For the love of God

Day 2

I do enjoy a day of exploration. This morning I bussed over to Bodgey, which is museum central of the museum capital of the world. Time to get my culture fix.

I started off with the Fram museum. The Fram was one of the most important polar exploration vessels, built to deal with and take advantage of polar ice drift. The museum had a huge amount of information on the past, present and future of polar exploration putting giving me a new perspective on the geography of the world. Robinson Crewsoe made me want to explore the world by boat, and this enthusiasm was rekindled with the heroic(ish) stories of voyages to the North pole. The museum really had a lot of different elements, from the Fram ship itself to a bizarre simulation of a ship being crushed under pressure from the ice! Brrrr...

The Kon-Tiki museum was also very interesting and had a different angle to exploration by sea. This simple raft had the purpose of understanding the original flows of people to Polynesia. However, I could not find a connection to Norway... So I won't go on about that one.

The afternoon took a different track. Another enjoyable public transport experience - the metro this time - going up and up to Holmenkellem. This is the site of Norway's famous ski jump - renowned for a great view of Oslo. We did drop a degree or two, and it did feel like even more of a ski town! Venturing out of Oslo centre certainly was worth it for the impressive structure of the ski jump. A lift to the top yielded no views of the city because of the mist, but (oh boy) imagining I was about to do a jump at the winter Olympics, staring down the ski slope was very intimidating! The skiing videos on big screen in the auditorium were unbelievable. On the way back I caught sight of a Buddhist statue and the eternal flame of peace. Seemed completely random, but made the experience in Holmenkellen feel even grander.

Another session, another experience. Back to my favourite Aker Brygge to the Astrup Fearnley Musee. I was warned that it was interesting / weird. In this regard, it certainly did not disappoint! The Good Morning America exhibition was cool, but fairly standard provocative contemporary art. The other exhibition was Damien Hirst's, which focused on different portrayals of death. None of them positive! How's your eternal peace flame? The finale of the exhibition was a real skull covered in diamonds, and the message boiled down to "you can't polish a turd" (but maybe a bit more sinister!).

--> Oslo, good range, good range.

Os High

Day 1

It feels like a long time since I visited a European city. The feelings are lying, but at least they are honest.

The cold, crisp air when stepping off the plane was a refreshing change from the smacks of heat we all usually look forward to. This immediately gave the place a ski town vibe. As well as the sensation of air on face, it's funny how small things like pavement styles give a city a distinctive feel.

Knocked out nicely on the coach from Rygge to Oslo, but what I did see were combinations of Christmas trees greens and autumnal oranges making for quite a moving picture. Naise.

Oslo town seems to be full of stereotypical culture with a vast number of museums, art galleries, scuptures and historic landmarks. I think I spent 2/3 of my waking hours today deciding which museums to hit in the next few days! I am looking forward to nailing my combination of adventures while also just chilling and vibing off the city.

Spent the evening in Aker Brygge, the harbour aka "New Oslo". Really cool area with fancy restaurants and bars with outdoor heated seating areas along the waterfront. Randomly ended up at this Asian restaurant (called Asia) where I had a beauty of a dish known as raw pad thai.

Tomorrow is the culture day!