Saturday, June 4, 2011

Ski Pole Church, or Day 16 in Olso


With yet another (and our final day) of remarkable sun, we (with our convenience store breakfast of yogurt and orange juice) headed to the pier to take the ferry to Bygoy, or "museum island" (not literally, that's just what they call it).

We had to walk along a row of houses to get to our first museum. Just after I mentioned it'd be a good place for a lemonade stand, we saw two young entrepreneurs selling candy on a corner. Good for them!

The Viking Ship Museum was our first taste of the Vikings this whole trip, besides the knick-knacks in every souvenir shop. There are three boats that were found in burial mounds, all from before 1000AD. One wasn't restored, so we could see how much had disintegrated or shattered. The other two boats were restored to a sea vessel and a pleasure vessel. It wasn't hardy enough to survive disturbed waters.

We next headed to the Norwegian Folklife Museum. It was another outdoor museum (like Skansen, in Stockholm), so we wandered and saw some farms and a few farm animals. There was one farmhouse that was making lefse, which I know as a potato pancake. However, they were using wheat flour and charging $5 a slice. I'll take Grandma's lefse, thanks. They did give us a free porridge tasting (but that was gross, so I'm glad they didn't charge).

The museum also had relocated a stave church onto their property. "Staves" are the upright logs used to support the church (unlike most period buildings where the logs are horizontal). "Staves" is also used to refer to barrel wood and to ski poles (in Norwegian).

Besides having a cool name, it was intricately decorated with cool wood-carvings. We saw more of them at the indoor museum with folk art.

Also at the indoor museum was an exhibit about the Bydoy Boy's Home, a reform school (and child prison) for boys from the 1890s to the 1950s. They made a movie about it ("King of Devil's Island") that I want to see now.

We left the museum and walked back to the ferry dock. On the way to the peninsula, we asked if we could buy tickets onboard, but ended up needing cash, which we didn't have enough of. The attendant said we could just buy the tickets later. However, on our way back, there wasn't a ticket booth or ATM in sight. So we asked a different attendant, who just told us to ride back for free.

Alisa used this as rationale for our evening of random food and drink locations. We had sushi, then the most disappointing milkshake I've ever had (it was chocolate milk with ice), then a pizzeria called Dimple Dolly's, then a pub where we watched Norway lose against Portugal. Our last night together and in Scandinavia! But a 5:30am wake-up call...Ski Pole Church
With yet another (and our final day) of remarkable sun, we (with our convenience store breakfast of yogurt and orange juice) headed to the pier to take the ferry to Bygoy, or "museum island" (not literally, that's just what they call it).

We had to walk along a row of houses to get to our first museum. Just after I mentioned it'd be a good place for a lemonade stand, we saw two young entrepreneurs selling candy on a corner. Good for them!

The Viking Ship Museum was our first taste of the Vikings this whole trip, besides the knick-knacks in every souvenir shop. There are three boats that were found in burial mounds, all from before 1000AD. One wasn't restored, so we could see how much had disintegrated or shattered. The other two boats were restored to a sea vessel and a pleasure vessel. It wasn't hardy enough to survive disturbed waters.

We next headed to the Norwegian Folklife Museum. It was another outdoor museum (like Skansen, in Stockholm), so we wandered and saw some farms and a few farm animals. There was one farmhouse that was making lefse, which I know as a potato pancake. However, they were using wheat flour and charging $5 a slice. I'll take Grandma's lefse, thanks. They did give us a free porridge tasting (but that was gross, so I'm glad they didn't charge).

The museum also had relocated a stave church onto their property. "Staves" are the upright logs used to support the church (unlike most period buildings where the logs are horizontal). "Staves" is also used to refer to barrel wood and to ski poles (in Norwegian).

Besides having a cool name, it was intricately decorated with cool wood-carvings. We saw more of them at the indoor museum with folk art.

Also at the indoor museum was an exhibit about the Bydoy Boy's Home, a reform school (and child prison) for boys from the 1890s to the 1950s. They made a movie about it ("King of Devil's Island") that I want to see now.

We left the museum and walked back to the ferry dock. On the way to the peninsula, we asked if we could buy tickets onboard, but ended up needing cash, which we didn't have enough of. The attendant said we could just buy the tickets later. However, on our way back, there wasn't a ticket booth or ATM in sight. So we asked a different attendant, who just told us to ride back for free.

Alisa used this as rationale for our evening of random food and drink locations. We had sushi, then the most disappointing milkshake I've ever had (it was chocolate milk with ice), then a pizzeria called Dimple Dolly's, then a pub where we watched Norway lose against Portugal. Our last night together and in Scandinavia! But a 5:30am wake-up call...

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