Happy August! Our morning started a little earlier and we got on the Metro with our same breakfast of apples and sweet buns. National Library for some Ave Maria research and checking email. Lunch was next already, and the place we wanted to go was inside the blocked section of town.
King-Kong-sized kabobs, which miraculously did not make us ill.
We rose to Bygdoy Peninsula for the Kon Tiki, Viking Ship, Polar Ship Fram and the Norwegian Folke Museum. The first three were all about Norwegian explorers.
Kon Tiki was the most interesting; ancient peoples were theorized to to have achieved long distance oceanic travel on rafts and ships made of balsa wood and papyrus. The anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl thought this because South America and South Asia shared some traditions, beliefs, and symbols that didn't seem to be coincidences. He designed prototypes of boats made from local materials and by local builders to get him and an international crew of five others across the Pacific Ocean, then the Atlantic. Heyerdahl's original documentary of the Kon-Tiki expedition won and Oscar in 1951. Now, a Norwegian film-maker is shooting another version of the story, released in Summer 2012.
Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian who wanted to chart Greenland and the North and South poles. Between 1893-96 he lodged his ship in the winter ice flows of the Arctic sea and moved close enough to the Pole to pursue it by dogsled. The ship was built knowing that other boats had been crushed trying the same thing. His crew of 12 men brought fuel and provisions for five years. He was the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with Russian refugees displaced during the Russian Revolution.
We could have skipped the Folke Museum except for the Stave Church, which looked to me like a gingerbread house. The structure was moved around 1885 from its original location in Gol to the museum in Oslo. A copy stands in the original location.
My camera battery died today, so these are all internet pictures of what I wished I had snapped myself. We stopped in the Nobel Peace Center right by Arke Brygge when we got off the ferry. It had fabulous exhibitions and a kids' center with a famous turntable game that the Dalai Lama has played. The Norwegians obviously seem to favor Obama, and we were reminded of that as we saw his picture bending and swaying in this lit display.
After coffee and sitting for a while, we decided to explore the Arke Brygge, known for its upscale shopping and pricey restaurants. The term Brygge is meant to describe the area around the harbor, once a merchant area for maritime trade. We chose a spot on the large wooden steps and watched the yachts come in and out. We ate our sketchy kabob leftovers and watched street performers. One was a girl who practiced crystal ball rolling/gravity ball juggling-- it's called different things. She moved this leaded crystal ball from arm to arm, around her hands, and through her fingers with such control that it looked like it wasn't moving. Check it out.
We actually withdrew money to support another street performer we saw. A classical guitar player from Russia stole my heart with his Bach Cello Suite No. 1:1 and we ran to the MiniBank. The most expensive part of the night, though, came next, when we decided we wanted beer and nachos at, wait for it...
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