I spent the last two weeks of August in Oslo with Alex, my brotha from a Norwegian motha.
He picked me up after 10 hours in the air and gave me his bed & room.
Check out the interior design chops on Alex! Love that table...
...and this little feature. Tap the controls, pop them in and out for use and not use. Adorable.
And this feature is sliced-bread genius. Wanna make your half bath into a full? Fuckin, hang glass doors with magnets on the outside edge. Open for a shower stall, fold for all other bathroom activities. Pow.
Alex handed this over immediately so I'd be less confused and afraid. It's great- all cartoons and very informative.
The bare min I left his apartment with in the mornings. He generously gave me his public transpo pass and company phone. The pass included tram, bus, and ferry. I fell for the tram, and we need one in every capitol and major city.
Alex had 200 pens and no paper, so we left notes on paper towel.
street door of his building
His building. Yep, construction went on for the entire visit. Alex slept on the couch just behind the green mesh. Those Poles woke him on Saturday morning at 9! Whata host.
Torshov, Alex's gentrified neighborhood on the east side.
Tram, I love you.
I rode the 11, 12, 13 mostly.
Alex & mine
The display of the old viking ships at the Viking Ship Museum is smart. The sanctuaries house the dark beauties like three dimensional Notan. Very serene and rich scene. A big contrast from the mayhem she saw in her glory days.
The beautiful Stave Church from Gol built in the 12th century at the Norsk Folk Museum.
yes, quite
More from the Norsk Folk Museum located near the the Viking Ship Museum, the FRAM Museum (about ship expeditions to the poles), and the Kon-Tiki Museum about the 1947 experimental voyage from South America to an island in the middle of the Pacific by an archaeologist named Thor in a prehistoric boat he built himself. It's a cool story. Google it. Look for the movie to come out in English sometime soon.
always mac'n
1738 guest house tea towel
So that makes, of the things I love in Oslo: shower doors, tram, Gustav Vigeland sculptures...more to come.
street on the west side of Oslo
another pic from the west side
the newer biz district near the harbor and the very touristy Aker Brygge
Freia is a long lived Norwegian chocolate company.
Alex told my a good story about these lions in front of the parliament building. The sculptor was an inmate in the 19th century and when he finished, the powers that be were so impressed with his work they released him from prison.
This is a micro photo of the new gorgeous white Italian marble Opera House that Norway can totally afford to build and renovate the rest of the harbor to it's caliber, which they are in the process of doing. Image google it see a good view of the entire building. It's beautiful.
the lobby of the Opera House
cute Norwegian home in a wealthier neighborhood
Genius.
love this attitude
This is WHALE. I ate WHALE in Norway. It was too chewy. I didn't like it.
Passionfruit & rum break.
Alex & Edel "Eddie" drying off their boston terriers.
Alex's place of work, SMFB, ad agency.
Ad people get to work in only the hippest environments.
This is a mausoleum keeping the remains of Gustav's brother, Emmanuel Vigeland. Murals, that I could not take photos of, covered the inside. Compared to his brother- less cuddling, more intercourse. That's a basket of footies we had to wear to enter.
The ski jump, Holmenkollbakken, revamped after over a hundred years of use.
Second and third place trophies for some ski competition. So cool. There's a ski museum under the jump.
old-timey snow bunny
fragment from a 1,000 year old ski!!!
Oh my God I hope their boots supported their ankles.
Check this out. Ski poles as spears and ladles!
9 months!!!
One short, one long. This was a good idea?
oh, this is easy
Alex rented a car and drove us 7 hours northwest to the coast. We stayed at the end of one of the most visited fjords, Geirangerfjord. The drive was green and gorgeous. Picture Colorado with more water, and all the homes and farms are taken care of like suburbs in the fifties.
We guessed this was some kind of cross country ski training. The poles on the sides of the road indicate the edge of the road when there's snow on the ground.
Norway must pump in water from the Caribbean, cause damn look at those colors.
So many living rooves in this country...
...they even have them on the trail signs. Way cool.
Oh, right. Trolls. Yeah, somebody must enjoy living on this lush forest floor, right?
I forget the name of this lovely plant, but I think Alex said it's edible and was used for medicinal purposes.
Norway is the Tropical Colorado
geesh
Somewhere I have a similar picture of myself standing on a cliff on the coast of Hawaii when I was 15. In that picture I'm standing much closer to the edge.
This is a vest. You have to wear it if you have car trouble or changing a flat on the side of the road. It's the law, you have to keep one in your car. Why don't we do this? My dad wears one to walk on the country roads. Take a page and be safe, Ladies & Gentleman.
no wind
Geirangerfjord
Alex is afraid of heights.
Another salmon dinner. Every fish dinner was the best fish I've ever had.
Every swim at a fjord was the best swim at a fjord I've ever had.
morning boat ride down the fjord
German tourists is my guess
I saw lots of beautiful cliffs and waterfalls, but I was just happy taking a boat ride.
Alex & I couldn't figure out this sign at first.... ah, 'Help the Families First'.
What a cute sign for such an uncomfortable situation.
boat ride :)
yay boat
I got a great deal on this hat.
boat ride :)
Alex thought we were taking a nice picture.
My Lethal Weapon hair cut looks good on boats.
Back on land they built cute little boat garages.
Cold salmon & hot potatoes in a cream sauce. Yum.
Is there anything Norwegian design doesn't make more adorable?
Then we left the fjord. No kidding, every house & barn looked like it was just painted.
cutie
hotel, I reckon
shootin 'round town, waiting for the ferry
there it is
rental car
So Much Green :)
Trollstigen (Troll Ladder)
Look how small the buses are! This road was lined with boulders car-length-apart and so narrow we had to pull over to let the oncoming car by.
Back in Oslo... waterfall along the river walk near Alex's apartment.
I forgot to ask Alex about this...
...but I can imagine the romance.
electric car recharge station near the fortress on the harbor
my buddy, Gustav Vigeland
Norwegian landscape paintings include glaciers of course.
This painting is famous in Norway. Probably because it's exxxtraordinarily well done, and the painter, Adolf Tidemand, was a Norwegian 19th century romantic nationalist painter taken by his country's landscape. As goes the reputation of the average Norwegian being outdoorsy and proudly nationalistic. From what I've seen, it's no wonder. The land is beautiful and the people are great. I want to be reborn to a Norwegian farmer and his mail order Thai wife, please and thank you.
yep, Gus V
Forget 'The Scream', Munch knew how to use color and brush strokes.
Nuthin says welcome to our 12th century church like a violent graphic novel on the front door.
blonde, big nippled, sad faced Jesus to cheer you up during your time of Medieval need
Inuit snow googles
fish dinner on the harbor
fish lunch across the street from the royal palace
At the movie 'Moonrise Kingdom' I had my choice of popcorn or bacon crisps.
Tiny, adequate hotel room in Reykjavik during 18 hour lay over on the way home. Didn't make an effort to see much in Iceland. What I did see was ocean, tundra and white homes.
