We started our chilly, slightly rainy day by heading to the Opera House that's entire roof is also a floor! It's great slabs of stone that leads you over the city for some great panoramic views of Oslo. There were loads of adorable sea birds. MASSIVE, but adorable. I've never seen sea gulls so huge! The walls to the interior of the building are all glass, and it would have been nice to see more of the inside, but they were closed, and we had much more to see. After taking our obligatory photos of the city and ginormous cruise liners, we scuttled off to our next stop.
Vigeleund Park. We were originally sort of wishy-washy about going to this park of sculptures, but we were so glad we decided to go! What a beautiful park! Landscaping on this scale, its like I've never seen! The park just keeps going on and on and on in every direction, lovely trees, flowers in different designs in the beds, stone walkways, and nude sculptures everywhere! Not hedonistic stuff (not that I'm criticizing hedonism! I'm all for it, of course), but these sculptures, that at first we thought might be a bit corny, turned out to be wonderful expressions of pure human experience and joy. Some are twisted up and tangled, showing the emotions of humankind at our worst, and others are embracing, dancing with children, tenderly looking at each other. I was impressed and moved. Art never ceases to keep me thinking, talking, and feeling, which is why art is so necessary for human expression. Get out those paints, people! Fire up your kiln! Tune your piano or just sing in the shower! It's great to be alive, and to crow about it!! I can't wait to post photos and hope they inspire you!
After this lovely, romantic stroll, we headed off to check out the National Bibleoteket, also known as the big daddy library! Well, our fear of the language barrier kind of stopped this one short, and we took a very quick walk through, struggled to even get the doors opened as we left, and decided it was good enough to have made the effort. It was all modern inside, and looked really cool, but we just didn't know what their rules are. Did we need a card to gain admittance? Are backpacks allowed? Is that huge, delicious-looking buffet for any Joe Schmoe walking by, or is is just for employees? From the strange glances we were getting, we opted to take the safest route out of there and find somewhere else to gawk :)
Halvorsen's confectioners was the next place we gawked, but didn't go into. We wanted to eat there, or at least get coffee and cake, but like any downtown chic establishment with Norway pricing, this place was charging a small fortune for their eats. We thought it'd be so cool to say we'd eaten at Halvorsen's, perhaps some distant relation of John's, but we just couldn't bear to part with the rest of our available Kroner for a piece of bread with some veggies thrown on it. So we checked in using Facebook, and meandered off to find Norli's Book Sellers. John buys stuff from these guys through work, and we spent some time looking at cookbooks and then went to the used Norli's to try to find some Norwegian versions of Dashiell Hammet books for John's brother, who is graciously looking after the kitties and condo (as well as my loving mother!), but we found no books to bring to Bill. We'll check in Bergen if we can!
After a bit of the crabbies because of my sore feet, and an attempt at getting into the National Gallery, we thought it best to get me to the hotel to put my feet up and take a brief nap. We decided a good ole moving picture might be in order and found that an original (English) version of Batman was playing. We trumped off to a rather interesting area of town (students, junkies, lots of homeless, the occasional punker, etc.) and had quite a thrilling experience trying to figure out how in the hell you're supposed to purchase movie tickets. We finally asked someone and they pointed us to a very friendly counter person. We got our soda, popcorn that they kept in these huge warming things that looked liked refrigerators, and got our seats. To watch one of the worst movies ever made. There was no excuse for how badly this movie turned out, especially considering how awesome Batman Begins was, but we had a great time snuggling and making fun of it, so as far as the evening went, it was two thumbs up! Then it was home to the hotel for another night of loud construction and late night drunken debauchery over at The Lorry! As much as we enjoyed Oslo, we were ready to get into a quieter area :)
Some take away thoughts about Oslo: just about everyone is skinny, and with those food prices it's no wonder, everyone wears "skinny", closely tapered 80s-style jeans, and nearly everyone looks like they should be in A Flock of Seagulls video! They've really got the NuWave thing going on here. I felt unbelievably frumpy in my duck-footed, orthopedic Birkenstock's! BOINK!
