Pictura vid Åbo Akademi (our photo club) did a trip to Oslo, Norway 1st-4th March. I had planned the trip
and written a grant application to the Kulturfonden för Finland och Norge (aka Finnish Norwegian Foundation) and we were granted 1000 euros for the trip.
Originally we meant to go to Bergen (on the west coast of Norway), but because
of my hectic new job we had to postpone the trip and change our plans. So Oslo
it was!
Thursday:
We were six and we got our tickets separately, not as a
group. Three of us (Sandra "senior"(that's me:), Sandra "junior" and Fredrik) shared the same flights, from
Turku via Stockholm to Oslo – naturally with Norwegian. Unfortunately Norwegian
does not fly the Turku-Stockholm -route anymore!:( I would have done my part in
keeping the business blooming on flights to Stockholm...
In Oslo we met with, Mikael, who had flown from Helsinki. We (carrying our luggage) took the train to the Oslo Uni district and went to Studentenes Fotoklubb’s
(=Students Photo Club) jubilee party. There we found the rest of our group,
Johannes and Petter. We all had a great time! Good food, good company, singing,
live music and drinking;) I think it was around 3 a.m. when we finally took a
taxi to our hostel.
We stayed at Hostel Haraldsheim. It’s outside of the city
but definitely worth the commuting. Quiet, clean, inexpensive and serves a good
breakfast. I stayed here also in 2007 (I think?) when I went there with my
friend Saija.
Friday:
We had a good breakfast and started early. We went to see
the Akershus festning, aka the fortress Akershus. We had a very good guide who
was eager to tell us all about the fascinating stories of the fortress. They
had had an infamous villain, Ole Høiland, as captive and he had escaped many times.
After the sightseeing at Akershus, we had a late lunch at an
italian restaurant. Apparently you have to be careful with the numbers in
Norwegian: the waiter misunderstood me (and my Swedish numbers) and brought me
the wrong portion... But my meal was fixed quickly and the service was very
good. The food was also very tasty! (I'll add the name of the restaurant when I find it:)
After the meal we took the tram to Vigelandsparken. The
weather had been lovely all day and the park had a nice warm atmosphere
(despite the cold semi-spring-ish weather) with the setting sun. The
Vigelandsparken is famous for Gustav Vigeland’s numerous human sculptures,
according to Wikipedia, there are over 200 scupltures! They are all very
interesting, they are not so traditional although they depict men, women and children.
In the warm light of the setting sun, we took the tram to
the Oslo Opera. IT WAS GORGEOUS! The architecture was super brilliant,
interesting and inspiring. We took many pictures there and also a group photo.
The best part was, by accident, stumbling upon KAIZERS ORCHESTRA right there, on a photo shoot!!!:D
:D It’s basically one of the few Norwegian bands/artists I know (others include
A-Ha, Röyksopp, Alexander Rybak, Ane Brun:) After the sights we went to the heart of the city and met a friend of mine, Herman, who I met on the CISV camp last summer (2011). We had a glass of wine and thoroughly enjoyed the sitting down and chatting:)
Friday was a long day with few hours of sleep before it, so
it was then time to get to bed.
Here's a video by Kaizer's Orchestra!
Saturday:
On Saturday we had our breakfast and took the tram/metro to
the Central Station and the local train to Lillestrøm, where they had the Oslo
Photo Fair. We spent around four-five hours there listening to different
lecturers and looking at exhibitions. The fair was smaller than its sister, the
photo fair in Stockholm.
We had dinner at Peppes Pizza in Lillestrøm since it was
hard to find a place to eat, few places were open. We sat next to a childrens
birthday party and it was quite noisy:) But the food was good. The train back
seemed to take forever, but once in Oslo, we headed back to the Opera to take
more pictures:) It was later than anticipated but still, we took some nice
shots there.
Back to the hostel. I had planned to go to a tango event,
while the rest were headed to a sushi restaurant. When I finally found the
place (not so nice to walk in shady alleys in a big town like that, all
alone..) I also found a note on the door: ”no milonga tonight”:( Luckily I
found the rest of the group and even had some nice sushi with them. The fish
was delicate, silky smooth and sooo goood!
Sunday:
We still had time on Sunday morning to do some sightseeing.
We took the metro downtown and walked the empty streets of Oslo. We visited the
Nobel peace center museum shop to kill the time. Our main programme point of
Sunday was Stenersen’s Museum, which had a nice photo exhibition upstairs, and
downstairs a pretty peculiar and daring modern art exhibition.
After the museum we had a very lovely meal at New Delhi Indian restaurant "Probably the best Indian restaurant in the country", it says on the business card, and I must agree! We were the first customers there:) Best Indian food I’ve ever had
(and no, unfortunately I’ve never been to India:) With our bellies full we went
to get our luggage and took the bus to the airport. End of story!
