Oslo, Norway

Joe, Jerome, Natalie, Emily, and I hopped in the Tacoma and drove off to Frankfurt Friday morning as we flew from there to Helsinki, Finland and onto Oslo, Norway. We had a pretty long layover in Helsinki which meant watching World Cup. Unfortunately we only saw the first couple minutes of the USA match but oh well. We arrived in Oslo and Jerome wanted first and foremost to hit up the Hard Rock Cafe. So with luggage and all we piled up in there and had what was for me the most expensive meal I've ever paid for (A beer was $15). The Norwegian Kroner is "weaker" than the US$ meaning that 6NK=$1. However, EVERYTHING in Oslo is expensive. After dinner we just wanted to find our hostel which was a little bit outside of town. Before that we bought our trusty Oslo Passes which saved us over US$100 in Museum and public transportation fees. It was a little tricky finding the hostel as it was in the suburbs and we walked in circles for awhile until Joe and Jerome got us there.

Saturday was all about knocking out as many museums as we could with our new Oslo Passes which provided us with free entry. First we boarded the ferry that took us across the bay to Bygdøy where many museums were. First on the list was the Viking Ship Museum in which these 1,000 year old ships were recovered in Norway and served as burial chambers to Viking Leadership.





Next we visited the Kon-Tiki Museum devoted to Thor Heyerdahl who built many rafts and ships based on designs believed to be used by ancient civilizations to cross the oceans and first reach the Americas and many small islands throughout the world. He is a really interesting guy that I'm sure my brother would love to read about.

Ra II



Kon-Tiki


There was also a museum about Norway's Arctic expeditions where they built the museum around the actual ship.


We headed back to downtown and wanted to check out the Akershus Festning which is a Fortress that overlooks Oslo. We got there right at 1600 when they were closing but still got to have good views of the city. It was raining on us at this point but oh well.


I love this picture of Emily getting mad at me for making faces in all of the pictures.


Guards at the castle.


Next we wanted to check out the Vigeland Sculpture Park, which is a part of Frogner Park in downtown Oslo. There were a lot of interesting and disturbing statues. But first we saw a playground and had to play on it.

Emily and I swinging


Joe and I ran into each other and had a chicken fight that I won




Nice views in the park




Horse bucking a baby


Famous angry baby which everyone said was me but I disagree


Emily and I mimicking a statue


Man kicking babies...lots of baby kicking going on


Extreme dudes doing break dancing and sweet bicycle tricks


Tower made of bodies...pretty interesting


Not sure what this one is supposed to mean


Admiring the art


Some sexy guy rubbing his belly in the park


Joe and Jerome mimicking a statue


The gang


We stopped by the Oslo Palace on the way to the Opera House


Neat fountain outside the train station we always used that Emily always thought was our first time seeing


I also wanted to see the Oslo Opera House, not to see opera but because it looked like a neat building.



There was an opera going on and some sort of bachelorette party where the bride of course singled out Joe to dance with her. You can tell by his face he was thrilled as this always happens to him.


But he played along...


For awhile before he dropped her. Just kidding, the picture does look like that though.


We then went into a very ethnic bar to say the least to watch the Denmark-Cameroon game. We were pretty much scared into rooting for Cameroon. Unfortunately they lost and we were very excited to have a drink at the Ice Bar. The whole bar (including the glasses) is made of ice and they give you parkas to wear while inside.







On the way home I decided to mount the giant tiger outside the train station


Sunday morning we started off at the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo that hosts many large ski jumping competitions. It is currently being renovated but was still pretty amazing to see. They also had a skiing simulator and museum.



There was also a little ropes course which the boys climbed all over. It was probably designed for kids under 3 years old but we still rocked it.




To appease Emily and keep her from stabbing all of us with her umbrella we agreed to take her to the Edward Munch museum because she studied his art in college. He is most famous for "The Scream" but has a few others you may recognize as well. This may be the first art museum I've been to that permitted pictures.


"Madonna"


"Red Virginia Creeper" or Emily's nickname


Random...Smart car parked funny


Norwegians sure do like their cat food


Car charging in a parking lot...if this is the future I better make the most of the present


Just down the street was the Zoologisk Museum we wanted to sneak into because it was almost 1600 and we knew everything would be closing soon. Natalie and I got stuck taking pictures of flowers while Joe, Jerome, and Emily ran through the museum, didn't take any pictures, and proceeded to tell us how awesome it was. This is the first time I've done this and Natalie was trying to teach me a few things.




We had booked a Fjord dinner cruise that day and enjoyed a perfect evening cruising around on the yacht. A passing boat that was almost identical to the one we were on.


Lighthouse?


Neat walking bridge to an island


Everyone enjoying themselves




El Capitan


They served all you can eat shrimp which everyone crushed but they had eggs in them you had to scoop out or as Emily called them "Shrimp Babies"


Neat dockhouses


Sun setting over Oslo


Well about half way through the trip Natalie got tired of buying single glasses of wine and wanted a bottle to share with Emily. The problem is that neither of them wanted to pay for it. There was this French guy in a suit that sat at our table so the girls targeted him to buy them a bottle...


...Which he did


From this point on it was pretty taxing taking care of the two ladies. Emily constantly went from being a nice sweet girl...


...to this umbrella wielding monster bent on destroying our night


We tried to catch the rest of World Cup game at an outdoor viewing area between the docks and the castle but we got turned away because some of us were a little too drunk. Joe, Jerome, and I decided just to get everyone home which ended up taking forever because we moved at a snail's pace the entire way. We tried to improve the situation by getting the girls to drink water but they wanted none of it. Joe even did the airplane move trying to entice them without success.


Natalie regretting her decisions


When we finally got back to the hostel Joe, Jerome, Emily, and I played a game of soccer. It was hilarious as Emily was slide tackling everyone in her white skirt and screaming "Cross it through Joe!" on each attack on our goal. I wish I had taken video of that as it was so funny it made up for all the trouble the girls had caused us after the boat ride.

It was an extremely expensive trip but worth it none the less. The next morning we flew out and watched Portugal beat the crap out of the North Korean communists 7-0 in Helsinki. I made sure Emily didn't get out of hand as we waited at the airport.