Norway Part 1: Oslo

This blogging thing is hard. I've been back from Norway for two weeks, but it's been the busiest academic two weeks of the semester. Yay midterms! But I'm heading off to Greenland on Monday, and the weather is now cold and gloomy enough to stop distracting me, so I thought I'd better put these up.
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Friday, September 27
Names are changed.

I started my travels with Lisa, who is in my Climate Change class, and Bert, whom Lisa and I met through Facebook. We left Copenhagen at 4:30 on an overnight ferry to Oslo.

There was a hot tub!

Our cabin

Goodbye, Copenhagen!

Wind turbines off the coast of Zealand 

Sunset over the ocean

I sat out on deck for as long as I could, enjoying the blue sky and blue water as I attempted to write an art history essay. Eventually, though, the wind drove me and my companions inside. We went to sleep early so we could get up in time to for the next morning's sunrise over the fjord.
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Saturday, September 28

I woke up around 6, watched the sunrise, and took a dip in the hot tub before the ferry docked in Oslo at 10. After dropping our stuff off at the hostel, the three of us walked around the main pedestrian street, saw the Munch exhibit at the National Gallery, and found an ethnic grocery store for dinner supplies.

View from the ferry

Looking down the main street toward the palace

This made me so happy. I refrained from taking all the sauces with me, but we did buy some fresh flatbread and canned hummus as a snack, as well as produce and eggs for the next day.

Whole wheat ramen (bought in Copenhagen), tofu, spinach, egg, and salmon soup powder (from CA)

We cooked dinner in the hostel with our roommate Henning, a German guy studying to be a music teacher. It was still early--we hadn't eaten a proper lunch and got hungry around 4--so Lisa and I took a walk around the hostel. We saw several cute cafes and wanted to stop for dessert, but there was pretty much nothing under $20--Norway is expensive! So we got ice cream instead.
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Sunday, September 29

Museum day! Lisa, Bert, and I got a 24-hour transportation pass so we could jump around to various parts of the city. A short ferry across the harbor brought us to these:

Model of the eponymous ship at the Fram Museum

Really old ship at the Viking Ship Museum

Back in the main part of the city, we visited the Nobel Peace Museum, walked through a medieval fortress, and went on the Opera House roof.

The Nobel Field with all the laureates

Walking up the roof of the Opera House

Dramatic view from the top of the Opera House, which reminded me of the end of Harry Potter 7 Part 1 (the movie)

These Tai Chi practitioners may have been promoting that night's Chinese culture show.

We went for Indian food in an ethnic neighborhood for a late lunch/early dinner.

Lisa and Bert were tourist-ed out at this point, so I went by myself to the Vigeland Sculpture Park, which turned out to be my favorite part of Oslo. The clouds were just clearning when I got there.

Bridge with sculptures

The fountain wasn't running, but these were still cool statues.

Looking back as I climbed toward the main sculpture.  The structure in the background is the nonfunctional fountain; beyond it is the bridge.

The main sculpture

There was still light when I got to the hostel at 6:30, and I was on a roll with all this tourist stuff, so I took a quick solo trip to the botanical garden.

Not at its peak, but still pretty!

Thus concluded my stay in Oslo. There was still much to do, but I was ready to leave; the city felt rather cold with all the new construction on the waterfront, and sad with the many homeless on the streets. On to Bergen!