27 October 2014
Hej hej everyone! Last night I got back from Oslo, Norway. I had 6 days with nothing to do after my trip to London and before my trip to Dublin/Edinburgh, so I traveled to Oslo Solo. I knew that a few of my friends would be arriving into Oslo from Flam on Sunday, and that made it a good reason to go. Oslo was significantly different than Bergen. The one similarity was the HUGE prices. Things I learned about Norway and wealth: 1. After the US, Norway is the next largest customer of Tesla cars. 2. They don’t have income tax in December. Why? Because they can…
My favorite part of Oslo was the Opera house. It was drop dead gorgeous. On my second day, I signed up for a tour where we got to go backstage, into the costume sewing room, see where the sets are built, see where the artists work, and learn about all the thoughts that went into building this beauty! It is a relatively new building (opened in 2008), and it’s the work of so many different artists. They had an international competition for the architecture of the building itself. A Norwegian firm won. Then on the inside and outside, different pieces of the interior and art outside were created by artists from around the world! Our tour guide mentioned some Italian, American, Finnish, and other European artists. The pano is from the inside :)
I also visited the fortress in town 2 times; once alone and once with my friends once they arrived on Sunday. It was very pretty! We spoke to the guard, and he said that the king and queen used to live there WAY back in the day before the palace in town was built. See the 2 pics of the fortress and the 3rd pic is of the palace! When I’m alone, I absolutely love walking around buildings like this. Sometimes I listen to music and just skip around (childish maybe, but who cares). I look for beautiful views, I watch random tourists, and I talk to people who work there. There’s no one to entertain but myself, and it makes the experience so relaxing.
Finally, another huge touristy thing to do is go to the Statue Park. I visited once alone and once with friends. The statues are all of humans, mostly naked ones. They do funny poses. At first you think, “well this is odd,” but then you realize what the artists are trying to portray. A large part of the park were statues of families: mothers and daughters, dads and children, dads and moms, etc. The statues were all so beautiful. We were all bundled up, the leaves were falling, and the wind was rushing through the trees.
I was asked a question from the audience, and I thought I’d share the answer. The question was: “So far, what is the best place you’ve visited and why?” - Brent Walthall. I have to say, Bergen in Norway. Bergen was so pretty, but in a very rustic and outdoorsy way. What I appreciated most about my visit to Bergen was the fact that I was able to hike around and see the city from a completely different view. I haven’t really had the opportunity to do that in any other city yet. Overall though, my favorite city on this trip is Stockholm. One might say this is because it is starting to feel like home for me, but I think there is more to it than that. Stockholm is extremely safe and clean. The buildings are old and beautiful, but all the people are young-spirited and full of life. The city is extremely healthy, and I think they live a happy and healthy lifestyle. Well, that’s all for today. Enjoy your week! I’ll be off to Copenhagen, Dublin, and Edinburgh. More pictures and stories to come!
