2nd
Another Beautiful Day in Oslo
The wonderful weather continues in Oslo! When I went out this afternoon, I didn’t even need my jacket. As the Norwegians often say when they speak English, it was “quite nice”! After breakfast I slept for a while, so I started my day late. First, I went to DogA, the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture. They displayed some students’ design work, which was very modern and Scandinavian-looking. I can’t say too much beyond that because the explanations were only in Norwegian!
From DogA I went to a Kebab place and got my first truly spicy food in Northern Europe. When I was asked, “medium or spicy?” I recalled that the question has always meant “mild or medium?” to my American tastes. Anyway, I had some excellent shawarma (Middle Eastern-style wrap) and an orange soda. (On a side note, the orange soda in Europe actually has some orange juice in it. It’s better that way.)
Museum #2 was the National Gallery, Norway’s largest collection of Norwegian art. I picked up an audio guide and made my way through the rooms. Because Norway was in union with Denmark for many years, then Sweden for some more, and only gained independence in 1905, their national identity is not so old. The art on exhibition was mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries, when Norway began to develop on its own. One of the paintings, called “Winter Night in the Mountains” by Harald Sohlberg, put me in awe. It succeeds in describing the majestic beauty of nature, that force that makes humanity feel so small. I was lucky enough to find a poster print of it for around $15. The scale won’t be right, since the original is so much larger, but what can you do? As much as I loved the Sohlberg work, Norway is most proud of Edvard Munch (pronounced Moonk), who famously painted “The Scream,” the first work to describe the existential anxiety of the modern man. My sister is a big fan of this painting, and I wish she had been with me to see it!
I did another “Oslo Winter Walk,” even though the weather was warm. This time we visited the Oslo City Hall, built between 1930 and 1950. The walls are covered in beautiful frescos portaying Norwegian life, traditions, and resistance during WWII. Like every other public building in Scandinavia, you just walk right in. How nice! In America you often have to pass through a metal detector, if you can get in at all. After that, we went to a traditional Norwegian food shop. I tried smoked herring, smoked salmon, goat sausage, a couple of cheeses, dried fish, and some more unusual things. It was all of high quality, and most of it tasted good too. The dried fish, apparently a snack food in Northern Norway, was a little too different for my tastes. Oh well, in the times before planes and freezers, when you had four months to produce food for 12, what would you do?
The third and final part of our tour was on the harborfront development. The Norwegians have done an outstanding job at designing and executing an urban plan that includes workplaces for 7000 people, distinctive housing, and enjoyable public spaces. The tour guide explained to the Norwegians that despite the financial crisis, which has put phase two on hold, the developer still must go forward with the third part of the project, a museum for the city, even though it will cost some 450 million kroner ($68 million). One of the other guys on the tour, a Scotsman living in Oslo, translated that part for me. We actually got to talking for a while. He wondered what my Massachusetts flag patch was, since he wasn’t aware we had our own symbol. I got to hear about how he lived in Boston, Copenhagen, the South of Norway, and Oslo. He left Scotland 20 years ago for Oslo and learned Norwegian in just 6 months, which I found impressive. I suppose one can do that when immersed. Norwegian is also a more modern language than Danish. For the last 8 years he has worked in one of the hospitals here. He went on the tour because he finds that he doesn’t take advantage of the city center enough. When it’s this great, that’s a crime! We had coffee after the tour and he gave me some suggestions on places to visit. I think he may have seen a little bit of his younger self in me, a guy in his early 20’s curious about Scandinavia, with its peaceful people and high standard of living. In some ways, there may be more opportunity for a happy and healthy life here than in the UK or US.
I can’t believe I’m leaving Oslo tomorrow. There’s still so much to see!
