Pictures: Lyle Such
Text: Thu Buu
Camera: Canon 5d Mkiii
A trip to Scandinavia, in the dead of winter? Ooooh, how fun! OH, how cold! Because this was our first winter trip ever, preparations started more than half a year in advance. From boots to pants and jackets to beanies, we were starting from nearly scratch. We both had our challenges. Lyle being lean and tall and myself short and small, winter clothing just did not fit us well. It took many returns, and even then, we had to settle for the next best things. Knowing that beanies just don’t fit me correctly, I knitted my own beanies. One was too small and fit Sydney perfectly; the other was a little too puffy and made my head look like a purple mushroom. Up until the day before our flight, we were still shopping. Luckily, we found the perfect, fleece-lined wool beanie for me in the toddler’s section at REI. That made Lyle very happy; he was not fond of my mushroom beanie at all.
Oslo, also known as the Nordic City of Light, is Norway’s capital. We arrived in the heart of Oslo on a Friday night only to find the city already deep in its slumber. Streets were empty and quiet but for a few stragglers whose shadows darkened as they stepped into the streetlamp’s dull-amber glow and faded as they left the circle of warm light behind. I wondered if they even noticed the drizzle of snow that had just started to float down from the sky. From our balcony door, the serenity of the scene unfolding before us was spellbinding, and soon we too were lulled into a peaceful sleep.
Along with lots of beautiful buildings, we found lots of “not-so pretty” trolls. I don’t want to be cursed for using harsh language to describe these mythical creatures. We did see lots of power lines in the middle of nowhere way up north though. Perhaps the rumors are true, those power lines are effective in controlling troll migration.
A modest group of protestors gathered in the middle of the square to sing a few songs and shout a few slogans as the sun set in the background.
On the waterfront, Oslo’s Opera House with its sleek white marble and modern glass structure sits opposite the Havnelageret, the largest concrete building in Europe at its completion in 1921. Both buildings are examples of the award-winning architecture on display in Oslo.
The Oslo Opera House opened its door in 2008. Its success brought about the redevelopment of the whole downtown area. As with any large city, tall cranes can be seen poking above Oslo’s cityscape.
The marble steps were deceivingly slippery and walking down the slanted surface covered in snow wasn’t as easy as it looks.
For a capital city, Oslo is overall extremely clean and quiet. Evan as the day proceeded and crowds began to form in public areas, the noise level was still subdued. Perhaps the cold air snatches away one’s ability to project or the dusting of snow on the ground absorbs and muffles each sound. Whatever the reason, we consciously enjoyed not being harassed by others’ loud conversations as we walked the streets of Oslo.
Akershus Castle and Fortress is a medieval castle that was built in the 13th century to protect the city from invaders. It stands at a strategic location at the very end of the headland guarding the harbor. Withstanding numerous sieges, mainly from the Swedish and Danish armies, Akershus was never once overtaken by foreigners. However, during WWII, the Norwegians surrendered the fortress to the Nazis without a fight.
Akershus has played many roles besides a fortress. During the Renaissance, Akershus became the Royal Castle. It has also been used as a prison. Currently, it is a military area.
Oslo is dotted with dozens of world-class museums. Armed with an Oslo Pass, we spent a whole day hopping from one museum to the next until we just couldn’t step foot into one more. We made good use of our pass.
There’s a Munch Museum, but the most famous Munch painting is not housed there. So don’t get tricked. We didn’t. We skipped the Munch Museum and headed for the National Gallery where The Scream was hanging behind a special glass cover. I liked the “Anne of Green Gables” look-alike picture more.
The Norwegian Folk Museum is an outdoor collection of what an old agrarian Norwegian village would look like. There are buildings of many sizes for many purposes. Some buildings have sod roofs. The stave church built on top of a hill is the most impressive building there. It has hearts.
Before we started the day, Lyle had wanted to get pictures of the evening sun shining on either the church or the statues at the park. It had been cloudy for most of the day so our chances of that happening were pretty bleak. But once we entered the Museum grounds, the clouds started to break. The sun peaked through off and on. With some patience and waiting around for the clouds to move pass, Lyle was able to take pictures of the old church with a little bit of sun shining on it. It even started to snow a little. Lucky Lyle.
The elegant Oseberg was discovered in 1903 under a magnificent burial mound. The person who commissioned this ship did not take for granted any little details. From the ornate spiraling serpent head at the bow to the intricate animal carvings along the keel all the way up to the stern, every piece is elaborately decorated. This beautiful vessel was the resting place for two elderly women, who were prominent figures in the community, maybe even of royal lineage.
Amazingly, this ship was so well preserved that 90% of its original material was put back to use in the reconstruction of the Oseberg.
