Finding the Top of the World

This is an after-the-fact transcription of the journal I kept on a two week trip to Norway.

May 15, 2010, 7:15 am
The restaurant in the Clarion Hotel Royal Christiania

Whoops, too early this morning. The full spread breakfast is just being put out now, but I stuffed myself on the early bird buffet. I've eaten very well so far, in some really nice places.

Last Night I finally got up and moving after a few minutes back in my room. I felt exhausted and was looking forward to crashing for the night. But I thought I should try and get something to eat.

I remembered an Irish pub near the palace, so I went in search. I think I may have found it, but at the time I wasn't sure of it. Every patio was packed and I came from a different direction, too.

I went into one place, but it seemed to be pretty busy, so I wandered down the street some more. And found myself back at the harbour and Aker Brygge.

It was packed, or at least the patios were. Getting a table outside seemed near impossible. But I ventured through the crowd at one inviting place and confirmed that everyone was outside. I had the bar to myself.

I asked about getting something to eat, and the bartender said they had closed the kitchen early.

This place had the redeeming quality of having on tap something else besides the standard Guinness-Kilkenny-Ringnes triad that I had seen in several other places. The only other place I had ever seen Murphy's stout on tap was in a wonderful Irish pub in Victoria last summer.

I found another spot a hunderes metres down the street that seemed inviting. Same as before, after pushing my way through the throng on the patio, I found the inside nearly deserted.

The wait staff were busy so it took a while for them to notice me. I was kind of behind a pillar and a stairway. But I had a quickly delvered Ringnes anda very good dinner, in a nice quiet atmosphere.

After that I felt pretty much done, and wandered back to the first pub I found, thinking a pint of Murphy's would be a nice night cap.

Perhaps it was the great meal, or maybe something in the pint, but I started to wake up. I chatted a little with the barkeep, but he was kept hopping with the patio crowd.

Occasionally others would come to the bar for self serve. One woman tapped my glass, and commented on how dark the Murphy's was. Someone else chatted about the evening and the weather while waiting for his pint.

I asked for another. I was beginning to get my second wind.

An older couple came in and took a table near the bar. The man came up to get a couple of pints, and we talked a little. After He sat down with his companion, for a few moments, he hollered across the din, asking if I was drinking alone, and would I like to join them.

I had a great time talking with this wonderful couple. I often got lost in their accent and sometimes they had a short discussion over what English words they were looking for, but we had a great discussion.

Names, of course, escape me. The gentleman escaped to the bar for refills and came back with two shot glasses, asking if I'd heard of aquavit. Well, yes, but never tasted.

Skoal, said he, and took a sip. I was glad to see that he was not the shooter type. It seems odd to pay for some fancy concoction, only to knock it back without tasting it. I took a sip and savoured.

After that I got myself another pint. We had been so involved in the conversation that they had missed their ferry, so they were in no hurry as they had to wait for the next one.

Near midnight we said good night after having had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Ther ferry landing was directly across from the bar, so they didn't have far to go.

I wandered back along the harbour in the middle of the crowd. I found the Nobel Center, something I was looking for earlier in the day when I first went to Aker Brygge, so now it's on my list for today.

I cut straight over to Karl Johan and walked with the flow. There was a wonderful energy out there, loud and brash and relaxed and fun. A little like Robson Street, a little like Younge Street (in my very limited experience) but looser maybe.

I finally got back to the hotel and discovered the lounge was still open. So what the heck, I thought I'd treat myself to a single malt. I just got there before it closed up and talked to a petroleum engineering contractor for awhile. comparing notes about working in the energy industry.

After that, I check my emails and then went to my room and to bed.

And now I'm stuffed from another great breakfast, sitting under a monstrous twenty five metre high Norwegian flag, and enjoying this great coffee.

Time to start into another day.

May 15, 2010, 8:55
The lounge in the Clarion Hotel Royal Christiania

I'm tired tonight. I've had two long days and both were really good.

This morning, after leaving here, I went for a stroll. I had an hour before anything was open, and I had a handful of post cards to mail.

So I took a stroll northward. I walked for several blocks until I came to a small stream. It was well below the street level, and was bordered by a lovely park. I stayed on the street though, and walked along it to the west.

Eventually I came to a major intersection that crossed a bridge. A date on the bridge railing said 1892. On the other side, the street split, and I followed the one going southeast. It took me right back tot the hotel.

I kept wandering, this time going east, and found an open square. And on one corner I discovered a postal outlet.

The other thing I needed was another memory stick for my camera, as I've been pointing and firing rather indiscriminately. Up past the open square and south, I found a Canon camera shop.

I still had twenty minutes before anything was open, so kept wandering. You know how when you look for something like that, and you never see anything? And then when you finally locate one, you suddenly see them on every corner? Two more small camera shops, and electronics store and a huge Japan Camera store that I must have walked past when I walked out of the train station a couple of days ago.

