N O R G E - Oslo

Of all the European cities I've been to on my trip, Oslo is the one I've stayed in the longest. In a way this has been a great thing because there is a lot to see here but then again it can also be a not so great thing because Norway is an expensive place to be and the longer I'm here the more expensive it gets! Originally I had planned to stay here for 9 nights only because I needed to kill time until I meet with Angela in Prague next week but as usual it really played out well for me to be here that long anyway. I arrived on the 13th of May from Flåm and got settled into the Haraldsheim Vandrerhjem (Youth Hostel) which is located on a nice steep hill about 20 minutes from the centre. I would have liked to have stayed out in the west coast area of Norway a little longer but the Global Ecotourism Conference that I wanted to attend in Oslo was being held from May 13-15 so I headed over to the eastside to be there in time for that event. Given that the focus of my studies was ecotourism I thought it was only too perfect that this conference coincided with my visit and thought it is not something I should miss. It did cost me a bit to attend but it was well worth it. I attended three seminars relating to various ecotourism subjects and was able to catch a glimpse of what other ecotourism companies and organizations are doing in the field. I met some really interesting people as well and I'm not sure if anything will come of the connections I made but it was nice to be surrounded by likeminded people who are fully engaged in the type of work I would eventually like to be involved in. The conference was held in a really nice hotel fashioned after old Norwegian architecture like the stave Church in my last post, it was really impressive!

At this point I was (and I still am) battling a very stubborn cough so I decided to take it easy the next day by only going out to see one sight and not three or four in a day! I went to see the Vigeland Parken, a park decorated by hundreds of sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland, a native of Oslo in the late 19th and early 20th century. Very unique place! I spent some time here before heading back to the hostel to rest up a bit a kick this cough.




The next day was one of the most exciting days I've had here. It was May 17, the Norwegian National Day and it's the one day everyone gets dressed up in their traditional outfits and hit the streets to celebrate their national identity. Norway is still a realatively young country, they split from their union with Sweden only about 102 years ago so they really like to assert their distinctiveness. It was a very noisy, crowded, colourful day and I really enjoyed being a part of it! I really loved all the traditional clothing people were wearing, especially on the little kids, it was so cute! Each persons outfit corresponds to the area of Norway from which they originated so there were many different styles and types. The day always starts with a childrens parade made up of all the schools in city and their respective marching bands and students. Each elementary school had it's own marching band and I was quite impressed with the talent some of these young kids had with their instruments! Then later in the afternoon there's a processional for all the students graduting from secondary schools. During my stay in Norway I had noticed many young people wearing these red coloured pants with patches and writing all over them and was really intrigued as to what the purpose of this was. I thought it was just a really hot fashion trend here in Norway, but I soon found out that from May 1st onwards all the graduating students wear these pants as sign of their soon to be graduate status and party like crazy until the 17th where they participate in their right of passage processional on the National Day. I found out later too that the colour of the pants indicates what type of study you will be pursuing after graduation. Red is for those entering University, blue is for those studying at a minor college, and black is for those entering trade school. Like I said it was a pretty colourful day!

They were lucky they had such gorgeous weather for the national day as well because the next day was pretty cold and rainy. Of course I had bought an Olso Pass so for the 48 hours I was going to get my money's worth out of that thing!! I took the ferry to Bygdøy and visited the Norwegian Folk Museum, the Viking Ship Museum, the Kon-Tiki Museum and the Fram Ship Museum, all really interesting stops. The Viking Ship Museum was especially interesting because they had three enormous viking ships on display that had been unearthed about 100 years ago after being discovered in some swampy areas in the vicinity of Oslo. These ships had all been used as burial vessels, and had been buried with their owner and his\her various belongings. The largest one belonged to a viking queen and they found some amazing artifacts buried along with her. Things like jewellery, sleds, wagons, and even a couple of horses! (Which were not on display). I also was really impressed with the Kon-Tiki Museum. I really did not know anything about what was being displayed in the museum but it was included on the Oslo Pass so I checked it out. It was actually very cool as well. It documents the travels of Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer from the early 20th century who wanted to prove his theories on potential settlements and interactions ancient civilizations may have had by way of sea travel. His original idea was that people from South America could have settled in Polynesia by way of Balsa rafts so he set abouot building a raft only using materials that would have been available back in pre historic times. He embarked on his voyage with his 'Kon-Tiki' raft and crew of 5 other men in 1947 and sailed across the Pacific until they reached land. They made a movie about the trip and it actually won an oscar in 1951!He made another journey later on and this time he wanted to discover if the similarities he noted between ancient egyptian and mayan architectural styles were due to contact that was made between the two groups of peoples in ancient times. He built a boat made completely out of reeds, the way it would have been done in ancient Egypt, and attempted to sail his reed boat, which he christened 'Ra', across the pacific to central america. His first attempt failed but on 'Ra II' he succeeded. This museum turned out to be quite interesting!

Anyway, the next day I visited the Nobel Peace Prize Museum and the National Art Gallery. Both were ok, but not exceptional. I had more fun just wandering the streets of Oslo watching the street performers! The next day, yesterday, I finally just stayed at the hostel to give myself a chance against this neverending cough of mine. I think it really helped because I feel a lot better today, but it definately sucks being sick when you're away from home because you don't have your space to just relax and get better. I also always worry that I'm keeping my hostel roomates up at night with my coughing, but they've all been very understanding thus far. One of my german roomates was kind enough to buy me some more cough syrup yesterday too! For that reason too I'm, glad I was in Oslo for so long because it meant that I could stay in one place to recoup and not have to worry about finding a new hostel in a new place etc. However I am leaving tomorrow for Prague where a private room and warmer weather await me! Should help kick this illness once and for all! I'll also be meeting up with a friend of mine from Winnipeg so I'm excited to have a travel buddy again!