I love the sleek, smooth, shapely curves. I love the long, lean oak planks; each strake overlapping the one below it. Yet, there also exudes a simple masculinity; the round iron rivets and the straight, strong mast. I sat a long time just staring down the sides of this ship, mesmerized by the harmony that emanated from within. This vessel is a true art form, a balance between beauty and functionality.
In 1879, two teenagers got bored and started digging into a large mound of dirt for fun. What they actually dug into was a burial mound for someone who had obviously been rich back in the Viking era. The ship, Gokstad, was discovered cast in clay deep underground, helping to preserve its original condition. However, the bow and stern protruded above the clay and had been totally destroyed by the time of the excavation. The burial chamber was decorated with silk, gold threads, lavish tapestries and a great amount of burial gifts even after it had been looted. Before its function as a burial vessel, the Gokstad, built around 890 AD was probably used for voyages of discovery and trading, which in Viking times usually led to raiding.
The Vigeland Scultpure Park was a place that we both were excited to see. Gustave Vigeland spent over 40 years designing the park and furnished it with 212 pieces of artwork. His sculptures are mainly made from granite, bronze and wrought iron.
At the sight of all these intricate, life-size sculptures honestly depicting the myriad human form through the stages of life, its mundane habits, its challenges and triumphs along with its rollercoaster of emotions, my first reaction had nothing to do with art. “Wow, there is not one stroke of vandalism, not one awful spray-paint tag, not even one hardened discolored piece of chewing gum or discharged wrapper anywhere around. Wow!” Norwegians, even teenagers (there must be some) have such high regards for public property and art. There wasn’t even a guard around to protect these sculptures. I am most impressed by the culture of communal respect that is obviously instilled in Norwegians. If only that same respect can be found everywhere. How much more beautiful would our world be!
The focal point of the park is the Monolitten, a spire carved from a single block of granite consisting of 121 human figures intertwined. It took Vigeland and three others over 14 years to complete this piece. Symbolically, it is meant to represent humankind’s desire to reach for the divine, but when I looked at it, I was more overcome with a sense of helplessness, sadness and loss. Perhaps, it is in these moments of despair that we reach up and pray for divine intervention.
The Monolith might be the focal point, but Lyle and I enjoyed the crazy bronze collection so much more. Especially the Man attacked by Babies, or is it actually the other way around? Who’s to say? It’s just ridiculous and gave us a reason to laugh.
We love the Angry Boy. Who wouldn’t? I bet all he wanted was to pull the puppy’s tail, and the darn dog ran away.
Transportation is an integral part of every trip but even more so for us as we are always looking to try the different modes of transportation a country has to offer. So when we came upon Norway in a Nutshell via the Flåm Railway in our research, it was a no brainer. This popular tour would take us on two trains, a boat, a bus, and end with another train ride.
We boarded a clean, modern train in Olso, and for the next couple of hours, it remained barely occupied. The seats are large and the legroom aplenty, so we comfortably spread ourselves out. With giant windows all around, we easily moved from one side to the other, whichever provided the better view.
There were many stops along the way. Sometimes the train stop looked more like a bus stop with just one lonely wooden bench next to a lamppost outside a meager village of perhaps a dozen farmhouses. Once we had to wait for over 15 minutes for passengers from a connecting train that had been delayed. We didn’t mind. About three hours outside of Oslo, we stopped in front of a ski resort. The seats filled up quickly with tired thrill-seekers, and we were forced back into our assigned spots.
We couldn’t help but to admire this efficient system. It makes day trips so easy. Hop on the train with all your gear in the morning, be it skis, snowshoes, or whatever. Hop off at your destination, have your adventure, and at the end of a long day, you just hop back on a nice, warm, clean train and fall asleep until the train calls at your station. Too bad we don’t have such an easy transportation system to promote outdoor activities like this in California.
But what Flåm is known for is not its efficiency but its romance. The Flåm Railway is considered to be one of the most scenic voyages in the world, summer or winter, as proclaimed by its own website! And after having experienced it, we can testify that it is not an over-exaggerated statement.
Once we left Oslo’s metropolitan area behind, the evidence of civilization gave way to white fields of snow with a few gatherings of ghostly trees encapsulated by crystal clear icicles dangling off their bare branches. At times, the train weaved so closely through forests of pine trees that frozen needles almost brushed the windows of the train. And then, there would be a moment of pitch darkness before the first dim light illuminated the rugged arched wall of the tunnel we were passing through. On another section of the journey, the railway ran along the banks of a large lake that was almost completely frozen over. The repetitive yet uneven design left on the frozen surface indicating the wave patterns of the water was quite interesting. As we climbed higher into the mountains, even trees could no longer bare the harsh climate, and all that was left to see were miles and miles of undisturbed, rolling white mounds.
The train stopped to pick up a local man who had been snowshoeing in the mountains. Then after a little ride, it stopped to drop him off at another location. No actual designated train stop needed. How wonderful is that.
