Hello from Holmenkollen!!
Day 7 -
Let myself continue to sleep in a little today considering I felt like I needed a reset day after all the traveling yesterday. I woke up around 8:30am, which I guess technically would’ve been 6:30 am in Iceland, and started to get up and ready for the day. While getting ready Noe (hostel buddy) asked me if I wanted to explore with her today and of course I said yes :)
We hung out around the hostel for a little while until she kinda finished up a load of laundry. #1 the washer dyed all of her whites a shade of blue, and #2 the dryer didn’t really dry anything. Our solution was hanging all of her clothes from her bunk and mine and pointing the fan at it in hopes they would dry by the time we got back.
Then off to Holmenkollen we went! We walked to National Theater Station and took the #1 Tram for a 30 min ride up to Holmenkollen which is mountain and neighborhood home to Holmenkollbakken (Ski Jump) which is used in many international ski competitions as well as the 1952 Winter Olympic Games. We decided to hike up the rest of the mountain along side the Olympic Standard XC skiing course up. Once at the top, we found a restaurant & cafe called Frognerseteren which was built in 1867. There Noe and I grabbed a warm drink and snack. I got a hot tea and Lemon tart cookie which was delicious. We then hiked the rest of the way down, adventured around the ski jump. ~ might have both snuck in through an access door to get a really cool view ~ BUT it was worth it and there were no signs telling us not to do it lol
Next up we took the tram back down to Vigelandsparken (Vigeland Park). This a sculpture park in the Frogner Park with more than 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland (1869–1943). The king at the time loved Gustav Vigeland work and granted him all of the land in the park to decorate however he would like. Vigeland focused his work on realistically representing the cycle of human life, all its emotions, and relationships. I was honestly one of the most emotionally moving art exhibits I have been to. The raw emotions carved into each statue truly tells a story.
Below is a photograph of one of the most famous pieces - The Tantrum.
After that we hoped on the #12 trolly to head back to our hostel. We both agreed we needed some healthy veggie filled food so we stopped at LETT (pretty much a sweetgreen but all produce is from local Norwegian farmers).
A few days ago Noe posted on a facebook page for people “new to Norway” to see if anyone would be willing to meet up and show her around so tonight we were meeting up with two of them.
First was Anastasia she was originally from Russia but has Norwegian citizenship and is finishing up her dissertation for her PHD in Area Sciences here in Oslo with her husband and two kids (3 & 2). She asked Noe if she could deliver a bottle of Vikingfjord (well-known brand of Norwegian vodka distilled using water from the Jostedalsbreen glacier) to her favorite Professor that she met at the University of Hawaii. Secondly, we met up with this young man named Stian at a restaurant/cafe called SALT. There we got to know each other, had a beer or two and decided to adventure to another good spot called Uhørt where we had another drink or two until we realized the time. Stian then being the seemingly gentleman he was walked us pretty much back to our hostel / close to his bus stop to head home. It ends up Stian grew up in Northern Norway where you literally need to take an hour long boat ride to get to his family house. There are no roads, no cars, just boats. He showed us a few drone videos from his annual family vacation to their old home and it was breathtaking. He then came to Oslo for college and never left, except for his solo travel adventures :)
Then off to bed! Time for another good day tomorrow!
