Lillihammer has all kinds of places you can see that were used for the 1999 Winter Olympics and they are still in use.
We thought they had a train at 4:12 but found out that was only Monday-Friday. We had to wait until 5:11.
We got into Oslo after 7:30. We stopped at the train station to make reservations to go to Stockholm. We don't always have to make reservations for tour trains, but on the speed trains and busy trains, you do.
We then went to the tourist information center to get information about what we wanted to do for the next few days before we leave.
We walked to the hostel to check in. They said that they canceled our reservations because it was late. It was close to 9:00 by the time we got there. Luckily there was room for us. We got our bags out of storage and checked into our room. There was one girl already there.
It was 10:30 by the time we ate and unpacked. Unfortunately we will have to pack up tomorrow because we will have to move to another room.
July 20, 2003
It was very tough to sleep last night. There was noise all night outside our window. I ended up getting my ear plugs out. It was much better. When I got up about 6:30, I noticed that the girl that was there had left. Those ear plugs must have worked great.
We took our time this morning. We left about 10:30 and walked to the bus stop. We were taking the bus to the Folk Museum. It was good to take the bus because it gave me a quick chance to see other parts of the city. Oslo seems to be a nice place.
The Folk Museum was like Sturbridge Village. It was probably less expensive, probably the only thing less expensive here. The museum was great. There were all sorts of little villages set up. It included dentists, chemists (pharmacists), potters, and weavers. Displayed were a lot of the old equipment from years ago.
The exhibit hall displays were of all the different clothing from different areas and for the different functions. It also explained the different immigrants that came to Norway. There were a lot of Germans. Some other countries weren't allowed in unless the person had a particular skill that they needed. Catholics weren't allowed at first. So at first there was discrimination of race and religion. So I guess the US isn't the only area that had these problems. The exhibit hall also had a large display concerning fold art; the different eras and styles of the era. Original buildings were moved to this site. I enjoyed watching the folk dance and a fiddler. The people were dressed in traditional costumes of certain regions.
When we were done, we decided to take the ferry back. It was a pretty ride. The boats in the harbour were incredible. As we were walking back to the hostel we saw a street performer. He was a juggler. He drew a big crowd, so we stopped to watch. He was funny besides being good.
July 21, 2003
In the morning Laurie and I went to use the internet. There is free internet and the use of a phone. I was trying to call for a hostel in Stockholm. I kept getting a busy signal which seemed like I was dialing the number wrong. I tried to dial the number in a whole bunch of different ways and I still didn't get through. It is very frustrating to make international calls.
We used our alloted time on the computer. We still had things to do on the computer, so we walked up to the library.
I was very frustrated with their computer. It was a Macintosh. The mouse was weird and I couldn't find the appropriate keys on the keyboard. Also, everything was in Norwegian. It took me more time to figure out how to use it than actually use it.
When we left the library we noticed it had rained. We were going to walk to a park, but weren't sure if it was going to rain again.
As we were walking, it did indeed start raining. Laurie had a great idea of going to the movies. So we asked a gentleman if he knew where the theater was. The man was from NYC. He is a street performer. He had a harmonica, a kazoo, and a guitar. He was just setting up. He does this for a living. He has a house in Hawaii for the winter. Sounds like he does pretty well for a street vendor.
We found the cinema and I asked if they had any movies in English. They had "About Schmid" playing, so we saw that.
By the time the movie was over it had stopped raining, so we walked to Vigeland Park. Gustav Vigeland designed and decorated this park with more than 200 of his sculptures. The sculptures are granite and are of nude people in different aspects and activities. It could be families, kids, adults. There is a neat fountain and all around there are sculptures of trees with kids playing. The main feature was one column that I say was over 50 feet. It was made of granite and it consisted of people of different sizes intertwined all the way up the column.
We then walked back to the hostel, for our last evening in Norway.
