• Walk to Oslo Central Station
• Train to Oslo Airport
• Plane to London, Heathrow Airport
• Bus to Terminal 1
• Plane to Barcelona
• Bus to subway station
• Train to the Liceu station
• Walk to Hostel

That almost like a palindromic trip!

I can easily see now why Heathrow has such a bad rap. That place is like a maze! And we felt like rats. Especially when we disembarked the plane and walked through the jetway to a little glass room, full of other rats. The room was locked on all sides, and people were literally banging on the glass doors trying to get the attention of some employees upstairs so they would look down and see us trapped in the box and hopefully let us out. It wasn’t a moment too soon either when they finally released us, as it was about to get ugly in there with no cheese! That momentary delay could have easily been the deciding factor that caused us to miss our connecting flight. We made the best of it however by fully utilizing all the amenities at the airports VIP lounge. Just one of the perks of having a black card! Due to our later than expected arrival it was a bit too dark out to see much of the city, but from what I did see it looked impressive. Can’t wait to explore tomorrow! Everyone that we’ve talked to thus far says it’s definitely one of their favorite cities.

Here’s one of his self-portraits.

And here are a few snippets of some of his other works. For the full image, well, you’ll just have to make the trip yourself!

And now, for the moment I’m sure you are all waiting for… photos of us acting like idiot tourists!

Yup, that is THE actual ‘The Scream’ painting. You can sort of make out the fading in the lower left corner due to water damage that the painting sustained after it’s theft from the museum in 2004. There was an entire wing of the museum dedicated to the restoration efforts which was quite fascinating. I must admit, I wasn’t as familiar with his other famous piece ‘Madonna’ but it was the other canvas that was lifted during the heist, so I felt obligated to take a pic of that one too.

The damage on this one is much more obvious as the actual canvas was torn. You can see the repaired canvas right above her left elbow.

Needless to say, the security has been beefed up quite a bit since their recovery. I would have taken a photo of that too, but I had to send my camera through the X-ray machine.

— Thor Heyerdahl

[as seen on the side of the Kon-Tiki museum]

…towards the docks so we could catch a boat to the Viking Museum. While waiting for the boat we walked up…

…to Akershus Fortress…

…to check out the view of the museum from across the bay. But, there happened to be an absolutely massive cruise ship obstructing our view!

So we tried to sink it with our canons…

But we were taking on some heavy fire…

So we charted a new course, and tried to sink them with a mine…

When that failed, we gave up and walked to the Viking Museum. Well, no, actually we walked past the Viking Museum. So far past it that we ended up at the Kon-Tiki Musuem and the Maratime Museum. Not where we wanted to be. But we made the best of it and took a few photographs…

…before walking the 2km back to the Viking Museum. This time however we were armed with a map! Yet we still somehow managed to walk right past it again. I tell ya, our Norwegian navigation skills aren’t what they used to be! Ya know, back when we were both vikings!

When we finally found the museum (in our defense it looked like a church from the outside) it was quite worth the extra 4km hike. There were three separate viking boats inside, the Oseberg ship, Gokstad ship & Tune ship. The ships are some of the most well preserved relics from the days of the vikings. Once used to plunder and pillage throughout Scandinavia, these three boats were later converted and used in the burials of some vikings. The ships were excavated from their tombs in 1880, and housed in a nearby university, then later transported to where they now sit. It was pretty amazing to see these ancient artifacts first hand. When you see the amount of detail that went into the carvings in the boats (especially the burial pieces) you kind of gain a new found respect for the vikings who always seem to get such a bad rap.

One thing’s for sure, they sure knew how to build some boats!

Next up on the menu us yogurt.

For anyone that’s been to Europe before, you’re familiar that breakfasts are quite different than traditional eggs-n-bacon breakfast back home in The States. One of the more common food items served for breakfast here in Europe is yogurt and granola.

As a quick aside: For anyone that knows me well, you’ll know I’m a very detail oriented kinda guy and fascinated with gadgets, unique products, good logos, well designed packaging, etc… The packaging is really what stands out here and the reason this food product is even mentioned in this post in the first place. At the end of the day yogurt is yogurt (unless it’s bad yogurt).

