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June 10, Monday: I woke up around 6:15 am on the overnight train from Copenhagen to Oslo. The train was not moving. No big deal, I thought, trains stop and start a lot. Around 7am I began to get a little worried, since we were supposed to arrive in Oslo around 7:15. About 5 minutes later the conductor came by and told everyone to get off the train because we were going to take the bus the rest of the way to Oslo. It turned out that we were only 10 miles into Norway; the train had stopped running just over the border from Sweden.
It took 2 hours on the bus to get to Oslo. Then I had to change money so I could call youth hostels (all full). I just gave up and dumped my bag in a locker in the train station. After that hassle with the bus I just wanted to see some sights! I left the Canadians (whom I had met earlier) arguing in the station about whether they wanted to do the "Norway in a Nutshell" tour and went outside. It was raining. OK, I thought, perfect day to go to a museum! The Norwegian Folk Museum sounded like a good candidate for a rainy day: lots of good exhibits to look at. I got on the bust and head out of Oslo. Soon we started passing cows and I thought maybe I had got on the wrong bus! It turns out that the bus takes the long scenic route to get to the museum.
When I finally got to the museum I was surprised at how expensive it was compared to other museums I had visited. Well, this is my big chance to learn about Norwegian culture, so I won't worry about a few dollars. It cost something like US$7. Entering the museum I (finally) realized that it is an open air museum. One of its main attractions is a collection of houses brought from all over Norway. It was not too much fun looking at these houses in the rain so after a short while I headed back to the entrance and discovered that there were THREE buildings of museum exhibits as well! What luck, I had just been about to leave!
Inside I learned all about the Sami people (also called Lapps) who live in the far North and raise reindeer. There was an exhibit of Norwegian items tht had been in a museum in Sweden (Hazelius' Scandinavian Dream Museum) and had recently been returned to Norway. Other exhibits showed entire rooms from houses all around Norway. I particulalry liked the bright-colored pottery bowls and wooden stick calendars that were used to mark important dates. There was a lot of furniture and sleighs, an exhibit of rugs and hand painted trunks that was especially interesting. There was another room full of wedding dresses and ornaments.
In addition to the rural exhibit, there was one which had fully-furnished rooms from urban Norway, all from different time periods. There were dozens of signs pointing to "Ibsen's Study" but by the time I finally reached it (2nd to last in an exhibit of 40 rooms) I had pretty much given up believing those signs. In the end it was nothing special, just a big desk. I was pretty disappointed after all of that build-up.
By this time the rain had stopped, so I went back out to the open air exhibits. Most of the houses were quite small. I especially liked the ones that had dirt roofs, some of which had grass or flowers sprouting from the top. I learned later that dirt roofs are excellent insulation and the grass keeps the roof from washing away in the rain or eroding. The wildflowers were not intentionally planted, which was disappointing. I figured that if I had a house with a dirt roof it would be a great place to plant some flowers to brighten it up!
After the Folkemuseum I headed to the Vikingship Museum which was not far away. The ships were not incredibly impressive, though there was one very large one. I thought the artifacts they recovered were more interesting. After the museum I took the ferry back to Oslo (these museums were actually located on a little island called Bygdoy) and wandered around the waterfront. Luckily I actually secured a place in a youth hostel and then headed over there. After doing some long overdue laundry I fell asleep wearing completely clean everything!
Next: Norwegian Fjords and Bergen
