Saturday was a long day. I woke up extremely early and took the train into the city. I planned on going to the Nobel Peace Center first, followed by walking back along Karl Johan's Gate.
When I got to the harbor, I took about 45 minutes to walk around until the Peace Museum opened at 10. It was very quiet--barely anyone was outside. It was extra bizarre, because Oslo was probably the fullest it is all year (except for Constitution Day) because the final of the Norwegian soccer cup was taking place. Thousands of people were in the city. I spent a lot of time dodging out of the way of crowds clad in orange and blue and blue and white.
But that morning was my favorite time of my whole visit.
I saw City Hall again. Some people think it's ugly--they often compare it to a block of Norwegian brown cheese. I tried some of this cheese while I was there. Imagine eating a combination of chocolate and funky cheese. That's what it tasted like.
My favorite photo! You can see the calm waters of the Oslo fjord and Akershus fortress in the distance.
There were tons of yachts. I couldn't tell where they were all going, but probably to Germany or Denmark.
At 10, I entered the Nobel Museum. I asked for a student ticket, received it, then stood hopelessly as the guy behind the counter spoke rapid Norwegian to me. This was a problem all weekend. For example, when arriving in the airport, the man behind the counter of the convenience store (who spoke English to everyone in front of me in line) suddenly started speaking to me in Norwegian. I mean, I do look like everyone there, but even after I spoke English to some people (like the guys at the Nobel Peace Museum), they still spoke to me in "Norsk". If I looked confused for long enough, though, they'd switch to English. I think everyone in Norway speaks perfect English. My new Norwegian friend, Maria, said that this is because none of their television is dubbed over, so they grow up hearing English every day.
Anyway, after entering the museum, I noticed that some of the things were closed for construction:
So, I couldn't see everything there, but I did see an exhibit "From King to Obama" that started before he won the Peace Prize. It talked about race relations in the United States, etc. It brought me back to how we learned about equality and Dr. King in elementary school. I mean, Norwegians don't really learn these things in grade school, so they had to make the exhibit very basic.
Upstairs is where they keep the permenant exhibition. They had a lot of cool multimedia things. There was the fun room with a floating box for every winner:
There was a large screen that you controlled by moving around a metal slide. Here you could read about every winner in detail.
They came up with a "tree of dreams" for all the kids to decorate. It looked pretty cool.
I left the museum and started walking down the Gate. I saw the old University.
The National Theatre in the day. They do a lot of Ibsen here.
Right by the National Theatre was this statue that someone put a funny hat on.
I just happened to stumble upon the national gallery. It was free to go in, so of course I had to go check out the Scream!
In case you don't remember, the Scream (by Edvard Munch) was stolen a few years ago. Because of this, they now have a security guard sit right by the entrance of the room all day and night. Munch's stuff was all really cool.
By the time I got out of the art museum, it was raining, so I walked a little faster up the Gate. There, I found a horrible thing: a T.G.I. Friday's. Nooooooo!!!
I had missed the Parliament tour for the day, so just satisfied myself by looking at its outside again. It is a cool building.
I saw the old Cathedral:
I strolled down the street and did my souvenir shopping. This includes my awesome Norwegian sweater. I love it!!!
I also found a festival going on for one of the two soccer teams. I was attracted by loud music and the smell of something amazing.
That's right: donut cart. My friend Maria told me later that these donuts are traditionally made around Christmas. They were SO GOOD! Warm, and crispy, and wonderful.
I knew my people like fried food.
In the other direction, I found a square with a quaint flower market.
I met up with Maria to go check out Akershus Fortress and the Norwegian Resistance Museum. Both are really high up on a hill, so there are some great views of the water.
Akershus is the traditional fortification to protect Oslo. Construction started on it around 1290! It reminded me a lot of the Tower of London. It was used as a prison, and it was also occupied during WWII.
Now days, there's still a royal guard who patrols the perimeter.
There was a little house on an island in a pond. I like to think a duck lives there.
The Resistance Museum was really interesting. I never learned much about Norway's part in WWII. Little did I know it was an important one!
The Nazis took over the country on April 9, 1940. There were very few jewish people living in the country (sadly, a lot of them were captured). What gave the Nazis their problem was the resistance! Almost no public officials (including teachers, clergy, etc.) supported the Nazis and many spoke out against them.
The museum had a lot of cool dioramas showing important battles in and involving Norway:
The Nazis had such a large interest in Norway because they believed that the Allies would open their second front there. Germany tried to cover the whole coast line, but, as you know, Norway is almost all coast. Norwegians kept up with the war by picking up the BBC on their homemade radios which they hid in books and other interesting places, my favorite being the inside of a sofa leg.
The most famous account of Norwegian resistance is in their heavy water sabotage. There was a heavy-water (H3O instead of H2O, for you non science geeks) plant in Norway which the Germans wanted access to. If they had received access, this could have been a problem, since heavy-water is a key component to an atomic bomb. Some British-trained Norwegians succeeded in destroying the plant.
Maria told me that I should watch the film
Max Manus which is a biopic about a famous resistance fighter. She owns it, but it didn't have English subtitles! Oh well, I'll look out for it in the U.S.
It was dark by the time we left the museum. We ate some delicious Norwegian meatballs for dinner (way better than Swedish ones), then called it a night. There wasn't much else to do! Everything in Norway closes at 6PM!
In Holland and Belgium, people eat fries with mayonnaise on them. Before you say "gross!" try it. It will change your life. I also recommend mixing ketchup and mayo. Delicious.
As you can see, my friends also enjoyed them:
After devouring our fries, we walked around and stumbled upon the floating flower market. It was so pretty!
Of course, it wouldn't be Amsterdam without illicit substances. I ask you--who is stupid enough to buy a "starter kit"? Good luck getting that through customs.
Of course that wasn't our only encounter with illegal activities. Just as we left the flower market we saw a shop that said it sold "magic mushrooms". One of my friends is more than a little naive and asked what the store sold. When I replied "mushrooms", a guy passing turned around and asked us in English if we wanted to buy any. After replying with several firm "No"s, we headed into a more innocent place: a Christmas shop.
Next door was a cheese shop. (No, not from Monty Python).
Amsterdam had their Christmas lights up already, which did nothing but contribute to the fact that I started getting Christmas songs stuck in my head that week.
The canals were, of course, beautiful.
For dinner we headed to grab some some Indonesian food. Since Indonesia was a former colony, Denmark has some of the best stuff you can get. The restaurant was really charming. Unfortunately, it was our first experience with the fact that restaurants in Amsterdam don't give you tap water with dinner. Nothing to drink with spicy Indonesian food = problem.
I had Nasti Rames (spelling?), which was a huge plate of food. I enjoyed the spicy chicken wing and the peanut-sauced chicken. Mmmmm.
We found some pretty Christmas lights down the street and found that they were near a skating rink and some fried food carts! We would be back...
We called it an early (by Amsterdam terms) night and headed back to the hostel. The next day had a lot planned and we had woken up before the crack of dawn to get to the train station that morning.
