Norway 2: Oslo

Ed and I decided to take a cab into Oslo because of his giant bike bag. Twenty-five minutes and about $230 later, we pulled up in front of our hotel. The wooded hillsides through which we drove were lovely, but I was too distracted by the rapidly climbing number on the meter to be too enchanted. Our starting rate - that is, the fee they automatically put on the meter before the car even starts moving - was 60 kroner, the equivalent of $10! In New York, it's usually only a dollar or two, and things went up alarmingly from there. Phew.

Dinner in Oslo

Our living room

Our room, however, turned out to be fantastic and made us forget some of the cab's sticker shock. Ed had somehow gotten an upgrade, and so we had not only a bedroom and a bathroom, but a good-sized living room as well. The floor tiles were heated, a feature of our last hotel room in Haugesund as well, and one that was making me increasingly fond of Norway. After stowing our bags and freshening up, we headed downstairs where a very friendly concierge made dinner reservations for us and used a map to give us the lay of the land in Oslo. Soon after, we were headed toward the waterfront. The area is newly constructed and was lovely. It was lined with restaurants, shops, and more ice cream stands than I've ever seen in my life, and absolutely packed with all kinds of people strolling around. We had dinner at a wonderful Japanese fusion restaurant, right on the water. The food was great, but the portions were tiny and the bill was enormous. Hmmm. Good thing we'd forgone dessert. After this, we figured, New York was going to seem like a steal. (Every hotel we stayed in during our trip featured a free, very good breakfast buffet, thank heavens. I was consistently tempted to secretly stuff my purse with bread to save us the cost of buying lunch at Norwegian restaurants, where there is a 25% meal tax.) We walked to the famous opera house after dinner, heading back to the hotel around 10:30 P.M. under a sky that looked like twilight.

Reconstructed, historical buildings

We spent the next day on the Bygdøy Peninsula, which we accessed by ferry, the quickest way. Visitors can take their pick from many wonderful museums there, and we hit three of them before the day was over. Our first stop was the Norwegian Folk Museum, the one I was most excited about seeing. It is huge and most of the exhibits are outdoors. Historical buildings from different eras have been transported to the museum from all over Norway, and there are people in period costume walking around and demonstrating things like weaving, making bread, etc. There are also a few more traditional exhibits, and Ed and I got to see sleighs, furniture, clothing, etc. that was hundreds of years old. But I enjoyed walking through the houses and gardens more. We went into one house where a few women were demonstrating how to bake bread on an open hearth. There were also animals, and though we opted not to take a wagon ride, we did ogle an enormous sow and her piglets, laugh at some chickens, and attempt to coax a bunch of sheep down the hill so we could look at them more closely. (They did not budge, probably because they don't understand English.)

Exhibits at the Folk Museum

Viking ship! (Waaay bigger than it appears)

The next stop was the Viking Ship Museum, which contains pretty much just what you'd think. There are three viking ships inside that were found in burial mounds, and they are enormous. Two have been reconstructed and one is displayed in ruins so visitors can see what they looked like when they were unearthed. Because the ships are so huge, the museum has raised platforms so you can see them from the top as well. We also got to meet their inhabitants, or what was left of them. One guy's bones showed wounds from battle, some of which had healed and some of which likely caused his death; I am glad I am not a viking, as it sounds like it was pretty rough. Each of the mounds were robbed at some point and so there was no jewelry or anything of material value, but the wooden carvings, bits of textiles, utensils, and tools found with the dead (the vikings were like the Egyptians when it comes to burying people) are priceless to archeologists. Virtually no other viking artifacts have ever been found, so much of what is known about them comes from these ships. I like the museum more than I expected to, limited though it was.

Next was the Kon-Tiki Museum, home to a few ships made in modern times according to ancient blueprints. Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer and writer, got it into his head that he wanted to test out the capabilities of old-time boats, and ended up sailing one of them across the Pacific successfully. At this point, I was essentially dragging Ed around by the arm, as he was not yet fully recovered from his race, so after about five minutes in the museum we caught the next ferry to Oslo and rested up before a fabulous dinner*.

We took it a little easier the next day, given Ed's fatigue and my hangover from the previous night's wine pairings. We (I) slept in, and eventually made our way to the famous sculpture garden in Frogner Park using the city's pleasant, above-ground train. (Some of it is underground, but not this part, so we got to check out lots of neighborhoods on our ride.) It was nice to get into the part of the city that people actually live and work in, and after checking out the garden and relaxing in the grass for a while, we went to a neighborhood known for being hip and fun, Grünerløkka, for lunch. We ate at a restaurant with an outdoor seating area and watched the hipsters go by, agreeing that it felt a lot like Brooklyn only with shorter buildings and more blondes. Even by our standards, the weather was quite warm, and the locals seemed to find it downright steamy. But, since weather like this is rare in Norway, they were out in droves taking advantage of the sun; the outdoor area was completely full, but when I went inside on a bathroom run I found that not a single table was occupied. We wandered around the city a bit more after lunch, then went to another, outstanding dinner*. This being our third Oslo dinner, we noticed several interesting commonalities between the three experiences: 1) The waiters all spoke to us about the food in low, excited voices, as though they were sharing with us the mysteries of the universe; 2) Excellent restaurants were practically empty. I asked our waiter what the deal was regarding the latter observation, and he explained that the restaurant was usually packed but that the three-week national holiday was just beginning and everyone used it to get out of the city. Indeed, many shops were closed, too, and he said that the restaurant was closing after the next evening and he would be taking a vacation himself. "Personally, I think I deserve it," he said. I agreed with him that he assuredly did. 

Oslo is a lovely city, and Ed and I enjoyed our time there, but neither of us was sorry to check out of our hotel and head to the airport the next day. After all, the part of the trip we were most excited about lay ahead: Svalbard!

*Our dinners were so stellar that I'm planning to write a post entirely in their honor - stay tuned!