24b: Oslo - Day 2

Since I had already been to all of the museums I didn’t have anyone to hangout with for most of the day.  All of the others girl do other things on Friday and so they still wanted to go to those museums.  I don’t blame them.  I enjoyed going to the museums.  So I was there all by myself.  I decided that I was going to go down to the dock and check out the place there.  My Oslo Card was still good so I used that to get on a bus there.

I got there a little before the museums opened so I took some time to just walk on the dock.  There are some very expensive looking apartments there.  They also looked very modern.  Last night the guy had talked about how the prices there are exorbitant.  He also told us about this outdoor shower and how there was a diving board.  I wanted to know what that was all about.  Turns out that there is just a diving board and the a ladder to get out of the water right there.  There is also a shower head to rinse off.  I didn’t have a change of clothes and so didn’t jump in the fjord or find out if the shower head worked.  But I think that it is a fun idea.  There was a sign that reminds people that they should be considerate of others and not make a lot of noise too early or too late.

 After taking a good look there I walked back towards the road and went into the Nobel Peace Prize Museum.  I really liked the technology in this museum.  At first I didn’t really get the various exhibits. But once I understood what was going on I was really impressed.

One of the exhibits was about all of the past recipients of the peace prize.  There was this dark room with a lot of tablet looking screens.  Initially they would just show faces of the past winners.  Then when you approach the screen the border would light up and then a biography would show up about the person.  Then, after a span of time a quote by the person would show up.  But I really liked how the displays knew when that you were in front of them and when there wasn’t anybody in front.

Then the next exhibit was about Nobel himself.  It was a remembrance book.  It was just a book with a bunch of pages on it.  The interaction came by turning the pages in the book.  That would communicate to the computer and the projector to display different pages in the book.  It was really cool.  You would hold your finger over a portion of the page and then more information would pop up about that topic.

Then there was also this screen wall with information.  There were three screens that were connected.  The slider would scroll up if it was in the top screen and scroll down if in the bottom screen. When the slider was in the middle screen information was shown about person or idea.  I thought it was mighty cool.

I went into the gift shop and I was like.  I want to buy something here.  I want to support the peace prize.  Things were really expensive though.  I ended up buying some cups that are made of bamboo.  I think that they are fun and in very vibrant colors.

Then I looked down at my watch and realized that I had like 10 minutes to run to the Astrup Fearnley Museum which is a museum of modern art that is also on the dock.  That way I would be in the museum a couple minutes before my Oslo Card ran out.  I ended getting there right on time.  It is a good thing that they aren’t really strict on the times because I was really close to the time written on my card.

Being in this museum reminded me of my days in St Petersburg wandering the Hermitage.  I pulled out my phone and scanned the QR code to hear more about the paintings.  Unfortunately the videos were all in Norwegian so I only watched the one.  I kept my earphones in though.  Just like in the Hermitage I decided that I was going to rock out to my museum.  I started out just listening to the music.  But then I went around the corner and decided that I was going to cut loose.  I was going to really enjoy my music and dance along to the music.  So I was dancing and listening to music and enjoying the art.  What did the other people think you might ask?  I don’t know.  I didn’t look.  There definitely were other people around that saw me (I think).  But I didn’t pay any attention to them.

At this point in the day I was pretty glad that I was all by myself because I could almost guarantee that I would not have danced around the art gallery with somebody else that I knew there with me.

I thought that I had picked appropriate clothes to go to the art museum though.  I wore black pants and a black shirt with a tiger on the front.  I thought it was pretty funny.  Then the dot was to show that I should be let in the museum.  I didn’t actually get a ticket but oh well.

There was a second part to the museum across the canal.  I didn’t so much care for the second part.  It was just weird.

By this time my Oslo Card had run out and so I would need to pay again if I was to take a bus and since I didn’t want to do that I just started walking.  I found Turban Days.  There was this peaceful looking gathering of people so I went and checked it out.  There was a bunch of free stuff.  I ended with a big plate of Indian food and a smaller plate.  I thought it was good.  I don’t plan on going to India any time soon though.  The food is not something that I would really enjoy there.

