While we’d technically gone to bed early, it was our first chance to sleep in in a good while, and we took shameless advantage. By the time we were up, showered and fed, it was almost noon and we knew we wanted to get a motor on!
Grant plans our attack for the day.
Just down the street from our apartment was the Norwegian national gallery, famous for, amongst other things, being the home of Munch’s The Scream. We’d planned on a quick buzz through, but as we walked up we saw several tour buses disgorging SO many tourists that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to fight through the fray.
Instead we skipped down the street to a delightful little coffee shop that would soon become our morning tradition as the coffee is just that good. Now totally wired out of our gourds, we were ready to tackle some serious museums!
On our way to the port, we came across this busker making ENORMOUS bubbles – he was amazing!
Grant waited patiently while I took a bajillion pictures
What’s interesting about Oslo is that many of its most prominent museums are actually a short ferry ride away! However, our trust OsloPasses covered the ride as well as entry to the museum, so the hardest part of the trip was trying to spot the jellyfish in the Fjord (Jess was way better at it than Grant!)
Once dropped off, we were slightly intimidated by the neighborhood. It felt more like an east coast estate neighborhood than a tourist destination! However the signage was great and the air smelled amazing, so we didn’t let a little intimidation factor dissuade us!
Once back on dry land, our first stop was the Folk museum as one of the groups we’d met in Morocco said it was the best thing they’d seen in Oslo. For the record, this is a museum like no other: starting around the turn of the century, the Norwegian government started hauling in traditional buildings to a single place as a means of preserving the cultural way of life. What’s amazing is that we’re not just talking about a single building; in many cases, such a farms, this could mean transplanting 5, 10 or even more buildings!
Also really interesting was the way you are able to walk around, in and through so many of these old buildings! The one slightly weird part was that we kept seeing signs about not feeding the animals, and kept hearing them, but only rarely saw them. It was like barnyard hide-n-seek
The highlight of the tour was definitely the Stave Church, as it gave us an idea of what to expect and was so different than anything we’d seen before! We also learned that most old the old churches used to be black because of the way they prepped the wood prior to planking caused it to be covered in resin, which acted as natural paint and protection from the elements.
Our last stop at the museum was to watch a local folk troupe preform tradition dances. Our favorite was definitely the Ox Dance – performed only by the men, it involved moves that definitely looked like it could have caused a hearty brawl in the olden times!
A traditional reel performed by all 8 dancers
Performing the Ox Dance – we obviously rooted for the little guy!
Then a quick stop for lunch and we were off to the next stop: the Viking Ship Museum! The museum itself is really just a fancy hall that holds three burial ships, as well as some of the wonderful treasures they contained, even after being looted only 100 years after being buried. The boats were in all different levels of restoration, which made it really easy to imagine what they’d looked like when first excavated, something neither of us had experienced before.
Another refreshing part of the museum was that it was quick to point out how much they don’t actually know: why where these people buried as they were? What is the purpose of some of the burial goods discovered, why were the graves looted, and most importantly, what is the best way to preserve these delicate items for posterity?
After puzzling over the mysterious mysteries for so long, we needed some concrete facts and so headed over to the Kon Tiki museum, where Grant played tour guide. I’d never heard of this experiment, but it turns out that a bunch of Norwegians had decided, after much research and analysis, that Polynesia could have been populated by folk out of Peru. And when no one would listen, they build a traditional balsa wood raft and sailed it for 101 days from Peru to an atoll in the Pacific, just to prove the doubters wrong. The museum houses a lot of artifacts from that voyage, most importantly the original raft! It was amazing to thing of six men spending over three months on such a small platform and get a small window into what they experienced during the voyage.
With the day winding down, we made a mad dash to the Fram Polar Museum where we learned all about how Norwegians have been an integral part of the polar exploration circuit. For example, the final mapping and discovery of the fabled Northwest Passage ( which connects Europe to Asia by traversing North America) was done by a Norwegian! We also got to scamper all over the original Arctic sailing vessel, the Fram, which was specially designed to withstand the crushing pressure of being locked into sheets of sea ice. Too soon, though, it was closing time and we had to get out before we were thrown out.
As it was a beautiful sunny day still, and as we had plenty of sunlight left, we decided to try out the local custom of BBQing in a nearby part. This is a favorite pastime of young Norwegians we were told, and it was really easy to find a self-contained, totally disposal BBQ and prepackaged food, 100% grill ready! The only thing we could get was beer. Apparently supermarkets can’t sell on Sunday’s?! (For those counting, we’d officially been beer-blocked twice… So cold Oslo, so cold!)
It was a celebratory pose. Little did I know – no beer awaited…
Not ones to let a little failure keep us down, we headed for Frogner Scuplture park. It’s a park completely filled by weird and wonderful statues, grassy knolls, and fountains, all designed by the same artist. Words don’t do his art justice, so you’ll just have to experience them for yourself:
Once we’d rated ourselves out, we settled in for dinner. However, we were unprepared for how slow the BBQ was – 25 minutes to get to cooking temperature and then another hour so cook the items we’d brought along. We’ve heard of slow food before, but this took it to extremes: a slow, slow meal of bacon kebabs, spicy tiny hot dogs and potatoes. Earning every mouthful definitely added a certain spice!
By the time we’d finished cooking and walking home, it was already quite late, but we couldn’t go to bed yet as the women’s World Cup started at 1am and we knew Matt and Katie (Jess’ brother and sister in law) would be in attendance. To keep ourselves occupied, we did our best to catch up on blogs while simultaneously watching the American women’s team completely trounce Japan. After no sightings of the Hara family in the first half and a seemingly insurmountable American lead, we gave up and tucked ourselves in to bed.
Walking home to an 11:15 sunset is weird. Beautiful, but weird.
After all, we’ve got more Oslo to see tomorrow!
– J & G