Paintings and Snow!

Two weekends ago was the Moose cabin trip, my second cabin trip here in Norway.  This was a different cabin (Streptokåken): a much less continuously uphill hike.  The Moose, by the way, is the only English-language paper on UiO's campus, and I wrote a couple of articles for the last issue and edited.  Pretty much the entire way there it rained, which made the last bit interesting because the actual path to the cabin, once you've hiked up the main gravel roads, was a muddy path at that point.  Once we got there, there were some interesting decorations, including this moose:

There then followed a cake contest, awesome spaghetti, guitar playing, and SPOONS!  The next day it was much less rainy, and hiking back down the mountain to catch the bus, I finally got to see some of the great views:

Also, some hanging moss, which is not Spanish moss, but looks like it: Norwegian moss?

Last weekend the weather was gorgeous again, and if it's one thing you learn when it gets cold and rainy: it's to get outside when it's nice.  Here's Sognsvann on Friday:

And some curly dried grass:

Any, this is about an hour walk, and by the time I start walking along the road home, it's cloudy, windy, and SNOWING.
But it's nice and sunny again on Saturday, and I wandered along the waterfront:

On Sunday, Daylight Savings Time ended, and the sun started setting at 4:30.  I went to the National Gallery, because admission is free on Sundays. 
Lots of neat paintings and sculptures there, so I took many pictures (are you surprised?  you shouldn't be).
This is the Thinker:

No, not that Thinker, though the museum did have him, too.  There's some modern art, and some Ancient Greek/Roman sculptures, but the museum mostly traces the changes in Norwegian art, with, of course, The Scream (Skrik, in Norwegian):

Though, honestly, this didn't evoke a feeling of hopelessness, terror, or despair in me, unlike this:

This is Melancholia I, by Albrecht Dürer-look, it's sunny outside, and she's annoyed because she's stuck inside doing work with that pointy-thing!  Ah, exam qualifications and grad school applications, how I loathe you.  This was in one of  the cabinets in the corners of some rooms-look inside, not everything cool is on the wall.  The museum visit also led to contemplations on how stuff is arranged in museums.  Example: There is the Langaard Room, with Old Master paintings donated as a collection in 1924-it is arranged according to then-current practices.  This means that many paintings are on the walls next to/above/below each other.  This leads to some confusion:  The sign next to these reads: "A Gentleman Visiting Courtesans", "The Card Players", and "The Rape of the Daughters of Levkippos."  Now, the first one is larger, and arranged above the others.  Then, there is this:

My eye naturally goes to the left one first, since the sign was on the left.  I think this is Card Players, since that is how the signage and pictures have been arranged so far.  That is one exciting card game!

Also, this:

The Three Graces Listening to Cupid's Song; a 19th century marble sculpture meant to evoke ancient civilizations.  To these past artists, ancient Greek and Roman art is life in marble: serene, perfect, silent.  However, a while ago I found out that Greek statues were painted, like this:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/true-colors.html#
Totally different view on how this art "should" look: I think it shows how real and vibrant life was, personally.

Anyway, cool stuff.
Then I walked around Vår Frelsers Gravlund, a graveyard where several notable Norwegians are buried, including Munch and Ibsen, as well as Hansteen and Wickstrøm, the first Norwegian citizens shot during the Nazi occupation of Norway.

I can't read much Norwegian, but some differences between this graveyard and one I did an archaeological project on in Michigan: women's maiden names are more likely to be included (versus just Mother, or Wife), full-grave covers, and people's faces.  It was also really pretty with all the leaves:

Then, on Monday I woke up to snow.  Lots of snow, which lasted for 2 days.  I went out hiking on Tuesday:

Happy Halloween!

