We landed in Oslo just after midnight on Friday the 10th of July. When we got to the hostel we were surprised to hear that we were in a room for 8 by ourselves. 8 bunkbeds and us. Kind of funny. It was great though - didn’t have to share a bathroom and had a table we could sprawl ourselves out on, plan our day, and play cribbage etc.
When we woke up the sun was shining which felt like something foreign after all of the rain and clouds in Scotland. Despite a late start we packed a lot in during our one day in Oslo. We started by visiting the City Hall which is apparently the thing to do in Scandinavia vs. visiting cathedrals which you might do in other European cities. The building was fairly new having been completed in 1950. While I was walking around, I realized that the building reminded of something I visited with my Mom in Stockholm….the City Hall! What a beautiful city and building that was too! After City Hall we hopped on a bus out to the Viking Ship Museum. It has three restored Viking ships from circa 890 AD. Two of them were in great condition, one having been found in the mid 1800’s and the other one in 1904. The latter was discovered by a farmer who was out working in his field. The ships were at one point used as actual ships but then as burial grounds. It was pretty amazing, all of the stuff they discovered buried with the ship. The Vikings believed in life after death. If you had died in battle you were going to meet Odin (a mythical God) and fight the biggest battle of your life. If you died from anything else, you were believed to be going to the Underworld. Either way, those who were burying you sent you with a lot of stuff. Chickens, horses, jewelry, weapons etc. The richer you were, the more you were buried with. You know, because you needed to be fully prepared for the afterlife. I really enjoyed the museum. Next we headed to the Kon-Tiki museum. I had never heard of Kon-Tiki but Jake had. The museum focused on the explorations of a Norwegian explorer, Thor Heyerdahl. He traveled by raft in 1947 from South America to Polynesia. He wanted to prove that the islands could have been first inhabited by South Americans and not necessarily by people from Asia. He documented the trip and won an Oscar in 1951 for the Best Documentary. That’s pretty cool. He did a lot of interesting work during his lifetime but another expedition I enjoyed learning about was one he first tried in 1969 (ended in shipwreck) and then tried again successfully in 1970 - the voyage of Ra and Ra II. He set sail from Morocco to Barbados on a raft made of papyrus. He wanted to prove that voyages could have taken place on a vessel like this far before the time of Christopher Columbus. What I enjoyed learning about most for each of these expeditions is who he chose to be part of his crew. For instance, for Ra - it was the first ship to fly with the United Nations flag. His crew of 8 was from different countries, spoke different languages and had different religious beliefs. Not only did Thor want to prove that Africans could have traveled to the Caribbean and South America, but he wanted to prove that regardless of background, people were able to cooperate and work towards a common goal. Thor seemed like a very interesting and totally mental guy. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 87.
Next we went to the Vigeland Sculpture Park which turned out to be much more interesting that I was prepared for. The park had over 200 bronze and granite sculptures all completed by one man, Gustav Vigeland between 1920 and 1943.
The granite sculptures really told me a story. Each had at least two figures (that’s what most had), and were laid out in a chronological order. It was a journey of life: being a child, falling in love, having children, needing guidance from an elder, getting old, caring for your companion, it was beautiful. There were a handful where I had no idea what the stage of life was, I wish that I did. Maybe I’ll figure it out as I progress through life. This was one of my favorites:
The last thing we did before dinner was went to check out the Opera House. I had read that it rivals the Sydney Opera House when it comes to architecture. You can walk on the roof etc. Not much to say other than - cool building!
Now its time to go and explore Bergen!
Jesslyn