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Published: December 28th 2009
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Sun From Plane
From the land of the Midnight sun...I would love to see Norway in Summer because, the sun never really sets because it is so far North After my organized spring break trip through school I jumped on a plane to Oslo from Berlin. I wanted to spend some time up north in cooler weather and also wanted to see the mountains and fjords of Norway. My mother’s family is from there and some still live near Oslo. When my flight landed it was pretty late and I had to take a speed train from the airport into the city and then walk to my hostel from the train station. My hostel was near the center of the city, so it was easy to find with a good map and near the things I wanted to see. I was supposed to be there for 3 days, with one of those days a side trip to Drammen.
The first morning I slept in a bit then headed out to explore the city of Oslo. I walked to the main street, Karl Johansgate, where the shopping district is and walked along it until I reached the parliament building. Next down the street were the theater and the university museum. My ultimate goal was to reach the castle at the top of the hill. I spent some time watching the
guards and walking around the park behind the castle, then made my way down another street where I saw the American Consulate. I walked all the way down to the harbor and looked around the pier at all of the sail boats and the fortress that was high up along the coast. Although I was freezing, I saw a poster for boat trips around Oslo fjord and decided since it was way too cold to go kayaking, I would have to settle for a boat trip. The boat was, luckily, covered so we weren’t exposed to the wind and cold. It was kind of nice to get out on the water. We saw the islands that dot the fjord, which have several vacation homes on them. It is a law in Norway that the homes can only be a certain size, so they are all pretty small. They are also only one of four colors, depending on the island. It is kind of a neat tradition. The rest of my day I spent in Oslo’s National Gallery looking at famous works of art. Edvard Munch, who has his own museum in Oslo, had an exhibition at the National Gallery, so
Stortinget
The Norwegian National Assembly I was able to see his works with just the one art museum visit. He is famous for his painting The Scream.
The second day I was in Norway I took a trip to Drammen to meet my great-aunt. I had never met her before, but I was excited to see some of my extended family and to see where we came from. I took the train to Drammen and arrived around noon. I met her at her apartment in the city and she showed me some family pictures and made lunch. I am not a seafood eater…at all. At first she pulled out thick slabs of salmon, saying she bought it for me. Honestly I didn’t want to offend her, but I really dislike fish! It ended up being ok, we had something else instead, but it was kind of funny because, she offered the one food that I won’t eat. After lunch, we waited for her friend to take us out around Drammen. We went to see the place where our family’s house had been and also we took a trip to the top of the mountain through on a road that was actually inside the mountain.
The view from the top overlooked Drammen and it was beautiful! I could see the river, the fjord, and the ski slope. We went back to her apartment where we had dessert and coffee then I returned to Oslo on the train that evening.
My last day in Oslo I spent majority of the day in the park. I was looking for Vigeland Park; it took me quite awhile to walk there, but it was worth it in the end. With snow still on the ground and ice on the pond the weather was still nice. The park is a famous landmark because of the statues that cover the bridge and fountains. After taking a gander at these interesting statues, I found a bench and sat down while I read. I was a bad tourist on that last day; during the afternoon I spent my time walking around the city and then in a movie. The theater was an interesting experience because even though the movies are shown in English with Norwegian subtitles, they don’t translate the titles on the posters to English, so I had no idea how to read what was playing. I ended up going to
the ticket booth and asking the girl working what was playing. She was very helpful and helped me find something I wanted to see. The weird thing about the Norwegian theater was that seats are assigned; you can’t pick your own.
I had to leave Oslo in the morning by bus to make it to the airport. The airport was in the middle of the forest, literally, and it took two hours to get there. The airport was not that big, because it is the less used of the two that are near Oslo. It basically took me all day to get back to Leicester. Once I arrived in England I had to take a train from Stanstead airport to Leicester. I was really excited to get to back and I arrived around seven that night. There were only two weeks before I left for the States and I had a lot of packing to do!
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