Included with each yogurt cup is a miniature foldaway spoon…

The other highlight of the yogurt is the scored packaging that allows you to easily fold the dry granola container over on top of the wet yogurt container for a no-mess way of uniting the yin and the yang of your breakfast.

And for the final course… tonight Joakim and Louise cooked up some steaks and vegetables with a creamy sauce. Scrumptious!

Thanks guys! This may very well be our last home cooked menu for a very long time! We enjoyed it immensely!

One of the cool things about public transportation here is that all means of travel are treated as one. So your bus ticket will not only get you on the subway as well, but it will also get you on the boats that ferry people to the nearby islands. If only it worked for the public bikes as well it would be perfect!

The island is pretty small, but it’s perfect for a little day trip. There is just enough room for some ruins of a Cistercian monastery….

…and a couple of sheep.

There was a small shack serving food and drinks so we grabbed some waffles and jam and headed out to the beach. Well something that resembles a beach. The rocks of the island seems to be mostly shale…

…so the “sand” is quite course and sharp at times making flip-flops a must.

The water was pretty darn cold, but that didn’t stop Louise from taking a quick dip.

After a bit of sunbathing and stone skipping we strolled back to the dock to hop back on the boat. The return trip actually turned out to be one of the highlights as we encountered an entertaining and intoxicated Norwegian man.

He talked to us for about 20 minutes on topics ranging from Obama’s VP pick, to his New Jersey girlfriend, to Vikings, to Navajos. And, according to him he is Norway’s best blues singer! You can listen to his singing and ideas in this video…

After returning to the mainland we walked by the newly built Oslo Opera House which is a very cool looking building both from the outside…

… as well as the inside.

His self-sculpture:

Naked dad hauling his naked babies.

Naked dad hurling his naked baby.

Naked dad about to fling his naked son.

While naked daughter works on her tan.

At the father-daughter naked dance.

They had naked sports

With naked referees.

They must have had naked tailgating at the stadium, because this naked man is carting off what appears to be naked drunk mother.

Which upset her naked baby.

A naked lady waits patiently.

For her naked laundry to finish.

Someone needs a naked blow drier for her naked hair.

While someone else clearly needs a naked babysitter.

And what naked sculpture garden would be complete without a naked fountain.

Complete with naked trees.

Full of naked people.

All doing naked things.

There were even naked male gates.

And naked female gates.

That would cast some cool naked shadows.

The naked gates lead way to the naked Monolith.

That was surrounded by…

wait for it…

If you guessed naked sculptures, you’d be right!

Like naked baby clusters.

Naked lovers.

Naked brats.

Naked horseplay.

Naked yoga.

And something that looked like a naked Olympic sport of some sort.

They even had a naked bird bathroom.

At the very end of the park was the naked circle of life.

Thus completing the naked journey.

Just about every single ethnic group was represented in the parade.

Including the Dunder Mifflinites in what appeared to be a homage to the one and only Dwight Schrute.

We arrived in Oslo on Friday..

…and met up with Joakim at the bus terminal. We walked over to his favorite pub DeVille’s which had an American Rock & Roll theme going on. Since it was Friday they had their after work special of free “nachos” (really just tortilla chips and Pace Picante salsa) with the purchase of 2 Coronas. A perfect way to recover from being sick, right?

Lousie met up with us after she got off work and informed us that her friends had rented out a club for a going away party slash birthday party for a few of her friends. So much for taking it easy after having been sick! There was a smorgasbord of food of all different colors and flavors, and everything was quite delicious. After a couple hours they private area was opened up to the rest of the club-goers and that’s when the party really started getting underway. I don’t have many pictures to show you how rambunctious it was as I had to retrieve my jacket (with camera) from a stumbling drunk who was convinced it was his. Just take my word for it… Norwegians really know how to get down. After being dragged to another club just down the street by some of the ladies, we decided it was time to call it a night at around 3am. So we tried to remember where Louise’s apartment was and stumbled home. Ya, so much for taking it easy.