team to find the five locations and return with pictures from all five places wins an advantage at tomorrow’s team competition. The only catch was that you would get 30 minutes added to your total time for every picture/clue your team got wrong. They split us into our teams. The Red Team would be Alf, Dana, Johnathan, Jessica and Amy. The Blue Team would be myself, Austin, Tara, C.J., and Barbara. Did a few shots of us pretending to start the competition, then broke for a long lunch. (Dirty Secret: During our fake starts, we ran up to a pile of goods, covered with our team-colored fleeces. We noticed that one of the things covered was the list of clues. They wanted us to film the fake-start again, so this time, we decided that everyone would memorize one of the five clues, so that we could work on getting it answered during our lunch. Using the short amount of time that they gave us during that filming session, we were each able to memorize our clue. Unfortunately though, there wasn’t anyone to help us figure out the answers to the clues over lunch, so it really was no help.)

The clues for our first competition.

We had a quick lunch and then the challenge was on! (Although, they staggered our groups starting times, so that we weren’t running into each other.) Our original strategy was going to be to run to the local tourist bus that was about 40 meters away. Unfortunately, the director overheard us strategizing and quickly shot down using professional tourist guides for help with answering our clues. With that, we just grabbed the first couple that was nearest us and walking up the street and started firing the clues at them. Fortunately, they knew every one of them along with where they were located and how to get there! Quickly, we devised a plan to go to the furthest location first (Vigeland Park and the Angry Baby Statue) and work our way back. We looked on the map and headed for the Tram, which was what was suggested to us by that couple. As we were heading to the Tram station, we decided to ask a guy walking near us if it was the fastest means of getting to Vigeland Park. He quickly said no and to follow him to the subway. The station isn’t as close to our desired location, but it’s only one stop to get there, whereas the tram would have several stops and has to weave through the city.

The Angry Baby Statue (Sinnataggen)

Off we went to the subway and one stop later, we were there! A half-mile walk later and we were standing face to angry-face with the Angry Baby statue! After taking a photo of Austin (who else, but the model) with the statue, we headed back to the subway to get over to our second clue. Three stops on the subway later, we were on the other side of Oslo and quickly taking a photo of Austin riding a huge Tiger Statue, right outside of the subway station. A four block walk later and we were snapping our third photo, which was a group shot on top of the Opera House! (By the way, there were two rules as we made our way through the city. One, we had to stay as a group, since there was only one camera with us, and two, we weren’t allowed to run. With that, Tara, Austin and I decided that we would speed-walk and push the pace until someone told us to stop. Then, after a little slowing down, we would start to push the pace again until again, told to stop, and repeat!) After the Opera House, we walked 8 blocks and found a statue of a King pointing down, which was our next clue. Finally, we made our way to the Grand Hotel, which was about five blocks away. The clue was to take a photo standing where the Noble Peace Prize winner would stand while waving to the Norwegian crowd. We quickly walked through a hotel room, passing pictures of all of these famous Peace Prize winners and ended up on a balcony looking over the city. We took one final picture of Austin and we were finished! We yelled “time” and handed the camera to the producer! No idea what our total time was, since they confiscated our watches, but it seemed as though you couldn’t possibly have done any better than we did. I guess we’ll find out!

The Blue Team, standing on top of the Opera House. One of my favorite
photos, purely because of the look of C.J.! Speed walking was not his thing!

Barbara, rocking my hat, while waiting a long wait
after finishing our challenge.

After finishing, they rushed us out of the balcony room and sequestered us to a different room on the other side of the hotel, so that we weren’t able to see when the other team finished. After another hour or two of waiting for the next scene to get set up, we finally met Henriette in a hotel room for the announcement of the results. We were very confident! After a brief intro, Henriette said that one of the teams took a photo of a wrong place and would get a 30 minute penalty! There was no way it could have been us. We not only had the confidence of the first couple and their answers, but then every down moment that we had while walking or riding the subway, we reconfirmed the answers with other locals. Then the announcement came. It was the Blue Team, our team, that had gotten one wrong! My stomach dropped! A 30 minute penalty guarantees our loss! Apparently, we didn’t’ read into one of the clues enough. We took a photo with the King pointing down, but the clue called for a picture of a statue of just his hand pointing down, which was another statue about six blocks from the one that we took a photo with. Dang it!

At this point, our team is completely devastated. We were so confident with this one and now it’s over. However, Henriette then announces that one team finished in one hour and forty-four minutes and the other in……….one hour and forty minutes! Even with our 30 minute penalty, we still almost beat them! Then, out of nowhere, “Congratulations Blue Team!!” What?! We won?! We were all so surprised, we didn’t even cheer. We just looked at each other with dropped jaws and amazement. Crazy! How could that even have happened?! (Turns out that the Red Team took the Tram, which added a ton to their time. An error that we almost made as well!)

Dinner at the most Norwegian of restaurants, TGI Fridays! Jessica's new
best friend, our waiter, was from San Diego and had a tattoo to prove it!

We did our typical interviews then headed to dinner off camera. Turns out our first dinner in the great city of Oslo would be none other than……..TGI Fridays! Really?! (Even worse for me, since I spent five years working for TGI Fridays in high school and college!) After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for more interviews and a surprise from Henriette that we would be staying in The Grand Hotel! Nice! In fact, they did some filming of us going into our rooms, along with me brushing my teeth in preparation for bed, ending with Austin and I getting into our separate beds (we were going to be roomies for this episode). That last part was especially weird, since they asked me to take off my shirt and lie in bed, pretending to prepare for sleep. Then, Austin would come in, get into his bed, exchange some quick banter then turn off the lights. Pretty strange, but funny stuff! I had to change clothes and take off my shirt in front of a camera guy, a sound guy, and two producers (both attractive females)! Too bad we eat too well and get a free beer with most meals! The diet hasn’t been great while arriving here and the body reflects that!

A look at The Grand Hotel!

After filming, all of us were pretty worn out. We all decided to go to bed (I think it was all of us). Austin and I had some good pillow talk about the lack of competitiveness in some of the other contestants. It’s such a weird thing. All my life, I’ve been involved in sports and surrounded by others with competitive strong competitive drives. It’s completely foreign to me to be involved in a competition like this and to have people here that aren’t too worried about the competitions and are just here to have fun. If tomorrow is the Russ (a competition that they’ve done the first two seasons, where you basically drive around town in a bus, drinking and competing different tasks all day!), as we expect it to be, I think we’re going to have no problem, seeing that the more competitive people are on our team!

Day 23 Over!