Week 2: The Journey Continues

Sorry I didn't upload this post on time. Due to low Internet connectivity it wouldn't let my publish it.

Second week in beautiful Norway. Lovely weather except for a couple of days (I'll get into detail about that). This week was the first time I went to downtown Oslo and actually became a "tourist".

Day 8: mandag
Today I mostly helped Tore with the construction of "Gleden" (translation: "happiness"). This time I took pictures.

Gleden under construction.

Day 9: tirsdag
First day as an official tourist in Oslo! I woke up early so that I could catch a ride downtown with Eline, who was going to work. They left me off about 10 blocks north-east of the rådhus (translation: "City Hall"). So my first thought was to go to the rådhus, but on my way there I saw signs for the Opera House, which Eline told me was a beautiful piece of architecture.

This is the Opera House. A very modern piece of Architecture. You can walk or take your bike on the roof

View from the roof of the Operahus. Isn't Oslo pretty?

So I went there and walked of the roof, which is one of the many amazing things about this building and saw the sunrise (well, actually the sun never set, so technically, I just saw the sun rise). After that I walked west a little bit and ended up in the Akershus Festning (translation: Akershus Fortress). This fortress has successfully survived all sieges, primarily by Swedish forces. So it did what it was supposed to do. Inside the fortress there is a museum called Norway's Resistance Museum and I was interested in going but opens at 10 o'clock and it was only 8:30. So, instead I continued my walk through the fortress and after a while I found an exit that was close to the rådhus. Before entering the city hall they have some wooden frescos showing some important figures of the Norse Mythology, like Thor and the Valkyries.

View of Oslo from the Akershus Fortress. The building on the right is the rådhus. 

Inside, the Oslo City Hall looks amazing with beautiful paintings and marble floor and mosaics. There they had free water and by that time I was very thirsty, so...
After my visit to the rådhus I went to my aunts workplace to have lunch there. On my way there an American tourist asked me for directions to somewhere, but I told him I was also a tourist. So after lunch I resumed my tourist day and decided to go to the Resistance Museum, but it was full of tourists so I couldn't get in. I decided to go back to the Operahus where they had free wifi and stayed there till 3 o'clock where I had to go back to my aunts work where we were picked up by Tore.

The rådhus from the side facing the Sea.

Main entrance to the City Hall. You can see an astronomical clock on the center right. 

One of the wooden frescos on the main entrance to the rådhus. This one is of Thor riding his chariot through the sky. 

Main hall of the rådhus. Very pretty with nice paintings.

This is a moisac in the main hall. The picture above this one was taken where these stairs lead to.

During my tourist day I saw this and I found it pretty :)

Downtown close to were my aunt works.

After arriving home I could't help Tore with the boat, because I was too tired.

Day 10: onsdag
RAIN! First day of rain. A lot of rain, so I was stranded inside the house/boat and didn't do much. (Well, I can't complain much, in Chile they were having one of their worst storms). The first week I was here everyone was telling me that the weather, been so nice as it was, wasn't normal for Norway; they were expecting this rain to come.

First day of mayor rain. You can see the rain drops on the water.

Day 11: torsdag
MORE RAIN! Something happened to the Internet since the storm of Tuesday; it has been going very slow. So slow that sometimes I can't even send an e-mail.
Once again, I didn't do much.

Nugatti, Norwegian version of Nutella (P.S: Nutella is better. Don't tell that to a Norwegian.)

Day 12: fredag
Sun! Again a nice day, but there where still some gray clouds in the sky. Today we continued on the building of Gleden.

Cleaning the deck of Levebåten Marie.

Eline and I.

Day 13: lørdag
In downtown Oslo today there was a Musikkfest (translation: "Music Festival") where they placed a lot of mini stadiums (I think 30 in total) and many Norwegian bands (none that I knew) played for a couple of hours. There was a great variety of genres to pick from. The transportation method I used to get downtown was using a bicycle instead of car like last time (here bicycles are one of the most used ways to get from A to B). It's only about 6km form the Levebåten so in less than half an hour I was there. The first band I listened to (shown in the picture below) were a folk-rock band which I didn't catch their name (or I forgot) and played in a stadium in Eidsvolls plass (translation: "Eidsvolls park"). I stayed there for a couple of minutes and then moved on to the band that was playing in front of the rådhus. For some reason I can remember what they were playing (18 years old and already with memory problems). Moving on, I saw other 3 bands downtown, all of which were playing rock songs (one of them made some great Led Zeppelin cover songs).

One of the many bands playing that day in downtown Oslo. This one was the one playing Led Zeppelin covers.

Around 4 o'clock I decided to go back home. Where I'm living it's kind of a gated community and the only way to get to the Levebåten is by a boat that takes you to the island Killigen where all the boats are docked, or by a key to open a gate (or by swimming, but I didn't want to do that). SO, when I arrived there no was home, therefore no one could pick me up. To kill some time I decided to bicycle around Bygdøy. I took a very nice path that borders the Fjord. After about 20 minutes I turned around and went back home. Guess what, still no one home, but after waiting for about 10 minutes a neighbours sees me and gives me a lift.
That was about it for today.

Photo of Killigen (left) from Bygdøy. You might be able to see Levebåten Marie from here.

Day 14: søndag
The last day of Week 2 was the day I finally swam in the Fjords. "The temperature is warm" they said. "It's nice" they said. The second I jumped into the water (other than thinking that was a good idea) I completely forgot that the Fjords are salt water, so I was kind of lost when I my lips felt salty when I was underwater.
Also, today we were visited by one of the neighbours and his girlfriend who is Chinese and she prepared some amazing food. So we talked and ate for a long time and before we knew it, it was bed time.

First swim in the Fjords (cold!)

Also, first time having to peel a shrimp.