Last night, Tim, Mike and I stayed in and watched movies, which was a nice change from our pub-outing routine over the past week. Since Tim has never seen "Shaun of the Dead" or the new "Star Trek" movie, we popped open a couple beers and lazed about watching those movies, then called it an early night. (Or, I was supposed to call it an early night. Instead, I successfully freaked myself out by watching scary independent horror flicks on Youtube for about an hour before laying awake in my bed, too nervous to fall asleep.)
We've more or less decided to spend our Wednesdays adventuring across the city since none of us have class and staying cooped up in our rooms with nothing to do is just ridiculous. On today's agenda: visit the Edvard Munch Museum, Vigeland Sculpture Park, and Akerhus Castle by the harbor.
Entering Munch-museet is like trying to get through airport security, except harder. Not that I blame the museum staff much; the version of "Shrik" ("The Scream") on display there has apparently been stolen at least twice. I enjoyed comparing that version of "The Scream" to the one that I saw at the National Gallery with Tim several weeks ago. The one in Munch-museet is older, but the one at the National Gallery jumps more. I didn't realize Munch was quite as varied an artist as he apparently was, since he produced not just oil on canvas paintings, but a plethora of hand-drawn sketches, woodcuts, lithographs, and some photographs as well. Color me impressed and interested! Since the museum was free admission, I may wander back to have another wander through, paying more attention to his "Alpha og Omega" series this time.
Vigelandsparken was next on our list, the main attraction pictured just to the left! For reference, the Monolith is 14 meters high, though the other people milling about enjoying the fine weather (a high of 41 Fahrenheit!) probably provide scale more effectively. All of the sculptures here were carved by Gustav Vigeland, and then worked into their present forms by contracted craftsmen, and the end result is a massive, sprawling section of Frogner Park devoted just to these works of art. It's divided up into different segments: The Main Gate, The Bridge, The Children’s Playground, The Fountain, The Monolith Plateau and the Wheel of Life. I think I've got photographs in my album of everything except the Wheel of Life, which I couldn't get a good enough shot of because I only had my Blackberry with me today. Rats! Next time, Batman. Next time.
We've been experimenting with different forms of Oslo's public transit lately, since becoming too reliant on the T-bane is never a good idea given how often it is prone to downtime. After walking (backwards) through Vigelandsparken, we took the tram south to the harbor, which carried us through several very old city streets lined by equally old but lovely houses. I wish there was some way for me to realistically stay here after this experience is over and maybe rent out a room in a detached house, working for peanuts and living lean, but I won't hold my breath on that pipe dream. Besides, how can I think sad thoughts when I get to have this view pretty much whenever I want:
Ahh, Oslofjorden. You are so awesome.
We walked up to Akerhus Castle with the harbor to our right, which meant plenty of pauses in order to take pictures and admire the beautiful view of the sun over the water. Mild as the weather has been, and nice as it is to see all this snow melting away, melting snow on rooftops is actually a wee bit dangerous, as poor Tim found out. He was walking past one of the admin buildings situated against the castle when we heard this loud, ominous rush of snow and ice sliding quickly down the roof, only to crash dangerously into the cobblestones right where Tim had been standing only seconds previous. It was pretty jarring for all of us, actually, and we ended up ducking past any and all awnings nervously after that.
The Norwegian Resistance Movement Museum is situated in the Akerhus complex, and I would've popped in to have a look-see if the whole place wasn't about to shut for the evening. I don't know why that still continues to surprise me, since nearly everything in Oslo shuts at 5pm, or even earlier on Saturdays. (Let's not even talk about Sundays.) But since the Danish resistance is a subject very near and dear to me, I'd like to look into the Norwegian resistance as well just to examine any similarities or dissimilarities with what happened during the occupation. I'm hoping they will have a few books written in English for me to look at.
Speaking of books, we put in another appearance at the antique bookshop, Damms Antikvariat, since it is located very close to Akerhus Slott. Nothing more to note here, except I once more admired (and wept over the price of) lots of old books.
Tonight is the Kringsjå pub quiz! :) A nice, silly end to a wonderful day.
Hahaha, whatever! I read this too, silly. c:
ReplyDeleteOh hey! Well that's a delight to know. :D
ReplyDelete