Oslo

Last week I went on my final trip this semester. This time to Oslo and Dublin. Oslo was first and I spent two days there (June 14th and 15th), hosted by my friend Karoline, who I met in Japan, and her boyfriend.
They were incredibly kind to offer us a place to stay and as Oslo is an expensive city (the kroner to US dollar is painful), we were more than happy to take them up on it.

We left Lancaster at 6am and after traveling all day made it to Oslo later in the evening. My first impression of Oslo (at least the rural areas outside it) were that it looks a lot like Wisconsin. Wide, open fields with smatterings of farms and forest-y areas. They even drove on the right side of the road!

Karoline picked us up at the bus station and whisked us off to her adorable flat where she and her boyfriend, Simen, whipped us up tacos for dinner. We spent some time getting to know each other (and for Karoline and I, catching up) and then we went to bed. I'm pretty sure Michelle and I fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.
(Because Oslo is so far north, it never quite gets dark in the summer. It was very strange for it to be 11:30pm and for it to still be daylight outside.)

The next day, Karoline and Simen showed Michelle and I around Oslo. It was a beautiful day and we even got to meet up with Lael, who was also staying in Oslo last week.

The Opera House:


On top of the Opera House (Japanese V-signs were a must):


Stern guards sternly guarding the fortress:


Inside the fortress:


But my favorite part of Oslo was their botanical garden and all the statues inside. We spent an inappropriate amount of time goofing around, but I don't think anyone could resist being immature and silly amongst statues like these...

My favorite statue of the bunch - a man fighting an onslaught of laughing babies!:


Karoline and I inspecting the pile of children statue:


My other favorite - angry, bratty baby statue:


Later that night we had another excellent dinner at Karoline and Simen's flat, watched a Japanese movie that I'd never heard of but was a mix of everything Japanese people love, and then... sleep! We had to wake up in the morning to catch our flight to Dublin.

I was very sad to say good-bye to our Norwegian friends, but it was onwards to our next adventure in Dublin.