This afternoon Louise took Jay and I on a boat trip to one of the nearby islands.
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…
The Vigeland Sculpture Park has over 80 acres of landscaping with 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland. All of them naked. Except one.
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.
We started off the morning with a scrumptious breakfast prepared by Joakim. Seasoned scrambled eggs, cheese, tomatoes, fresh baked bread, and [mom cover your ears] horse-meat sausage. Once we fueled up, we headed out on a walk through the city. Apparently Oslo has a huge heroin problem, so we bypassed the area where the druggies hang out, and headed straight for the city center. As usual, there just happened to be a festival of some sort just when we arrived. Our walk was halted for about 15 minutes as we had to wait for a parade to pass down the main street.
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.
Sorry for the lack of updates as of late. I contracted the Swedish Flu bug after being locked in a jail cell with Jay for 3 days, so we were out of commission for 6-days collectively. But don’t worry, we are back in true .org form now, so we can now return you to your regularly schedule program…
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.
