oslo, norway.
Oh man. What to say about Oslo other than it’s great and very expensive?!! From the first moment you land in Oslo, it’s a little different from landing in the other ports. Other ports are a bit secluded and segregated from the city. In the case of Oslo, though, the port is located right next to an old fortress, and that view alone gives Oslo a homey feeling…
It’s ten minutes to town once you get off the ferry. Walking. Everything is fairly compact. There are only about 4.5 million people in Oslo, with 1/5 of them having summer houses either on the waters, in the woods, or similar. Quite a few of those houses don’t even have connection to electricity (same in Sweden, Finland…) and are pretty much just for nature retreats. Fairly amazing, really.
When we first arrived in Oslo, we took a quick trip through the town on the bus and then headed over to the Vigeland Sculpture Park, where Erik Vigeland created hundreds of sculptures depicting different scenes from birth until death. Some of my favorites were these four pieces that were atop a white column… made of some kind of white stone… possibly marble. Those pieces were on each end of the park. Each end on two. On the end we came in on, there was one of a woman embracing a lizard-like beast and one of a woman fighting off a lizard-like beast. On the other end of the park were the same images, but with men. The image tells of either accepting fate or fighting fate. I liked these pieces immensely.
Door to the sculpture park.
Rejecting fate.
Embracing fate.
Many other great pieces were visible in the park… all good times. GOOD TIMES.
A view down the row.
“I GOT POOPS IN MY HAIR!”
I like these old people.
Beautimous.
Sagittarius.
After that, we went to the Holmenkollen (?) ski jump, the most famous ski jump in the world… although they’re planning to tear it down and replace it. Oops.
ZE JUMP!
Then we went to the Open Air Museum. Oslo has this little island with like 5 museums on it. All of the museums are pretty unique and pretty distinct to Norway. We had originally planned to go to the Viking Ship Museum, but I really wanted to go to the Open Air Museum because it’s a little more unique. Basically, old houses from throughout Norway’s different eras were dismantled and brought in for a park dedicated to Norway’s former architecture. Many of the houses were just simple farmhouses or barns and weren’t particularly exciting. The main attraction was a stave church, an intricate wood-carved church that was the first thing we saw upon entering. Inside were some faded remnants of paintings, and very little light. Apparently the church is used to this day as a popular wedding chapel. I dig it.
Wedding chapel church.
Inside the wedding chapel church.
They tried to make it all cute and ‘real’ farmlike. Aww.
Like I said… farm-like.
I thought this was cool.
My mom and I. 
I like reflection pics. Sucka.
Thus concluded the tour. When we went back, I wanted to explore that little fortress thing, so I prepared to go. Dad wasn’t up for more walking and I didn’t really think mom was either, so I said I’d go by myself. NOT ALLOWED. You don’t know the time, my mom said. I said, THERE’S TWO HOURS LEFT! IT’S RIGHT THERE! But no, still, she had to tag along, but she didn’t want to be there, so it made things slow and awkward. She kept telling me to walk ahead and then towards the end said, “I’ll stay here, you go on ahead.” What’s the point? Just go back. Jesusssss.
And so that was Oslo. Again, no idea what the Norwegian people are like, which is unfortunate. What I do know is that they are the third largest exporter of gas… after Saudi Arabia and Russia… and that shit there is EXPENSIVE. It’s about $12 for a regular bottle of beer!! And that’s local beer, not even exotic beers! Pretty crazy.
Pulling away from the docks.
But I would live in any of those countries – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland – in a fucking heartbeat. Too bad I can’t afford to live there. And it’s probably not easy to live there anyway. What can a girl do?