InsideEurope: Oslo-The contemporary capital

Click here to read the first part of this series.

(tl;dr: Check out the pictures, they're pretty awesome.)

Astrup Feamley museum

As we walked through central Oslo that evening, visiting the churches in and around the area, we decided to visit a more modern part of the city. We boarded the tram to, what is now my most favourite European locality name, Aker Brygge. It was purportedly Oslo's most popular tourist haven. Disembarking from the tram, we strolled through the area. Everything there, from the small café to the small Italian restaurant by the roadside, reflected the leisurely, carefree lifestyle of the Scandinavians.

BMW i8

Some distance down the lane, a car exhibition was on in all its glory. The latest cars from around the world stood proudly. It was quite the sight, ultramodern, revolutionary cars like the BMW i8 and the Tesla Model S standing against the backdrop of a rustic Norwegian harbour guarded by a formidable medieval fortress. Reluctant to leave the spot, we slowly walked past, heading towards an impressive looking structure that would turn out to be the Astrup Feamley museum of Modern Art, set on it's own little island. Behind the museum was a small artificial beach and a floating pier that overlooked the idyllic expanse of the Oslofjord.

The Oslo parliament

Oslo is quite different from other major European cities. Cities like Paris, Amsterdam and Brusells seemed to cling to their past and the cities' architectural styles reflect the same. Oslo, on the other hand is one of the liveliest European cities you could possibly visit. With a flourishing economy backed by revenues pouring in from the North Sea oil reserves, the architectural style is primarily maritime and modernist, giving rise to a stunningly beautiful city, reveling in its stark contrasting styles.

After getting what we thought was our heart's fill of the scenic Oslofjord and it's islands, we walked back towards the mainland. As we made our way to the Akhershus fortress on the opposite side of the harbour, the sun was setting on Oslo.

The Oslofjord

The fortress has been in existence for the last seven centuries, surviving the fourteen fires that had ravaged this 1000 year old city; witnessing the deady Black Death plague while half of Oslo perished and shifting between Danish and Swedish hands until finally falling back into Norwegian rule. 'A walk through the Akhershus fortress is a walk through Norway's history itself.' We perched on the grass topped, 30 foot high stone wall facing the Oslo harbour, with a sheer drop on the other side. The sun was still trying to set behind Oslo's ringed hills. Its efforts were in vain however, Oslo was far too north of the equator to give up daylight so easily. I was lost in the beauty of Oslo once again, small motorboats and vintage yachts were returning to harbour after a long day, Aker Brygge was winding down it's frenzied activity. From my high perch, I noticed something for the first time. A ring of low rising hills surrounded Oslo, making the city feel like a super massive open-air amphitheater. After spending the better part of an hour there, watching the sun reluctantly sink behind the hills and buildings, it was now my turn to be reluctant to leave. I slowly got up, savouring the moments of the last hour and made myself a promise to be back another day, far away in the future.

Sinnataggen

We woke early the next morning, we had lots of ground left to cover. Set right in the heart of the city, covering a giant swathe of land, lies the Frogner park, dotted with hundreds of sculptures of the gifted renaissance sculptor Gustav Vigeland. When we reached the park, my reaction was one of total wonder. To say that the sculptures were 'out of the ordinary' would be an understatement. One sculpture depicted an angry father in the act of attacking four babies. Another depicted an angry boy, it was called the Sinnataggen, which understandably translates to, the 'Angry Boy'. Judging from the dense cluster of Japanese tourists surrounding the statue, photographing it with devices ranging from a DSLR to an iPad, I guessed that we'd found the most famous statue in the park. I would later find out out that I was right. The masterpiece, however, was the tall monolith at the centre of the park. Rising over 10 metres high, it depicts more than a hundred well detailed human figures rising towards the sky seeking salvation. As we tried to find shade wherever we could from the surprisingly fierce Oslo sunshine, I watched as Europeans walked by, 'enjoying' the heat. I didn't envy them, I would take the Indian summers over their winters any day.

The Fram museum

Our next stop was the Fram museum, a testament to the success of one who is probably Norway's most famous person, Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach both the North and the South Pole. When our MAN bus stopped in front of the museum, we were confronted by a very peculiar looking building. The 'museum' contained the entirety of the Fram, the special ship that Amundsen sailed in to conquer the South Pole. The Fram incidentally, holds the record for sailing the farthest north and farthest south than any other wooden ship. The first thing I noticed about the ship was it's peculiar shape. The ship had almost no keel! The keel of a ship is the fin-like structure under the hull which helps to stabilize the rolling of the ship in rough seas. Why did the Fram lack a keel, if it is such an integral part of any ship?

The Fram

The answer lies in the reason behind why the Fram was built. Reaching the North pole was not a straightforward prospect, for unlike the South pole, which is covered by the Antarctic land mass, the North pole is located in the middle of the Arctic ocean, which is almost constantly covered by drifting sea ice. With previous land expeditions to the North Pole repeatedly failing, Nansen planned on using the theorized ocean current flowing from east to west over the Pole, by sailing his ship into the ice and allowing it to freeze there. To prevent the ship from being crushed by the enormous pressures exerted by the ice, the rounded hull lacking a keel was designed so that it would slip out of and above the grip of the packing ice. The ship was built to house the crew and sustain them for five very cold years!

The next two hours, we spent in exploring the Fram, reading about Nansen's and Amundsen's expeditions to the poles and visiting the ship Gjoa, a smaller ship, housed in an identical building nearby. The Gjoa was used by Amundsen in his crossing of the Canada's treacherous North Western passage, another first. The museum was a chunk of history that would inspire any person, a silent nod to the limitlessness of human endurance and curiosity.

To think of a group of people voluntarily spending years on board a ship stuck in ice, a gutsy duo that attempted to reach the North Pole on dog sled with the nearest human presence thousands of miles away and over uncharted lands and seas; those are the kinds of things that make you sit up a little straighter and wonder how they did it and how many still do it.

Oslo is a beautiful little city, exciting and full of life, certainly a must visit to any Norwegian traveler, although next time, I would rather travel to Northern Norway, to the rolling meadows, Fjords and valleys that represent Norway so famously on the world media.

Click on the pictures to get a bigger view.