~Independence Day Norway~

“…And if you get lost coming back, just ask for directions to the park with the naked statues… everyone will know where that is...” And then we were off… let lose to wander the streets of Oslo for the next five hours, on this the 17th. of May – Independence Day Norway.

We had parked in a nice shady area, adjacent to a scenic wooded park. The path we took led us through a grove of lush green trees – sunlight filtering through the leaves… I couldn’t help by skip a little in anticipation of what lay ahead. My senses were enthralled as I attempted to absorb all the beauty around me.

As we approached the end of the wooded path and the trees began to thin, we were given a glimpse of our first soon-to-be European culture-shock experience… the naked statue park. To our right was a stunning, massive fountain, supported by multiple naked bodies; directly behind of which was a tall, conspicuous pillar, carved entirely of… well… naked bodies. Thankfully we did not need to go in that direction. Instead, our path took us to the left… in the direction of what looked to be a beautiful bridge. As we approached, my thoughts ran as follows… “Oh cool! What a neat stone bridge!...wonder what all those tall green statues are… kind of look like… uhh… oh no…” And indeed they were… Over a hundred of them I’d guess, lining both sides of the bridge… all striking their own unique pose, perfectly unashamed of the fact that they were standing there… stark naked. But I suppose that never did faze a statue before… so needless to say, I think we were the only ones fazed by it. : )

As we made our way through the disconcerting exhibition, my eyes were more agreeably engages, observing the reaction of my fellow Americans to this brazen display of European art. Some were intently studying the pavement, glancing up occasionally to avoid possible collisions. Meanwhile others were staring straight ahead, seemingly fixated by the wide patch of grass at the far end of the bridge. And then there were those that were gawking outright in wide eyed disbelief. Needless to say, I’m sure the Europeans must have been getting a kick out of observing us. ;-)

Upon arrival at the far end of the bridge, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief… we had made it. Now it was on to the palace to see the king and queen!

We wound our way through the streets, stopping occasionally to make sure we still had everyone in our group. The flowers along the way were absolutely gorgeous!… tulips everywhere!... all sorts of different types and colors. I had this insatiable urge to go a pick a whole armful… but seeing as they were all in planters, I refrained myself. :P

After about a half hour, we arrived at the palace. As we had gotten closer, the crowds had been getting thicker and thicker, and upon arrival I was pretty surprised by the amount of people that were there. Hundreds of people everywhere, were all decked out in their native Norwegian costumes… it was pretty cool.

At this point, some in our group needed to use the water closet, so we walked a few more blocks over to the Renaissance Hotel to use some free bathrooms (I miss America…), and then we came right back to find a place to stand as close to the palace as possible. Now seeing as we had tickets, we were able to go in a special gated area up close to the palace. We stood as far forward as possible, and then waited for the parades to start. Not long after, the first group of people came by… At the front there was a horse drawn wagon decorated in birch branches and flags, followed by a large group of people all dressed up in their cool Norwegian outfits, doing traditional Norwegian folk dances! (Now what I found ironic was the girl sitting at the front of the wagon, in her Norwegian dress…talking on her cell phone! lol Very authentic.)

A group or two more went by, then the band struck up a tune… and out onto the second story balcony, walked the King and Queen, followed by the Crown Prince, his wife, and their little daughter. Now at this point, seeing as this was like the king and queen, I was half expecting the crowd to go wild… but no… we all clapped politely and a few waved their little Norwegian flags… “ok… well maybe later?” I thought... And then the band struck up “God Save the Queen”, better know to most of you as, “My Country ’Tis of Thee” :P I couldn’t help but chuckle as I sang along… until finally Martian told me I should probably be quiet or someone might hear me… lol Next they struck up the Norwegian National Anthem…”Ah, ok… this is it…when this is done… then we all cheer really loud…” The anthem finishes… I wait…once again we all clap ever so politely, wave our little flags, and maybe dab a stray tear away from our eyes… “Hmmm… ok, so maybe we Americans generally are a bit louder than your average Norwegian…” Not saying they weren’t patriotic... they were VERY patriotic!... just… very politely patriotic... But who’s to say there’s anything wrong with that? : )

After watching the parade a bit longer, we decided to head over to the palace bastille. (one can only stand watching the king and queen wave for so long…)

As we made our way through the crowds, I couldn’t help but stare at some of the people we passed by. lol European fashions are very unique… something you only see in the magazines in the USA… and yet, here I was walking right past one of the strange cookies! Kind of made my skin crawl… Then there is the Norwegian senior tradition of wearing these funny bright red overalls, all uniquely decorated… they were everywhere too! lol

We arrived at the bastille, and had a great time wandering around looking at the different buildings. From one point, you could see the whole bay… and we stood there a while watching the boats. Besides the regular boats, there was a massive cruise ship in the bay! Guess they said there’s almost always one there on the 17th of May.

