A Summer Saturday in Oslo

I arrived in Norway midday on Saturday after not much sleep from Pittsburgh to Reykjavik and a longer than expected flight to Oslo (2.5-3 hours). I hadn't bought lunch on the plane and didn't want to use international data on my phone yet, so I stopped at a food court to eat and use the internet to get directions to the "aparthotel" where my travel buddy and I would spend the night before embarking on our "Norway in a Nutshell" trip across the country (here's the official, trademarked version). I knew enough not to spring for the "fast" train from the airport to the main train station, because it's not to much faster, although it did take me two tries to find the correct platform.

Unfortunately, I misread R.E.'s directions and walked out of the wrong train station door, directly into a bustling street market on a warm and sunny June day. After consulting the paper map I had picked up at the airport and a large street map at a metro stop, I finally figured out I was headed 90 degrees in the wrong direction. I made a right turn and walked toward the hotel, stopping once under a shade tree to listen to a busker outside a restaurant and finish the chapter I had been reading on the airplane. We arrived at almost the same time, showered, regrouped, and headed out for grocery shopping.

The neighborhood near the main train station where we stayed is an immigrant one, full of curry shops and Turkish groceries. We hydrated with ayran (a salted milk drink) while gathering (gluten-free) provisions for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. We decided we weren't up to a partaking of Oslo fine-dining scene, so we used a tip for the best falafel in Oslo (pictured). What we ate while sitting on a bench in a pretty little stream-side park was good, but the hot ones the shopkeeper brought out while we waited were even better!

Then it was off to conquer jetlag by exploring the heart of the capital city during the long evening. Here's the Oslo Opera House up close. It was a riotous scene: against the backdrop of "Moving Still"--an installation of eight dancers "in" the glass wall by Jiří Kylián--is the start of a high school marching band coming down the slope in the middle, and in the foreground are what appeared to be competing tango DJs.

From the other side you can appreciate the sloping architecture arising from the fjord as well as the sunbathers and swimmers. There's an enormous Ferris wheel in front of the Munch Museum, which I visited at the end of the week. We followed the curve of the harbor past this mix-matched collection of sauna buildings (Bad Stuforening) and around to the farthest swimming point and then back to the hotel, where we shut the blinds to rest up before beginning the next part of our journey.

There's a lot of public art in Olso. Here's just one piece near the Sentralstasjon: "Crush Nazism" (Knus nazismen), which depicts Thor's hammer smashing a swastika, by Bjørn Melbye Gulliksen. It commemorates the active resistance against Germany's occupation of Norway during World War II, as well as the collaborationist government of Vidkun Quisling. The inscription reads: "That was truly a fight for freedom--for all countries, for all classes, for all people." ~Asbjørn Sunde (1909-1985), a Communist and leader of the "Osvald group" of saboteurs who was later convicted and jailed for espionage during the Cold War.

Sunday: taking a train into the mountains!