Flam/Myrdal/Balestrand Day 4
What an incredible day! We rose early, grubbed down some peanut butter on flatbread and tea, said goodbye to the Cochs Pensjonet and to Oslo. Hopping on the morning train to Myrdal, we embarked on one of the most scenic train adventures we're likely to ever see. To Myrdal was a four hour journey, which started with grubby, city landscapes and the strange beauty we find in them, and turned quickly into hilly tree-covered mountains very reminiscent of the Black Hills, then into an inhospitable and cold, rocky, snow-covered scene that got the most "Ooooo's" and "Ahhhhhh's" the entire journey. Everyone was clamoring to get photos, and we'd all grunt with aggravation each time the train passed through another dark mountain tunnel blocking our view. There was a large group of Japanese tourists sitting in our coach, and each time the train went into darkness, we all got louder and more humorous with our vocalizations, a cute and funny repetitive silliness probably only those over 30 could appreciate :) We shared a seating area with two very nice ladies that I must give snaps to for sharing their chocolates and entire lunch with us! Each of their tour-provided lunches came with three sandwiches and a sweet cake dessert, so the two of them shared one because they didn't think they could eat two, and they were sweetly generous to give us their other lunch! I was feeling pretty motion sick, so I was hesitant to eat, but smelling the delicious food prompted me to eat, and it was exactly what I needed, I felt better immediately! Of course, closing my eyes to the backwards, reeling scenery helped, as well.
The Flam Railway took us from Myrdal down an absolutely stunning mountainside, covered in pine trees and waterfalls. The train must make a complete 180 turn by journeys end, and it's so steep the brakes (of which there are seven sets) are squealing, groaning and shrieking the entire way. They make a stop at one particularly fierce waterfall and let everyone get off the train to enjoy the photo opportunity, and "ooooo" with delight as two water maidens, Norwegian mythological creatures similar to sirens called, Unge (?). It was really enchanting to see them prance against ethereal music in the water mist, although John and I couldn't help but chuckle at the gleeful exclamations of the crowd, and the eye-rolling expression of the train porter as he waited for the corny display (that he's likely seen thousands of times) to finish.
As if this amazing train journey weren't enough beauty and wonder, it was a mere warm-up for the sights to come! We boarded the express boat in Flam to travel along Noway's largest and deepest fjord, Sognefjord, to bring us to our destination for two nights, the charming little mountainside village of Balestrand. I've often said that a picture really cannot do a natural wonder any justice, just as a recorded album cannot offer the emotion and raw nature of live music, and this will undoubtedly be no different, words and even photos aren't enough. This land is so brilliantly unadulterated, unchanged, I imagine it feels as it did to our earliest ancestors as they looked upon this same sights. This is truly where one can believe in gods and giants. The rock formations are unfathomably massive, covered in green foliage, grey, jagged rock and dripping with waterfalls at every turn. There are slate rock cliffs that look like bluff country Minnesota times 1000. The hills all look like giant trolls turned to stone by morning's sun, it's no wonder troll legends abound here. Their faces and hulking forms are everywhere in this landscape. The water itself is as gorgeous and alive as water ever is, and imagining its depths here reminds me of how small and unknowing we mortals are of even the worlds residing beneath us. The water here is perfectly clear. It's amazing how far down you can see, not like our beloved but very brown, sediment-rich Mississippi. The journey was both long and short.
We disembarked at Balestrand to find our hostess waiting for us in her little green Volvo. The hotel is cushier than Cochs, but there are no in-room amenities such as fridge or coffee maker, so we dumped our stuff and wandered down to the restaurant she recommended, Gekken's, and what an absolute gem!! We enjoyed a huge, home style meal cooked by the single chef of the place, a little Filipino lady and what must be her daughter, the hostess/waitress. The daily special was meat cakes, boiled potatoes with fresh dill, gravy, peas, carrots and currant jelly and a cup of coffee. We set out for an evening walk and were greeted with one of the most beautiful sights we'll keep in our memory banks; the rising Blue Moon, hanging on the air above the fjord like a glittering bubble made of diamond. We walked, talked and kissed by the moon light. We stopped to admire trees, Larch and Scots Pine, honored with signs, and flowers blooming amid the rocks. We watched the birds sail silently by. We dipped our hands into the fjord and tasted its salty liquidity. We made memories :)
Love and magic,
R&J <3
No comments:
Post a Comment