Oslo

We started the day in Oslo, Norway's capital city, with a walk to and around a park called Ekebergparken. We hiked up to a fantastic viewpoint over the city and saw lots of weird / interesting sculptures and artwork. One fun fact that we learnt whilst on the walk was that Oslo was the backdrop for Edward Munch’s ‘Scream’ photo - so of course we had to recreate it (see photo!) There are actually four versions of the 'Scream' painting in museums in Oslo!

We then went on a walking tour and learnt lots of interesting facts about Oslo, including that:
- Oslo means the meadow between the valleys.
- The artist Munch donated two thirds of his life work to the city, and hence there is a museum and park dedicated to his work in Oslo.
- Everything in Norway was built from wood (and the city burned 14 times!) However, in the 1600s, they imported bricks from the Netherlands for construction.
- Norweigans are said to be the second highest coffee drinkers in the world after Finland.
- When we walked through the fortress where the royal family used to live, we learnt about Norway's royal family. Norway was under Danish rule for over 400 years until 1814. The Danish first gained controlled because much of Norway's population and royal family was wiped by the black plague. During this time, Norway's capital was actually Copenhagen. From 1814, Sweden effectively ruled over Norway but Norway had more freedom so its capital was Oslo. The Norway-Sweden Union continued until the early 20th century.
- In the 1600s, Oslo's name was changed to Christiana after the Danish king but then was changed back to Oslo in 1925.
- There are gold plates on the ground in front of some houses in remembrance of people who were taken from these houses during WWII to concentration camps. The plates include details available of the people and where they were taken to. (These are located all around Europe, so we will definitely be looking at for them).
- Across Oslo, there are Freir chocolate shops (a popular chocolate brand!) This chocolate factory was said to have inspired Roald Dahl when he wrote Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We didn't know he was Norweigan.
- The Nobel Peace Prize is presented in Oslo every year (the other Nobel prizes are presented in Stockholm). The story of Alfred Noble is quite interesting. He was famous for inventing dynamite. His brother died from an incident involving dynamite and the French media mistakenly believed Alfred had died and wrote a terrible obituary about him saying what a terrible contribution he had made and Alfred read this. He decided he wanted to fix up his legacy and decided to have peace prizes awarded and this was the start of the Nobel Peace Prize.
- The legal drinking age in Norway is 18 years old for beer, 20 years for wine and spirits and 23 years old for night clubs.
- Strangely, when you go to cross the pedestrian roads in Oslo, there are two lights which show red men. This was because previously the lights were so unreliable that they installed 2 red men lights so if one stopped working, people could rely on the other one (apparently this is no longer a problem but they have not changed it!)

After our walking tour, we went to the Viking interactive museum called Viking Planet. This was a really cool way of examining some of the historic Viking artefacts as the main physical museum (housing large viking ships in Oslo) is currently under construction. We clicked through interactive boards and videos and saw holograms about the Viking time and wars. We also watched a cool VR movie (where you travelled on a Viking trip) and then played a VR game for about half an hour where we got to be Vikings and defend our crew from attacks with our bows and arrows and swords! Lots of fun!
Through interactive timelines, we learnt quite a bit about the Viking era and was interested to see just how far their influence spread across modern day Europe and even as far as modern day Turkey. Some of the interesting points from the timeline included:
- 710 AD: This was the beginning of the Viking era. Their square sails made them superior to other civilisations in the region.
- 700s AD: During this time, they traded with other large trading ports for hides and waxes. Walrus hunting was also very important for the Vikings at this stage.
- 793 AD: The Vikings raided Lindisfarne in England - this is considered by some to be the start of the Viking's powerful era.
- 911 AD: The French gave the Vikings Normandy in exchange for protection over the rest of the region.
- Around this time, the Vikings discovered Greenland and America.
- 1066 AD: The last Vikinh king was killed at a battle and this was the end of the Viking's golden age.

We took some fun selfies (see photos) and read a lot of information. A fun fact is that the Vikings never actually wore horns on their helmets- 19th century writers included this idea later when they were writing about the Vikings!!

It was also Armie's birthday so we asked the guides if we could take a video wearing any of the props. One of the guys who works at the museum loved this request and proceeded to put an armour (weighing 15kg), helmet and shield on Gab for a video to send to Adam! This was a pretty funny experience!

After a busy day, we went back to the Airbnb to cook dinner and chill.Read more