Revenge of The Seagulls

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Without a tight schedule to follow this morning, we were able to sleep in unlike previous mornings. Breakfast was delievered to our rooms and we didn't start exploring until after 11am. Oslo is a city that didn't really have any of those "must-see" sights. We weren't really sure of exactly what we wanted to see so we chose to check out the museums that were over in the Bygdoy area. It was another sunny day on this trip and I am still amazed at the perfect weather we have had thus far on this trip. We walked over to the waterfront where we boarded a quick 10 minute ferry over to the Bygdoy peninsula. Bygdoy is an upscale residential area on a peninsula jutting into the Oslo Fjord. Located here are some of Oslo's best musueums. After a bit of an uphill walk, our first stop for the day was the Oslo Viking Ship Museum. As it's name indicates, the main attraction here are the fully intact viking ships that were on display. The viking ships were amazing and were surprisingly well preserved. The musuem even had an upper gallery where you can view the ships from above in order to see what the decks looked like. It was amazing to think that these relatively small ships crossed the North Atlantic almost a thousand years ago! In addition, there were a few partially preseved ships as well as many Viking artifacts on display. It is a relatively small museum and we were pretty much done after about 45 minutes. There was an outdoor snack bar where we relaxed while eating a hot dog and enjoying the warm sun. Not sure of what to do next, we decided to go check out the Norwegian Folk Museum since we were in the area. This is a huge and sprawling outdoor museum whose collection is focused on the different types on traditional styles of homes and buildings from various parts of Norway and from different time periods. Most interesting to me were the log cabin type of homes with grass roofs. Many of the structures were open and you can wander in and out of them while imagining what it must have been like to live in such a basic type of home. Some of the homes had workers dressed in traditional Norwegian fare while doing chores. This gave us more of a feel of traditional Norwegian life. We saw people tending the fields, feeding animals, and we were even offered coffee from a woman brewing it in one of the traditional kitchens. My favorite building that they had here was the Stave Church with it's amazing exterior woodwork. While wandering around a section of the museum that replicated an early 20th century Norwegian town, we heard the relentless gawking of a seagull. We turned around to look and we saw a visitor getting bombarded by 2 seagulls. There must have been a nest closeby that they were trying to protect. Not aware of what was going on, we had Shea walk over to where the guy had been attacked. She walked over and in no time, the seagulls were dive bombing at her head. It was easily the most hysterical thing ever to see her reaction to this surprise attack. We continued wandering through this replica of a Norwegian town. We turned a corner and all of a sudden we were attacked by what we think were the same 2 seagulls! This time they were a bit more agressive and were whacking our heads with their wings. They completely caught us by surprise and scared the daylights out of us. We ran away and when we turned around we could not stop laughing for a good 15 minutes. After this incident, we started feeling a lilttle bit of museum burnout so we left the Norwegian Folk Museum and caught the ferry back to central Oslo. We decided to have an early dinner and walked over to Aker Brygge, a modern waterfront area filled with shopping and restaurants. For some reason, today was such a low energy day. Everybody just seemed a little lethargic and nobody seemed to be 100% there. After dinner, we decided to just go back to the hotel and rest for a little while before heading over to experience the Ice Bar. After a few hours of resting, we walked a few blocks over to the Ice Bar. Vita informs us that her friend from school, Alexander, would meet us at the Ice Bar and perhaps take us out somewhere for some nightlife.

The Ice Bar is a bar where the inside was completely made up of ice. Even the glasses that your drink from were ice. There wasn't much of a line and we got in pretty quick. After paying our entrance fee, we were given these thick coats with a furry hood and gloves. Our entrance fee included a free drink so we went straight to the bar to get our vodka drink. The Ice Bar was a complete tourist trap which was pretty much what I was expecting. We wandered around taking photos and checking out the seating areas and tables made of ice. However, after finishing our drinks and taking some photos, the novelty of it all quickly wore off and we left after 20 minutes. Once back outside, we were met by Vita's friend Alexander. We wandered around towards the waterfront while Shea and I let them get reacquainted. Once at the waterfront, he told us that there were some big screen TVs set up so people could watch the European Cup that was taking place right now. However, we decided to have him take us to a bar. We walked back over to the square next to Karl Johnans Gate. He took us to a packed outdoor bar next to the National Theater with music blaring. It was a very relaxed type of place with a somewhat younger crowd and seemed like a good place to spend a Saturday evening. We ordered a few Norwegian beers but found out that Alexander would not be drinking as he had a game tomorrow. We learned that he played in a professional American football league here in Oslo and his team, the Oslo Vikings, were playing tomorrow in an important game. He invited us to attend his game tomorrow and we enthusiastically agreed. Not wanting to stay out too late, Alexander had to call it a night and we agreed to meet up with him tomorrow at this game. Afterwards, we were really hungry after having an early dinner so we decided to stop in a Burger King for a late night snack before heading back to the hotel.

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