Eating good in the neighborhood
I ate it all and it was a lot of food and hurt my stomach. We had several museums we wanted to go to today but first had to figure out the bus situation. Half of the museums were out of walking distance. We bought 2 bus tickets, 1 there and 1 back, for 120 krones or nearly 4 dollars a piece. The conversions are so confusing.
While we waited by the bus stop, panhandlers kept bothering us. It started with this older guy and I had no idea what he was saying, it might have been Norwegian but I don't know. I glanced over at Maria and she was so uncomfortable. Once the guy started sticking his hands out for money at me I shook my head and said "I feel ya man. I'm broke too." Which I thought was clever and cute of me but he just walked on. Then there was this girl selling magazines and she was pushy. She was all over this guy, putting the magazine in his pocket. He didn't budge and she came over to me.
"Don't." I told her, feeling pissed off at this point. I have mixed feelings about panhandlers. It's like I understand their life sucks and I don't dislike them for what they're doing. Just as they should not dislike me for exercising my right to not give out money.
Anyways the girl backed off and didn't talk or look at us the rest of the time. But that damn old man came back! He only talked to me this time. He kept pointing to the sky and you could hear the pleading in his voice which sounds sad and dramatic but I already told this guy I'm poor. I shook my head and glared at him as he kept talking before he gave up and didn't bother us again.
It all wasn't that big of a deal. This was the first time someone has ever got in my face asking for money. It just made me angry.
We got on the bus and rode it to the museum. I've been doing a pretty good job of directions in Norway and was able to track us the entire time we rode the bus to our destination.
We were dropped off at a museum which I thought was 1 museum but was actually 3. It was really confusing and I thought if we paid for 1 you were able to get in the 2nd museum free. That was not the case. These museums were about certain expeditions undertaken. The museums that had the 2 for 1 deal were some Vikings ship museum and some Norwegian History museum. Oh well. We only paid 4 dollars (whatever krones) to get in.
We were at the Kon-Tiki museum. The Kon-Tiki expedition is about this Norwegian named Thor who traveled across the Pacific in 1947 on a raft to prove that it could be done. By proving this, he was making a case that people had done it in the past and this one island inhabitants were a descendant of these other people.
It was kind of boring but they were trying really hard to make it interesting. They had stuff to look at and a lot to read about this guy Thor's journey.
It wasn't crowded at all. They had a little cave to walk through and that was fun. It was to demonstrate what these island people lived in or something. At the end of the dark cave you turned a corner and there was this wax figure type guy and he scared the Jesus out of me.
Once we were done, we decided not to do the other 2 expedition museums. We already did one and didn't have all the time in the world. Instead we walked over to the Vikings Ship Museum! This is what I had been waiting for.
This cost 60 krones and got us into the Norwegian History museum as well. The ship museum looks like an American church from the outside. The Viking Ship Museum was about four old ships, the Oseberg, the Gokstad, Tune and Borre (Borre isn't in display, it's in the labs). They also have lots of displays, most with the artifacts that had been found inside the ships. They were all burial ships. But none had weapons or jewelry. They had been looted back in the Viking Ages (typical vikings)
Oseberg ship
Gokstad ship
Tune ship
The artifacts were really interesting. Each ship had its own passenger and items. One had two rich ladies and they had a horse saddle with them. It's the only well preserved horse saddle from the vikings ages in existence.
Once belonging to a Viking pony
They had a lot of displays and I actually went through the museum backwards so I didn't know what I was looking at for a while.
What even is this
I don't know but look at that detail.
The Oseberg ship had some sleds found with it.
There was another ship, Borre, but its condition was so shoddy that all that remains are the nails. Although everything looked well preserved at the museum, it's all falling apart on the inside and is a huge problem they're trying to deal with. What methods do you use to preserve these artifacts? A lot of times one method would work and fail at the same time. This stuff had been discovered a 100 years ago and was preserved in science but only the exterior is holding up. The Viking Ship Museum might not be around for future generations.
