We got off the plane at Oslo Rygge airport and started
looking into transport into town. Budget
airlines never fly into main airports.
You’re always way outside the city.
After comparing roundtrip shuttle costs with the train costs and
checking on the return trip times, the bus won for overall cost and
convenience. A girl with a Canada flag on her backpack that
had asked us about where to catch the bus ended up sitting behind us. T was from Slovenia (though her mom is
Canadian) and was in town for a veterinary conference. She became our new Oslo friend.
The Oslo Opera House is trying to reach the iconic status of
the Sydney Opera House and like the Sydney Opera, it is built over the water
and has a weird shape. They went for
iceberg inspired theme and you can climb up the marble/granite roof to the top
to look over Oslo Fjord and the city. Of
course, when we were there it was raining, but it was still cool. The inside is also nice, but I thought the
outside was more unique. Interesting
fact, courtesy of Wikipedia: The opera
house was finished in 2007 and is the largest cultural building built in Norway since the Nidarosdomen
Cathedral was finished in 1300.
From there we walked along the harbor to Akershus
Castle. The castle was built around 1300
and was used to defend Oslo. As time progressed,
its function changed and eventually it fell into disrepair in the 18th
and 19th centuries. Now, it
is used by the Norwegian government to host foreign dinners and hold meetings
and such. It also houses the
government’s ministry defense headquarters.
Since it was later in the evening, all the museums and things were
closed, so we just walked around the grounds and looked at the old
buildings. It also has a nice view of
the harbor.
By now, it was nearly 8:00 and we were hungry. We decided to check out a recommended pizza
place called Hell’s Kitchen. When we
arrived it was so full that we couldn’t get a table, but soon one cleared out
and we were seated in actual chairs. We
ordered our pizza and drinks and a few minutes later fellow teachers from
Bulgaria walked in and took the table right next to us. Actually, C didn’t even realize we were
sitting there until she’d sat down. We
had a good dinner with P and C and heard about their whirlwind trip through
every country in Scandinavia. They only
had the evening in Oslo, so we recommended
trip up the Opera House roof and we went back to our hostel to sleep (not
that it was dark yet, I mean, it was only 10:00).
The next day, we decided to get the Oslo Pass. We went to the tourist information place and acquired
our card and then laid out a plan to maximize our money. We decided to take the ferry over to the
Viking Ship museum first. The museum
houses the best examples of preserved Viking artifacts, including three ships:
the Oseberg ship, the Gokstad ship, and the Tune ship. The three ships were once sea-faring vessels
but were found in such good condition because they were used as burial
ships.
Nansen lead the first Arctic journey the Fram took from
1893-1896. While he made it farther
north than any other person had until that time, he didn’t make it to the north
pole. He floated with the arctic ice for
over a year before trying to get to the 90o mark via dog sled. They made it as far as 86.3o in
latitude and had to give up. They
experienced a lot of difficulties, as evidenced by the fact that of the 150
dogs that left on the journey, only two made it back to Norway.
We got off the bus at the central bus station and began
looking for the road to our hostel.
Europe really needs to embrace street signs on every corner. The fact that you have to walk a few blocks
at times just to discover what street you are on is really annoying. After asking a security guard we headed off
in the right direction. However, he
didn’t exactly send us to the road mentioned in the directions, so we asked a
nice man on the street. He knew exactly
where we were going and we were there within 5 minutes. T got a bed in the same room as us and then
we headed out to do a little exploring.
Since most things were closed, we went to the opera
house. Turns out that Oslo isn’t that
much easier to navigate with a map. For
some reason, it’s at a confusing angle.
Anyway, we did find a foot bridge that would have led us over the railroad
tracks and right to the opera had it not been for the massive construction
project in the way. So, we re-evaluated
our route and successfully arrived at our destination on the left. 
