Oslo, Norway (March 2012)

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!

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Our group photos from Oslo can be found on Pictura's home page, click this link!

Day 1, Friday

Akershus fortress.

Experiencing Akershus fortress. It was a beautiful day!

Akershus fortress.

Fredrik taking one of his great shots

Akershus fortress.

Change of guards in Akershus.

Delicious pizza&pasta.

Vigelandsparken with the 200 sculptures.

Getting ready to take our group photo.

At the park.

View from the park. It was a long walk to the main gates and tram station.

Sandra junior and a huge pile of human flesh carved in stone...

Freaky baby sculpture! :-/

Beautiful pice outside the Opera.

The Oslo Opera. A beautiful architectural gem which you can walk on!
There was a "No Skateboarding!"-sign:) Pretty understandable,
but the idea sure was tempting even for a person that doesn't skateboard!

Sandra senior & Sandra junior.

At the Oslo opera.

KAIZERS ORCHESTRA! <3

KAIZERS ORCHESTRA! <3

Night time in Oslo.

Would not ride a bus that says "vika" (in Finnish= broken, defect)

Parliament building.

 

Day 2, Saturday at the photo fair

At Lillestrøm photo fair.

Lillestrøm

Lunch/dinner at Peppes Pizza.

Lillestrøm train station on our way home.

Day 3, Sunday 

This guy had an exhibition at Stenersens museum.

 Stenersens museum.

 Stenersens museum.

 Stenersens museum, exhibition downstairs (unfortunately I can't remember the artist(s)).

Interesting poses and stories with small dolls and stuff.

 Stenersens museum, exhibition downstairs. Would have needed my tripod.

Our last lunch/dinner in Oslo and it was FANTASTIC!

The food was served in practical bowls (candle underneath).

Indian refreshments.

We all enjoyed our tasty Indian food.

Dessert at Italian coffee shop (my belly was ready to burst!)

Waiting for the bus to take us to the airport.

Oslo airport. End of story!

London was my cup of tea! (Sept 2011)

Hello darlings! So sorry for not updating sooner, I've been busy with work. And at this moment I should be writing an essay in philosophy, buuut you know how it goes.. Procrastination is a lovely artform!:)

So, what about London? Went there during my autumn break with my friend Riikka and her friends Sari and Suvi. Riikka's friend Kirsi was also there, but I was in a way her "replacement" so I didn't get to see her at all.

Since I didn't have the whole week off, we came to the arrangement that we'd spend a few days together in London. Riikka&co were there in the beginning of the week, I was there from Wed 19th- Sun 23rd September. We stayed at the Finnish Church in London, which also has a nice hostel. Not in the heart of the city, but I felt safe going and staying there. Good beds, ok breakfast, friendly staff. It wasn't a luxurious place, but that's not usually what I need anyways, so this was perfectly fine.

My trip was from Helsinki-London with Norwegian, and I flew back with British Airways. While I sat in the bus to Helsinki it started raining. Normal, autumn rain. But during departure in Helsinki the plane was hit twice by lightning!!! Man, that was scary! The plane landed in Oslo to be checked for damages and getting fuel, which means I arrived much later than planned.

Luckily I got to London, found the train and metro, got the right ticket for it (I guess), scrambled along the dark roads and found the girls in a pub near the metro station. Then I could relax and breathe, I was with friends! *phew* Snacks and cider at the pub, then "home".

During my first day (Thursday, which was the girls' fourth) we just strolled around, took the tube to various locations, had coffee, superb indian food, went to the Natural History Museum (because I wanted to see dinosaurs!) and did some shopping at Harrod's. The day ended with snacks and cider at a pub:)

The next day (Friday) started with an independent bus tour. We took the bus from the hostel/church and  admired the city in a nice autumn light. The day was crisp and bright, very lovely! Riikka showed us where she had lived during her work period in London (like over ten years ago:). We did some shopping and had coffee at Riikkas old work place, Starbucks Café on Trafalgar Square. Then it was time to say good bye, the girls were leaving back to Finland.

I stayed and had my own adventures from there on. I wandered around the city, saw and sat in parks, had lunch, saw Chinatown, The British Museum. This museum was AWSOME by the way! There was so much to see and learn, my favorite section was ancient Egypt and Sudan where I luckily managed to join a tour about the Rosetta stone. I was actually quite moved when I finally saw this famous stone! I don't know what it is about stones that I love - collected stones when I was younger. I also wrote my thesis about rune stones. I guess ancient messages appeal to me! :)

After walking a lot(!) at the British Museum I headed to go see some photos at the National Portrait Gallery. And since it was Friday, it was party time! At the National Portrait Gallery they had all sorts of different activities happening: sparkling wine in the lobby, young 20-30-year-olds wandering around looking at art, music in the upper levels... I was (I guess) hit on, but the man was in a very strange state of mind, don't know what he had been takin!:/

At NPG I chose to go to a particular room with a drawing session! There was an art teacher there, paper and pencils. It was a nice moment during this hectic day. Sitting, chilling, drawing a portrait of some greek/roman statue. Afterwards I went to the top floor and restaurant for a glass of red wine and enjoy the view of Big Ben shining like a beacon in the dark...

By Saturday my feet were killing me. I started the day with visitin Baker Street and Sherlock Holmes museum shop. I didn't visit the museum itself (or any others) because the city was FLOCKED with tourists, and I was happy that I'd decided to do a DIY-bus-tour (Mondo travel guide)! I didn't quite find the starting point, but with my travel card I just randomly hopped on and off the red buses, and somehow found the right route anyway:)

I also went to Portobello and it's famous market, I think I saw Banksy art, had a snack in Hyde Park, and later fish n' chips. Sunday was pretty much just traveling home, what an anticlimax... I think saw the most of this lovely city, but still lots to discover on my future trips to London!:)

(Photos are to be added later and/or maybe separately)