Copenhagen/København

This weekend I went on a mini-cruise to Copenhagen, Denmark.  The company DFDS Seaways offered chances to win free tickets for a 2-night trip, and I got a cabin! (Well-I shared a cabin with another international student)

On Sunday, the day of departure, it started raining sleet-the first official snow in Oslo!  Strange how it snowed back home in Michigan before here-weather is a strange thing.  Here's the ship:

It had 11 decks (2 just for cars).  Here is me on the top deck as we're leaving through the Oslo fjord (did I mention it was cold.  And rainy.  And slippery):

 On the ship there is a duty-free shop that sells stuff at Danish prices (read: lower than Oslo), so I bought chocolate: many of the brands/varieties I had never heard of before, such as Daim, Kinder Bueno, and Ritter.  Also, alcohol, because prices are very high in Oslo (this is why many Norwegians frequently cross the border to Sweden, Denmark, or other Northern European countries to buy food), so many of my fellow travelers took this opportunity to stock up.

The next morning, I got up really early (6:30? am, don't judge, I like to sleep!) to catch the coast as we passed Helsingør.  If this sounds familiar, that's because it sounds similar to Elsinore, the English version of the castle where Shakespeare set Hamlet.  There's a castle there called Kronborg Castle, and they give tours of it (sadly, many museums here are closed on Mondays), but no tour for me.  So, the ship passed by it on the left side (Danish coast) at about 8 am.  Here's a map, and the castle!

The castle was built in the 16th century in this area because it's at the entrance to the Øresund strait, a great area to collect tolls from passing ships!  You can also see the castle going out from Copenhagen at 6pm, but the ship is more toward the Swedish coast at that point, so it's a little farther away.
The ship docked in Copenhagen (or København as it's written in Danish) at 9:45, where travelers get less than 7 hours to see the sights-luckily, many things are within walking distance.

 

I walked around with a group of friends: thanks for navigating so I didn't have to!  The first thing we saw was Kastellet, a fortress.  The second thing we was was the first sight that many visitors associate with Copenhagen-the Little Mermaid statue (Den Lille Havfrue:

Hans Christian Andersen, the famous compiler of fairy tales, was Danish, and you can find his house in Copenhagen, too.  The statue was made by Danish artist Edvard Eriksen and placed by the harbor in 1913.  The original story is kind of depressing (no Under the Sea songs here): spoiler alert-she dies.  The Little Mermaid was always my favorite Disney movie as a kid, but I never understood why she wanted to leave the sea anyway.  I just wanted to be part fish and live underwater (don't pretend that doesn't sound awesome)!  And sing catchy Jamaican-style music.

Also seen in Copenhagen:
Churches, lots of churches (St. Alban's, Russian Church, Marble Church, Copenhagen Cathedral, Hellingaa? Church-don't blame me, blame the rain, my map has started to fall apart).  And castles (Amalienborg, Rosenborg, Christiansborg).  And metal statues of guys on horses.
Here is Nyhavn, the Old Harbor area with beautiful colored houses, which reminded me of Painted Row in Charleston, SC.

The water was remarkably clear, which meant I could see this chair: good party?

We had lunch at a bakery, where I did indeed eat a Danish pastry in Denmark (no omelets, though :)

We also saw Christiania, the "free town" within Copenhagen where selling and smoking hash is "de facto" legal, although not technically legal, so there are signs warning you not to take pictures or run in the central areas.  Still, Christiania has it's own flag and trash system, and signs saying you're entering the EU (Denmark is part of the EU, although Norway is not) as you leave. 

I also saw some creepy statues in the canal waters:

And cool streets:

And a cute dog (oh, I miss Booger....)

This is Rosenborg Castle, my favorite, probably because it had a moat.  No alligators, but it did have a giant fish (too bad there's no scale, this thing was probably as big as that dog):

Here is leaving Copenhagen:

My second European country: Denmark!  Copenhagen was a lot busier and more urban than Oslo-many of my European friends said it felt a lot more like a European capital.  I think I prefer Oslo; maybe I'm not a city person at heart.  Also, I like mountains, and as you can see from this picture, Copenhagen is flat.