Concerts, Viking ships, and a class

Last Wednesday, my buddy group went on a walking tour through Akerhus Fortress, which is a big stone castle (I am going to count this as my 2nd non-official castle-I need to see an actual castle sometime) built to protect Oslo from sea attacks.  It had arrow slits, a drawbridge, and cannons with angry-looking handles.

Then, we went to Rådhusplassen (city hall) to hear the Oslo Philharmonic orchestra play Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

The next day was registration help for classes, which involved lots of waiting in lines, and I am on the waiting list for Marine Ecology.  I joined another buddy group, where we went to the Ethnographic Museum owned by the University and engaged in some good old fashioned rites-of-passage involving face-paint.    Friday was International Coffee Hour, where they give out free biscuits (aka cookies!) 
On Saturday, I went with some friends to check out the museums on Bygdøy peninsula.  The Vikingskipshuset (Viking ship museum) is free for UiO students, and we spent a lot of time there-tons of awesome pictures!
The museum is set up with vaulted ceilings, with 3 main wings for each ship, and a 4th for the artifacts found with-no gold or jewelry, since all the ships were robbed in the past. There are 3 ships there-the Oseberg, Gokstad, and Tune ships, all from ~9th-10th century CE. 
This is the Oseberg ship, which was buried with two women.  This is the most intact and decorated ship, and the first one you see.  It's difficult to convey the size in pictures; the museum has little stairs in the corners where you can go up and take pictures of the entire hall.

This is the Tune ship, which did not fare as well, since it wasn't buried in clay.

This is the Gokstad ship, which, unlike the Oseberg (which was most likely a pleasure cruise ship) was built to travel, and is thus much sturdier.

This is the burial chamber from the ship, which would have been placed behind the mast (on actual voyages, there weren't any sleeping places on board, although tents could be set up on the nearest convenient shore).

In the artifact hall there was a cart, fabrics, cooking equipment, and sledges found with the burials.  Before you enter the museum proper, there is a balcony where the remains of the Oseberg women and Gokstad man rest.  The mounds were excavated in the 1880s and early 1900's, and in 1928 and 1948, public opinion was for reburial of the bodies in "waterproof" caskets.  In 2007, both were reopened in order to check on conditions.  In both cases, water or condensation got in, and now, the bones are kept here, available for research.  Here is me:

Then, I went to the Norsk Sjøfarts museum (Maritime Norway museum), where there was stuff about different types of boat traditions in different areas.  Also, they had a painting collection-interestingly, although Norway has a lot of coast, most "national pride" artwork is focused on landscapes.
On Sunday, it was sunny, and some friends and I went to the islands, where I could happily spend many hours staring at stuff in tidepools.  I did not go swimming in the fjord, but I did go swimming in the Sognsvann lake later this week (chilly).
On Monday I went to go find out about my biology class, and I found a lot of dioramas in the biology building, including this mini wooly mammoth, which made me happy:

Found out that I should go to the first lecture, but that I should sign up for another class in case I do not get in, so I signed up for Intro to Runology (I feel like Harry Potter!) because I could.  Unfortunately, signing up for that class took place on Tuesday morning, and the first seminar was on Tuesday morning.  So, only one class this week!  Here are the keyboards in the library, which are arranged slightly differently, so instead of capitalizing, I kept adding >.

Class on Wednesday was cool-Objects and Identities in the Viking Age.  I signed up for my presentation/paper-on ships-Yes!  Yesterday I did laundry (which involved wandering around a grocery store too early in the morning because I realized that I had bought fabric softener instead of detergent).  Later that night, it was downtown to Rådhusplassen for the Mela world music festival (and bubbles).  It was decorated slightly differently, with green elephants this time, and I listened to some Moroccan rappers.

Now, to Coffee Hour!