Oslo

Hallo Hallo,

I realize that this is a little late, but when I meant to write up some entries it was right around Thanksgiving back home and I thought I would just post a picture about what Thanksgiving day looked like in Sweden.  Keep in mind that this is very atypical weather, and in fact southern Sweden usually has warmed weather and less snow during the winter than Vermont does.  But it's been a couple weeks now and the snow hasn't gone anywhere, in fact there's more now than there was then, so I guess this is another strange year for Sweden (last year they had unusually large amounts of snow too).

The view in front of my place on what would be Thanksgiving day back in the States.
Luckily I remembered to put my bike inside before the snow came this year.

First thing the morning after this I headed off to Oslo, Norway for the weekend with Markus (Germany), Julius (Germany), and Alex (France).  We drove Markus' car there, and it must have been around a 7 hour drive from Vaxjo.  Oslo was a nice looking city.  I was told how expensive it was going to be (which it definitely was, a quick google search puts it anywhere from most to eleventh most expensive city in the world, depending on the rating system), but I was not at all prepared for how cold it was going to be.  It isn't all that far north, about the same latitude as Stockholm, but the wind coming off the water makes the temperatures seem so much worse.  I had on long underwear and two pairs of socks for almost the whole weekend and it was still cold out.  The worst was the wind on my face, and by the time I got back to Sweden my face and lips were completely dried out.  

We got there late in the afternoon, of course it was already dark and cold, so we just walked around the city for a bit, the only stop we really had in mind was the Royal Palace since it was the opposite direction that we would head the following day, then stopped for dinner and simply a warm place to say.

Our first stop, the Royal Palace

I actually really like it when pictures come out blurry like this, it leaves more to the imagination.  This
was supposed to be the view down the street towards the city center from the Royal Palace

Some decoration on a roundabout, I just thought it was odd looking just hanging there

They had a nice little rink in the middle of the town

With no Thanksgiving, Christmas season was already in full swing

By far the smallest car I've ever seen

The city center just outside the main station

Next to it was a tiger statue.  I don't know what it symbolizes, but I know I like climbing things

Our first destination the next morning was the most popular tourist attraction in Oslo, the Holmenkollen ski jump.  It's the second oldest ski jump still in existence, built in the 1800's, and was used in the 1952 Oslo Winter Olympics.  The ski jump was closed for construction so we couldn't get into the Holmenkollen Museum, but the best part of the jump was that it was located at the top of a hill with a beautiful view out over the city.  And the best part of the view was that the city is located on the edge of fjord.  Granted, Oslo isn't in prime fjord country like Western Norway is, but the view was stunning nonetheless.  The only bad part about being up on top of the highest hill was the wind, and after taking some pictures we found a beautiful restraunt/cafe just past the ski jump with a great view of the city and the fjords.  It was super expensive, as it was both a nice place and near a tourist attraction in Oslo, but buying a cup of tea was worth sitting by the fireplace and warming up with a great view out the window behind us.  

A square just behind out hotel

The view from the top, just across from Holmenkollen

Markus also taking a picture of the Holmenkollen ski jump

The ski jump and it's statue

The front view of the jump, under construction.  With the construction this was as close as we could get

The view in front of the cafe

On the porch before going into the cafe

Couldn't ask for table with a better view... yet soon after sitting down the others wanted to move over to the fireplace instead

A picture of the ski jump in action

Just look at that view... 

A bit more of a creative shot of me and the fjord, I was really surprised how well it came out

Markus enjoying his tea

Alex trying to warm up

Julius enjoying his coffee and apple pie by the fire

Our next stop was the Oslo Opera House.  It's most famous for the unique design of the building, and despite the cold, since it was right on the waterfront we ran around and on top of the building checking out the views and taking pictures.

We didn't actually go into the National Theater, but it was right by the tram stop we used, so we walked by it a bunch of times

Statue in front of the Opera House

The Oslo Opera House with a nice view of the water on one side and the city on the other

Cool architecture, right?

You can literally walk up the side of it

The four of us: Julius, Alex, Markus, and I (left to right)

A strange angle shot from the top

The view of the water from the top was phenomenal

Julius and I literally ran around the building taking pictures while the others warmed up inside

Hey, look at me

Our next stop was to the old town with the Akershus Fortress and Castle.  It was kind of cool to see an old part of the city still well and alive in the middle of vibrant, modern city.  We didn't go inside the castle, but the outside was nice.  The same type of guards who were at the Royal Palace were at the castle too.  We didn't get to see the changing of the guards, but they walking around (I don't know if it was more to patrol or keep warm) and one even came at me after I hopped a rope and ran up a hill to get a picture, but I ran back down before he made it over to me.  

I just thought this was a cool looking statue.  It was the middle of a roundabout

A shot inside the old town.  You can see the edge of the castle on the right

A nice shot on the far side of the castle

Beautiful picture looking out over the water and the city from up near the castle

The castle tower, I like the solidness of the background in this one

Markus and Julius looking out at the view with a nice shot of the city in the background

And this was the view out over the water

The wall surrounding the old village

After that we stumbled upon a Christmas market and stopped in to look around and warm up at some of the fires and inside exhibits.  We then just walked around, stopped in some shops so that Markus and Alex could get some warmer gloves and got dinner.

The view walking into the center of the Christmas market

I guess they really like their animal statues... and it looks like Markus does too

The next day we started out at the Flam Museum, an museum build up around the old ship, the Fram, that was used for polar explorations.  The building is build in unique shape since it was build to fit the shape of the boat with the boat already inside.  There was a pretty extensive wall of stuff to read about the captain of the ship, Fridtjof Nansen, that was actually really cool.  

The outside of the Fram Museum

The ship itself that the museum was built around

You could walk right around the ship

The Fram

Each of the living quarters has been turned into a display room.  Unfortunately these were the ships medical supplies.

I don't know why I liked this display so much

The crew

There were a lot of models in addition to the real thing.  I like the focus on this shot.

I have no idea what this was, it just looked funny

There were actually a lot of cool displays

... including a mammoth tusk

But the coolest part was reading about this guy.  There were probably ten or so of these talking about his life's work.

Our final stop in Oslo was the Viking ship museum.  Just down the road from the Fram, this museum showcased some real boats used by the vikings along with some artifacts.  The ships were buried as tombs for the dead, though grave robbers had taken most of the artifacts from the ships before they were found and excavated.

The first Viking ship you see walking in the door, probably the best preserved one too

The second ship, not much was found of the ruins

The third was still in decent shape, from the balcony you can see down into the ship

There were also some sleds and a cart, with very intricate designs hand carved into them

The outside of the museum as we left

After that we just grabbed a quick bite, warmed up, went back to the hotel to grab our things and headed home.  Even though I had only been gone a few days it was shocking how much warmer and nicer it felt to be back in Sweden.

With just a week and a half until I head back to Vermont for Christmas break, this may or may not be my last post for a while, but keep on checking anyways and maybe you'll be in for a pleasant surprise.  Happy Holidays.

Hallo