"I have to stop eating or I will lose my hand:" Oslo continued

The title of this post is a direct reference to how cold it is here. Today Clem was munching on some chips as we walked through the streets of Oslo and had to make the difficult decision to put the chips away or suffer frostbite. However, though it continues to be cold, it continues to be beautiful!

Today we went to Vigeland Sculpture Park, the main reason I wanted to come to Oslo in the first place. Get ready for tons of photos of statues--and apologies if you don't find these as touching and beautiful as I do!


Entrance to the park



























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After I spazzed out and took a million photos at the sculpture park, we walked around the fjord to the far side of Oslo to visit the Viking ship museum.


Literally walking in a winter wonderland


Giant viking ship


Looks comfortable, no?


Downtown Oslo from across the fjord

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After walking around nearly the entirety of Oslo we headed to the Nobel Prize Museum, where I also took a ton of pictures. Those of you who know me know this is extremely out of character, so you shouldn't be too worried that I'll bombard you again like this anytime soon.


Exhibit for Liu Xiaobo, this year's Peace Prize Laureate


Photos of Tianenmen Square 1989, where Liu led a hunger strike. When his wife visited him in prison just after he won the Nobel, he told her he wished the prize could go to the mothers who lost their children in the Tianenmen protests.


A poem Liu wrote for his wife


The exhibit was as much about Chinese human rights as it was about Liu.


What I liked most about the museum was its direct approach to the controversy surrounding many laureates. In the Liu exhibit, it seemed like the curator tried to present a balanced view of Chinese freedom of speech (or lack thereof).


Beautiful (and futuristic) room with a video plaque dedicated to each laureate


Interactive room for kids designed to teach them about refugees


The epitome of free speech--a room full of wall-to-wall comments left by visitors to the museum. Some positive, some negative, some powerful and some nonsensical. Clem found a reference to her pseudonym.


More comments--Niall, your country was well represented.




Gore--laureate 2007--no mention of the crazed sex poodle scandal but a nice tribute to climate change


Mandela--laureate 1993

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After the Nobel museum we had another supermarket dinner in the hostel and then headed out for a drink, but just one because a pint of cider was 10 euros! No bother though, because after all that walking we were both pretty beat. Off to bed now but more adventures before our flight back to London tomorrow. I hope everyone had a great day!

Love,
Jess