Chapter 1050: Oslo Norway Dec 2019 – Part 3

Part 3 of Oslo!! I visited the Vigeland Museet!! The Vigeland Museum is very very famous in Oslo. Everything in the museum and the Frogner Park itself is dedicated to Gustav Vigeland. He was a Norwegian sculpture. It’s always fascinating when visiting different places to have an artist take over the city with amazing work. Kind of like Gaudí in Barcelona. But in Oslo you will think Vigeland with all his neo-classical architecture.

I entered the museum with my Oslo pass. You are not allowed to carry backpacks around so you have to put it into a free locker. On the day it was pretty much empty, I only saw 1-2 people inside.

Every room is filled with amazing sculptures.

Vigeland’s works have a common theme which is the realistic portrays of emotions and the human form.

Amazing detail from head to toe. Even the sash / belt has the wrinkled details.

You get to see a lot of parts of the human body. They all look so real!!

Haha this one is funny. There is this toddler sculpture in the park too. It’s pretty cool to see the stages of how the end results are formed.

This was the best room!! It was like going into a whole new world away from the outside world and entering a new reality. Although the sculptures are not moving but it sort of felt like they were, if you know what I mean? Almost like a Toy Story moment.

This is the one at the fountain in the park!!

These are also pieces you can find at the fountain in the park. It looks so amazing!! The skeleton in the tree!

So many babies…

I liked this one, it’s sweet!

Every single sculpture is unique and different from the last.

You know what they say about all of the most famous and well known artists in the world? That they all had some sort of mental illness. They said Vigeland had paranoid personality disorder, OCD, anxiety and hallucinations. But I guess it’s like a blessing in disguise? Because they’re so creative!! Over here they had bears!! They’re so cute! Especially the mama bear and baby bear!!

So pretty isn’t it. This is what the real fountain looks like too.

The pillar of people!!

These dragons stands are so cool!! I would like to have them guard my future home.

Next I walked my way to the park!! It was freezing.

But it always feels lovely to take a walk.

The gushing river….Very relaxing to watch and listen to.

I managed to get to the Vigeland Sculpture Park!

It’s the pillar!!

The park is grand and looks very pretty even on a cloudy day.

Everything from the museum is all here, the real things!

There’s the fountain. But it wasn’t on at the time.

I’m also not a children’s person.

Lovely place and if you’re in Oslo it’s definitely worth the visit.

I took the tram to the port.

I was at the port, originally I was going to goto a restaurant I had researched about but I decided to keep it for another time because I wanted to goto…

Haralds Waffle! I saw this waffle shop online and wanted to try it out. I had already tried the traditional goats cheese waffle at Dagny’s so I decided to go for something different. This shop is located near Olaf Ryes plass. I took the number 12 tram up.

A frankfurter waffler with deep fried spring onions, ketchup and mustard. People are always surprised when I say I like savoury foods more than sweet foods. I do like sweet foods but I like savoury more. Kind of like in Paris, I liked sweet crepes but the savoury crepes are heaven!! This was the first time I had a waffle with a frankfurter. It was delicious.

Next I was heading out to the Oslo Reptile Park.

I found the sign and I wasn’t expecting it to be more like a pet shop. It’s not a park. But it was still a cool visit to see some cute reptiles.

Here’s a cute frog! It’s not a reptile… they’re amphibians…But I always find them in the reptile areas.

There was a beautiful snake here. It had really pretty patterns.

You know what? Small spiders are disgusting. I get freaked out. But tarantulas are surprisingly cute and fluffy.

This little guy was so cute, using the rock as a pillow.

A millipede! They’re cool. Despite the name, they do not have thousands of legs. Adults will grow up to 200 pairs. I don’t know which end is the head but millipedes are said to have a round head. Centipedes are apparently venomous and they are often confused with millipedes who are not venomous, they don’t bite or sting as a defence mechanism.

This guy is so pretty!!

Might be over-looked by the decorations. But there is a snake!

I love bearded dragons. They’re adorable. Sometimes they look like they are smiling.

