Oslo & Tromso, Norway

Well, I am long overdo for an entry! I got back from my two-week vacation this last Monday and have been very busy ever since, but now I'm sick so I have nothing better to do.

I started my trip off in Oslo, Norway, visiting my good friend from school, Warren. The first day we went to Vigeland Park, a big park with tons of statues of people during different periods of life. It was really amazing, all the statues were made by one person. There's pictures on my Facebook if you're interested. Then we went to the National Gallery and saw paintings of Norway, as well as some Impressionist paintings and a collection of Edvard Munch's paintings (because he's Norwegian!), including The Scream and Madonna. Afterwards we walked around downtown Oslo in the snow and ended up eating dinner at Peppe's Pizza, which was delicious!!!

The next day we slept in and then went to a cafe on the campus where Warren goes to school where they have cheap, delicious waffles. I met a bunch of his friends and ate like three waffles with jam and whipped cream. Mmm... Then I went to his Norwegian music class with him and learned about Edvard Grieg and other famous Norwegian musicians. In the evening we went to a Quiz at a bar on campus. It's basically like a very difficult game of trivia pursuit. You're in teams and you write down what you think the answer is on a piece of paper to 20 questions and in the end you turn it in and they find who won. After the first round we were in 3rd place! But we didn't stick around to get the results for the 2nd round because their group never wins and we had a bus to catch.

The next day we headed up North to Tromso, a city inside the Arctic Circle. It's been called "the Paris of the North"! It truly is a beautiful city, surrounded by giant arctic mountains, and the way the sun shines there is indescribable. The first day there we set up our cabins and then walked around the town a bit and did some grocery shopping. Many people in Norway do speak English, but everything is written in Norwegian and trying to find the food we wanted was rather difficult, but we managed to survive the week!
That night we trekked out trying to find a place away from any big lights so that we could see the Northern Lights. We walked down a cross-country ski trail and found a big open field so we forged a path through the knee-deep snow. It was so fun! And by the time we got to the middle and sat down in the snow we could see a glowing green stripe through sky. Such an amazing experience. We stayed there for quite a while before people started getting too cold and wanted to go back. Unfortunately, on the way back out, one of the girls got her shoe stuck under the snow and couldn't get it out. Warren and I volunteered to go get a shovel and dig it out for her. So she and everyone else went back to the cabins and Warren and I went back to the field with a shovel to try to rescue her shoe. We eventually got it out and on the way back we looked up and we saw the brightest green light stretching across the sky, it was shimmering and even had a tinge of red along the bottom! The biggest light we had seen all night! So we ran back to the cabin to grab our cameras and tell the others but by the time we got back outside it was gone.

The next day we went to Polaria, which was mostly an aquarium. We saw a lot of fish and crabs, and most exciting, bearded seals! They were so much fun to watch, and there's a tunnel like at the Newport aquarium that you can walk under and see the seals swimming above you. Afterwards we went to the Gallery of Contemporary Art which was accross the street. There wasn't much in there except for some strange short films that none of us really understood... That night we went out to eat at Egon. I got smoked salmon and it was pretty good. Everyone enjoyed their food. That night it was too cloudy to see the lights, but we played around in the snow making snow angels and exploring the area around the campground until we got too tired.

The next day was Sunday, and not much is open on Sundays, just like in France, but we went to the Tromso Museum. They had a bunch of different exhibits, like how the Northern Lights are formed, rocks in Norway, and life in the Stone Ages. They also had a big section that I found very interesting about the Sami people, the native people of Northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland. We didn't do much else that day except make leftover spaghetti for dinner and play outside in the snow again, it was too cloudy to see the lights again.

The next day was our last in Tromso, but we didn't leave until the evening so we went back to downtown Tromso for the day. We went to the Polar Museum which was about hunting and trapping in the Arctic, kind of depressing, but still interesting. Then we went to the Northernmost Glass blowing studio in the world, called Blast. We got to watch a lady blow a glass wine glass. For dinner we went to Peppe's again (it's a big thing in Norway!) Then we got on our plane back to Oslo. Back in Oslo we were exhausted but I just had to try reindeer before I left so I stayed up while Warren and his friends cooked some reindeer. It was pretty good! Very tender, I think I would have liked it with some potatoes and gravy :)

The next day I headed to London! Which I'll write a post about in a bit, right now I need to get some rest.