It is Oslo ja!
After all the annoying stuff in Paris, I was pretty happy to get out of there and kick on to a totally new destination - Oslo! Another country ticked off on my world map.... :)
Having never even set foot on Norwegian soil, I wasn't sure what to expect. From the air the placed looked green, with lots of water and smallish cities. On the ground it looked even better with the trip in the taxi... The houses are cute and streets picturesque... and lots of greenery!!! Unfortunately because of the Paris stuff I only arrived late on Friday, went straight to work, got up Saturday, went to work, but managed to go out on Saturday night. The first stop was a pub with an 80's rock band playing and an 'older' crowd, but we swiftly moved on from there and found a cool bar on the waterfront called Appenbar. Many drinks were consumed but there were plenty of people to talk to (and look at) to keep us occupied until 4am - where we got kicked out.
After getting up late on Sunday, I headed out for a look around the city. I was fortunate to score some beautiful weather and enjoyed just strolling around town for a while. I'd checked a map before and looked for a few landmarks to check out like the Royal Palace, but what I was interested in was getting some sun and relaxing in a park. In the north of the city was something called Vigeland (sculpture) park, so I went to check it out.
What a park!!! Anyone going to Oslo just has to check it out. Although I just stumbled upon it on the Sunday, I did do a tour later in the week which gave me more info (so I'll just go through it all now). This Vigeland dude was a famous sculptor in the 1900's and he managed to convince the Norwegian government to let him design a whole park. It's a big and beautiful park, but the amazing thing are the sculptures everywhere, all of which were crafted by Vigeland. The theme of the park is Life and Death, so a lot of the sculptures and the groupings follow progressions or parts of the human life.
The main bridge within the park is quite famous for the sculptures showing people in different stages of life, but also in different relationships. Many also show the sometimes passionate/tempestuous/happy etc relationships between men and women. There's no real reason for it, but this little crying dude is a massive favourite with everyone and his hand is actually worn away where people touch it for luck or something.
Although I liked LOTS of the sculptures on the bridge like the women being chucked, the man in the ring trying to escape death (by breaking the 'wheel of life' confining him to his destiny) etc, the ones that really caught my eye are on four pillars at the start and end of the bridge (two women ones on either side of the start, and two male ones on either side at the end). These show the woman and man wrestling and then submitting to a strange creature.... I thought they looked really cool! When I was on the tour I asked the guide about them, and apparently the creature is passion... bah! I was hoping for some cool myth about a creature eating people! Oh well.
After the bridge is a huge fountain with groups of 'tree' sculptures around the outside. These sculptures consist of people interacting with a 'tree' (symbolising life) and show lives from a cute birth to an old man desperately holding on to 'life' (the tree) before finally becoming a skeleton in the last tree, but then leading to new life starting again (remember the 'Wheel' people). Kinda morbid, but still cool. The huge bowl which forms the major part of the fountain is held up by six huge figures but I can't remember what they symbolise, for now just appreciate how big and cool they are.
Even though you think that this would be enough to put into a park, the most amazing things was still to come - The Monolith. This is a massive (it's really big when you are standing looking up at it) sculpted monolith comprising of 121 individual figures reaching fifteen meters up to try and get to heaven. Surrounding the things are four rings of other sculptures and similar to the fountain, you can again walk around them and see the whole cycle of life from birth to death. One thing I liked about the monolith is that the figures aren't all nicely climbing... Just as there are all sorts of people, some are climbing desperately, some are stepping on others, some are helping others, kids are being held (I think in one case one is about to be dropped) or climbing around etc. I had to sit around for quite a while and check all angles of it just to take it all in. I've never seen anything like it before :) Some kids were there doing a school outing and making copies from plasticine, so I nabbed a photo with a cute girl.
Even after all these things, it's still just one cool park. Because the weather was good, people were out in force having picnincs, playing sport, just relaxing, sunbathing, doing Capoeira practice, juggling practice etc etc. Spending an afternoon in the sun, reading a book and listening to people laughing running etc around me was just the kind of thing I needed.
