Scandinavia Trip: Day 9

Scandinavia Trip: Day 9 – Central Oslo

July 04, 2023

The more people travel together, the longer everything takes. Of the several items on my list, we only visited two today. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, however, my list has been shortened by many factors beyond my control. I had wanted to see Emanuel Vigeland’s Museum, but it is only open for four hours every Sunday and the tickets are booked far in advance. Unusually, the Royal Palace is also open for a few months, but all the tickets have been sold out too. To top it off, several other attractions, like the Nobel Peace Centre and the Viking Ship Museum, are temporarily closed (the latter until 2026).

Johnny and I met Jason at the Akershus Fortress in the morning. Walking around, we heard cannons being fired: there were 21 salvos, indicating the arrival of some very important state guest. Our cursory search of the media landscape, however, did not yield any relevant results as to who it might be. Indeed, the only English-language news on Norway in the past few days has been the bizarre proposal of Orkney to secede from the UK and join the Scandinavian country.

From the Fortress, we walked along the seaside, passing by the City Hall and the Nobel Peace Centre and making our way down the wooden promenade. We ate lunch at a local seafood place and bought some waffles with brunost, a type of tangy and sweet brown whey cheese. Just after two o’clock, we met May and explored the nearby National Museum together. It is one of the few museums in Oslo she has not yet visited, which is the reason why we went there in the first place.

The collections are housed in an exceedingly ugly building: the exterior is effectively a grey box. May told us that the architect’s original plans were significantly altered due to budget restrictions, and the architect responded by disassociating himself from the entire project. He insisted that rather than him simply being listed as the architect, features that were not part of his original sketches be explicitly pointed out. He also refused to attend the opening ceremony.

In any case, the exhibits at the museum are exactly what one would expect: there are Greek artefacts, medieval artworks, and a whole lot of tableware. One thing that surprised me was a room full of famous replicas, among them the Parthenon Marbles. I also saw my fourth iteration of Munch’s The Scream; it seems to be the most familiar one and has the most vibrant colours.