Viking Party Barge: Norway to see some good friends!

Post date: May 03, 2017 11:54:49 AM

The good thing about settling in Europe, is that some of my friends are settling here too! During my PhD, I was lucky enough to have an awesome group of women who were really supportive and generally awesome. Sarah was/is definitely one of them. She also dates a Norwegian fellow, Marius, who also did his PhD in Idaho, after which he has returned to the Scandinavian mother land.

Sarah is visiting for 6 weeks, so I visited for one long weekend. I’d never been to Norway, and was excited to see the country, but mostly I was excited to see these smiling faces.

Marius lives in Lillehammer, which is ~ 2 hours from Oslo. So after arriving I took the train to across Norway. Like a proper tourist, I had my nose smooshed against the window staring at the glorious scenery and general awesomeness of Norway.

Marius has a cute little apartment on the outskirts of town, which has an awesome view of the largest lake in Norway. I have no idea how to say the name of this lake…

I thought Lillehammer was a big place, because I remember the winter Olympics held there in 1994. However, it turns out that the Olympics are Lillehammer’s main claim to fame. And it's not a big place (roughly the size of Moscow ID) Of the top 10 things to do in Lillehammer on Lonely Planet, 6 of them are “Olympic Park” related. So we went to the Olympic Park! Specifically the ski jump.

Conceptually, I understand ski jump. But realistically, you’d have to pay me A LOT of money to jump of this thing. And pay for all my medical costs when I invariably injure myself. Likely really badly. I mean… that thing is crazy. But we walked up to the middle to get a better look. And confirm that there’s no way I’m going into this sport.

The good news is that the middle of the ski jump affords a beautiful view of the valley. You’ll notice that all the houses are on one side of the lake, the west side. All settlements in Norway are set up this way, either facing west or south, to maximize the amount of sunlight.

The Olympic torch! Both Marius and I climbed up to the top, the place you would be to light the torch. However, you’ll notice the second half of the staircase has no discernible support below it. You’re just hanging out there, with nothing but air beneath you. Not for the faint of heart. Only for true Olympians.

Marius is an outdoors man who loves sweating outside. So he showed us the trailhead of some of his favorite cross country trails (Lillehammer has a bazillion cross country trails… it’s the Norwegian way). In the above photo he’s explaining what the odd sled contraption next to him is. It’s called a kick (I am sure that’s not spelled right), and is used for pushing things around town in the snow. They have enough snow that they can anticipate things like this being useful.

Downtown Lillehammer was hopping, including this odd little statue. It’s a viking on skis holding a baby. Apparently, there were warring tribes back in the viking era (shocker) and the one with the best claim to the throne was about to be overrun/killed/pillaged. So the scuttled their claim (the baby prince) over the mountains to safety, using only skis and hard core viking muscles. Every year they run a race over the mountain where you have to carry a baby sized weight to simulate the triumphant trek. Marius is going to do it sometime.

Marius’s mom lives on the outskirts of Oslo, so we headed back to the big city. I sadly didn’t get a photo of view from her house, but I’m coming to believe that all Norwegians have a gorgeous view. Our firs stop in Oslo was this really cool sculpture garden. All the work was done by one artist, and start with this bridge. Each figure was a person, all of them were naked but the expressed a crazy range of emotions.

Like strength (both men and women).

Turmoil

Falling in love with a dragon… (a perfectly rational emotion).

There were a ton of male and female statues together. I liked the intimacy of this one.

And lots of babies and kids. Sarah and I were trying to figure out themes, and realized that the theme is largely the range of different emotions, and how the viewer can project the way they feel about life choices and situations onto that range.

I loved the tile on the other side of the bridge, which surrounded a fountain (also by the same sculpture, so it was a fountain held up by naked men).

And the center piece of the whole garden is this monolith. It’s cylindracal, and vertical, so immediately I commented on how phallus it is. But as one approaches it, you come realize it’s made out of people stacked on top of each other. Not in pain, not in ecstasy, just stacked on top of each other. A giant pillar made of flesh. Don’t need to stretch the imagination too much to figure out what jokes I was cracking the whole time we were looking at it. I still have the humor of a fifteen year old boy.

This party barge was floating in before 1000 AD. So long before anything else I’ve ever talked about. Which is nuts. I didn’t even know people were alive then! (kidding). But it does strike me as awesome that the vikings were partying long before the Europeans even popped over to North America (Marius would likely want me to point out that the vikings actually had a settlement in Canada LONG before the rest of Europe even knew there was a landmass there. And Norway is in Europe, so technically the Europeans did pop over to North America, long before my ancestors (the brits) came to stay.)

I don’t know what this was needed for in the afterlife, besides looking awesome.

There are a lot of sweaters in Norway, and they have different patterns (with names!). Apparently, the Marius pattern is particularly popular at the moment. So much so that the museum had Marius patterned spatulas. We will use these in our restaurant, Odin’s Gate (Not GA-teh).

Norway has a royal family! This is their palace! But unlike the British royal family, and in very typical practical Norwegian style, they don’t live in the palace, but rather live on a farm on the edge of Oslo. I think the crown prince is cute (but currently married) and wouldn’t mind life on a farm or in a palace. Just throwing that out there crowned prince, I’m available.

I forgot my sunglasses, so Marius loned me a pair of aviators. This is near the parliament, I’m not sure I’m pulling them off but God damnit I’m trying.

Off to one side of the harbor, there’s an old fort that gives you epic views of the fjord. So we like proper tourists, we wandered on over.

The view did not disappoint. I’ve spent enough time in New Zealand that I know a good looking fjord when I see one, and let me tell you. This was a good looking fjord.

Last day, before heading to the airport we did a little hiking. Some frolicking around the bogs and woods of Norway.

The air was crisp, the sky was a ridiculous color of blue, and the woods smelled of recent rain.

I like this Norway place, I will likely be back to visit again.

Especially if these two are still there! Great tourguide, great friends, great confidant, great visit, great getaway. GREAT!