I wanted to buy some gifts but the gift shop was hello overpriced. Upstairs they had still life paintings to show what the ships and artifacts may have looked like back in the day. They also had the skeleton remains found on the Gokstad ship. He was killed in a fight. You can tell because he has injuries that went straight through the bone that didn't show signs of healing.
You dine in Valhalla now.
I really liked this museum! I would come back. It was a solid 8.5 on the 1 to 10 scale of fun. I usually don't like standing around and reading and looking at old things but this was really great because it told a story and left some questions unanswered for me to ponder on.
There was the Norwegian Culture History Museum next door. I thought this is where we could use our Ship museum pass to get it but of course I was wrong. The museum it let us into was back in the city. This museum we were at was something different. We opted not to go in (because I'm not going to pay to get inside every stupid museum) and we took the bus back to the city.
We were both sleepy so we stopped for coffee at the place we had drinks yesterday. I had a sandwich and a frappe and didn't take a picture because I forgot. When I tried to order they spoke in Norwegian to me. "Sorry?" I asked. The people were apologetic and were like, "Oh, English! Sorry!". That's happened a few times now. I like to think I fit in here.
We walked to the right museum and surprise surprise it's closed on Mondays. Son of a bitch Norway. You are wasting me so much money. By now it was 4:00 and Maria was getting whiny about going back to the hostel. So I made her go shopping with me.
We went inside a couple stores but I wasn't seeing anything I particularly wanted, or could afford. It was disappointing. We did stop by a Lush store because I had a lot of fun at the first.
And I smelled every single one
I got another bathbomb! This time I got the Dragons Egg, in the lower right hand corner of the picture. I will feel like a Khaleesi. I asked the shop guy if he had any lilac products I could get my mom and he was so nice and helpful. He even did a search online for lilac lush products but they don't have any and that was okay. I ended up getting some soap that had the consistency and feel of play-doh! My two products cost 154 krones, or around 20 dollars which is kind of expensive but I don't care, they made me really happy.
I stopped by a convenience store and picked up some random candy for my mom. I don't even know if it's Norwegian.
I have a good feeling about you Gullbrod.
We also bought some paprika chips and they're pretty tasty. We went back to the hostel and chilled for a couple hours before heading out to dinner. We went to the same place we had breakfast (Maria likes eating at the same places. I like eating at new places but it usually takes me a couple tries before I find a good one and decide to sit down. I think that annoys her) and wanted to get whale meatballs but it was too expensive. Instead I got salmon!
Before
It was so good. The portions were huge though, twice as much fish as you usually get served (USA and Ireland). I loved it.
After
I ate and ate until my stomach hurt. Maria had reindeer stew and I tried a bite and it was terrible but she liked it. It was sweet tasting with these red berries decorating it.
I got dessert because I wanted to rip my stomach lining apparently. They had Norwegian waffles and oh dear lord they were so good.
I love you Norwegian waffles
The menu said it had strawberry jam and sour cream on it. The sour cream was Greek yogurt though, not sour cream like I thought it would be (I thought that that made no sense to put sour cream on a waffle...). Anyways, it was delicious. It was like a waffle but fluffier.
It was an expensive dinner at around 35 dollars. I had a drink, salmon, and waffles and am happy with my decisions.
We went back to the hostel and I took a shower. This place is like a dorm at college. The bathrooms are in a separate area. The shower was in its own room and the light was on the outside. I kept expecting someone crazy to turn it off on me so I would have to come out of the dark and fight them in the nude. It didn't happen. The shower was nice actually.
Maria and I chilled in the room and I got my day all jotted down. It sucks that I'm leaving Norway so soon. I made a lot of mistakes here and I learned some expensive lessons but I was really enjoying it. There is still so much in Oslo I didn't get to see. Oh well! I have a big adventure awaiting me tomorrow.
As for Oslo, I'll be back. I know it.
No comments:
Post a Comment