Well it cant be said that it was an easy mission to get to Oslo but we arrived tired yet excited to be there. For one the sun was shining and we had also planned on doing a big walk around a frozen lake just on the city outskirts. Its amazing how your mood lifts when you are back in nature and it was surreal walking along a track that was like a frozen highway. The lake was beautiful and the air was fresh, all the memories of the long trip to get there were quickly forgotten.
We walked for a couple of hours and ended up popping out in the middle of nowhere on a road. Whilst getting our bearings a strange sight emerged in the distance and was heading towards us, was it a man skiing or rollerblading? Well actually it was both, a man skiing on the road on long ski like roller blades. He probably wondered why we were so fascinated to the point of taking photos when he was just out for an afternoon road ski!
Not having satisfied our need for being outside in the sun we decided to walk along the river back into Oslo City Centre. It was great to see people out running, walking, biking with their kids and generally making the most of the outdoors and the great city that Oslo is. It was hard to spot any overweight people and Chris made it his personal mission to confirm that yes Scandinavian women are indeed beautiful. He is now nursing a head wound from being constantly slapped upside his head from me.
Now it has to be said that I have endured weeks of excited chatter from Chris about the possibility of him getting a reindeer pelt when in Scandinavia and within moments of arriving he had already sourced a supply to satisfy his need. Not satisfied with having Rudolph on the floor to keep his feet warm he had to take it to the next level and urban hunt the meat (i.e. go to a restaurant and order reindeer for dinner). Keeping it on the down low he opted for Rudolph pizza - well actually that was the cheapest option as Norway is an incredibly expensive country.
Sunday bought a much different day, no sun, just rain. So off to the museums we trudged. The ones of interest were a ferry ride away and there was plenty of choice. We opted for the Viking Ship museum which houses restored excavated ships and also the museum Kon-tiki which told the tale of a Norwegian explorer that set out to prove you could sail from South America to the Pacific Islands on a balsa wood raft (and succeed!)
Not wanting to waste a moment of our short trip we finished our trip by visiting Oslo's most famous park of sculptures. Basically there are sculptures of naked people everywhere in all sorts of poses, the biggest and most spectacular was a statue of people all piled up on top of one another.
It was a real pity we didn't have more time in Norway to explore their Fiords and countryside, but time and money was against us and we are fortunate enough to be able to see this kind of thing in our home land so didn't feel too robbed.
Our Scandinavian adventures will continue at the end of the month as we are off to Sweden for another weekend trip, we had better get saving and Chris had better wear a pillow on the back of his head to avoid more slaps, that or he will be wearing horse blinkers...