The Oslo Opera House is trying to reach the iconic status of
the Sydney Opera House and like the Sydney Opera, it is built over the water
and has a weird shape. They went for
iceberg inspired theme and you can climb up the marble/granite roof to the top
to look over Oslo Fjord and the city. Of
course, when we were there it was raining, but it was still cool. The inside is also nice, but I thought the
outside was more unique. Interesting
fact, courtesy of Wikipedia: The opera
house was finished in 2007 and is the largest cultural building built in Norway since the Nidarosdomen
Cathedral was finished in 1300. 
From there we walked along the harbor to Akershus
Castle. The castle was built around 1300
and was used to defend Oslo. As time progressed,
its function changed and eventually it fell into disrepair in the 18th
and 19th centuries. Now, it
is used by the Norwegian government to host foreign dinners and hold meetings
and such. It also houses the
government’s ministry defense headquarters.
Since it was later in the evening, all the museums and things were
closed, so we just walked around the grounds and looked at the old
buildings. It also has a nice view of
the harbor. 
The Oseberg ship’s occupants were two females buried around 834
but the ship was from the year 800 or earlier.
This boat is big. 70 feet long
and 16 feet wide and could be rowed by 30 people. This ship is ornate and was most likely used
by a wealthy family for coastal journeys.
The ship was also filled with a lot of burial relics like ornately carved
sleighs and 14 horses. Most of the other
artifacts in the museum came from this ship.
The Gokstad ship is the biggest one at the museum (76 ft x
17 ft) and it was used for long ocean journeys.
32 oarsmen could power it when it wasn’t using a 1200 sq foot sail. This was the kind of Viking ship that made
trips across the ocean to places like Iceland and North America. A man was found buried in this ship but most
of the artifacts buried with him had been stolen by grave robbers.
The last ship, the Tune, was in the worst condition. It dates from the year 900 and was also used
as a burial ship. It is really
fragmented, however, so it’s hard to find it as interesting as the other
two.
From the Viking Ship Museum, we decided to visit the Polar
Ship Fram Museum. We mostly decided to
go since we were already on that side of the fjord, however I’m so glad we
went. Coolest museum I’ve been to in a
while. The Fram is a Norwegian ship that
was used in some of the first successful Artic and Antartic expeditions. According to Wikipedia, “Fram is said to have
sailed farther north (85°57'N) and farther south (78°41'S) than any other
wooden ship.” Even better, the actual
ship is inside the museum! They pulled
the ship onto land and built the museum around it. You can literally walk through the ship
(which still smells like diesel fuel) and look at the cabins, kitchen, and game
room. You can also try to get a picture with
the steering wheel, but if you’re like me, the old guy photobombing your shot
won’t leave.
Other trips to the great white north ended badly for
some wooden ships that were crushed when they became frozen in the ice. No one thought it was possible for a ship to
survive a winter in the artic, but Fridtjof Nansen (who is one of the coolest
people ever- no pun intended) thought that a shallow and wide hull would do the
trick. He had Colin Archer design a ship
with a heavily reinforced hull of this shape and they ended up with the Fram,
which could withstand these forces. The
ship was designed with a windmill to generate power and enough space to allow
enough provisions for a crew to live on board for 5 years (signing on for these
journeys was a big time commitment).
Nansen lead the first Arctic journey the Fram took from
1893-1896. While he made it farther
north than any other person had until that time, he didn’t make it to the north
pole. He floated with the arctic ice for
over a year before trying to get to the 90o mark via dog sled. They made it as far as 86.3o in
latitude and had to give up. They
experienced a lot of difficulties, as evidenced by the fact that of the 150
dogs that left on the journey, only two made it back to Norway.
The Fram’s second Arctic expedition was scientific in
nature. In1898, Otto Sverdrup started a
4 year journey to chart the flora and fauna of Arctic Islands. The Fram’s last journey was to the
Antarctic. Roald Amundsen led this
journey, which lasted from 1910-1912. He
was originally planning to head to the
North Pole as well but once 2 Americans beat him to it, he changed his
plans. He had significantly more success
with his sled dogs and skies and this became the first expedition to reach the
geographic South Pole.
A brief note on Nansen.
As I said, he was a cool guy. He
was a champion skier and ice skater, explorer, and had a doctorate in marine
animal neurology. He also studied oceanography
and earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his work helping refugees affected by
WWI. So… what have you done with your
life?