They were giving out free turbans but I decided against that idea.  The line to get a turban was really long.  Then after you got one then you had to wait in another really long line to get it put on your head.  I decided that it wasn’t going to be work the time that I would have to spend in order to get one.  I would wear the turban that day and that would be it.  I wouldn’t know how to put the turban back on and then it would just become a collectible thing.  A memory of going to Oslo.  In hindsight I am glad that I made the decision that I did.

I checked out the Akershus Fortress on the hill top there.  I thought it was pretty great that it was all pretty much public access.  There was a museum or two that if I would have wanted to inside then I would have needed the Oslo card or paid for admission but I didn’t need to.  I was content with what I was able to see with it.

From there I make my way over to the Opera House.  I had pretty much been alone the whole day and now it is like 4pm.  There had been people around me but none that I knew and none that I had talked to.  But it was a good set up.  I was walking slowly on the other side of the water from the opera house.  I noticed that there was a girl that had set up her camera on her backpack and put it on timer and then took a picture of herself.  I walked past her and then sat down on a bench about 20 feet past the girl.

I wondered if her picture had worked out very well or not.  She tried to take a couple more pictures using the timer and then decided that she needed to just look at her pictures.  That was my opening.  So I walked over to her and asked if she needed somebody to take her picture.  I also said that I wasn’t doing anything right now.  I was meeting friends here but I was half an hour early so I had some time to spare.  She agreed.  I then took her picture.  It turns out that she was taking pictures for a marketing thing.  There was something special about the sun glasses that she was wearing (I thought that the sunglasses were hip) and the Opera House in the background.

I found out a little bit about Inada?  I have no idea how to spell her name.  But she is from Spain has lived in Oslo for two years now.  She works at the airport and had really good English.  She was on her way home from work and so I didn’t want to hold her for very long.

We exchanged pleasantries such as “nice to meet you.” “Have a good night” etc. and then we both walked the same direction.  That was a little bit awkward but worked out pretty well because as we were walking I was like, “Hey! Since I took a picture on your camera can I take a selfie with you on my phone?”  She agreed (obviously) because here is the picture.  As Ashley says, “Pics or it didn’t happen.”  I felt pretty good after that.

I then walked on the Opera House.  It had really cool architecture that you could walk on.  There was also a pretty good view of the rest of the city.  Then I walked inside and used the free wi-fi.  I do love free wi-fi.  I also asked about how much a ticket would be.  It was 100 kronor but that was for standing room only. You would have to stand and listen to the symphony.  I think that that would be miserable.

I had made contact with the other girls and they said that they were coming to the Opera house so I didn’t want to go very far.  But I also didn’t want to just stick around so I walked over to Oslo City, a shopping center nearby.  I didn’t find anything in there though.  Everything was expensive and I didn’t like it very much.

After meeting up with the girls it was time for dinner.  The girls wanted to go to the Scotsman but once we got there I realized that it was going to be expensive just like TGI Friday’s and I couldn’t afford going to another expensive restaurant two days in a row.  Megan was thinking the same way.  We dissented and went to Subway which was much cheaper.

Megan was pretty tired and so she decided to go back to the house.  I escorted her to the bus station because I didn’t know where any of the stops are that the bus would stop at.  It was kind of a ways to go.  Once we were at the bus station I called Sarah to see where she was.  Julia answered the phone and said that they were at the Center for Young Adult for our church.

I thought that that sounded cool so I asked how to get there.  Julia didn’t know how to explain it so I told her to pass the phone to a missionary so that they could explain to me how to get there.  The missionary then told me how to get to the Center.  I followed the directions and was able to find the building.  When I got there, there were a bunch of missionaries and also a couple YSA (Young Single Adults).  It was really nice to talk with the missionaries and remember the time that I was on my mission.  I remembered it in a way that I had thought about in a long time.  I really liked hearing why some of the missionaries decided to go on missions. We also had waffles with cream and jam.  They tasted really good.

We then went home but not before going to the convenience store to pick up a couple things to eat on Sunday.  At home we watched Step Up 3.  I had never seen it.  There are some cool dance numbers in the movie.