Upon our descent into the valley of Myrdal, color reappeared. Green grass, plants and even some hardy winter blossoms have managed to survive. Here, we switched onto a smaller, shorter, older, more rickety looking train. This train had smaller windows and bare wooden benches for seats. Ummm…this is the machine that is supposed to chug-chug its way to the top of the mountain pass and over to the other valley? I was a little skeptical, but what could we do? Though it’s small, shook abundantly and made creaking noises at every turn, this little engine zigzagged along the side of the mountain covered with frozen waterfalls, up to the top and delivered us in one piece to the little town of Flåm below.
From Flåm, we boarded the Lady Elisabeth for a couple hours of cruising through the fjords. We started the cruise in the sunlight, but within minutes, we turned a bend and were cast in the shadow of the mountains. The difference in temperature was immediately felt. Even then, we braved the biting wind and stayed on deck for the whole duration of the cruise (Luckily I had Sydney’s little goose down blanket to help buffer the coldness around my legs). We would see the boat veer off in a new direction and pray for it to head towards sunlight. More often than not, we were still left in the shadows. Off and on, sun did come out just enough to color the snow-dotted mountains around us and create a warm reflection in the wake of the boat. The views were so gorgeous. What was a couple hours of coldness compared to such majestic beauty?
The boat docked at a little village, Voss. Of course the only building open was a gift shop. Since we had to wait for the bus, and it was much warmer inside the store, we felt compelled to buy a little something for using its services. So after wandering around a little while, I bought ear warmers. I was so afraid that the rest of the trip would be even colder because we were still only in the southern part of Norway and the rest of the trip would be much further north. But as it turned out, due to the wind-chill factor, this was probably the coldest and longest we had to endure the elements on our entire trip. So, the ear warmers worked better as eye covers providing for lovely, dark naps.
The rest of the journey was in the dark. From the bus, we hopped onto another train that took us all the way to Bergen. After waiting for an extremely long time for a taxi to appear, we made it to our hotel. At first Lyle thought the driver was taking us to the wrong hotel, because there were two with the exact same name. Fortunately, the driver knew his way.
Wanting to capture a time-lapse of the sun rising over the city, we headed to the Fløibanen, the funicular that would take us up Mount Fløyen. In our excitement, we had arrived about 15 minutes early, which gave us some time to walk out on the pier and look back at the city in the early morning hours just as the city was about to wake up.
This funicular ride was nothing like the dinky, creaky, little metal cart that rolled us up the hills in Valparaiso, Chile. This was a world-class, modern transit with grand windows on all sides including the top. Three short stops and eight minutes later, we arrived at the lookout on Mount Fløyen, 1000 ft. above the city. From this vantage point, we realized the scope of the city, sprawled among the many islands and hillsides. It was easy to understand Bergen’s great natural appeal from up there. The view below was just so picturesque; it was exactly as I had imagined a Nordic seaside city upon the headlands of the fjords to be. Bergen did not disappoint.
As we waited for the funicular to begin moving, a group of little pink-cheeked preschoolers started gathering on the other side of the turnstile all bundled up in their puffy, winter jackets and snow clothes. After a few hugs and kisses, they left their parents and boarded the back of the funicular with a couple of chaperones. Later that morning, after making a wrong turn on our hike, we came upon their playground. These lucky kids had school in the middle of the wilderness; the rocks, trees, and ponds their natural playground. Dirt, leaves and squirrels, their natural subjects of inquiry. There’s no better way to build healthy, inquisitive minds than true play. Why can’t Americans learn from Norway’s documented successful educational philosophy?
Mount Floyen is also a popular hiking spot. On our hike, I was hoping to find a small pond that was completely frozen so I could slide across a frozen pond for the first time in my life, but that didn’t happen. As it turns out, we were told time and again by the locals this was a mild winter with warmer temperatures than usual. Climate change is definitely real and has noticeable consequences for our Scandinavian friends, just like everywhere else in the world.
Bergen is Norway’s second biggest city and has been a major trading port since the age of the Vikings. Yet, tucked within the hillsides of seven mountains surrounding the fjords below, it is easy for Bergen to retain the charm and feel of a small town. At the foot of the mountains, colorful homes and buildings spill onto the very edge of many outstretched peninsulas, their kaleidoscopic reflections dancing upon the surface of the water creating an ever-changing masterful piece of water painting.
We stayed on the historic Bryggen quayside, next to the Hansa houses, which were built in 1702. However, the foundations of these buildings date back to the Dark Ages.
With a few hours to kill before our flight to Tromsø, we decided to explore the nearby Bergenhus Fortress. With a history dating back to the early 1200’s, the castle is scattered with buildings from several different time periods, many of which have been destroyed and rebuilt over time.
We had fun exploring the defensive ramparts that tower over the harbor of Bergen.