So green. This was a green tree python!! If I was in the forest I wouldn’t even notice it and think it’s just leaves.

I almost missed this little guy. It’s a cebuella pygmaea…or pygmy marmoset…or finger monkey! Yeah, they have many names…They’re so adorable and small. Which makes them so charming. They are one of the smallest primates in the entire world. Finger monkey’s originated from South America.

I think this was a Burmese python? Very pretty and bright!!

After my visit to the reptile park I wanted to do a little walk around.

I walked back to the Regjeringskvartalet. The Government Square to learn about the history.

The Government building was damaged during the July 2011 terror attack.

There is a memorial here.

The glass-like memorial has all the names of the people who sadly lost their lives on July 22nd 2011.

It was getting dark but I always feel safe in Oslo. Once I came out of the station I do feel some Japan-vibes. It might just be because people are so polite, streets are clean, I felt so safe even at night.

Found a random goblin. I was heading to the Opera House.

The Opera House is located only a few minutes away from the central station by foot.

The architecture it interesting because you can walk up on the roof like as if you are hiking a mountain.

You get to see the view of port too.

It’s steep.

At the top I met a friend!

Then I met another friend!

He liked posing for the camera.

The night view is absolutely beautiful.

From here you can see the ferry.

When coming back down I found an elegant statue. Next I was going to Akershus Fortress, the castle. I had enough time to get there before the last entry.

The medieval castle started its construction in 1299 under king Håkon V and it was completed during the 1300s. The path was dark and I did take a wrong turn and went to a dead end but later managed to get here.

The staff told me I had 1 hour before closing but they said that’s more than enough time to explore.

I love old traditional clothing. It always looks magical.

I think this was the church area.

There wasn’t anyone around, just me…It’s kinda cool to have the place to yourself so you get to experience the exclusiveness.

There were many rooms of course, this room had fabric art on the walls. The castle had dimmed lights. I guess it’s to make the atmosphere feel like going back in time.

A full suit of armour! This was a little spooky..my imagination sometimes goes a bit wild and it was prompting me to hurry up because this amour might move…I hate it when my mind is playing games with me. Because I want to look closer but my mind is saying don’t look too much just in case.

The corridors were full of furniture.

The long hall was very pretty.

Chandeliers and wooden floorboards.

I think it was a dining hall.

Down here there were more pretty furniture.

You can see the port from the windows.

Every European castle… I always see these long tables. Just when I thought maybe they didn’t have one, they did.

This was the last room I visited, it has very beautiful stain-glassed windows.

Outside the castle grounds I found a white horse!! I love horses!! It even had a jacket on.

On the way back, many places were already closed. I found this bike shop that had viking horns on the helmets!! How cool??? If I knew how to ride a bike properly then I would like to have one of these!!

Although, everything was closed. The streets were still pretty with all the lights!

The chocolate shop…I really wanted to visit it. Maybe next time. Sometimes I wish Oslo had longer opening hours!!

Just outside the chocolate shop, was a cute dog. Also by the dog is a statue called the fearless girl. It was made by Kristen Visbal, an American sculpture. This is not the original, the original is in New York. This was a duplicate. It was unveiled outside the grand hotel during 2018. I think there is one in Melbourne, and apparently there is one in London but I’ve never seen it.

A nice hot fire to warm up!!

I bought myself a massive hot dog before heading to the airport. The sausage was massive!! double the size of the actual bread. I’m not sure how it is in other countries but it seems like in Oslo they like to add deep fried spring onions as a topping.

I had a night plane back. During this trip I had a break in between. 2 weeks later I flew back to Oslo to resume what I missed on this journey. I liked Oslo that much I had to plan a second trip.

I will continue to Part 4 soon!! I have to say, Oslo is one of my favourite cities in Europe. I would like to visit its neighbouring nordic friends, Sweden and Finland. I did visit Denmark earlier in the year and will blog about it soon!!

You know, a lot of people told me Oslo is SUPER EXPENSIVE. But I’m from London so I found it was about the same. I really liked this sparkling mango drink. Very tasty!!

—Tofu