It was absolutely gorgeous weather yesterday, with lots of sunshine, not a cloud in sight, and probably the bluest sky we've had since we've been here. It was even above freezing, making my coat mostly unnecessary during the day though by night time I was glad that I'd brought it because temperatures plummeted predictably. Anyway, on a day like this, why stay inside?
The agenda for Mike, Tim and I was as follows: check out Østre Gravlund, and Jødenes Gravlund within it, near Helsfyr station, and then take the Frognerseteren line to the very beginning to
check out one of the best views in the whole city.
The cemetery is tucked away right beside the station, though most of it is hidden beneath a thick layer of snow right now. It's a very quiet place despite the presence of a T-bane and a major motorway mere feet away, and the Jødenes Gravlund--along with the Holocaust memorial--is on the far side of the cemetery, about a ten minute walk from the entrance.
This is just one shot of the full memorial, which stands in the middle of a Star of David across from the rest of the graves. On each side of the star is a list of Holocaust victims by name and date of death. Some parts of it were mostly inaccessible due to all the piled up snow, but during the spring we're going to come back and take a better look--and hopefully some better photographs. All in all, however, I found the site incredibly peaceful; it was interesting, to me, how the majority of the gravestones bore epitaphs and details written only in Hebrew, and not Norwegian as well. I remember a walk through Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, in 2008, that there were a few gravestones in the Jewish section with exclusively Hebrew epitaphs, but to my knowledge the majority were written in English. I'll have to go back next time I'm in Huntsville and look at them again.
Next: adventuring up to Frognerseteren, which, I have decided, is probably the nicest residential area in Oslo. Maybe the entirety of Akershus. Line 1 is the oldest of the existing metro lines, and so I think it's fitting that in order to get to the end of the line, you've got to take one of the older model rail cars to do it. While winding up through the mountains (at an admittedly slow pace), we were frequently caught off-guard by the view of the fjord, and the surrounding neighborhood, and other little details like 19th century churches and peculiar schools tucked away like secrets in the woods. It turned out to be something of a blessing that, due to snow, the train couldn't take us to the end of the line, because that allowed us the opportunity to get off the train and explore the neighborhood near Skådalen station. We took a bus to our final destination, and the whole point of this day trip:
Oslofjorden!
Sorry about the cable line. Couldn't be helped.
The boys, lookin' suave.
Words and photographs don't adequately describe how fantastic this view was, or how reluctant we were to eventually leave it. We went inside Frogneseteren Hovedrestaurant (incidentally, serves reindeer! But I haven't tried it yet), which is this gorgeous, late-19th century wooden lodge situated right across from this lovely view, in order to have ourselves some tea, coffee and a bite to eat, then took everything back outside so we could enjoy the picturesque setting for a little while longer.
On the train ride back into the city, we ended up talking a little bit about how much of this city we haven't actually seen, despite having been here since early January. Once you get settled into a place, it's tempting to slide into the every day routine of schoolwork and socialization, forgetting that you're in a remarkable new location with exciting new places to visit and experience. I've got my Norway travel guide with me now, so I expect lots of new adventures in the future.
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