Country #80: Oslo: Day one
When discussing Norway, there are two things which are invariably mentioned by all who have visited. First is the natural beauty of the fjords and second the exorbitant amount of money the visitor paid for a pizza/ soda/ beer or some other implied gauge as to how expensive this city is. Actually, I think if a highly scientific poll were to be done, the order of those two would probably would have to be reversed. So to address the elephant in the fjords, yes, it is a very vast and beautiful landscape and yes, this allure has caused them all to lose their ever-loving minds when faced with a price gun.
My plans for visiting this, my 80th country, were to stay in Oslo for three days and see about a half-dozen museums, preferably without having to resort to selling a kidney or other organ that I may someday want back to pay for it all. That is where the Oslo Card came in very handy. For one price (approximately $68), I had unlimited access to the city's museums and very efficient public transportation system for a total of 72 hours.
The first thing I did at the very sleek Oslo airport (seriously, it looks more like a furniture design warehouse than an airport) was to buy this card. With it, I jumped on the train to the city, dropped off my bags at the hostel and began ticking museums off of my list, one by one. I went both to museums I was interested in and to those that I might normally skip, just because, well, I could. One that I was looking forward to was the Viking Ship Museum, which as its name suggests, houses ancient Viking ships.
What is so remarkable is that since the 9th century ships were used as part of burial ceremonies, they are surprisingly well-preserved. The specially built museum allows you to walk around the ships and also climb onto balconies to get excellent views of the decks. It was impressive beyond words and I am not even much of a boat person (or a car person or an airplane person...modes of transportation don't generally thrill me is what I am saying).
Next on my agenda was the Folk Museum, where they have taken structures from all over the country and transported them to a large park-turned-museum, similar to Bucharest's Village Museum. The reason for my stopping here was to see a stave church dating back to 1212. There are very few remaining in Norway and most of them are further up north, where I was not going get a chance to visit, so having one right on Museum Island was an opportunity I was going to take full advantage of. The fact that I also got to join a free guided tour and learn about the evolution of Norwegian building techniques and customs through the ages was a nice added bonus.
Not satisfied with seeing only 2 museums on my first day and wanting to squeeze every kroner out of that City Card, I ferried over to the Kon-Tiki Museum. I knew this museum had something to do with a raft, but that was about it. It was not until I started reading the placards that I realized just how fantastic what I was looking at truly was. I had never heard of Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian scientist and explorer, but ten minutes in, I was wishing I could have met the man and was eager to know more about him. He believed that there had been contact between the Inca of Peru and the people of Polynesian Islands and constructed a primitive raft to show just how this was possible. He assembled a group of men, all from different cultures, in order to study what would happen when such diverse personalities were forced into such close proximity for an extended period of time (something that would surely have been turned into a reality show today) and set sail from Peru for 101 days until he crashed into the Tuamotu Islands, 4300 miles away, thus proving his theory that such a journey was indeed possible.
The original raft, as well as the Ra 2 raft, which travelled from Morocco to Barbados, are on display. Looking at them up close, I had to admire the courage of these men to even consider crossing an ocean on such rickety-looking vessels. By the time I had left the Kon-Tiki, the day had wound down and most other museums had closed. Yet thanks to a sun that refuses to set until late in the Norwegian summer , I was still able to visit Frogner Park and admire the work of Gustav Vigeland, namely sculptural nudes of all shapes and sizes. It was somewhere I would try to return to during my remaining days, but not before I took full advantage of that Oslo Card.
Waiting for the tram outside the main train station.
The new Opera House/ urban playground.
City Hall.
The ferry to "Museum Island" (aka Bygdoy).
The Viking Ship Museum.
I believe these are part of a free bike program.
The Norwegian Folk Museum.
One of the few remaining Stave churches.
A grain storage shed.
The Kon-Tiki Museum
Vigeland Sculptures in Frogner Park
My plans for visiting this, my 80th country, were to stay in Oslo for three days and see about a half-dozen museums, preferably without having to resort to selling a kidney or other organ that I may someday want back to pay for it all. That is where the Oslo Card came in very handy. For one price (approximately $68), I had unlimited access to the city's museums and very efficient public transportation system for a total of 72 hours.
The first thing I did at the very sleek Oslo airport (seriously, it looks more like a furniture design warehouse than an airport) was to buy this card. With it, I jumped on the train to the city, dropped off my bags at the hostel and began ticking museums off of my list, one by one. I went both to museums I was interested in and to those that I might normally skip, just because, well, I could. One that I was looking forward to was the Viking Ship Museum, which as its name suggests, houses ancient Viking ships.
What is so remarkable is that since the 9th century ships were used as part of burial ceremonies, they are surprisingly well-preserved. The specially built museum allows you to walk around the ships and also climb onto balconies to get excellent views of the decks. It was impressive beyond words and I am not even much of a boat person (or a car person or an airplane person...modes of transportation don't generally thrill me is what I am saying).
Next on my agenda was the Folk Museum, where they have taken structures from all over the country and transported them to a large park-turned-museum, similar to Bucharest's Village Museum. The reason for my stopping here was to see a stave church dating back to 1212. There are very few remaining in Norway and most of them are further up north, where I was not going get a chance to visit, so having one right on Museum Island was an opportunity I was going to take full advantage of. The fact that I also got to join a free guided tour and learn about the evolution of Norwegian building techniques and customs through the ages was a nice added bonus.
Not satisfied with seeing only 2 museums on my first day and wanting to squeeze every kroner out of that City Card, I ferried over to the Kon-Tiki Museum. I knew this museum had something to do with a raft, but that was about it. It was not until I started reading the placards that I realized just how fantastic what I was looking at truly was. I had never heard of Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian scientist and explorer, but ten minutes in, I was wishing I could have met the man and was eager to know more about him. He believed that there had been contact between the Inca of Peru and the people of Polynesian Islands and constructed a primitive raft to show just how this was possible. He assembled a group of men, all from different cultures, in order to study what would happen when such diverse personalities were forced into such close proximity for an extended period of time (something that would surely have been turned into a reality show today) and set sail from Peru for 101 days until he crashed into the Tuamotu Islands, 4300 miles away, thus proving his theory that such a journey was indeed possible.
The original raft, as well as the Ra 2 raft, which travelled from Morocco to Barbados, are on display. Looking at them up close, I had to admire the courage of these men to even consider crossing an ocean on such rickety-looking vessels. By the time I had left the Kon-Tiki, the day had wound down and most other museums had closed. Yet thanks to a sun that refuses to set until late in the Norwegian summer , I was still able to visit Frogner Park and admire the work of Gustav Vigeland, namely sculptural nudes of all shapes and sizes. It was somewhere I would try to return to during my remaining days, but not before I took full advantage of that Oslo Card.
Waiting for the tram outside the main train station.
The new Opera House/ urban playground.
City Hall.
The ferry to "Museum Island" (aka Bygdoy).
The Viking Ship Museum.
I believe these are part of a free bike program.
The Norwegian Folk Museum.
One of the few remaining Stave churches.
A grain storage shed.
The Kon-Tiki Museum
Vigeland Sculptures in Frogner Park
Wonderful places. I hope you also had the chance to visit Stockholm and Helsinki, though not all in one voyage.
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