So I've finally uploaded all my photos from my Scandinavian trip, and once again, I will write a fairly detailed summary. I'll start with Oslo tonight, just because if I do all 3 cities, I'll never get to sleep.
***
So the plane ride took about 2.5- 3 hours, and it wasn't bad at all. Mostly, I read and stared out the window. Nothing exciting. Once I saw land, though, it was really exciting! The minute I stepped off the plane, and the first thing I noticed was how fresh the air was! Really, it was very clean! I also got excited when the plane captain said the temperature was 23 degrees. Yay!
(Landing in Sandefjord)
I had to take a bus from the airport to Oslo's main bus terminal, which took another hour and a half, because the airport's not actually in Oslo, but I slept for most of the way.
Met up with Kristian, and headed for a place to eat while he chatted away, telling me about all the different buildings and such. That area of Oslo was pretty modern, with lots of glass and brick buildings. It reminded me more of Toronto, and for a bit, I pretended I was back home, haha. But my first impression of Oslo was very nice. We had dinner at a pizza joint, and I had probably the best pizza I ever had! It was without question also the most expensive as well, but Kristian insisted to pay, so... I let him. Haha.. I'm not a moocher! But if someone really wants to pay for me, why argue?
(View from the bus on the way to Oslo)
(Kristian with the pizza, yum!)
Kristian lives with his parents, but him and his brother share the downstairs part of it. It's like a whole separate flat, and even has its own front door, but one door is connected with his parents' place upstairs. Really, really cool design.
The next day, we got up early, since Kristian had to work at 9am. We walked to the 7-11 down the street where we bought coffee, and a transportation day pass for me. Bussed about 20 minutes to get to the city core, dropped Kristian off at work, and off I went on my own. I first visited the Vigeland Sculpture park. It houses the largest collection of sculptures made by one artist in the same place. The day was already getting a bit too warm for my taste, but better sun than rain, huh? The sculptures were really neat, and all portrayed Man's existence in the the Cycle of Life. I'm really glad I got there bright and early too, since by the time I was ready to leave, the park was swarming with tourists.
(One of my favourite of all the sculptures)
Next on my list was to figure out the bus system on my own and take the bus to the area called Bygdøy, where all the museums where. My original plan was to bus to all the museums, then take a ferry back to the city center, and it would be like a loop. I found the bus alright, but I missed the Viking ship museum, which was supposed to be my first stop because it was first in line for how the bus drops me off. So whatever, I ended up going all the way to the end, and there were a bunch of museums there. I first went into the Kon-Tiki museum, where I learned about the Kon-Tiki Expedition. It was really interesting, actually, and I definitely benefited from all the visual aids! The main attraction in that museum was the life-size RA I ship. Very very cool. They also had a section dedicated to Easter Island, something I knew of, but didn't know enough about.
(Navigating with my trusy map!)
(Streets of Oslo)
(RAI ship)
(Easter Island sculpture)
After spending an hour and a half there, I walked not even 5 minutes to the FRAM museum. Like the Kon-Tiki museum, this one also had a ship as its main attraction. The coolest thing about this ship though, you could actually go on it and in it! YEH! It was fun! Oh yeah, and I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to tell everyone how much I learned here as well. Haha.. well, I did learn about the Norwegian's expeditions to the North and South Poles and such, and the use of dog sleds, but I honestly can't remember much more than that on the top of my head.
(I reckon I can make a living outta this!)
After about 2 hours, I finally left that museum. It was pretty fun. When you first go in, you don't realize just how much information is in there, til you start reading everything, take time looking at photos, and then venture the ship. I lightly skimmed my next museum, which is a name I can never remember unless I look at the spelling, because it's "Naval Ship" in Norwegian. After hours in ship museums, I was starting to get sick of them, so I didn't stay long.
Now, I thought to myself, I really want to take the ferry, but it won't work if I want to visit the Viking ship museum, and I really wanted to. So I hopped back on the bus and went back to the museum. Yes, it was another ship museum, but this one was great! The building housed multiple remains of old viking ships and other artifacts that were discovered and excavated in the late 1800's. The building itself was in the shape of a cross,and pretty plainly decorated. You could not touch anything. Although this was the most simple of the 4 museums, it was the only one that really moved me. I kept thinking, wow... real vikings touched this! And used that! Whoa.... haha. It was a good time for sure.
After the Viking ship museum, I had a bit of time left before Kristian got off work, so I took the bus back to the city center and walked around, took pictures.
