Oslo: In and out in 24 hrs

No time to blog last night, so now I sit in my "new" hostel in Bergen, Norway. The day in Oslo was a fun, relaxing adventure. Even though we really got started at noon (after I finished my last blog), we got in a whole day's worth of activities. (It helps when the sun is up until 10 and it really never gets dark). We started off with a walk down Karl Johans Gate, a main street in the heart of Oslo. It runs from the main train station to the Royal Palace. (I have some great pics but unfortunately can't upload on this computer. :( The weather was BEAUTIFUL! Probably the best in Scandanavia so far! It was warm and sunny, but not too hot, and perfect in the shade. Our walk took us to the National Gallery where we saw Edvard Munch (Norwegian), Picasso, Renoir, and a bunch of Norwegian painters. It was a nice museum with some great art (including the Scream). From there we hopped on a bus then tram to the Vigeland sculpture garden/museum. Gustav Vigeland was an artist in the late 1800s to mid 1900s who worked for the town by creating these amazing sculptures in exchange for a free studio (and maybe board?). It's a pretty famous sculpture garden, and definitely worth checking out. Today, it's a giant park filled with grass, trees, nude sculptures (they're all nude for some reason), and a sea of skin as everyone was out in the grass sunbathing and picnicking. We stopped for a $10 sandwich (about going rate for food everywhere in Norway) and ate it while walking through the park.

By the time we were done seeing all the naked statues and lounging in the sun, it was about 6:30 (but still bright sun) so we hopped back on the tram and headed for Grünerløkka, Oslo's Greenwich Village. We did the walking tour from the bible (Rick Steve's book), but in reverse. It was a nice walk through the park along a river (looked like Rock Creek Park in DC), through the village (which really did look like Greenwich village), and had some great ice cream. There is a huge obsession with licorice here. I've had more variations of licorice than ever before. I had licorice ice cream for the first time. It was awesome! I have some licorice fudge in my bag to sample with the parents when I get back. (just for you dad!) By the way, the salty licorice can be pretty nasty, so beware if you ever go into a real licorice store.

After our walk (which I think totalled around 2 miles), we ended up back on Karl Johans Gate and back near the train station. We sat in a pub and had a local beer (the biggest brewery in Norway is here in Oslo and we passed it on our walk). We then had just enough time to grab a kebob (they're EVERYWHERE here! Almost as prolific as the hot dogs) and run to our train. We hopped on the night train out to Bergen and off we went! I'm generally a big fan of traveling at night since it saves on the lodging and saves on time, however.... The cabins for the train were fully booked so we just booked regular seats (which recline like airline seats). Not the most comfortable, I figured, but ok. When we got to our assigned seats, they were facing backwards, against a bulkhead (so no recline) and in a group of 4 (2 facing 2), so no streching out my aching legs. That was miserable!!! Fortunately, just as I was about to give up and spend a sleepless night watching the dusky mountains and fjords slip by, the guy across from us went to his cabin (he had both?!?!) and we had a decent seat in front of us. I tried to curl up on the seats that didn't recline (still couldn't stretch out my legs!) while Justin reclined in the other seat. He had a completely sleepless night (but got some good photos!) and I tossed and turned for most of the night catching a little sleep each time before I woke up with a cramp somewhere. But, we arrived. On the way back I'll take a day train so I can see the countryside (another famous part of Norway).

Now, in Bergen, the sun is shining (in one of the rainest parts of Norway), and with several fun sights already under our belts, we're about to head off to enjoy Bergen for the rest of the day. We have a great hostel booked for the night (where I am right now) so I should be able to write later about the Adventures of Bergen.

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