The Scattergun Approach: Final thoughts for Oslo

Monday, 16 July

Holmenkollen Ski Jump

Stop 1 for today was the Holmenkollen Ski jump and Ski museum. It was originally made for the Olympics back in the day, but following a refurbishment last year, it has been reopened to the public.

From the top. It seems less terrifying in this photo, but it is a ridiculously long way down. Ski jumpers be crazy.

We were pretty rushed at this stop, which is unfortunate because what little I saw of the museum actually looked really interesting. In particular, they have an exhibit at the moment dedicated to disabled winter athletes, showing the equipment they use (and options to have a play with bits of it) and the rules involved in the various paralympic winter sports. The view from the top was staggering, made even better by the fact that it was a perfectly clear day.

This is a recreation of a famous Norwegian photo of a 9 month old child skiing. Yes, nine months old.

Ye olde ladies skiing costume. Seems practical.

Oslo from above.

More Oslo from above.

And some more Oslo from above.

They had a stuffed brown bear in the gift shop. I don't think I would like to see one in the wild anymore.

We then went down to Vigeland Park for another stroll through the giant penis garden.

Seriously, this guy needed a girlfriend. And to be kept far, far, far, far, far away from children and animals.

Afterwards, we were dropped at the far point of Bygdøy, where we had the option of visiting the Kon- Tiki museum or the Polar Fram museum. I went to Kon-Tiki, which was quite interesting, but the museum itself was disappointingly set up and didn't really have much information to give context to what I was seeing. What I gathered though is Thor Heyerdahl wanted to prove that it was possible that American tribes had crossed the Pacific Ocean much earlier than previously thought, and definitely before the age of imperialism. To prove his hypothesis, he made the Kon-Tiki, a raft made using traditional techniques and traditional materials and sailed it across the Pacific.

A recreation of the original raft. It was made from balsa wood. Seriously, how did (1) anyone think that taking this onto the open ocean was a good idea and (2) it make it???

Following up on the success of this voyage, he then made two more journeys in reed/papyrus boats the Ra and the Tigris. It was really amazing seeing the boats so close up, and looking at them it defies belief that he did actually manage to float them across thousands of kilometres of open ocean.

Me + another boat that probably shouldn't have been allowed to leave the harbours.

Heyerdahl was also one of the first "popular scientist", writing many popular books about his theories and voyages and using the mass media generally to inform and entertain the public about scientific issues. A documentary made about the Kon-Tiki voyage actually won an Oscar, so I think I'd like to track that down and check it out once I get a bit settled.

Something I forgot to mention yesterday was that the Viking museum, Kon-Tiki and cultural museum are on a bit of land called the King's Court, which is this lovely forested peninsular about 10mins from central Oslo. It was a gift from one of the kings to the people of Oslo for their recreation, so it has plenty of walking and cycling tracks. It also has a dairy farm which produces significant amounts of Norway's milk. The farm is working towards being completely organic, energy neutral and sustainable by 2013.

The dairy farm on the King's Court.

Finally, we were dropped off the Oslo town centre for some free time. We checked out the inside of the Town Hall on a bit of a whim, and it was lucky that we did. While the outside of the Hall is painfully plain (See the image from yesterday), the inside looks like this.

I would be happy to receive a Nobel Prize in here.

This is one of the many frescoed rooms in the hall. The paintings tell the story of Norway's history...

which apparently included fending off giant insects at some point.

After that, there wasn't much else for me to do, I just wandered around the city checking out some of the streets off the beaten track, which was actually quite interesting. Oslo is Europe's fastest growing city, and nearly a quarter of its residents are immigrants, so there are little pockets of the different ethnicities encircling the main tourist spots.

I also climbed up their opera house, which was pretty cool. Take note Sydney, all the cool opera houses let people walk an their roofs.

Floating sculpture outside the Opera. It's tethered to the bottom of the river with a single chain, so it spins around when there are winds/waves.

I have had quite a nice time in Oslo, although I 'm not sure I'll be returning any time soon. It feels like a city that is still growing into itself (literally, huge chunks of the city are being re/developed) and doesn't really have enough attractions to hold people for substantial periods.

-Lucy

Ps. The final thing about Oslo that I haven't mentioned is that it is getting some really funky, modern architecture. If hipster was a city, it would be Oslo.