Weekend in Oslo

Coming to the end of my last day in Oslo. I've been staying with Linda who lives in the middle of a large beautiful park west of the city centre. It is absolutely picturesque and peaceful. I woke up this morning to a bright sunny day and had plums from the tree in Linda's garden with my muesli.

I bought a 24hr Oslo pass that gets you into all museums and all transport for 220NOK. A pretty good deal. Visited Vigelands Park - an amazing sculpture park. I will post my photos later. Also, managed to fit in the Munch Museum to see his famous painting The Scream. Wasn't very familiar with his earlier work so I was quite surprised as he was a very prolific artist.

The definite highlight was probably Snøhetta's Opera House. Absolutely amazing. There was quite a lot of controversy over this building but since it has been finished it is becoming a much loved addition to the city of Oslo. If only the new Scottish Parliament building had as much luck...I was constantly tripping over the several different level changes on the external stone landscaping which eventually becomes the roof. It's actually quite dangerous as the white paving slabs looks seamless and still immaculate. Again, I will post photos when I get a chance.

Managed to arrange to meet with a couchsurfer host in Oslo lastnight. We met at the large bronze statue of a tiger outside Oslo's central train station. Apparently Oslo is known as the "Tiger City" but I still haven't figured out why yet. My CS contact had invited another CSer from Turkey, so all of a sudden we were a group of 3 and then the Turkish guy had invited a friend of a friend to join us, so now we were a group of 4 strangers who were going out for dinner. We had a lovely evening dining on smoked salmon, whale, aquavit and beer. Bjorn, the 50 something software developer from Oslo was the oldest of the group and with no children of his own felt that perhaps he needed to buy us dinner - after a lot of bickering we finally gave up and let Bjorn pay - it was very generous of him.

Tonight I will cook dinner for Linda with vegetables from her garden. She is an amazing gardener and an inspiring person that I was fortunate enough to meet.

Tomorrow I catch an early train to Bergen on the west coast. Can't wait to see the western fjords.