Sculpture Climbing

Refreshed and energized after a much needed nights sleep we checked out of the hostel and lugged our backpacks down the big hill, along the soccer field, and to the bus stop. It had rained the night before, so we decided against taking the trail through the grass with the potential of slipping and sliding. We didn't want to carry all our belongings around with us all day, so we took the bus to Oslo Central Station to rent a locker.

Right outside the train station was a statue of a tiger that stood at least 6 feet tall. All Natalie wanted to do before leaving Oslo was take a picture sitting on top of the tiger. In passing yesterday we saw people on top of it, so we figured it would be a simple task to climb up the tail, take a picture, and be on our way. It was by no means simple. Natalie first attempted to climb up the tail, but it was slick and slippery probably due to years of children and silly college kids with dreams of climbing the tiger similar to ours. After a decent struggle with the tail, Natalie circled the beast looking for another way up. Optimistic, I tried to climb the tail but had a similar struggle when not finding a foothold. If at first you don't succeed, try again. We then went to the tigers head where I grabbed his ears to see if I could get a good hold, a plan was beginning for form. I would grab an ear, put my foot in his mouth, and hoist myself up. Because of the roundness in the head, I wasn't quite able to swing my foot around. Plan B was the same as before, but instead of hoisting myself up, Natalie would use her hands as a foothold and push my leg over. Needless to say, I almost flipped straight over the tiger falling back to the ground. After finding my balance, I managed to sit comfortably on his head too afraid to move. You can call me ringmaster from now on. Not sure how to get off, I finally slid down the tail with my heart beating out of my chest. Natalie attempted to follow my lead, but didn't have the upper body strength to pull herself up. I guess all those days playing on the monkey bars in elementary school really paid off.

The next statue we decided to clamber was a statue of Johan Halvorsen, a Norwegian composer. Natalie and Lindsay wanted to take pictures inside the gazebo. After taking a few pictures, they weren't happy with the angle the picture was being taken at from the bottom of the steps. They wanted to try again from a more level location and the only way to do that was by standing on the statue of Johan. I didn't particularly want a picture in the gazebo, but I couldn't resist bonding with another conductor, so up I climbed onto yet another statue.


After we received some dirty looks we decided we had climbed enough statues for the day and bopped around the city looking for souvenirs to bring back to the states. I found a keychain with the three Scandinavian countries we've visited and a magnet for my grandma Char. My grandma collects moose objects, and I really liked this magnet because it looked a little more modern with a cute face. I'll have to send her a picture from my trip to keep under the magnet on her fridge.

It was starting to get a little chilly with raindrops here and there, so we decided to head to the Munch Museet. The Munch Museum has the world's largest collection of Edvard Munch's art. The collection includes around 1100 paintings and more than 20,000 prints and drawings. This museum switches between different thematic exhibitions 2-3 times a year, based on selections from the collection. The current exhibition is "Munch 150," the most comprehensive presentation of Munch's art ever displayed of about 220 paintings and 50 works on paper. 

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was artistically active for more than 60 years. The exhibit follows his art for the most part chronologically and provides a comprehensive overview of his life's work. Among the exhibition's major works are his picture series "The Frieze of Life" from 1902-07. The first time this series of pictures were presented was in Blomqvist Kunsthandel in Kristiania in 1918. In 1918, the exhibit was criticized for lacking visual unity. Munch's intention was to paint the old motifs over again with the idea of creating a permanent decorative frieze for a new building. In order to follow through with this plan he needed an employer, but was never able to find one.

Munch painted with strong emotions and this was evident in his work. Among my favorite paintings were ones of admiration and love rather than of anger and death. Oftentimes when Munch painted lovers they would be infused with one another becoming one unit. It was quite beautiful to see how his art correlated with piviot events in his life like the death of his mother and sister, being shot in the hand, and falling in love. 

As the hours we had left in Oslo were quickly dwindling, we had one last stop on our journey and half a liter of Jägermeister to finish. Because we didn't go out the night before, and heaven forbid we let an alcohol go to waste, we had half a bottle of jäger left which we decided to finish while walking on the roof of the opera. We had redbull, poured the jäger into our cans, and in no time we felt its effects kicking in. We were all giggles and laughter walking around while commenting on what a nice building it was and how we were so happy to be in Oslo together. Indeed the building was stunning with a roof that you could walk on that slanted down into the water and a steep incline that looked like it ascended into the heavens.

We still had a pretty good buzz going and it was time to head to the train station and then to the airport. It was a wonder we made it to the train station let alone the airport. The entire train ride Lindsay and I blabbered on and on and probably annoyed half the people in our train car. Getting off the train I realized I had forgotten my sweatshirt. We had already made it through the gates and I would have had to hop the fence and run back inside the train to get it back. Panicking, I walked back to see if there was anyone I could find that might let me back inside the gates. I ran into a man that was in a uniform and before I could get any words out I saw my jacket in his hands. I made some half gruntled, garble of sounds and finally just pointed at my jacket. I must have seemed like a total mess, and as he handed it to me, I smiled and quickly skirted past him before I could make an even more fool of myself. Problem evaded, I wouldn't have to freeze for the rest of my stay in Europe or buy another overpriced jacket. The rest of our wait went by quickly. It's amazing how fast traveling is when you've had a shot of jäger, or three or four.

By the time we got back to our apartments it was past 10pm and we were exhausted. I quickly video chatted with my dad to wish him a happy Father's Day and show him the satirical Viking book I got for him. I sometimes forget that the main reason I'm in Denmark is school. Now that we are starting our second class tomorrow I guess I should see what time and where I need to be in the morning. Not only did I find this information, but I also found homework. I have over 30 pages of reading for homework due tomorrow. Oh well, bed time.