2016 December 25th, 2320h Central European Time

Our day started by arranging for our bags to be left in a secured luggage room at our hostel even though we were checking out.  This was extremely fortunate for us, because our bags aren’t exactly light, and we had a lot of walking planned for the day.  We started by heading down the street towards a “konditori” or pastry shop that I had seen the previous day and believed might be open, but sadly we couldn’t find it- it turned out to be on the opposite side of the street from where I was sure it was, and somehow none of us managed to notice it at the time, only discovering the fact some 12 hours later.  Forgoing breakfast for the time being, we continued to wander south in search of the famous Asker Fortress of Oslo, which was originally built some 800 years ago and has grown in size over the centuries since.  The streets were completely empty, with not a soul to be seen for almost all of our walk.  Eventually we came down a road where we could see two soldiers standing duty as gate guards, and we figured we were at the right place.  They were quite friendly, and informed us that it didn’t cost anything to go see the castle, and that we didn’t need to present any ID- basically they were there just to be helpful directional agents apparently.

The castle was quite impressive, built upon a series of high ramparts directly overlooking the harbor.  The path takes one in a slow spiral around and up towards the main keep, where soldiers dressed in ceremonial uniforms and armed with M4 variants with bayonets attached march sharply back and forth at various posts.  Sadly, there was no apparent access into the castle itself, just freedom to walk all around the walls to the buildings themselves.  There were also signs that some of the buildings had been repurposed as visitors centers and museums, but they all appeared to be closed given it was Christmas Day.  Still, the place was very impressive, and especially given our military backgrounds we appreciated observing some of the strategic, tactical, and logistical considerations that would’ve been involved in the planning, building, and running of a medieval castle like this one.

After leaving the castle we began to see more people filtering through the streets, and we set out in earnest to find some food.  We were fairly committed to find a sit-down venue with relatively “authentic” local fare, but with the entire city closed, our options were somewhat limited and we settled on a café located inside the large and relatively bustling Oslo Central Train Station.  I ordered a waffle with cream cheese and strawberry jam (which was delicious) and also a plate of Sanderbiff which was small bites of interesting tasting beef with grilled potatoes, bell peppers, and a buttery sauce called bearnaise.  During the meal we also finally deduced that krylling was simply the Norwegian word for chicken, and that the beef in my meal was very similar to some beef that had been on our pizza last night in addition to the chicken and other toppings.  The taste of this beef is difficult to describe- it certainly seems like the beef we’re accustomed to in the U.S. with regard to look and texture, but the taste has a truly unique flavor, and we’re not certain if it’s due to the way the cattle are raised or from the way the meat is seasoned during cooking, or both.  While the taste is somewhat surprising for an American unaccustomed to this distinct flavor, ultimately we concluded that after having gotten accustomed to it through both the pizza and my meal, we really liked it.

Sufficiently fed we left the train station and began trekking west, towards Vigelands Park.  Eventually we left the international district behind and found ourselves in a very regal looking district, with many very impressive civic buildings and small park spaces.  Towards the southwestern end of this district we found ourselves in the Asker Brydge neighborhood where I grabbed a very delicious but very tiny Belgian mocha latte and a yummy banana muffin; and also where we found a charming bar that was open: Lannister’s, named for the great house from Game of Thrones.  We briefly chatted with the cute bartender there, and promised to return for a drink later.  Continuing westward we found a palatial building that apparently serves as the place where the King of Norway receives international dignitaries, as well as meeting the public on “Meet the King Day” in May.  The views from the hill this building sits on were quite impressive, but still we needed to travel further west to see our ultimate destination.

We continued to walk through ritzy neighborhoods of extremely fancy (but all closed) shopping, until eventually we finally arrived at the Vigelands sculpture park.  It’s so named for the name of the single sculptor who provided all of the many, many sculptures the spacious and stunning park contains.  The sculptor’s style is fairly consistent: nude men, women, children, and babies; in a variety of scenarios both mundane and bizarre; but done in a variety of mediums: stone, metal, and designs in wrought iron gates.  Some of the statues are quite moving and universally relevant, others are comical in their absurdity.  My particular favorite was the one I called, “Get the hell off of me, babies!” which shows an angry nude man, kicking away multiple nude babies at his feet while throwing several more nude babies who had apparently been (viciously?) clinging to his arms, back, and neck just moments before.  Certainly all of the sculptures took great skill to create, and impressive artistic vision.  The park meanwhile is a lovely and luxurious plot of land in what is otherwise a very dense urban city.

Having gotten our fill of naked people in intriguing poses for the time being, we began working out way back, eventually finding ourselves at Lannister’s once more.  The bartender recognized us, and welcomed us in out of the cold.  Patrick and Nick were particularly hopeful of having a “hot toddy” as a drink, but apparently that wasn’t something the bar could make, though at Nathalie’s suggestion, we decided to have Irish coffees- made with some brown sugar at their bar; a novelty we found fantastic.  The bar was far from busy, and before long we found ourselves deep in conversation with our barkeep, who plied us with scotch (a very nice Glenfidditch kept in IPA barrels, and a local Norwegian “scotch” which was surprisingly good in our opinions) and also a local Norwegian “Christmas beer” which was pretty good too.  It turns out that Nathalie was actually Swedish, but had moved to Oslo in search of work; which answered a question that had been percolating in our minds: how much travel and interaction occurs between the two nations- which we’ve been learning is relatively significant.  Nathalie was also able to explain to us why it was that nearly every Norwegian and Swede we’ve met so far has impeccable English skills: they’ve studied for at least 10 years, and relatively seriously at that- plus anyone in the service industry in Oslo uses English quite frequently, even with other Norwegians.  It really puts the typically four or fewer years of casual foreign language study most Americans do to shame.
Despite the grand time we were having hanging out with Nathalie, we were getting hungry again, and so with almost all restaurants in the city closed, we found ourselves settling for the Oslo Hard Rock Café.  The food was good, but being the only open restaurant for several kilometers they were also quite busy and the staff seemed slightly stressed.  We tried to eat quickly and be on our way.

We made the rest of the walk back to the hostel to pick up our bags, and then work our way towards the bus depot.  We had about an hour left until we would board our overnight bus towards Stockholm, so we broke out my tablet to play an electronic version of the boardgame “Pandemic” which I recently introduced them to while we were on our flight to Oslo.  It’s a cooperative game of Center for Disease Control workers travelling the globe in an effort to combat dangerous new superbugs threatening the global population.  It’s a game that tests the players teamwork, creative problem solving, and risk tolerance; and ultimately the game is VERY difficult to beat.  So far we’ve completed two games, both of which resulted in our loss, despite having managed to cure most of the diseases afflicting the world.

Finally the bus arrived, whereupon the rest of the passengers swarmed the door- preventing us from exercising the priority boarding we had purchased, so unfortunately we’re sitting separately for the time being.  It might be for the best though, as we really need to catch what sleep we can on this bus ride, as shortly after we arrive in Stockholm we’ll be boarding another bus for a Viking tour we signed up for while still in the States.  Hopefully the wi-fi aboard this bus will work well enough for me to post my journal entries so far to my blog, and then it’ll be time to sleep!