Left Bergen yesterday afternoon after clinic and ended up sitting in rush hour traffic for over an hour and a half! The delay didn't darken our spirits though! Yi Hu rented a car for us and drove Karin, me, and two other girls (Tea & Ida) the whole way from Bergen to Oslo- a 7 or so hour drive! Once we got past all the traffic in Bergen, we hit the open road! Drove through lots and lots of long tunnels through the mountains and windy, narrow roads. I can see now why everyone drives small cars here- the roads are so narrow that SUVs would never fit if 2 met at the same time!
We searched for a place for dinner and found a great little place along the way. After filling up on cheeseburgers, we continued on our journey towards Oslo. Much to our surprise, we saw a Stavs church along the way! That totally made Karin's day! The scenery changed as we continued along, changing from grassy mountains and waterfalls to snowy mountains and bare trees. We finally made it to Oslo around 1:30 in the morning. Dropped off the girls and headed to Yi Hus place to stay with his parents. His parents live in an apartment in the medival section of Oslo. They greeted us with big smiles! His parents speak Norwegian and Chinese-neither of which Karin nor I know so we just smiled back!
Today we had one busy day! First we started off with a traditional Chinese dish-homemade noodles! They were yummy! We were ready to see the sights of Oslo. Thankfully Karin is very talented in planning so she had found places for us to go! We started off at the Viking Ship Museum, it was awesome! The museum had 3 huge ships in it and tons of Vikings artifacts, I never knew that they buried loved ones in the ships into the ground because they thought they would need to sail in the afterlife! The Vikings were smart too- they were farmers, merchants and warriors! After the Vikings museum, we headed to the Polar Expedition Museum. Outside, it was a beautiful sunny day, we watched sailboats come in and out of the fjord and enjoyed the cherry blossom trees. Inside the museum, a giant ship used for polar expeditions to the North Pole was on display.
Next, while still on the island with the museums, we went to the Norwegian Folk Museum- it was practically a town! They had a Stavs church, lots of cabins and houses, tons of neat old buildings, and children danced in their traditional costumes! It was really neat, plus the weather was super nice so we enjoyed walking around in the sun. We were starting to get hungry for lunch, so next moved on to our next adventure! Yi Hu took us to the famous Vigeland sculpture park. The park was huge and packed with tons of people because there was a big running race going on nearby. The park was filled with statues of people from one artist. We ate our lunch outside and admired the art! I really enoyed the park. After walking around and seeing all the statues, we headed into the city center. It had started to sprinkle and soon the weather turned on us and it began raining. We walked around lots of shops and souvenior shops in the city. We stopped for some coffee and the wonderful Swedish waitress gave our varm schoklade (hot chocoloate) for free! Yay! After playing some cards and enjoying our drinks, we decided it was time for dinner!
Everything closes early in Norway and by the time we walked to the Sushi restaurant we had planned on going to, it closed! We found another one though- called Happy Sushi! It was great! Definitely hit the spot! After dinner we wanted to check out some piano bars, but they were all filled with crazy futball (soccer) fans! Instead we found a cafe to hang out in. All the places were really crowded with lots of people out for the evening! I was glad we found someplace to go! We enjoyed warm drinks, cards, and laughs. Went back to Yi Hus and his parents greeted us with lots of snacks and big smiles! Now time to get some sleep for another big day ahead of us exploring more of Oslo. Looking forward to seeing the king & queen!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment