Diaries of Denmark: A Day in Oslo

I still had a few days of our travel break left, so I decided to venture to Oslo for the day to see the Viking Ship Museum. I had originally wanted to study in Oslo to research Viking ships (specifically the Oseberg Ship in Oslo) for my thesis, but there wasn't a program there so I ended up in Denmark (definitely not complaining though!).

I caught an early flight and headed out to Norway! The Viking Ship Museum is on a peninsula called Bygdøy, which is a little ways out from the center of town. I got off at the wrong bus stop (I'll never learn, apparently) but finally found my way. The first thing I saw when I entered the museum was the beautiful Oseberg Ship! I'm pretty sure I looked like a kid in a candy store.

The awesome thing about the Oseberg Ship is that it's completely intact. A queen (believed to be Queen Asa) was buried in it with many belongings, and though while it was plundered by grave robbers, the clay it was buried in preserved the ship and what was left of her belongings. Things like silk cloth and gold rimmed buckets were preserved and helped archaeologists discover more about the life of the Vikings. For example, the pattern on a piece of silk cloth was a rose from a certain part of England and some gold came from the Middle East, which helped archaeologists determine some trade routes the Vikings had.

There were two other ships in the museum: the Gokstad and the Tune Ships. Both were buried with chieftains but were plundered by grave robbers, and the majority of the items were stolen or degraded over time.

After examining the ships to my heart's content, I explored the peninsula. It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day, and I even got too hot in the sun with my jacket on (even though weather.com said it was only 48 degrees) and had to strip down to my short sleeves! (It's been way too long since my skin has seen the light of day). I walked down to the beautiful water and watched the boaters enjoying the lovely day.

I still had some time before my flight, so I went back into town and walked around the busy pier for a bit.

I wandered over to the Nationaltheatret, and there seemed to be a sort of children's talent show going on, so it was really busy. There was also a market with free samples (at least I hope they were free; everything was in Norwegian), so I loaded up on delicious cheese, meat, and jams while kids were singing "Mamma Mia" and "Hey Jude" in the background.