Oslo sentrum

Okay. I have found my people lol! Norwegian people get me. They appreciate my goofy nature. I have had the best time interacting and laughing with them. I’m doing one of those DNA tests when I get home. I’ve decided that I am definitely part Norwegian. I just have to grow a foot taller in order to fit in better here. They are tall! I also have to learn how to skate, ski and love the outdoors too. Not a biggy! As a cracked out Whitney Houston once said when she visited Israel, “I am home.”

Backtracking a bit. I headed out onto the top deck of the ship at about 6:30 am in order to experience and catch images of sailing through the Oslo Fjord. Well, it was very misty, foggy and cold..... my kind of weather!
I took a photo of the sun struggling to rise above grey clouds and then I headed downstairs to breakfast. It was basically me and a bunch of tour groups from Asia. They were very nice. I then beaded back out on deck for another hour, just taking in the scenery and trying not to blow over. It was quite breezy and cool. As we got closer to Oslo, there were cute groupings of houses in the hills to take pictures of.

We disembarked at 9:45 am and took the bus to meet up with our local giant of a guide named Stian. We met at the Oslo Opera House, right on the harbour and it is built to look like a giant iceberg. It is clad in white marble and you are encouraged to take the ramps and stairs in order to climb up to the roof. There are no health and safety considerations. Just a sign that basically says that if you slip, trip or fall and injure yourself it’s your own fault. Norway gets 40% more rain than Sweden and Copenhagen. It snows a lot in the winter. Imagine slip sliding away on that marble.

One of our next stops was Oslo City Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prize is handed out each year. The Nobel Prizes for literature, math, science etc are handed out in Stockholm, the big one is handed out in Oslo. Why? At the time that Nobel instituted these prized Norway and Sweden were in a political union. Sweden, especially Stockholm had lawyers examine Nobel’s papers for any loopholes to no avail. The town hall is significant because it was built using only Norwegian building materials, it was built only 5 years after the devastation of WWII and a controversy involving Norway’s most famous artist: Edvard Munch. He had planned to paint the inner walls of the great hall. The city fathers surprised him by announcing that their would be a contest as to who would paint the walls. Everyone had to submit plans. Munch was insulted! He was better than everyone else! He never submitted any plans. He also said that none of his paintings would ever hang in the city hall. He mustRead more