A Scream of a Birthday

Hilsen from Oslo! Oh what a happy arrival we had when we landed on Friday after a 6 hour journey from Doha. Sitting on the plane waiting to disembark all we could see was snow! Snow covered trees, snow covered tarmac, snow covered planes. It was even actually snowing. This was Glenn and I’s first time ever seeing snow fall. It was magical… until we got off the plane and we got hit by the bitter cold. We were definitely no longer in hot and sunny Doha.

After a quick fashion change at the airport – fleecy boots, puffer jacket, beanie, scarf – we were ready to catch the train to town and navigate ourselves to our Airbnb apartment. We had been warned that Scandinavia was going to be expensive so catching a taxi to our accommodation was out. Fortunately Oslo has a great public transport system (or is it that Australia has exceptionally shit public transport?!) so we easily and quickly found our apartment. The apartment is super comfortable and well equipped. And most importantly, it is in a cool hip area with cute restaurants, cafes and boutiques that tourists less often frequent (but only 4 bus stops to the city centre).

Our lounge room

Our bedroom

We had a really late lunch at about 4pm. So we stocked up our kitchen and had an early night chilling, sleeping and munching on frozen pizza.

Saturday was the Big Day! Glenn’s Big 4 0 Day! The justification of this trip (or so we tell ourselves) rests on Glenn’s birthday. And it was a scream of a day!

Park across from our apartment

Park across from our apartment

We started the day visiting Vigelandsparken, a sculpture park representing the life work of sculpture Gustav Vigeland. The park features some 212 statues of men, women, children and babies. To me they have a somewhat erotic / sensual vibe about them but to the art person they represent scenes from daily life. Fun fact – Gustav Vigeland designed the Nobel Peace Prize Medal.

Vigeland Park

Vigeland Park

Vigeland Park

Vigeland Park

Vigeland Park

Vigeland Park

Vigeland Park

Next stop was the Norsk Folkemuseum. This is an outdoor museum which depicts life of the Norwegians from 1200 to the 1950’s. It contains about 150 buildings that have either been moved, re-erected or recreated from various periods of time. The most famous site is a Stave Church dating to the 1200’s. There were also some very fine log buildings and an old service station from the 1920’s. We spent a fair bit of time strolling around, perhaps more than expected as the snow added a little extra to the ambience of the museum.

Norsk Folkemuseum

Norsk Folkemuseum

Norsk Folkemuseum

Norsk Folkemuseum

Norsk Folkemuseum

Norsk Folkemuseum

To prove to ourselves that vikings did exist, we made a quick stop to the Vikingskiphuset. This museum houses 2 viking ships which are over a 1000 years old. Whilst ships and boats are not really my thing, you can’t help but be impressed by the skill and craftsmanship of the vikings to build these ships so many years ago which actually travelled on, and survived, the ferocity of the seas.

Vikingskiphuset

Vikingskiphuset

Last main stop of today was the Nasjonalgalleriet, Norway’s largest art gallery. The main attraction here is the works of Edvard Munch, one of Norway’s most famous artists. Munch’s most famous painting is The Scream. There are actually 4 versions – 3 live in Norway and the 4th was privaley sold fro $120m. Munch was often compared to Van Gogh as one of the first painters to focus on the internal view of objects (e.g. feelings) rather than realistically depicting objects. He grew up in a household of death and mental illness which accounts for why his paintings are so deep and about serious matters such as death, sickness and fear.

To end Glenn’s Extravaganza Big 4 0 Birthday Day, we had a lovely dinner at Smia Galleri, a little boutique restaurant about 30 minutes from our apartment. After such a big day of sightseeing and all the delicious meal and wine, we were very grateful when our heads touched our pillows.