Oslo

After an epic 13hr sleep 😴 💤 I woke at 9.30am..As I'd been told last night that my September 10th commitment for the air ambulance had been cancelled, I rang Trailfinders to see if I could change my flights and extend my trip to include Tallin Riga and Stockholm...which is indeed possible!🤣🥳
Well I may as well call in ,as I'm in the area ...and no pressing matters at home ..so adding a further 8days away from Urmston
With that sorted i set off to find the hop on hop off bus .The weather was awful...raining hard.
I stumbled across a Fjord cruise ...having been on dry land for 48hrs .time to go back on the water...noticing birds and cruise ships 🚢 I think im scarred for life looking out for birds and in the centre of the harbour is a monument that's meant to represent an Iceberg, as is the shape of the opera house apparently.
The cruise was enjoyable and afterwards, I went in the Opera house. There was the tail end of a midday concert...
Id seen the Oslo Philharmonic were playing this evening and asked if it was in the opera house
However ,it was in the Concert hall and Id no idea where that was.
The opera house which is extremely close to my accommodation, were doing the opera Tosca...
My dad loved opera, my mum didn't and wouldn't go with him ,so he never went ..So,in his memory I booked a ticket for this evening, wishing id thought to offer to go with him,in years gone by..
The rain persisted and I caught the hop on hop off bus ..which was a useful way to see Oslo today. Id have considered going in the Flam museum and the Nordic Cultural museum but Id got on the bus late in the day and was keen to see the Nobel peace building
With this in mind I stayed on till the appropriate stop but still had a 15min walk in the rain 🌧 .My walk took me passed a world cup homeless event ....with both men and women playing football. I'm not sure how the event relates to homelessness
The Nobel peace building was extremely interesting and the displays well presented.
It had an interactive game to see what kind of peacekeeper you would be Characteristics included ,motivated ,caring, strategy and 3 others ,which you prioritise from 6 being highest priority to 1 being lowest..
I couldn't resist doing the game and it decided I'd be an activist style peacemaker...as was Martin Luther King and Malalya the Pakistan girl who I admire and whose autobiography i have..
The result did make me laugh as im more likely to cause a riot than create peace !😅
It was also ironic to learn that Albert Noble's interest in inventions resulted in him creating dynamite, a material more commonly used in conflict, not peace .
A further coincidence was seeing a big display about Hiroshima, as I'd been in the peace park in Hiroshima in March this year and having seen this and been there it served to link both of my travel destinations together in a way I hadn't expected or even thought about
With the help of the peace building staff ,I downloaded the app needed to buy a tram ticket back to the opera house,as I felt it was probably too late to get the hop on hop off bus back
The opera house is across the road from the station and as I have an early 6am.start tomorrow I went into the station to find out more about where the train journey would start.
It was also useful, as I got another delicious Ceasar salad from the supermarket and sat in the station to eat it .
I was actually able to buy a cup of tea ! .For some reason they don't seem to have English breakfast tea only earl grey ( yuk !) and fruit teas ....in Oslo! I took it over to the opera house and sat in the foyer to drink it
The auditorium is impressive with a huge orchestra pit
Id no idea what to expect.
Thankfully, there was an English translation available in the seat ,as it was all sung in Italian with some Latin thrown in.
I had a seat 5 rows from the front, in the stalls
Well !! It turned out to be some funky modern interpretation of a classic opera...Two adult midgets in school uniform, a guy dressed as a woman with a black dress and waitress apron and heels ,who was doing cartwheels at some point, a stage that the actors pulled tape across to form some kind of Web, that other actors later tore down and the piesta resistance was a woman who was completely naked but sprayed silver....she lay curled up on the front edges of the stage for about 20mins, with her back to the audience and clearly visible the paint had missed in between her buttocks ...just saying!🤣...Her foot was shaking the whole time she was lying there and I couldn't decide if she was meant to do that or if she was freezing ...
Ultimately she got lashed with the tape that had been torn down and twisted into a whip...and the guy didn't spare her the lashes!
There was a sort of a choir at the back with school children in the same uniform as the midgets ! ,as well as adults in contemporary dress ...eg jeans 👖 and trainers
Near the end one of the school children came on solo and sang then went to the side and lit a cigarette...cant be sure how old he was...possibly 16?
The whole thing was wierd ! It had me on the edge of my seat most of the time.
The audience gave a standing ovation ..which i didn't understand but joined when the excellent orchestra were acknowledged
Coming out of the opera house there was disco music from across the harbour and people were still participating in the river plunge and sauna area of the harbour that I'd seen earlier in the day
It wasx only gentle 10mins walk back my accommodation via a cafe to buy a brew and a chance to catch up on my penguins app.Læs mere