"I may be some time..."

Tuesday 13th Dec
By far my busiest day in Oslo, it didn’t start in a particularly hectic fashion. I got up at 9:30am and took my time getting ready. I was browsing through the Norwegian cable TV over breakfast and came across a music channel which had a ‘Top 10 at 10’ segment featuring GNR VS The Darkness. Finally setting out at around 11:00am, the first place I went to was the Norsk Folkemuseum (45Kr – Norske Kroner, NOK) which was meant to encapsulate everyday Norwegian life thoroughout various time periods from the 1820’s to the present. The majority of the folk museum is in the form of an open air ‘village’ where people can walk through and look inside cottages which had been faithfully reconstructed to match the era they were representing. Though it is quite large, it just didn’t have any real charm for some reason. Although there were plaques by some exhibits and audio information, I think people would get a lot more out of it if there were guides who led you through and explained things, rather than leaving you to your own devices to wander about on your own.

There were also indoor displays of national folk costumes, toys and old black a nd white photographs – all pretty boring stuff. However, one thing I did find interesting was an exhibit documenting all the alcohol associated difficulties faced by the Norwegians when alcohol first became introduced and widespread – apparently this brought about big problems in Scandinavian culture where people are so reserved that they take to alcohol to loosen their inhibitions, but often to excess, which was the case when it was first introduced. Many laws had to be introduced, including periods of prohibition, to try and remedy the situation as it was getting quite bad. I have since been told something interesting which makes sense to me now – all locally produced beers in Norway now have nauseating agents added to them which make you feel sick regardless of the quantity of beer consumed – this serves to make a connection between drinking alcohol and feeling terrible afterwards.

Next I headed to the Vikingshipshuset (around the corner from the Folk Museum) which I was really looking forward to as I love Norse mythology and Viking history and all that kind of stuff! I was a little disappointed when I found out it was just one big hall with the rotting remains of three viking ships within. Still, it was pretty cool and they were quite well preserved because they had actually been discovered frozen in huge block of ice. Because they were only small, they were thought to be ceremonial burial ships upon which fallen heroes were placed along with all their belongings and pushed out to sea to go join the Gods in the great halls of Valhalla (Boromir, anyone?).

Preserved ceremonial burial ships from the Viking era.

So after a short time at the Vikingshiphuset, I walked to the bus stop to catch the bus to the Kon-Tiki museum (25Kr). This museum is devoted to the exploits of Thor Heyerdahl, famous Norwegian scientist, explorer and environmentalist, who in 1947 sailed 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Raroia in a raft constructed from papyrus reeds, called Kon-Tiki, in order to prove that travel from South America to Polynesia was possible with the technology available at the time that colonisation is believed to have occurred all those thousands of years ago. Now that’s what I call science!! In all, he made two other similar voyages, the Ra II from Morocco to Barbados and the Tigris from India to Djibouti, and also made a documentary about his travels which won the 1951 Oscar for best documentary.

Out of focus shots of replicas of the Kon-Tiki and Ra II rafts used by Thor Heyerdahl.

In the museum, were replicas of the boats used in this expeditions as well as items from the journey and other stories. While I found the story of Thor Heyerdahl incredibly fascinating, unfortunately the museum exhibits themselves were not overly stimulating. When I showed my student card to the woman at the cashier, she said, “You’re from Australia? I lived in Brisbane for a time while I was studying!” And then she talked about how she loved it there and wants to go back.

Right across from the Kon-Tiki museum were two others; however I was running out of NOK and there weren’t any ATM’s nearby, and besides it was getting late, so I had to make a choice. I decided on visiting the Frammuseet (20Kr) which is a large triangular prism of a building which houses the actual Fram ship which was used in the expeditions to the South Pole. In 1911, Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole beating Englishman Scott of the Antarctic who arrived two months later only to see the Norwegian flag already there. He died on the return journey.

The Fram.

It was good because you could actually get on the Fram and walk around its decks and cabins – I just kept imagining how incredibly difficult the conditions must’ve been for he sailors – crazy times. There was also a whole lot of information on the walls and accounts from people who went on the expeditions about all the problems they faced – interesting stuff. The Norwegians really were the unmatched masters of arctic navigation.

By the time I was done looking at the Fram it was 3:15pm, and as I was waiting for the bus, I got a call from Madde, Simon’s girlfriend, who said she had some time to meet up. So I got off the bus outside the National Theatre where I met Madde and we went into a café for a coffee and a hot chocolat (60K!!) which was the perfect thing to warm up on a freezing night. We chatted for a while which was nice and I had one of those freakish moments again where I thought how bizarre it was for me to be sitting in a café in Oslo talking to Madde when a few weeks ago we had been doing the exact same thing on the other side of the world in Adelaide!! I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t do more things together as she would have a better idea about what’s fun to do in Oslo for young people than Zlatko probably would, but I understand that she had only just got back to Oslo a little while ago and had a lot things to do and catch up on, especially family and friends who she hadn’t seen in ages. So I did appreciate the short time we spent together.

Afterwards, I caught the Metro back to MajorStuen and walked back to the apartment to wait for Zlatko to get home from work. Tonight, we were going to go to one of his favourite restaurants ‘Peppe’s Pizza’ which is a chain of restaurants that is quite pricey but serves gourmet pizzas. The one we went to was by the dock, and on the way we walked past the City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held each year. The pizza we had was half ‘Blue Moon’ and hald ‘Fly Away’ (380Kr) and I must say, they were exceptionally good and went down well with a Heineken (50Kr). We had invited Madde to join us for dinner but she declined.

After dinner we caught a taxi to a place called the Underwater Pub. Zlakto often comes here and says the owner is a real opera fanatic which is why some nights he allows young opera singer students come and have the chance to sing in front of a crowd to practice. It’s also good entertainment for the other patrons. At first I though, “Oh no, how boring” as I’m not the greatest fan of opera singing, but I must say that experiencing this is something quite different. Because it’s such a small enclosed venue and you’re so close to the performers (literally a few metres), you really ‘feel’ their voice when they start belting out the high or low notes. There were three young singers who did a few short pieces and I have to say, it wasn’t to bad – a very unique experience! I also tried a local Norwegian beer called Ringnes which was pretty nice.

Sunset over a lake in Oslo.

At about 11 o’clock we caught a taxi back to the apartment where we finished watching ROTK. Also, when I started thinking about packing for tomorrow, I realised that I had completely forgotten to wash any clothes while I was in Oslo, so at 11:30pm we put a load in and hoped that it would be dry by tomorrow!