A Day of Culture

---

The day was started out with the purchase of banana mango yogurt and musli which I'm beginning to really get used to and love. We then hopped on a ferry and went cruising across the ocean to Byg Doy, a peninsula with Norway's biggest museums. It wsa a beautiful out today--sun and bright blue sky and the water was gorgeous!
We also saw a lighthouse in the water which I really liked because I've never seen one in real life before. Once we got there, weate our yogurt on the dock then headed for the Folk Museum. It's located in the middle of a residential area and I liked walking through there because the houses were enormous and had amazing architecture. I'm really interested in real estate so I was curious as to how much one of those houses would go for.
The Folk Museum was my favorite museum by far. It had a huge collection of artifacts from hundreds of years ago and I was so impressed with the carvings into dinnerware, furniture, trunks, and all sorts of trinkets. There were so many ale cups and bowls from the 1600's that had very intricate carvings and detailed woodwork which I thought was so interesting.
I was fully enthralled with all the artifacts and loved to look at them and imagine them being used by Norwegian families so long ago. One of my absolute favorites in the museum were the sleds. They impressed me greatly and I couldn't even imagine how much time went into their making. I really wanted an artifact, even just a wooden spoon, to take home. I loved that museum, every little thing was interesting to me.
Another part of this museum was an outdoor portion with real Norwegian houses from regions all over Norway. Some of the houses were in full from the 1600's and many from the 1700's! They were amazing and shared a lot of the same craftmanship as the household items on display inside. Some of the houses were on stilts, raised about four feet off the ground. I wasn't sure, but I guessed that the Norwegians did this because of the snow in the winters. This way, when it snowed many feet, they would still have clear access to the front door and would not be snowed in or out. I really enjoyed looking at all the houses and especially loved the church on the site. It was very small inside, only one room, but made up for it in height and craftmanship. It was breathtaking inside. Although there was no detail on the walls or ceiling, the front alter demonstrated a beautiful scene with Jesus and the disciples along with the adjacent walls depicting the same style of religious motif. On the altar was a single cross with Jesus hung on it. The room was small and dark, musty smelling, as it was hundreds of years old. I just stood there in the church staring at the front and felt God's presence there. It was truly humbling to be in a place of worship, half way across the world, that had been in use such a long time ago and know that the same God had given hope and joe to people so seemingly distant from me. I felt blessed.
Another breathtaking experience I had was seeing the viking ships at the Viking Ship Museum. I had not known much about the vikings at all before coming here, but once I got to the museum, I was thoroughly intrigued. The ships from about 900 AD were gigantic and had such a sense of mystique and grandeur about them. The detail of the design and end pieces were marvelous and I read that the entire construction was made up of measurements done by the eye alone. I learned that the viking voyages were inspired by the seeking of new land and new settlements, as well as gaining wealth by plundering churches, homes, and villages on the stops made during voyages. One of the ships we saw was a luxury ship made strictly for short trips on calm water for the wealthy to simply go on a relaxing boat ride.

---