Pretty much the second we stepped off the flight from Sweden to Norway we realized life just got really expensive. Norway was ridiculously expensive, although Sweden was expensive, I'm pretty sure Norway was about twice as expensive. The first person we went and asked for help was super friendly and helpful, Norway is definitely the most tourist-friendly/helpful out of all the places we've traveled so far, at least in Oslo. They have maps everywhere so people just circle where you're at and where the things you want are at and they tell you what to take, etc. It was so nice and easy to get around in Norway, I personally felt like there was hardly any learning curve.
We probably did the most in Norway out of everywhere (not sure if it's because it was easier to travel around or just because we were there for a little bit longer). But the night we got in we needed to find a bus to take us to the center of the city from the airport, we heard that there was a bus leaving in 4 minutes and then another leaving in 40 so we tried to rush and get our tickets but for some reason our stuff wasn't working at the machine so that put us behind and we realized we could do it in Norwegian and it would work so we did that and then ran to find the bus/train that would take us and we ran down and up escalators all over the place only to realize our ride had already left quite a bit before. That night was filled with us running around like chickens with our heads cut off (since this was the same day as our Swedish airport craziness) and we just laughed it off and waited in the airport till our bus/train came to take us to the city, we all acquired our Norwegian currency so that was good. And yes, currency is different in each country and it gets super confusing.
Because Oslo is so easy to navigate we found our hostel pretty quickly, but it was still about 10pm or 11pm when we got there. It was a nice little room, we had a kitchen area (with a fridge!) and our own bathroom, and since tourist season is not at it's peak currently we got the whole 8 person room to ourselves which was nice but also kind of sad because we didn't get to have an awesome hostel family.
Our very first (full) day in Norway was packed full of adventures, we wanted to make sure we saw as much as possible, we were actually up planning the night before what we absolutely wanted to see while we were there until like 2am. We got up and went to the tourist place to buy our Oslo Pass, which allowed us to ride any type of public transportation within certain zones, gave us free entry into museums and gave us discounts at certain stores and restaurants. It was kind of pricey, but once we figured out the cost of transportation and entry into all the places we wanted to go, it definitely saved us money, plus we got student discounts!
The first place we visited was called the Folk Museum and it was an open air museum like Skansen (in Sweden) where they brought different buildings from all over Norway into one place so you can walk through them and see what old Norway would have been like. In the summers there they have actors all over the grounds like they live there and they make things the way they used to but unfortunately it's not that time of year now, but it was still really awesome to see and explore.
 |
| The old church. |
 |
| The old church. |
 |
| Showing off the tiny bench. |
 |
| At the bottom of the stairwell in the 7 homes house. |
Once we were done at the Folk Museum we headed over to the Viking ship museum, which was really cool to see. They were big, but also a lot different from what I imagined viking ships to look like, however the three viking ships they had at the museum were used for burials so that could be why they were a little different than I had imagined. We did get to see some artifacts and read some interesting facts about vikings, the museum was pretty small though so there wasn't a whole lot to see, it was sort of shaped like a "t".
After the viking ship museum we planned to go to a little castle we passed on the way there called Oscarshall, we got off the bus not knowing where to go, so we found a little path through this forest area that looked like it headed in the right direction so we decided to take it. It was a quest to find the castle and we gave ourselves nicknames of characters from The Hobbit. Kelsey was Bilbo, Victoria was Legolas, Keeley was Gandalf and I was Smaug.
 |
| We're gonna get lost and die! |
We ended up finding the castle, but what we found next to it was much better (since the castle was closed and we couldn't even go near it). We just spent some time at this little bay area for probably over an hour, finding shells, skipping rocks, etc.
 |
| Enjoying the beauty. |
 |
| Skipping rocks. |
We walked a giant circle and ended up back over next to the Folk museum, we headed back to the hostel, exhausted from our adventures for that day, happy with how much we got to see.
Our next morning we got up basically at the butt-crack of dawn (5:45am) we left the hostel an hour later and the sun still hadn't risen, but we were on our way to see another castle, Akershus castle and fortress. It was pretty easy to find, but unfortunately it was closed and didn't open up until 10am, but the grounds were open to walk around so that's what we did, we got to walk around inside the entire fortress and it was awesome, there were maybe one or two other people there.
 |
| Sculpture called "Pillow Man" - apparently you're never alone on this bench. |
The actual castle was pretty small (and they only do tours on the weekends) so we walked right past it at first thinking it was just a cathedral or something, pretty funny. But it was an awesome place to visit and experience.
After that we had some time to sit and get our Norwegian pastry before the next place we wanted to see opened up so we went and got our (super expensive) pastry from Norway and just sat in the warmth for awhile.
We went to the Holocaust center and although most of the information is in Norwegian they have tablets you can read in English and carry with you through the exhibits, it's not the same fullness of information but it gets the point across. A super helpful lady who is actually American helped us at the front desk and it was a very interesting and solemn experience.
 |
| Norwegian Holocaust victims |
 |
| Bunker used to hide Jews in Norway |
We ended up exploring the city a little bit more and searching for souvenir shops, and surprisingly it's very hard to find Viking stuff in Norway! Trolls are all over here too though!) Our next day we went to the Vigeland park which is an extremely weird sculpture park that has a bunch of naked statues in really weird poses, it's supposed to represent the human condition, but really it's just a park where you get to go imitate statues for fun and wonder what the heck is happening with each piece.
 |
| Juggling babies/Raining babies |
 |
| Angry baby is one of the most famous sculptures. |
When we're travelling we like to explore a lot so we did just that after the park adventure, we spent some time by the sea just taking pictures and enjoying the beauty of Oslo.
Unfortunately, that was our last day able to explore Norway. We met back at the hostel with some of the others from our group (who had split from us to go to Bergen Norway) and waited till it was a good time to head over to the airport. We spent the night in the Oslo Airport because we wanted to save money and not buy another night at the hostel (Norway is really expensive, remember?). Victoria drew some awesome pictures in my journal that I will cherish forever, they're so Norwegian I can't deal with it.
Sleeping in an airport isn't something I would recommend, it's extremely uncomfortable. I pushed chairs together to sleep on in a cafe. We made our flight on time (obviously, we were there like 15 hours ahead of time) and the flight went great.
It's nice being back in Russia for the moment, the land of cheap food, I'm now addicted to traveling so I'm glad next weekend we will be headed off to Estonia to learn about a new place and visit a new country and culture!
Previous:
No comments:
Post a Comment