And Now..... Our Feature Presentation

So here I am in Scandanavia..... guess I'm not gonna need those shorts anytime soon! It's actually very pleasant here in Oslo. The capital of Norway, it kind of reminds me of Dublin, Ireland in this way: it's not really the city you should visit if you want to get a good sense of what Norway is like. Oslo is pretty cool, but Norway is big and just because it's the capital doesn't mean it's the be all and end all of this country. But, on the other hand, I can only see so many cities in 4 months.

Oslo has some charming attributes, but once again, like several other cities so far, the best part of this city was just hanging out with my host and kicking back. It's kind of laid back in Norway. Almost 0% crime. The cops only work 3 days a week. Can you believe that? Here's my chill time in Oslo, Norway.

This is the first thing that I saw when I exited the train station. I need to be reminded of this a lot. I love that this was printed on this wall. I passed by it everyday, and did. And took a jumping pic. (Thank you, thank you.)






I went to a Viking Ship museum where they had on display several old Viking ships that were discovered in Norway around the end of the 19th century. Check out these guys with awesome mustaches just proudly posing with their discovery. Wow. So prestigous. People used to dress like that. Cool.






Some people take dignified pictures next to things they see in museums. Not me. I'm a Viking.



Hey! Spill her! Do it!

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I think my favourite pic from Oslo. Here's me sticking my head in a tiki man's nose. And here's an old man trying to figure out what happened to young people nowadays. His face is priceless.



I prevented a polar bear from sneezing.



Another great shot of me doing something a bit ridiculous in a museum, and a tourist getting caught in the frame. Here he waits his turn on the wheel. I wonder how many pictures I'm in of other people's trips?



I like boats! Future framed picture (computer desktop image) here.




This made me stop and pause. I wasn't sure what to make of this. The bus driver was stopped for at least two minutes with his head just buried in his hands. I wanted to buy a bus ticket just to go give him a hug.




The naked parade continues! This monument has just all sorts of naked statues - all with their proper bits and pieces. And yes, in the middle is a huge falice made of naked people. Hi, Norway. How ya doing? Like naked statues, do ya?



This is the "Ok.....what's going on here?" moment of this city. This hippy was hiding his face behind this paper the whole bus ride. About every two minutes, he'd pop his face out and look around real suspicious-like, like he was looking for KGB, and then go right back under the paper. Maybe that guy with the pipe from Tuscany was hot on his trail.




Here's where I spent a lot of time in Oslo. This is my host's place. That's my host, Michael, on the left. He's German, and the other guy, Leo is part of an Australian couple who was staying there at the same time as me. (Bernadette not pictured here.) We watched 3 movies here, one every night for three nights. It was exciting, honestly. Movie night! Love it. It was great to just kick back and watch movies for a change. And ps, check out the laundry rack in the foreground. That's how Europeans dry their clothes. I've seen one of these in pretty much every single house I've stayed in.



I also went to the botanical gardens. Not as many flowers as I thought there would be, but just a lot of plants. I just spent a lot of time here reading and napping by fragrant plants and flowers. My favourite site was this cool waterfall.




And that's Oslo! Off to Stockholm now! Yeah Sweden!