Follow me on this one…
- 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.
Authored by: Digital Knowmadd on August 27, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Norway,Spain,Travel | No Comments »
For our last full day in Oslo, we walked up the street, literally 4 minutes away, to Munch-museet, an art museum dedicated to the work and life of the painter Edvard Munch.
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.
Authored by: Digital Knowmadd on August 26, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Norway,Travel | No Comments »
“Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.”
— Thor Heyerdahl
[as seen on the side of the Kon-Tiki museum]
Authored by: Digital Knowmadd on August 25, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Norway,Orgish,Travel | No Comments »
After indulging in folding yogurt this morning we headed out across town…
…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!
Authored by: Digital Knowmadd on August 25, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Norway,Travel | No Comments »
As per request, this post is dedicated to food, glorious food. Last night after our trip to the island, we were quite knackered. We had worked up an enormous appetite from all the walking so Louise suggested cooking a traditional meal for us. We stopped by the market on the way home to pick up some ingredients for dinner and some food for breakfast. We learned an interesting cultural lesson about Norway on our way to pick up the food. Apparently the government is strong in their beliefs that no one should have to work on Sundays, so much so that there is a law in place which forbids supermarkets from being open on Sundays! Only smaller markets can legally sell food then, so if you don’t plan ahead, then you should plan on not eating ’till Monday! Luckily, Louise new of a spot a short walk away that we were able to do some shopping at. With ingredients in hand, Joakim and Lousie whipped up a mean ol’ batch of sausage stroganoff!
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!
Authored by: Digital Knowmadd on August 25, 2008.
Filed under: Europe,Norway,Travel | No Comments »
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