The “Oh My Gosh Let’s Fit Everything into One Day” Day

August 06, 2014

Today was the explore Oslo day and boy did Emily, Sidney, and I explore. We left the ship at 9am but may as well have left at 10 because we wandered around for an hour on our quest to find the tourism building that was right under our noses so we could buy our Oslo passes. The great thing about the Oslo pass is that it allows you to get into countless museums and other attractions for free as well as discounts at certain eateries.

Our first museum of the day, out of 5, was the Viking Ship Museum so we hopped on a ferry to get to the peninsula. I never really thought I was one for museums until this trip when I realized that out of my friends I take the longest in each museum we visit and I like taking a long time. I enjoyed myself immensely looking at these meticulously crafted Viking ships and the objects ground from burial mounds and graves. They all came to life a bit more for me since I’ve learned about them both in my Religions and Art History classes. Next up was the Fram museum. What is that, you may ask? I didn’t really know what this was either at first, to be honest, but I saw it was included in two field programs so I knew it must be interesting. Oh my goodness it was! It’s like a polar expedition museum. It was all about the men, ships, sleds, and dogs that made arctic trips. The Fram ship was actually in the museum and we had the chance to go down inside it and see some of the artefacts from the polar expeditions and take some entertaining pictures. J There was also an arctic simulator and let me just say that if that’s the temperature of the arctic, I’d very much like to move there because it was a hot day and the freezing air on full blast felt amazing.

Third up was the Kon Tiki museum and I’m still not completely sure what the main point of the museum was. I think it was based on guy who one day up and decided he wanted to sail the world and that a papyrus boat was the best way to go. My guide book says the guy, Thor Heyerdahl, went on historically-based voyages using reed boats and showed that ancient peoples mastered the art of sail before the invention of the saddle and wheel. Interesting. What was cool was that there were statues found in graves around Easter Island exhibited and apparently have only been shown since April of this year. The fourth museum (we’re almost done, I promise) was the Norwegian Folk museum. We probably spent the longest time here because this museum wasn’t in one building. It had walk-in exhibits all over a piece of land that visitors can kind of wander at will. We walked through and in most of the museum and I think my favorite part was watching the folk dancing demonstration. I had no idea what traditional Norwegian dancing used to be like, only having seen Jane Austen era British dancing in films and BBC adaptations that I can remember. So it was a learning experience to see dancers wearing Norwegian folk clothes and dance some entertaining Norwegian dances. Last but not least was the Pop Centre, a museum dedicated to the last 100 years of Norwegian pop music, including the ever-loved song “Take On Me” by a band I still don’t know the name of. They had a sound booth where visitors can record their own song, so we very quickly went through the exhibit (because we only had ½ an hour until closing) and up to the sound booth. After some failed attempts at some songs, we chose “Livin’ On A Prayer” and Emily and I sang the 1^st verse and chorus while Sidney kind of ad-libbed because she is the only person on the planet who doesn’t know that song. Then the recording was emailed to Sidney so I’m sure she’ll have some very interesting recordings to listen to later on.

Doing 5 museums in one day makes you hungry, so Sidney and I stopped for dinner while Emily decided to head back to the ship. We ate at a place called Kafe Celsius and I had my one drink in this country—a glass of white wine. I ordered a shellfish pasta dish and it was so delicious and worth the money I shelled out for it. Get it? Shelled out? Because I ordered shellfish? Yea, okay maybe that wasn’t that funny. What was equally funny was the 12, okay 15, year-old Asian kid sitting near us by himself. He asked his waited what food on the menu was Norwegian food. The waiter, probably a little confused and amused, told the kid it was all Norwegian. Seriously kid, just don’t order the cheeseburger and you’ll be guaranteed some great Norwegian food. As if he heard my thoughts, he proceeded to order two fish dinners and some crumbly pie dessert. Part of the kid image he was projecting was from the fact that he had juice with his dinner and slumped down into his chair like an 8 year-old. What was also wonderful about Kafe Celsius, besides the food, is that we found out we got a discount with our Oslo pass, so that was nice. When we had finished our dinners and wine we walked in the general direction of the ship since we weren’t actually sure where we were. We discovered we were actually incredibly close to the ship so we meandered in that direction and stopped at a 7-11. I’ve never actually been in one, so I find it funny that the first one I decide to go into is in Norway. There, we got frozen yogurt and people watched for a while before going to the ship.