Oslo: Day 1 & 2
Monday, May 19, 2014I made it to Norway! After a ridiculously long day at JFK I finally got to board my flight to Oslo. I literally sat in the airport with no wifi for six hours. Longest. Day. Ever. Surprisingly, the flight was not that bad at all! The food was pretty good and they had excellent choices for inflight entertainment. I watched HP 7, The Book Thief, and part of the Hobbit.
The first thing we did when we got to the city was head to the church for Sacrament meeting, luggage and all. We were confused about how to get there, but we met some really really helpful people along the way who pointed us in the right direction. We missed most of Sacrament, but we mingled afterward and talked to several of the ward members. One of the sister missionaries recognized me from a Strategy event so we bonded over that. As we were talking to one of the members he offered to take us to our flat which was great. We would have never made it there ourselves.
Our hosts are AMAZING! They have been absolutely wonderful during our stay. Their apartment is beautiful and in a perfect location. The first day JR planned a walking tour for us to see the city. The museums are closed on Mondays (weird, huh?) so we went over to the National Gallery to see The Scream. There were also a few Monet's and Picasso's so I was a happy girl. From there we went to the Royal Palace (aka my future home) and then down to the pier. On the pier we just people watched for a while. Norwegians are so stinkin' gorgeous! There is seriously something in the water here because everyone looks like a supermodel. We also explored an old fortress before heading home. I love just walking around Oslo. There is such an eclectic mixture of buildings. I'll be walking down the street looking at old, traditional buildings and all of sudden there will be a super modern structure right in the middle of it all. For dinner we went to this little Vietnamese place that our host suggested. It was delicious! We have been picky about where we eat because everything is super expensive here. One scoop of ice cream cost me $6 today!
Katy and I got up early today to go for a short run down to the pier. People must not run around the city very much here because all the commuters looked at us like we were heathens. I could almost here them saying, "That's what parks are for, idiots!" But we continued jogging anyway :) Today JR helped us plan a day going to some of the museums that were open. We took a ferry over to an island call Bygdøy (pronounced "Bigday"...yeah, I don't get it either) to go the Viking ship museum and another museum about polar explorations. Both were pretty incredible. I liked the Viking museum because there wasn't too much to read. I like to read in museums, but after about 40 minutes I lose interest so this was perfect. The polar exploration museum was cool They had one of the ships that we could actually go in and tour. I would have been the worst sailor ever. The beds were too small and it was super claustrophobic in there so that would be a no go on this end.
After we finished at the museums we trekked over to this amazing park. I don't remember the super cool Norwegian name, but this has been my favorite thing so far. The grounds are immaculate. The grass is so green and all of pathways are lined with trees. Also, I am pretty sure that everyone in that park leads a charmed life. Everyone just looks so happy! There were tons of people out with their families or casually strolling home from work. There lots of sunbathers too which is kind of random. In the center of the park are all these statues. Oh, they were beautiful! The depicted different stages of life and different relationships which was interesting.
After we finished looking at the statues we just wandered around the rest of the park. I could have spent all day there and we actually might go back tomorrow. From the park we went back to the Royal Palace on our way home. We parked on a bench to rest. We then realized that we didn't know if Norway still had a royal family so we asked the guard. So, there is a royal family so we looked like idiots, but we ended up talking to him for about ten minutes. The poor kid--it was literally his first week on the job. He said that he was just about to get off so there would be a changing of the guard. Right as we got back to our bench and were awkwardly watching him again it started to rain. Just as we were about to call it, the guard change came around the corner so we stayed to watch our friend's big moment. It wasn't anything crazy, just some secret words, a heel click, a do-si-do, and BAM! Guard changed. We then rushed home to change into something warmer before dinner. I was hoping that some handsome Norwegian man would offer me his umbrella like in the movies, but no such luck :( For dinner we had sushi. All of the meals at restaurants I've had here have required chopsticks, so we made a pact to not use chopsticks tomorrow.
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