We continued to wander the bastille… and as we rounded one corner, what should we find to our great joy and amusement, but one of those awesome guards that has to stay perfectly motionless and serious! What fun! Fortunately this one could talk, so we did get his permission before taking a picture with him. : ) I’ll never forget that look on his face… I’m pretty sure it was almost a smirk… bet it was all he could do to keep from cracking up… One thing’s for sure… I know I sure wouldn’t do well at that job! lol

Then Matt (who was wielding Alex’s camera), spied a canon not far away, and insisted I get a picture with it… something about needing a picture of “Shannon and cannon”… personally I thought the whole thing was pretty cheesy, but seeing as my little brother had requested pictures of solders, and dungeon, and such… I though he might enjoy a picture of a cannon (with his Shannon on top of course…) :P

Our group had a fun time checking out all the different old Norwegian buildings, observing the people, and taking lots of pictures. I’m sure we must have looked like a bunch of American tourists… but that’s ok seeing as that’s exactly what we were! : ) I had been teasing some of the Norwegians a few days prior to this trip, threatening to bring along my American flag, or sing the US Anthem… but for once I actually listened to my better part of wisdom, and remained a subdued little American the majority of the day… I even carried a Norwegian flag around part of the time! lol

Pretty soon our stomachs started complaining, so we found a nice shady spot right outside the bastille, to eat our sack lunches. We were happily munching away on our sandwiches and apples, chatting about the different things we had seen thus far, when all of a sudden… “KaBOOM!!!... KaBOOM!!!... KaBOOM!!!...” Boy howdy did I jump!... never mind the fact that I nearly bit off part of my tongue with the apple! It was noon, and they were shooting off the cannons in the bastille right behind us… I think we counted twenty shots!!! And it wasn’t until about the last two that I was finally able to stay seated firmly on the ground. :P

After finishing our lunches, and just chilling for a bit, we decided that we should probably start heading back since we had been told to meet at the cars at 2:30… and we weren’t exactly sure how to get back. :P

We started heading down the street, and it wasn’t long before we came to the conclusion that the crowd had been growing substantially since we had made our way there that morning. It was all we could do to keep together, and not lose anyone! And to make the situation more interesting, just about every street that we came to had a parade going down it!... So we couldn’t cross over! It was like one of those tricky mazes with all the road blocks and dead ends… we’d come to what we though would be a good place to cross, only to discover a fence blocking us from the road!... not to mention the parade marching down it… I think we ended up wandering the streets of Oslo for close to an hour trying to find our way out of downtown!... (we joked about just falling in line at the back of one of the parades, and slowly inching our way over to the other side… ;-)

Finally we found a road crossing where there was no fence set up… and when there was a break in the parade, we made a dash for it! lol After what had been probably an hour and a half of wandering Oslo, we made it back to the cars… and we were on time. :)

Our next destination was a Norwegian museum. This wasn’t your typical museum though… seeing as it consisted of buildings, and it was outdoors. We walked through the entrance way and around a corner… and suddenly I felt as though we had stepped back in time. There if front of us was a whole little Norwegian village of tiny huts with grass growing on the roofs, old stables that still smelled of hay, and stabures with the cutes little windows. We wandered from building to building, admiring the architecture, peeking through windows, and taking pictures… it was neat. At one of the houses, they had a bunch of old wooden stilts sitting out front, so we had a blast trying to keep our balance while walking around on those things.

As we walked down the path between the buildings, it felt strange to think that these houses had been around for hundreds of years… that these very logs had been carved by actual people back then… and now I was standing here touching them… wow… it was a cool feeling… just took you back in time… : )

It was getting close to time to go, when someone told us that we couldn’t leave without seeing the stave church… so we found it on the map, and headed in that direction. Boy, were we ever in for a shock… That thing was incredible! Generally speaking, I think these stave churches are made entirely out of wood… all the way down to the nails! I’m not sure if that was the case with this one, but it definitely looked like it could have been! We stood there just admiring it and taking pictures, until someone finally noticed the time and decided we needed to head back.

As I crawled into the car, flopping back in my seat, I slowly began to realize how tired I actually was… It had been a long day, and we were walking almost the entire time… but knowing me and my ability to fall asleep just about anywhere, I knew it would only be a matter of minutes before I was gone… ;-)

-Shannon