Siân's Magical Adventure in Osloland

I visited Oslo at the weekend - yay! Been a while since I was there, for me anyway, and it was nice to spend a couple days somewhere a bit different (the last thing I did before I left Bergen was to fall over in the snow and rip my hand to shreds, so I was especially glad to see the back to see the back of that). In order to cram as much as I could into a limited timeframe, I decided to do an organised tour which included a couple things I hadn't seen before.

I hopped on the bus bright and early, and greeted my fellow tourers, who were mostly Irish or German, but I also chatted a bit to a very nice Danish couple. I could actually understand them too, much to my surprise. We heard a lot of good stories from the very enthusiastic tour guide, and I heard them all three times, because she delivered them in Norwegian, English and German. So for me it was all a bit like this:

"We are about to turn onto Karl Johans gate, the main street in Oslo, which starts at the train station and ends at the palace. It's about 1km long. We are about to turn onto Karl Johans gate, the main street in Oslo, which starts at the train station and ends at the palace. It's about 1km long. We are about to turn onto Karl Johans gate, the main street in Oslo, which starts at the train station and ends at the palace. It's about 1km long."

It was mildly irritating at first, but I got used to it, and sometimes she gave extra information in one language that she missed out in another.

First we went to Vigeland Sculture Park. The park was sculptor Vigeland's life project, and you can't find any of his fascinating works anywhere else. He was particularly interested in the cycle of human life.

I especially liked the ones of children and elderly people, which means I didn't really take a lot of photos of the stages inbetween. Seriously, some of them looked like they were alive.

Next we went up the hill to Holmenkollen, the new ski jump that they're building for the Nordic Championships or something in February. It was quite interesting, but they haven't quite finished everything yet.

Next we went to Vikingskipshuset (The Viking Ship Museum). I've been there multiple times in the past, but I really like it so I was quite happy to trot round it again. They hd a couple skeletons that I'd never seen before, which were fascinating. They reburied them after they were discovered in the 1800s, but dug them up again in 2007 because they were afraid they'd completely disintegrate. There's already not much left of them because graverobbers broke their original tomb casket thingie.

Next we popped up the road to the Maritime Museum, where we saw and amaaazing film of footage recorded from a helicopter flying down the coast of Norway. It maybe sounds a bit lame, but it was well cool. Unfortunately they've got it pretty well protected and I haven't been able to dig it up online so you guys can see it :(

We finished up at the new opera house. I'd heard a lot about it from friends who'd visited it before, and from a Norwegian musician I like who cheerfully told me that 'walking up the opera house is Norway's new favourite outdoor pursuit'. So I walked up it, and almost fell down it again (it was a bit icy). Twas quite nice, but it'll be better when they've finished developing the land around it. It's kind of surrounded by building sites just now.

It's supposed to look like an iceberg..

After that (busy day, no?), I trotted along to the national gallery to have a look at The Scream. I've been trying to see it for years now, but something always gets in the way, such as the gallery being closed, or it having been nicked.

Skriken (The Scream) by Edvard Munch
I saw it - yay! It's a bit bigger than I thought it'd be.

They had a whole room of his work, including his perhaps second most famous work, Madonna. I actually wondered if I liked that better. It's quite brilliant when you actually see it.

Madonna by Edvard Munch

I also saw Brudeferd i Hardanger (below), which is perhaps the most famous painting in the whole of Norway. I had no idea it was there. It was a very nice surprise when I spotted it. It's very lovely - the picture below really doesn't do it any justice. It was painted during the Romantic period.