Our Scandinavia Adventure: Day One (31 July)

Our trip started very early this morning, with our alarm going off at 2:00 A.M. (yes, you read correctly) so that we could get ourselves over to Liverpool Street station to catch the bus (the trains don't run at that time of the morning) to Stansted Airport in time to check in for our 6:25 A.M. flight to Oslo. As in the past when we've started trips in the dark, we saw a few urban foxes on our street, casually rooting through rubbish bins and barely casting glances our way--a reminder that this was their time of day and that we should still be blissfully asleep. Once we were on the plane ready to take off, we saw a sad sight on the tarmac:

No one did anything about the suitcase on the runway, right beside where we boarded our plane--some people were going to be very unhappy very soon without their carefully packed travel essentials! It was our first time flying Ryanair, one of the main budget airlines that fly out of London, and once we made it through the nightmare queues at Stansted, our flight was pretty comfortable--we even got the emergency-exit seating, which Bob's knees always like. The only unnerving part was looking out the window and seeing Ryanair's oddly shaped wingtips:The Norwegian coast looked spectacular from the plane:
After a long bus ride into Oslo, we arrived at our hotel around noon and were very happy that we could check in early. Our room was simple and clean--just what we expected: We were both ready to get into bed for a long nap, but since we only had one night in Oslo, we freshened up and headed to the hotel's breakfast room, where we took advantage of the all-day free coffee and sat on the small terrace sipping ourselves awake.
We decided to wander down to the water, and passed by the pretty Norwegian parliament:
We didn't know what it was at the time, but Oslo's city hall was also an amazing sight,
perched right on the picturesque harbour.

As part of our hotel deal, we got two Oslo passes, which entitled us to unlimited public transportation and admission to various attractions. Although Oslo was the only city we visited where the passes were included with our hotel, we ended up buying the passes in Copenhagen and Stockholm as well--they were always a great deal! We used our passes to take a ferry over to the Bygdøy peninsula, a lovely residential area, as well as the site of several museums. Rocky outcrops all over the city add a dramatic air, and as we walked toward our destination, I especially liked this house, perched on a wall of rock:
Designed by Arnstein Arneberg, who also designed Oslo's city hall, the Viking Ship Museum is a spectacular building whose exterior gives little clue to the beauty inside.
Three oak burial ships, dating from 815-900 A.D., preserved in clay, and unearthed from 1867-1904, fill the building, their ashy browns contrasting wonderfully with the stark white of the building's walls.


The animal-head posts from the ships are extremely ornate:
Our next stop was the Munch Museum, whose nicely designed sign signalled the pleasing design of the museum as a whole: We both enjoyed the opportunity to see a lot of Munch's work that was previously unknown to us. Some of my favourites included The Kiss,
The Wave,
The Wedding of the Bohemian I,
and Winter Night.
The museum is still attempting to restore their painting from Munch's Scream series (stolen in an embarrassing 2004 armed robbery and recovered in 2006), and exhibits this pastel rendition in its place:The effects of the robbery are most felt in the incredible security measures currently in place--I've never been in a museum with so many obvious gates, doors, and barriers. The Munch Museum executes these security measures with utter class, using glass, metal, and a sense of transparency that nicely distract from the real containment taking place.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around various neighbourhoods, trying to get a feel for the city. We passed by the National Theatre's peacock fountain
and felt right at home at this great coffeehouse, whose sidewalk tables were crowded in the afternoon sun.
Unlike most of the food menus, coffee menus weren't a problem for us on this trip, and we especially appreciated the way that Scandinavian coffee shops price their coffees by the number of shots rather than the physical size of the cup, which means that you never end up with watery coffee. In fact, coffees on our trip were consistently strong and delicious . . . we miss them already! The entire Grünerløkka neighbourhood was fantastic, with plenty of interesting shops, restaurants, and cafés to attract lively crowds.
I couldn't figure out why the people in this mural were missing their underwear (well, okay, the woman is on the toilet, so that explains that, but the man appears to be going to work without any bottoms--and why is a woman on the toilet part of this ad anyway?), but they seemed to be alright with their circumstances: Even the cows in this Grünerløkka ad for milk chocolate participate in café culture!

By evening, we were definitely feeling the length of our day, but we made one last stop before heading back to the hotel. Strangely enough, we just saw the excellent Norwegian film Elling about a week ago, and tonight we went to a rather surreal sculpture park that features prominently in the film. (For those of you who have seen Elling, you'll be relieved to know that we didn't react the same way as Kjell Bjarne does when he sees the sculptures.) The gates to Vigeland Park are gorgeous
and as we walked further into the park,
we realised that the sculptures we had seen so recently on film were even more incredible in real life. Gustav Vigeland's work represents a wide range of human emotions and experiences across the lifespan. This one, known as Little Hot-Head, is said to be modelled on a child from London! (Bob had no comment.)

The pinnacle of the park is the Monolith. Lonely Planet Norway informs us that the Monolith "required three stone carvers working daily from 1929 to 1943 and was carved from a single stone pillar . . . It depicts a writhing mass of 121 detailed human figures, both entwined with and undermining each other in their individual struggle to reach the top." Details aside, it is simply spectacular.
The gates in the park are also striking:

Some of the acrobatics are pretty impressive
and as we walked around with the sun setting and picnickers all around, the park seemed like a pretty idyllic place to end our first day in Scandinavia.