(National Theater)
(Oslo University)
(Frolicking in front of the Royal Palace)
That night, back at the Aambø residence, Kristian's parents cooked up a most delicious dinner of salmon fillet, some sort of amazingly healthy rice, and a fresh bowl of salad. Not only did it look good, it was delicious! Oh man... *drool*.... ahhhhh.... I had some pretty good conversations with his parents as well. We talked about music, and after I told them how I played in an orchestra at school and I've played the piece they were playing on their CD player, his mom gave me a CD of the chamber orchestra she works with. It was a CD of Grieg's (a famous Norwegian) compositions. It was so unexpected, and great! A really memorable souvenir. :) After dinner we had a dessert of frozen chocolate cake and berries picked fresh from the mountains. Ohmygoooddd..... *reminiscing the goodness that was the dessert*.... mmm...
(Dinner with the family)
(Sunset view from their patio; so beautiful!)
(The dessert that was sooo unbelievably good!)
The night was still young, and after dinner and general agreement from everyone at the table, Kristian and I took the metro to the mountains for a little hike. It was pretty cool. We passed by some old Norwegian huts that had grass growing from the roofs, an old Norwegian-style church, the famous Olympic ski jump, and some fantastic views. Oh, and we also picked wild blueberries and another kind of berry, I don't know what kind. I think raspberry, but I'm not sure. I think the main thing we did on this little hike was experient with our digital cameras though, because we spent a loooot of time just staying in one place and taking a million photos. Artsy ones, of course!
(In the metro)
(Huts with grass on the roof)
(View of the city from the mountain)
(Norwegian church)
(Waiting for the metro back)
By the time we got back, it was late, and we were both dead tired.
The next day was my birthday! It was also Kristian's day off from work, so we both slept in. However, I was pleasantly woken up by first, his dad, who came in to wish me a happy birthday, yay! Not long after that, his mom came downstairs as well, and asked what we were doing today. I told her we were going to take a ferry to one of the islands. She told me she was going to do the same. :) So the day in general wasn't to action packed like the day before. We took the ferry out to one of the islands. I don't know if it has a name. I'm sure it does, I just don't know what it is. When we got ashore, we hiked up a bit and decided on a spot to hang out. I think we hung out on the island for about 2 hours. It was really nice and relaxing. It's good sometimes to not have to think about reaching all the tourist spots and just chill somewhere and relax and enjoy the good weather and nature itself. On the way back to mainland, we bumped into his mom, who was also heading back! It was cool. His mom is so awesome, haha. I've got lots of photos from the island, I couldn't choose a couple of best ones. :)
(Our ferry)
(Cottages)
(I really wasn't listening to what he was saying... haha, whoops!)
(Macro-ing the weeds)
(Random pic, but it turned out decent!)
(Heading back to the mainland)
Anyway, after the island, Kristian took me to the fortress, which wasn't too amazing, after all I've seen already. I dunno. I think it had to do with the fact that we weren't there for long anyway, and the place was HUGE!
Dinner was at a casual restaurant right around the corner from his house. It was really quite nice, though. The food was great, and the prices were horrendous. Actually, my meal wasn't expensive, compared to the drinks. I got a full meal for 129kr, which is equivalent to €17, or about $26 Canadian. The beer I got, which isn't even a full pint, it's smaller, was about €10, or $15. Gah! Well anyway... if you think that is expensive, listen to this: after dinner, Kristian took me to two different bars for cocktails. They were 88 and 86kr respectively, which is €12, or almost $18!! They were really good, but not anything spectacular, and really not worth the price. But this is the norm in Norway and Scandinavia in general. So I say, embrace the culture, even if it robs your wallet. But of course, I myself paid for nothing on this night. *grin* After the two drinks and sitting out on the patio, we decided to call it an early night. We were both tired and it's not much fun partying with only the two of us on a Wednesday night.
(Yaayy dinner)
(Dig in!)
(Cocktails at the first bar)
(And the second bar. This one was super nice!)
(Ehm.. my €11.50/$17 drink)
(A good end to a great day)
The next morning, Kristian dropped me off at the bus terminal for my bus to Bergen before heading off to work. And the Tales from Bergen will be another post...
Some random things about Norway:
- their currency is the Kroner. 1 euro is equivalent to about 7.5 kr. To convert to Canadian $, divide by 5. ($1 = 5kr)
- you have to pay to use public washrooms. The cost is anywhere from 5kr to 20kr.
- Norway is great because everyone speaks English!
- their public transport system is both efficient and easy to use! I only wish it was like that in Toronto...
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