Chasing fjords

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For various petty stubborn reasons, I found Oslo unappealing and basically unenjoyable. My one token museum visit consisted of going to the NationalMuseet in Oslo famous for containing one version of the Scream painting by Edvard Munch. I was irritated to discover that all personal articles including small purses had to be checked in. I will admit the museum has a basis for their paranoia - the painting was stolen in the 90s and recovered a few years later. Seriously though, are middle aged ladies with their small purses the prime candidates for hoisting a painting? I almost missed viewing the famous painting as it stood amongst other Norwegian works - many depicting the subjects I've come to detest painted in the popular style of the 1800s/1900s- naked women taking a bath, bourgeousie posing in their sitting rooms, dead animals, or fruit in bowls.

I was relieved to find that my dislike towards Norway changed as soon as I left the city. I became one of the many thousands of people who in their laziness subscribe to the Norway in a Nutshell package that gives you the tour of Norway between Oslo and Bergen in one day. Everyone raves about the scenery Norway has to offer - but its one of those things like the Taj Mahal that you can't appreciate until you see it in person. The first stop of the tour took me by train to Myrdal. Along the way, there were amazing lakes, misty covered mountains and even full glaciers. There were definitely a few train stops along the way that looked utterly in the middle of nowhere where the houses were buried still under snow drifts. These areas did look prime for exploring with a toboggan if you could dodge the crevices and icy flowing waters. The tour took me down the Aurlandsfjord to view the amazing inlets and waterfalls. The tour bus tourists on board the boat seemed to find it highly amusing to encourage the vulture-like seagulls that continued to follow our boat for kilometres throwing them pieces of bread that I'm pretty sure are not even beneficial for their diets. I was excited to go to a small town of Voss, made famous to the rest of the world for the bottles of mineral water sold in pretty glass bottles consumed by Madonna and the like. Sadly, there were no signs of Voss water in Voss. This may be a product marketed entirely to non-Scandinavians willing to pay the ridiculous amounts of money for it. Ah Voss water... it brings back great memories of working at Caban and politely breaking it to some mother that her bratty child was breaking the safety seal on the bottles and making the water a write off.

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Comments

[anonymous]

i like your moaning off Oslo. keep it up Laura, your humour is great. Piet