At 10:00, I went back to the postal outlet, and got the postcards off. Then to the Canon store for memory. The salesman asked me to plug it into my camera to make sure it worked - 3123 picture capacity should be enough.

Then off to the harbour. I walked past the Oslo city hall, in my opinion the ugliest and most imposing building in the city. I stopped at a Minibank, as they call ATMs, and then headed for Pier 3 to catch the ferry to Bygdǿy.

The girl at the ticket booth said I was too late to join the line just loading, but she directed me to a wonderful coffee shop at the edge of Aker Brygge. I had time for a muffin and coffee.

The ferry was like a bus, two to a seat or stand in the aisle and hold onto to a pole. After ten minutes we unloaded at Bygdǿy, at one of two stops it makes.

This is a beautiful residential area of Oslo. Beautiful old homes behind iron or stone fences. The architecture is similar to what is downtown.

The crowd walked up a long street, maybe a kilometre, to the Viking ships museum. Some went west from there to the Heritage Communities museum.

Wow, this was amazing! The three ships were discovered around 1900, excavated and studied, then for some reason the bodies buried with them were re-interred. The first ship that you see right front the ticket counter is amazing. Very detailed in decoration, the bow and stern have some intricate carvings of what look like dragons or serpents.

The building these things are in is laid out in a cross shape, with the three arms housing the boats, and a forth displaying the artifacts found with them. In each room there are balconies at near the centre of the cross on each side, so you can climb up and look down on the boats to see inside them.

The frist one is decorated and the gunwales would have been close to the water line, likely a pleasure boat for site seeing on calm days. It was buried with two women, one in her eighties and one about twenty five. The boat was extremely well preserved, though the bodies deteriorated a lot after re-interment.

The second boat was bigger and plainer, a working boat, and probably sea going. The guy that was buried with it died in a fight, possibly a dual. One leg bone was partially hacked through. And there was other damage, none of which showed signs of healing, so he had to have died within a week of whatever happened.

The third boat, there wasn't much left of it. Most of the keel and the ribs, and the bottom boards. The sides and the stern were gone. The body buried with it is also mostly gone.

Grave robbers got to all three sites very soon after burial, and the burial mounds were pretty messed up.

The aritfacts were neat. Pieces of cloth with embroidery still evident. There were sleighs, very ornately carved food containers, tool chests. The dead had to eat and had work to do, apparently.

Another kilometre walk through more of this beautiful residential area and I was at three more museums.

The Fram was an icebreaker of sorts. It was designed so that if it was caught in the ice it would be pushed upward rather than be crushed like other boats.

It was taken through the Northwest Passage once, took someone on an expedition to the North Pole, and took Amundsen to the South Pole. The whole boat is housed in a huge A frame building. Balconies circle the building lined with photos and artifacts.

From the top balcony, you can get on the boat and wander most of the deck. You can go down to the first deck below, where the kitchen and living quarters were. And to the secon deck down, where there was storage, more quarters and access to the engine room.

The hatches were open above, and from the top deck you can see people moving around below. The hatches were screened and fenced off so no one could fall through.

It was fascinating to see this and the stories of the expeditions.

Across the street was the Kon-Tiki Museum. It houses the actual Kon-Tiki that Thor Heyerdahl took across the Pacific. There is also a reed boat that was sailed across the Atlantic.

Lots of information on the Easter Island statues and inhabitants. It was fascinating stuff, but my back was beginning to hurt.

Sometimes if I'm on my feet for a long time, My lower back begins to ache. So I skipped the Maritime Museum and queued up in the rain for the ferry back to Pier 3.

Yet I still didn't quit. Once off the ferry, I headed for the Nobel Center. Much of the exhibits focused on Desmond Tutu and F. W. de Klerk, and the end apartheid in South Africa on the main floor. Upstairs there was an exhibit on Barack Obama, and lots of information about Alfred Nobel and overviews of all the Peace Prize winners.

By now my back was really aching. I was probably reaching a saturation point on museums too. Achy. Tired.

Hungry! And all those restaurants at Aker Brygge were right next door. I went down that way and chose a place that after I settled in, looked a little more high brow than I first thought.

Price-wise it was much the same as everwhere else I've been. I was started and ate really well - cod with pureed potatoes and asparagus.

Then I walked back to the hotel and crashed for half an hour.

I went out after in search of another pint. A place that had caught my eye was paddy's, which I lost track of last night, but had found.

I had a pint and sat for awhile. Then headed back toward the hotel. A few blocks down karl Johan and the skies opened up. Street vendors were scrambling to pack up, and get under shelter.

I walked past 3Brǿdre and a full patio was trying to cram itself inside. It began to let up after awhile, but I was pretty damp.

At the hotel I dried out for a bit, then headed to the lounge where I'm writing this. I'm beat and saturated with museum knowledge. Another awesome day!