Our Monday was usual user support for the weekend work however as I had a late flight on Tuesday so I had a chance to take in a tour of the city. A big part of it was in Vigeland Park (where I got all that info) but there's still plenty of other stuff to see around Oslo. In the short time I had prior to the tour starting I checked out the castle/fort thing overlooking the main Oslo harbour. It was pretty cool but the view was blocked a little by a massive cruise ship full of seniors (they were everywhere around town).
The locals are very proud of their ski-jump for some reason, and they take you to see it. It's cool though as I'd never been up one before and enjoyed looking down the ramp, getting a brilliant overview of the city. It's really intimidating when you are up there and I really don't know how those crazy boys do it... Under the ramp is a Ski museum where they show you all the crazy stuff they used to ski on in the old days, and how snowboards were refined and came into existence. This cool dude is some god who watches over everything and protects everyone.. I spotted him from the top.
After the ramp they took us to two museums, the Viking Ship museum and the Kon Tiki museum. In both cases I just can't believe the boats they used to use effectively, and how far they went in them. The old Viking boats were very seaworthy and travelled huge distances, but they were also used as tributes to those who died. An important person would be placed in a special shelter structure on the deck with valuables and carvings etc, then the whole thing would be covered with earth to make a burial mound. I dunno if other 'normal' people got buried at sea on pyres or what (I have that idea from somewhere). Anyway, these things are OLD, and some were preserved enough to put in the museum.
The Kon Tiki museum houses the original raft which tried to sail from South America to Polynesia, but didn't quite make it. But later on they made another one and completed the journey. The real achievement though is that raft is basically only made of balsa wood and bamboo type reeds.... Yet they constructed a cool little hut, had the sail etc and actually sailed it on the open seas. Really incredible stuff.
So that was Oslo! Nice buildings and a nice town, good people and really amazing parks and forest etc. The waterfront district is also very cool with good cafe's and restaurants. One thing I would love to do one day is go and see the real fjords and mountains in the north of the country. It's meant to be spectacular, so that will have to wait until next time.
More soon... cyas
Anka
Having never even set foot on Norwegian soil, I wasn't sure what to expect. From the air the placed looked green, with lots of water and smallish cities. On the ground it looked even better with the trip in the taxi... The houses are cute and streets picturesque... and lots of greenery!!! Unfortunately because of the Paris stuff I only arrived late on Friday, went straight to work, got up Saturday, went to work, but managed to go out on Saturday night. The first stop was a pub with an 80's rock band playing and an 'older' crowd, but we swiftly moved on from there and found a cool bar on the waterfront called Appenbar. Many drinks were consumed but there were plenty of people to talk to (and look at) to keep us occupied until 4am - where we got kicked out.
After getting up late on Sunday, I headed out for a look around the city. I was fortunate to score some beautiful weather and enjoyed just strolling around town for a while. I'd checked a map before and looked for a few landmarks to check out like the Royal Palace, but what I was interested in was getting some sun and relaxing in a park. In the north of the city was something called Vigeland (sculpture) park, so I went to check it out.
What a park!!! Anyone going to Oslo just has to check it out. Although I just stumbled upon it on the Sunday, I did do a tour later in the week which gave me more info (so I'll just go through it all now). This Vigeland dude was a famous sculptor in the 1900's and he managed to convince the Norwegian government to let him design a whole park. It's a big and beautiful park, but the amazing thing are the sculptures everywhere, all of which were crafted by Vigeland. The theme of the park is Life and Death, so a lot of the sculptures and the groupings follow progressions or parts of the human life.
The main bridge within the park is quite famous for the sculptures showing people in different stages of life, but also in different relationships. Many also show the sometimes passionate/tempestuous/happy etc relationships between men and women. There's no real reason for it, but this little crying dude is a massive favourite with everyone and his hand is actually worn away where people touch it for luck or something.
