I traveled to Oslo, Norway, during the weekend of March 12-14 to see the place that I have heard my grandmother nostalgically talk about for years. The port city was beautiful with blue skies, thick white blankets of snow, and a vast harbor bay. I traveled there on my own, which my parents and sister were a little distressed about...but I survived in the foreign Scandinavian city. Actually, I have a native friend from Oslo who picked me up from the airport and showed me around the city for my entire stay. Sondre first took me to Vigeland Park, which is filled with magnificent bronze sculptures by the famous Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. This is one of the locations that Peppy (my grandmother) spoke of when she talked about her visit to Oslo when she was younger. The sculpture park has two iron gates: one with figures of women and the other with figures of men. Inside the gates is the famous obelisk that stands a little shy of 56 feet tall! The theme of Vigeland's statues is the "Human Condition," which demonstrates love, rivalry, aggression, admiration, titillation, primal anger, etc. There are 58 bronze sculptures in the park area, and all are magnificently displayed one after another.
After the park, Sondre took me as a guest to his "Bandy" team's end of the season dinner party at the Ullevål club house. Yes, I too did not know the sport "Bandy" until the Norwegians told me about it. The best way to describe it is: "ice hockey with a field hockey ball." Anyway, once again, I was one of the few girls at the party (there were five including myself), and I was the only one who did not speak a lick of Norwegian (which, by the way, is the funniest sounding language I think I have ever heard). The dinner was quite delicious and I had a really good time conversing with Sondre's teammates, since most speak English pretty well. At one point during the dinner, the coach was making a speech and one of Sondre's friends was translating for me. All of a sudden, Marcus (my translator) decided to raise his voice and translate during the coach's pause so that everyone would turn and stare at me "the misfit American girl." It was pretty funny; however, I am pretty sure I buried my face in my hands.
Tip #1 for visiting Oslo in the winter: DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEEL PUMPS! As we were hailing cabs to go back to our respective apartments, houses, and hotels, I hit an ice patch and fell to the ground in front of all of Sondre's friends. No sooner had I gotten back up onto my feet, did I fall once again! Due to my inability to walk on ice, Sondre began to call me "Bambi."
Tip #2: Bring A LOT of money. Oslo is ranked as the 2nd most expensive city in the world!!! I was actually dumbfounded by how much certain items cost. I guess I have also been pretty spoiled living in Berlin, since Berlin is one of the less expensive cities that I have traveled to since the semester began.
On Sunday and Monday, I traveled around on foot to the Oslo harbor, the Royal Palace, the Opera house, the old fortress, and a few other famous sights. Monday's weather was wonderful and the sky was so blue; I could not have asked for better weather! It was a wonderful end to a great weekend adventure.
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