From the Fram, we took the ferry back to the main part of
Oslo and headed back to Akershus Castle.
This time, however, we got to go inside.
We got to tour several rooms including the dungeon, the royal mausoleum,
and the castle church. Since the
building was built in the 1300’s, it certainly wasn’t Buckingham Palace as far
as fancy goes, but it was still impressive and had some impressive artifacts, such
as tapestries from the 17th century.
Since I was traveling with an English teacher, the next stop
was the Ibsen Museum. What I know about Henrik
Ibsen, besides that he had fantastic facial hair, is that he was a great playwright
and, based on the museum’s information, dealt a lot with morality and
religion. I’ve never actually seen or
read one of his plays, but I have heard of “The Doll’s House.” The most interesting thing about Ibsen were
his eccentricities. The museum is below
his apartments, which you can tour. The apartment
is very nice and the tour comes with great stories about his life. He planned his day to the minute. He worked at his desk until the same time
every morning. Then, he got up and
followed the same route to the same café to read his papers, some of which he
had specially sent in from other countries.
He did the same thing at the same time everyday. He had a barber come a few times a week to
trim that facial hair that I mentioned before and if the barber was even a
minute late, he made him leave and come back the next day. He was fastidious. He also had a massive portrait of a rival
Swedish playwright in his office so he could see the enemy and remember who he
was trying to beat. He was an
interesting guy.
From there, we took a turn around the Royal Palace and the
Queen’s Garden. It is the only park in
the world that surrounds a palace and is open to the public. There isn’t even a fence around the palace. There are guards with guns so you can’t
exactly walk up to the front door, but it’s still really open and meant to be
used by the citizens of Oslo.
We then took in the National Gallery. We saw The Scream by Edvard Munch along with some Picasso and El Greco. Everyone knows The Scream so it was great to actually get to see the real
thing. I also decided I really like Hans
Gude and other Norwegian landscape painters.
After that, we hit up the Nobel Peace Center. They had the “In
Afghanistan” exhibit that was featured in National Geographic a few months
ago. It features pictures and stories
about women living in Afghanistan and how life is changing for them. It also had videos on these girls that were
working to improve life in their country.
They organized demonstrations on why harassing women on the street is wrong
and they organized a trash pickup in one of the cities that a lot of young
volunteers turned out for. It was nice
to see good things happening in a place that mostly has bad news coming out of
it. It also includes photos of soldiers
in Afghanistan that was really moving.
Upstairs had a full exhibit on the three women that won the
Nobel Peace Prize this year. ‘The Nobel
Peace Prize 2011 was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee
and Tawakkol Karman "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of
women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building
work".’ Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
is the president of Liberia and she fights for women’s rights, Leymah Gbowee
led a group of women to literally block a group of men inside a hotel until
they reached an agreement and ended the civil war in Liberia, and Tawakkol
Karman works to improve women’s rights in Yemen. They were all really inspirational. You could also look up all other
prize winners on a really cool interactive screen where you could read about
what they did, hear bits of their speeches.
It was nice.
Well, end Oslo Pass attractions. Since everything was closed, but we had still
had free transport, we headed up to the Vigeland Sculpture Park. The 80 acre park has 212 bronze statues by Gustav
Vigeland. They are all naked
people. There is even a stone column
called the Monolith that is covered in bodies.
It’s a little less creepy than it sounds. Apparently, it took 14 years to carve, so
maybe I shouldn’t call it creepy. It’s
also supposed to represent human unity, but it looks like a bunch of writhing
bodies. It was an interesting
place. I especially liked the upside
down baby and the fountain.
To finish our day, we bought our train tickets to Bergen and
then headed to the fjord to take a little cruise. Since we still had free transport and ferries
are like subways in Oslo, we got a free fjord tour. It was a little cold and windy, but also very
nice and scenic. That evening we copped
out and ate McDonald’s since it’s cheaper (emphasis on the “er.” It was still $15).
The next morning we were off to Bergen on the “most scenic railway
in the world.”