Although I liked LOTS of the sculptures on the bridge like the women being chucked, the man in the ring trying to escape death (by breaking the 'wheel of life' confining him to his destiny) etc, the ones that really caught my eye are on four pillars at the start and end of the bridge (two women ones on either side of the start, and two male ones on either side at the end). These show the woman and man wrestling and then submitting to a strange creature.... I thought they looked really cool! When I was on the tour I asked the guide about them, and apparently the creature is passion... bah! I was hoping for some cool myth about a creature eating people! Oh well.
After the bridge is a huge fountain with groups of 'tree' sculptures around the outside. These sculptures consist of people interacting with a 'tree' (symbolising life) and show lives from a cute birth to an old man desperately holding on to 'life' (the tree) before finally becoming a skeleton in the last tree, but then leading to new life starting again (remember the 'Wheel' people). Kinda morbid, but still cool. The huge bowl which forms the major part of the fountain is held up by six huge figures but I can't remember what they symbolise, for now just appreciate how big and cool they are.
Even though you think that this would be enough to put into a park, the most amazing things was still to come - The Monolith. This is a massive (it's really big when you are standing looking up at it) sculpted monolith comprising of 121 individual figures reaching fifteen meters up to try and get to heaven. Surrounding the things are four rings of other sculptures and similar to the fountain, you can again walk around them and see the whole cycle of life from birth to death. One thing I liked about the monolith is that the figures aren't all nicely climbing... Just as there are all sorts of people, some are climbing desperately, some are stepping on others, some are helping others, kids are being held (I think in one case one is about to be dropped) or climbing around etc. I had to sit around for quite a while and check all angles of it just to take it all in. I've never seen anything like it before :) Some kids were there doing a school outing and making copies from plasticine, so I nabbed a photo with a cute girl.
Even after all these things, it's still just one cool park. Because the weather was good, people were out in force having picnincs, playing sport, just relaxing, sunbathing, doing Capoeira practice, juggling practice etc etc. Spending an afternoon in the sun, reading a book and listening to people laughing running etc around me was just the kind of thing I needed.
Our Monday was usual user support for the weekend work however as I had a late flight on Tuesday so I had a chance to take in a tour of the city. A big part of it was in Vigeland Park (where I got all that info) but there's still plenty of other stuff to see around Oslo. In the short time I had prior to the tour starting I checked out the castle/fort thing overlooking the main Oslo harbour. It was pretty cool but the view was blocked a little by a massive cruise ship full of seniors (they were everywhere around town).
The locals are very proud of their ski-jump for some reason, and they take you to see it. It's cool though as I'd never been up one before and enjoyed looking down the ramp, getting a brilliant overview of the city. It's really intimidating when you are up there and I really don't know how those crazy boys do it... Under the ramp is a Ski museum where they show you all the crazy stuff they used to ski on in the old days, and how snowboards were refined and came into existence. This cool dude is some god who watches over everything and protects everyone.. I spotted him from the top.
After the ramp they took us to two museums, the Viking Ship museum and the Kon Tiki museum. In both cases I just can't believe the boats they used to use effectively, and how far they went in them. The old Viking boats were very seaworthy and travelled huge distances, but they were also used as tributes to those who died. An important person would be placed in a special shelter structure on the deck with valuables and carvings etc, then the whole thing would be covered with earth to make a burial mound. I dunno if other 'normal' people got buried at sea on pyres or what (I have that idea from somewhere). Anyway, these things are OLD, and some were preserved enough to put in the museum.
The Kon Tiki museum houses the original raft which tried to sail from South America to Polynesia, but didn't quite make it. But later on they made another one and completed the journey. The real achievement though is that raft is basically only made of balsa wood and bamboo type reeds.... Yet they constructed a cool little hut, had the sail etc and actually sailed it on the open seas. Really incredible stuff.
So that was Oslo! Nice buildings and a nice town, good people and really amazing parks and forest etc. The waterfront district is also very cool with good cafe's and restaurants. One thing I would love to do one day is go and see the real fjords and mountains in the north of the country. It's meant to be spectacular, so that will have to wait until next time.
More soon... cyas
Anka
posted by Anthony Hawke at 12:42 pm
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