First day in Oslo

Sunday, August 04, 2013
Oslo, Oslo, Norway
We started the day with a self-guided walk around Oslo's city centre: from the train station along Karl Johans gate (the main pedestrian/tourist street), around Oslo cathedral, parliament building, and to square-looking city hall (that had some interesting decorations inside and Nordic-themed woodcuts outside) with the harbour behind it. From there we walked to Akershus Fortress, a medieval castle turned into a military base, which also served as Nazi HQ during the occupation. We walked around the fortress for a bit, had some sandwiches and then headed to the National Gallery that houses the only Norwegian painting most people know - The Scream by Edvard Munch. However there was some special exhibition going on, it was kinda pricey and we are not huge fans of Munch, so we skipped the art museum and headed instead to Frogner Park.
Up to now, all Oslo sights and attractions weren't too exciting (maybe in comparison with the other Scandinavian capitals though), but this park is something special! The park contains a lifetime of work by Norway's greatest sculptor, Gustav Vigeland. All of his sculptures portray naked people in a variety of dynamic lifelike poses. They are extremely realistic, though somewhat sturdy and some look more like a photograph than a statue. Most of Vigeland's works have deep meaning connected with interpersonal relationships, emotions, the circle of life and death. The centrepiece of the park is a huge monolith covered with 121 figures carved out of a single slab of granite. According to Wikipedia, "Frogner Park is the largest park in the city and covers 45 hectares and the Sculpture Arrangement is the world's largest sculpture park made by a single artist. Frogner Park is the most popular tourist attraction of Norway, with between 1 and 2 million visitors each year, and is open to the public at all times." Angry Boy (Sinnataggen) is probably the most popular statue in the park, it depicts a small child yelling angrily while wrinkling his face and stomping his foot. After we saw about a half of the park's statues, a thunderstorm started suddenly and we had to run back to a cafe near the park's entrance. We waited there for about an hour and then the rain slowly stopped and we could continue the exploration. The rain was pretty lucky for me thought, because when the sky cleared, the rays of setting sun illuminated the statues rather nicely.
After we checked out every single statue (I think this park is what really makes Oslo worth visiting), we were too tired to walk and took a tram back to the hotel. However when we were right around the corner, Julia spotted Oslo's stunning Opera House, so we had to go and check it out. It is definitely a unique building, a giant white slope coming out of the water that you can effortlessly climb all the way to the top. The view was really cool too. And it was about 5-minute walk from the hotel, so we got back really fast.
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