It's too hard to keep alliterating Sunday

Sunday, 15 July

Today was my second day in Oslo, and it started out smashingly as my hostel provided an amazing hot breakfast. The only problem was that nothing had labels, so I have no idea what most of what I ate was, apart from the bacon. They also had the most delicious peach iced tea, which unless Australian varieties which usually taste like weak cordial, was loaded with flavour.

View over Oslo harbour

My first stop was the Viking Ship museum which houses the remains and artefacts recovered from three Viking burial ships. Like the Egyptians, vikings believed that the rich and fabulous couldn't handle being sent to the underworld without significant troves of worldly possessions, so the boats held sleighs, cooking utensils, weapons, horses, dogs and, in one case, a peacock.

It's amazing how well preserved the boats are today, and even more amazingly how they were built in the first place. Vikings thought measuring things was for weenies, so they cut and carved every piece by sight. The detail in the carvings was amazing - here's a piece which was used to hold rope. See how detailed it is?!? Just for a piece that holds a bit of rope on a dead guy's boat.

The rope-holding thing

They also managed too retrieve partial skeletons from the boats. It's incredible how much information the few fragments are able to tell us. This skeleton is of a male found around Gokstad.

His bones are roughly double the thickness of ordinary human bone, which combined with a flattening of the skull bone at a particular point indicates that he had a tumour meant that he had a hormonal condition (acromegali) which would have made him super strong. They are able to tell that in his childhood, around 5-7yrs old, he was bedridden for an extended period because of some calcifications on particular bones. They believe he was killed in battle because there are several clear cuts on his leg bones, one of which probably severed the femoral artery. As each of the cuts is slightly different, they believe that he died fighting at least 3 opponents.

There are two more partial skeletons, of women aged 50 & 80 which were found on another boat. The elder woman had severe arthritis which meant she most likely walked with a limp and a deep hunch in her back. She had severe cancer, which means that she was in crippling pain prior to her death.

Me + Viking burial ship

Not Viking-ship related, but too good to leave out. 

My next stop of the day was Vigelands Parkland, where Emanuel Vigeland's vast collection of sculptures call home. The sculptures theme is apparently "life, death and the generations", with the centrepiece (made from 120 separate pieces) is "a testament to men relying on each other, and lifting each other up to the sky", according to an audio tour I went on.

Vigeland Sculpture Park

I'm not sure what part of the "circle of life" this is meant to represent. I think Vigeland had a pretty screwed up childhood. 

This is the centrepiece. I'll let you figure out what it is.

Totem pole my ass. 

Finally, I visited the Norwegian Folk Museum. I was a bit apprehensive about this one because I was afraid it would be a tacky tourist trap, but was pleasantly surprised. It's a sprawling outdoor display, with examples of architecture and norwegian life through the various epochs, set amongst some beautiful woodlands. I saw a traditional folk dancing display, which reminded me of the dancing troupe at my old church - lots of old ladies who didn't quite get the beat but had a wonderful time anyway. The most interesting thing was the instrument that accompanied the dance - it's called a Key Harp, and has 16 strings, but only 4 are used played on, the remainder just vibrate to create a deeper sound. It looks like a deep violin, and it's played with a short bow, but also has keys, a bit like a piano accordion.

The Key Harp

The buildings were amazing, particularly considering that they weren't built using any modern implements. The norwegians had a bit of a thing for loft houses, probably because the place is perpetually damp so it was the only way to keep anything dry.

A traditional "loft" farmhouse

The main feature of the cultural museum is the Stave Church which was relocated to its current position in 1884.

Gingerbread Church Challenge - Accepted. 

I was pretty lucky that unlike most places on Sundays, there were still quite a lot of displays going on. I saw traditional pottery, silver smithing and weaving demonstrations. There was also an exhibit on Norwegian pharmaceuticals which was staffed by a few students from the university which was really cool.

The handmade pottery. 

Pottery demonstration. She is turning the wooden wheel with her feet. 

Ye Olde Norwegian Liquor Store. 

The Pharmacy

All through the day, the weather had been lovely, right until I needed to walk the roughly 1km to the bus station, when it promptly started pouring down. After finding out I needed to be on platform P, which maddeningly is located a further 1km away, and nowhere near platforms N, O or Q, I was quite damp.

 I made it to the campsite alive and met up with my tour group who are lovely. The campsite is absolutely picturesque, with a golf course and lake on one side, and a steep hill dotted with cute unit blocks on the other. The only problem is the showers - it costs 10 Nok to showers, and that gives you 6mins of water. Not just hot water. Any water. And it cuts out straight away when your time is up. No 1min warning, just now you're bathing, now you're not. It also costs 40Nok ($8) to do a load of washing which I flatly refuse to pay on the basis that laundry is nowhere near enjoyable enough to spend nearly $10 on.

 Love to all,

Lucy :)

This is the Town Hall. Rather than just having a bell to tell the time, it has a 49 key glockenspiel that plays a different song every hour. Cute the first time. So annoying the 10th.