Norway Trip ~Sightseeing~

I had a headache after being told I was stuck in Amsterdam for 14 hours, so apart from Amsterdam pictures, I will upload everything else. That said, I don't like Amsterdam. Now then, during my trip, I went to Sweden for half a day and a daytrip to Denmark. Kristiansand was strategically close to these two countries. But while in Oslo the first time, I went to a place called Vigelands Park, which is a park full of statues of a fat naked man. Rows and rows, monuments after monuments of the statues of naked people. I heard this place was actually a private property of said naked man, which is why all the naked men statues look alike. It's probably the face and built of the owner. Apart from the obvious 'eye candy' it is actually a very nice park. Perhaps in the summer. The Viking Museum! You can't go to Scandinavia without visiting at least one! It was not very big, but it had 3 almost complete viking ships on display.Here's me, eating ice cream out here in the snow. I'm hard core yeah. Came back to Oslo the next week with Farah A to sightsee. We were joined by Karoline and Kari. Went to Munch Museum where the famous painting 'The Scream' is. Apparently, Edvard Munch made several versions of the Scream and only one of them is ever on display at one time. Unfortunately, the one on display when I was there was the one made with crayon on cardboard. I was so offended I didn't even bother taking a picture of it. Hmph. After that we went to the nearby Zoologisk Museum and Biologisk Museum. A werewolf? I was in Sweden for half a day.Blow proudly ye Swedish flags. It was nice and sunny in Oslo yet the moment we entered the Swedish border, it turned foggy. It was fun doing spontaneous sightseeing as 'historical sights (Hysterical Sight)' are marked on the road so you can just stop by and snap photos, just like this stone ship, just laid out in the backyard of a farmer's house. From afar it looked like the stonehenge. Ice patches everywhere. It was such a long and icy trek, but for the sake of being in Sweden I pushed on!!And we stopped by the goodies outlet in Sweden. Like a factory outlet of candy and chocolate. I bought some Swedish chocolate. Yum yum. Next, Hirtshals, Denmark.Costs 20 Danish kroner to climb up the lighthouse. We just had lunch, so I was content with just appreciating the view from down there. Apparently, Denmark does not get snow, but their wind is a killer. Cold and strong, even the trees grew bendy because of the wind. Here I am, freezing at the beach of Denmark, but determined to walk on! I was in Kristiansand most of the time and when I am out, I spend most of my time shopping. But when I am not shopping, I did some sightseeing too. Like, going to the fjord!

FJORD, WE FINALLY MEET!!

And going for nature walks around a frozen lake.

I was so excited when I saw a creek in Sweden, and when I returned to Norway there were creeks EVERYWHERE! Yeah I was so sakai.

I also went to the Dyre Parken (zoo). The Kristiansand zoo is the best! I was petted by a sheep.

And met some old friends.

Orangutang hahaha!!

Of course, can't finish this entry with my favorite place to shop, MONKi!!! I MISS YOU MONKII!

Ta'ra!

Norway Trip ~Initial~

I've been back for approximately one week now, but I've been too occupied with recovering from jet lag and the tons of laundry. I've only started doing my KL-used clothes laundry today! I am not going to seggregate my blog entry into part 1, part 2, part 3 etc, like how most people like to do because I will surely never get past part 1! So I'm going to start with the highlights of my trip, followed by whatever that came to mind. Also, I do not work for Tourism Norway though I wish I do, but I hope my entry would help more tourists go to Norway *ahem*.

First off,

Welcome to Norway in the SPRING!

Yes, I was expecting pretty flower buds too but I was greeted with piles and piles of snow. Temperature was around -7. Yay!

First let me tell you the premise of my trip. I was in Norway for exactly 3 weeks. I arrived from Amsterdam in Oslo, and stayed one night in Hamar at my friend Farah A's study home. Hamar is in the mountains two hours away from Oslo and of course, colder than Oslo. However, the bulk of the trip is spent in Kristiansand, way down south of Norway, which can also be said the most southern tip of Norway, thus the least cold. Of course, least cold being around -5 to -1 for the first week alone. Refer to map below.

I really just went there to escape reality (was in the thick of doing my survey and I fled). I never in my life have thought of ever going so far north for holiday, but I thought why not? I've heard so many nice things about it and I was not disappointed! I worked my ass off at Kinokuniya accumulating funds for a holiday trip to Japan and I ended up on the opposite side of the world instead. The tsunami hit Japan the day I left for Norway. Is it a sign?

Anyway, I was quite tired of the over-rated touristy locations ie China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Venice, London, Amsterdam etc and I longed to go someplace nobody had even thought of going, thus, Norselands! I had a really great host and I am therefore eternally grateful to them! I was a pineapple in Polar bear lands and they went out of their way to make my stay as comfortable and pleasant as possible! Thank you very much my venerable hostess!

In the next post I will talk about the places I went to. The bulk of the pictures are on facebook, as I'll only be talking about the interesting bits here hehehe. Ta'ra!