[Photos taken on the 24th of April, 2010]
The Viking Ship Museum houses archaeological finds from Oseberg, Tune, Gokstad, and the Borre mound cemetery.
[Photos taken on the 24th of April, 2010]
I am very glad we had the opportunity to go aboard the sight seeing boat and made our way towards Bygdøy, which is a peninsula on the western side of Oslo, as the experience was just simply amazing.
Anyway, onwards with our upward trek towards the Viking Ship Museum, our main attraction spot of the day! Along the way, we saw some marvelous houses with unique designs and to each its own glamor and exquisiteness.
[Photos taken on 23rd of April, 2010]
The Monolith, in all its pride and glory, stands at 14.12 metres tall, carved out of a single block of stone from 1924 to 1943. Absolutely breathtaking. The Monolith is comprised of 121 figures. “At the bottom there are seemingly inert bodies. Above them, figures ascent in a spiral; the movement halting midway and then rising at a fast pace towards the summit which is covered by small children.” Many interpretations of the Monolith has been suggested; however, I think it is to each his/her own.
Wrought iron gates depicting men and women of all ages surround the Monolith Plateau and Vigeland park.
To me, Vigeland Sculpture Park is an exquisite and delicate park with a deep meaning or message hidden within it. In my opinion, it tells a story revolving around love, life, and relationship with one another.
[Photos taken on 23rd of April, 2010]
The Vigeland Sculpture Park, containing 192 sculptures with more than 600 figures, was designed and created solely by Gustav Vigeland. The work and the design of the statues were greatly influenced by Auguste Rodin, who studied the relationship between men and women.
The bridge is surrounded on both sides with statues portraying persons of all ages, mainly children and adults - less emphasis are put on people of the elderly status - and their relationships with one another.
After crossing the breath-taking bridge, you will come upon the fountain, the earliest sculpture of the park. Unfortunately, the fountain was not active when we visited it, but the experience of just being in its presence and taking in all the details and the messages it is trying to send is godly enough. However, I believe that, if curtains of water flowed downwards from the large basin, supported by six giants, the experience of that would be a totally different story, in a good way. The fountain depicts sculptures of all ages, similar to the bridge, starting from birth to death, as well as trees that shows the relationship between men and nature.
In the next set of photos, you would be able to see the Monolith Plateau and the Monolith itself, as well as the iron gates that surround the plateau and park.
[Photos taken on 23rd of April, 2010]
More photos of Oslo. Sorry for the late updates due to my busy schedule and the hectic moments faced recently.
Cruise to Åbo, Finland on Tallink Galaxy tomorrow!!!! Sooooo excited!!!
300 SEK/ person (~ $41 CAD) for one day/ night on the ship and an hour or so in Åbo.
It could have been cheaper if more people went with us… down to approximately $20 CAD per person.
A few hours before the cruise will be spent in Stockholm and after we dock on Friday night, we will spend the night in 2 kronor Vandrarhem (hostel) in Vasastan. More of Stockholm on Saturday then an evening bus home to Karlstad.
Mmmm… yay!
[Photos taken on the 23rd of April]
A lot of C-rings (?) are found within Sweden and Norway instead of the usual traffic lights. In a way, that’s good, but like everything else, there’s one downfall. If there was a traffic jam… I don’t even want to imagine how it would work …
The Museum of Modern Art and Design is located within an elegant, inactive, old bank with automated heavy metal doors. It makes me wish we have banks like the banks in Norway and Sweden. When comparing the two (Canadian banks with Scandinavian ones), it makes me feel ashamed :/.
The arts located within the museum however, were a different story from its surrounding atmosphere. The “New Media-ness” of it reminds me of how much better the program I am currently studying in, in Karlstad University, compared to the one back home. Some of the installation arts displayed showed off an obvious air of inappropriateness… definitely not what I would say … “suitable” for a museum.
