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Published: June 30th 2014
Oslo Central Train Station
Giant Pride flag is one of many celebrating Euro Pride in Oslo :-)Sunday, June 29-Oslo-6:00 p.m.
Awake at 2:30 a.m. Watching videos and reading online off and on until 7. Jet lag! Finally back to sleep until 9ish. I don't want to get up at all now but I want to try to get on a proper schedule so I must. English breakfast tea to start the day and meeting new arrivals to the apartment, two students from Belgium, as well as Martin's wife Gung and their daughter, a very strong willed little 2-3 year old. Cute though. Shower and get ready to go, leave the apartment and discover the Deli de Luca, which seems to be a chain. Buy a real cup of coffee, yogurt with granola and a banana. Back to the apartment to eat it. Leave again and walk to the central train station, finding a much shorter route this time than the one I took to the apartment yesterday. A giant rainbow flag greets all visitors and locals outside the train station in honor of Pride month. There are flags and signs everywhere to mark the occasion. Unfortunately, I missed the big parade on Saturday afternoon while I was making my way to the apartment. Enter Karl Johans gate,
Karl Johans gate
Some of the pretty buildings on Oslo's main thoroughfare the main high street. Beautiful architecture, lots of great photos to be had. The boy chasing bubbles made my day! Walk down to ferry terminal. Peruse the Nobel Peace Center gift shop and buy a little magnet, but didn't want to pay to get in. Catch the 1:00 ferry to Bygdoy island where there are numerous museums. The island itself is a suburb of sorts. A very nice one with lots of greenery. Reminds me of Berkeley/Oakland hills a little bit, but all the houses (and people, too, lol) are white. Folk museum first. Fun old style buildings, a recreation of Norwegian life around the turn of the century. There is actually a working farm-with pigs!- and people dressed up in traditional costumes. I was so lucky to catch the dancing and folk music performance, otherwise, it would have been another hour-which I didn't have on my personal time table. Then on to the Viking Ship museum down the street The ships, dating to the 9th century, are beautiful. They were buried as part of a ritual with VIPs buried inside along with certain objects that help them travel to the afterlife. Oars and such. They were discovered hundreds of
Life
Who can resist a child chasing bubbles? years later, excavated, and now here they are! After grabbing some lunch, it's back to the ferry and back to downtown Oslo around 3 pm. Near the docks, a street performer from London squeezes himself through a tennis racket and rolls a fire ball down his pants to a large and skeptical crowd. I find the tourism office where I am able to check in and print boarding passes for Tuesday's flights to Sicily (RyanAir will charge you if they do it for you at the airport-wtf!). Walk up to the National Gallery art museum but only have 30 minutes before closing. I always move really fast through art museums anyway, so this wasn't that hard for me. Saw The Scream by Edvard Munch and some other typical art work-romanticism, Impressionism, etc. They have a really nice collection. Everyone is there to see The Scream however, The Mona Lisa of Oslo, I suppose. Not quite as cute though. I'm getting very tired now from my middle of the night iPad escapades. I find coffee from a train station shop and info about the Rygge airport bus at terminal-should be pretty easy to get there on Tuesday, feeling relieved. Back to
Karl Johans gate again
All kinds of pride on display the apartment now. It's 6:15 and I want to sleep. Will try to stay awake for awhile and get dinner before sleeping though.
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Mary Jo Wainwright
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Mom following
Great start, feel like I am there with you. Thanks!