Oslo
After a two-day travel shlep to Oslo, we were ready to take in the sights, smells, and food of our first Norweigan city!
When we arrived, we settled into our good hotel in an area that felt just a little sketchy. We were staying behind the train station, so there were some homeless people and people who just looked, well, shady. When we left the hotel, we headed out to the front of the train station and were greeted by… a tiger! Ahhhhhhhh! Just kidding! It was a statue of a tiger, one of the many pieces of public art in Oslo. I thought that it was a beautiful sculpture and that it was so nice that little kids were allowed to play and climb on it.
After the tiger, we headed to Oslo Cathedral. The stone exterior hides a much more vibrant and ornate inside, but both are beautiful in their own ways. In the front of the cathedral stands a large sculpture of a red plastic heart on a stick. It’s a 
memorial to a shooting. The shooting was done by a man who targetted the government because it had “leftist” ideals. First, he sent out an email to about 1,000 people. The email included xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, and other hateful ideas. Then, he set off a car bomb in front of a government building, killing eight people. Finally, the shooter went to a summer camp funded by the government and shot sixty-nine people there. The church is where the victims’ funerals were held. I found it striking that, in Oslo, one single shooting was such a big deal, but in America, you might hear about a mass shooting once every few months.
We exited the church and walked toward Karl Johans Gate, a touristy street crowded with people. We toured along this street 
and saw the parliament, the national theater, and the royal palace in the distance. We also saw the city hall, which has ornate wood carvings of different Norse myths. We also explored the harbor and grabbed some food from a street vendor selling fish. We were right on a harbor, so we figured that fish was the best way to go for a quick dinner. After eating our dinner, we looked out over the harbor and spotted three things- the fort to our left, another public statue (this one of a scuba diver), and a pointy spire right in the water, like a lighthouse. The spire in the water is actually a time capsule, to be opened in the year 3000. It holds postcards from the year 2000 when they made the time capsule. Even though it isn’t 3000 yet, I sure would love to see the postcards written 20 years ago. I wonder what people were thinking then, and how much our perspectives have changed. That short walk concluded our day and we felt like we knew the city a bit better.
The next day, we headed to the preserved news bulletin right at Akersgata, the government building that the car bomb went off in front of. The preserved news bulletin is another memorial to the shooting (in addition to the one in front of Oslo 
Cathedral)… the special thing about this memorial is that instead of constructing a traditional statue, they simply left an area as it was the day of the attack. In Oslo, at the time, newspapers would be up under glass so people could read the news, so at what is now this memorial you can stand in this spot and see the news bulletin with its damage from the bombing and the news that was up on the day of the attack before it shook the nation. The memorial shows how on destructive days like those, time stops. The glass on the panel is cracked from the impact of a car bomb that the shooter set off before he went to the shooting. It’s a moving memorial and we took a minute to take it in. After that, we headed along the neat rows of the old wooden houses on Akersveien. They are colorful and make the street look like a giant crayon container (in a good way).
After a few picturesque minutes, we walked into the Cemetery of Our Savior. This is where many famous Swedes are buried. I 
didn’t want to go in, but I went anyway. It wasn’t my favorite thing to be doing, what with the creepy tombstones and legitimate possibility of ghosts, but it was an experience that you can only get in Oslo, and I didn’t want to pass that up. It was very nicely manicured and it was interesting to see the graves of so many great Swedish people like Edvard Munch (the great painter who painted The Scream) and Johan Sverdrup (the first prime minister of Sweden).
When we finished exploring, we headed to Akerselva, a river in Oslo. We walked along it and found the Mathallen Oslo, a large food hall with lots of shops that are fun just to look around! We left after taking in the lovely smells of cheese and fresh bread coming from different stalls. We found a large waterfall right next to a lovely bakery and art shop called Hønse-Lovisas hus (Hønse-Lovisas house) that is worth the expense! It was the best dessert and pastry items that I have had so far. It was so good, but if you go just be sure it isn’t on a Monday! They don’t sell any food on Mondays, only their arts and crafts, and the food really is the best part.
The history of the shop is also interesting. It was built in 1800 as a house for a miller. The house is named after Hønse-Lovisa, a character in the books of Oskar Braaten (an important Swedish author). Hønse-Lovisa’s character was formed because Braaten imagined who would live in the little red house that, one hundred years later, is named after his character. Historians are unsure if there actually was a person inspiring Braaten’s character. They are certain, however, that Hønse-Lovisa did not live in that house. It’s amazing to think that a simple miller’s house could be so important in culture. I wonder what the miller who built the house would say, knowing that his house had inspired a character of an important Swedish writer. On a more practical note, we also used the bathrooms there- they are very clean!
Later that day, we headed on the local tram to Vigeland park. Vigeland park is full of statues that are beautiful, impossible to understand, and intriguing. Also, they are all naked! The most famed statue in the entire park is most likely the angry boy, who’s hand (and another body part, if you know what I mean) are shiny from being rubbed so often.
Also at the park, right on the tiles of the courtyard of the main fountain (which we could not see, since construction was being done) is a maze. If you’ve got an hour to burn, then you can step right up and try to get from one side of the courtyard to the other. It’s long and it’s more of a path than a puzzle, but it’s still super fun! The park was a great way to conclude our day and our time in Oslo, with yummy pastries in our stomachs and a maze of tiles at our feet.
SEE YOU AT NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL!
Nice post.