Hanging with Vikings is Expensive

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There were many things I will remember about Oslo: thought provoking sculptures, viking ships, Norse villages, and meandering the big city itself; but sadly what I will recall the most is how expensive it was! The Scandinavian countries are known to have a very high quality of life, with Norway leading the pack, which is due to the high taxes that go into social programs. With such high taxes, those employed have much higher salaries and prices of goods are more expensive. Essentially what makes for a high quality of life for Norwegians, results in the country being crazy expensive for tourists. For example, when enjoying a delicious European street food staple: the kebab, you can find it for about $3.50 in Germany, but it costs $10 in Norway. While traveling through, it was a constant joke between Tosha and I, over how expensive little things were. That being said, Oslo had a whole lot to offer, and who can deny the draw of vikings!

Our first stop on the viking tour was the ship museum, where as you would guess, they have viking ships... Tosha and I were sold by that fact alone. We pictured many huge viking ships and vicious bearded men wielding huge axes and swords (yes Tosha, they had swords). Yet, when we got there, they had only three incomplete ships and lacked the large bearded men. I don't mean to be too harsh, because what they had was actually very cool. Two of the ships were more ceremonial and one could have been used for exploring purposes. All three of them were eventually buried in funeral services. As you can see in the pictures, they used a lot of intricate wood carvings for many different things. My favorites were the animals carved into the posts of the funeral bed.

After hanging out with the ships, we decided to visit the nearby Norse village museum. In contrast to the viking ship museum, this place went beyond my expectations (except for the fact we couldn't see the traditional Norse dancing promised by my travel book since it was the off-season). There were fantastic timbered houses around every bend and surprises like a woman brewing traditional coffee in one of them. Tosha and I both agreed it would be fun to live in a viking village and we decided on which houses to live in. Luckily there was a schoolhouse for me that came equipped with a bedroom!

In Oslo itself, the highlight was Vigeland Park, where there were some very intriguing sculptures. All done by the same sculptor (Gustav Vigeland), each one had a very distinct feeling to it. For me, each made me feel a strong emotion and since they were all in the nude I had the feeling the artist was trying to emphasize how it is natural for everyone to feel these emotions. Even further, there were many that featured multiple subjects and how we interact with each other. The sculptures climaxed with a large obelisk of intertwined bodies that stood at the top of the hill. Regardless of what I think, I believe you should view them and make your own decisions.

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Photos

Expensive Pizza...
but worth having four people to each share their choice

Photo 19
I don't think Tosha wanted me to post this...

Comments

[Lexi]

HA!
This kid so wouldn't make it in viking world...just sayin

[anonymous]

Where's the mead? Vikings and mead go hand in hand Sir Brewmaster-D'Sizzle

[anonymous]

I forgot to endorse your recommendation of Vigeland Park. I found those statures very moving. Jean