Day 6

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Went to Viking and Fram ship museum today. And only to realise at night when we met up with farridus that I can actually enter the Viking museum for free. Sucks. I even showed the counter lady my pass which says UiO and she said “35 kr pls”. On the comforting side, the museum isn’t that expensive. 35 kr is like 7 sing.

Anyway, the Viking and Fram museum was quite something. Vikings has such tremendous culture, history, and tradition. It’s quite amazing reading on the excavation and such. Seeing the tools they use, their sculptures and most importantly, their original ships excavated. Their ships seriously looked like ghost ships. I guess that’s why cartoons always portray some sort of viking ghost ships and viking ghosts.

Fram museum, I felt, had much more to offer than Viking museum. And it costs less. 20 kr – 4 sing. Its all about 1 ship – the Fram. The ship that travelled to the North pole and South pole. And the original ship was really really very well preserved. You can even enter the ship, look at the ship cabins and it was really cool – the olden days inside the cabin. There was even a chamber used to keep the dogs that they use for dog sleigh when the reach the polar ice. And to make things more real, they lock the chamber up and played lots of dog growling sounds from inside. Fram was certainly good. Around the ship, the museum has polar bears and seals and birds and the mountain ox. I thought they were all fake as its just some static creature. But on careful examination, I suspected that they were actually once-live polar bears and like, killed and preserved. Their eyes was so life-like, you can see the details of the eye-ball and stuff and it reflects such light, you can hardly believe its not real. Moreover, their fur really felt so real and was so thickly massed! So I asked Erik, and he said they are real. “you can check the polar bear’s fur. They have a layer to black skin underneath the fur if it’s a real bear” We checked and really did saw the layer of black skin.
They even have the original coat made of seal’s fur worn by this explorer!

Next stop, take bus 30 back to national threatre stop, to the national gallery museum. Just after we stopped, we saw police car, police vans and just more and more police man storming past to the castle. I was wondering what’s going on. Maybe the King and Queen are coming back? Erik said perhaps there’s a protest. So we walked to the road that leads to the entrance of the castle. And yes, there was a mob down the street, advancing towards the castle. Was really a huge mob. Haven never seen a protest like that in my life because Singapore simply ban such stuff. Told Erik that I’ve never seen such a big protest before and he said “well, u probably see this every 2 days here. The other day it was quite bad. I think it turned violent and some people started burning stuff”. Right. And then I asked what protest could it possibly be. Erik said “maybe the Israel-Gazza thing” I said “what? What had Israel gotta do with Norway?” Erik: “No idea. But you can protest or demonstrate about anything. Just get a few more people that wants to do that, walk down the streets, and you’ll find more people joining you” As the mob gets closer, I saw with my eyes those banners and it was indeed the Israel-Gazza thing, and the mob is obviously anti-israel. It has banners that says “Stop Israel” and the crowd chants “Burn down Israel! Burn down Israel” There were even little children on their parents shoulders. For a moment, I was overcame with emotions and could possibly have almost teared. Such hatred towards the Jews is neverending. The Jews can never seem to experience peace, never seem to be left alone, WHEREVER they are. Imagine you’re a Jew living in Norway. Would such a mob frighten you?

At night, I on-ed my ipod and there was this song “Rejoice O Israel” by Adeline gan. Listened to it and was rather overwhelmed. I mean, I know the situation is severe and I really feel for them. The Jews will forever be persecuted (according to the bible), until the day the nation sings “Beruth haset Adoni” (blessed be the name of the Lord). But to experience the protest made my affections towards the tiny nation deeper and richer.

“Shalom Jeruselum, peace be within your walls, Messiah will come. He’ll wipe away your tears and pain. Rejoice, daughter of Zion. Shalom Jeruselum, Yeshua will return to reign”, sings Adeline.

I refuse to get drawn into a debate of who’s right who’s wrong. I know, Israel retaliated, but whether the extent is justified is beyond me. And all these fights boils down to religious roots. Can you believe that approx 4000 years later, the middle east is still fighting over Issac and Ishmael? Seriously, there is not too much difference between judaisers and muslims. Both you guys observe the commandments like crazy. And they are still fighting over 2 boys, 2 teenage boys who 4000 years ago, had some differences because of the mother Sarah, and the maid Hagar. Gosh. It’s a family problem. “Cast out the bondwoman (Hagar), for the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman (sarah)”. And 4000 years later, it has become a war between nations, rather of nations against 1 nation.

This tiny nation, a race so blessed by the Abrahamic covenant yet so cursed because of their rejection of their very own God whom they worship in vain til today. A race that has won more nobel prizes than any, despite being the smallest race. A race so intelligent and successful wherever it went. A race that owns several world famous brands and industry like levis, warner brothers, just to name a few. Yet a race so hated, so persecuted, so killed. Wake up Israel, the torah has passed. There is not a single angel left in mount sinai. God and co. have shifted to mount zion. The law and commandments is fulfilled already. It’s the era of grace.

We followed the protest for 1 street, before you continued to the national gallery which is FOC. The national gallery forbids taking of photographs, but you still see a lady snapping the pictures. Doesn’t matter really, because you can get all the famous paintings on the internet. No point going to a gallery to take pictures. More importantly, seeing the paintings in real life with your naked eyes is a completely different experience. It makes the paintings ten times more life-like. No joke. And you can actually observe the numerous layers of paint they apply, just to get the desire effect. Some spots, the artist applied more layers of paint to make it more life-like and outstanding (usually for foreground stuff). For the background, after they are done, some apply a thin layer to white or faint colour to make the background fade. Absolutely amazing.

Obviously, the easiest artist to spot was Edvard Munch. His style is un-copy-able and totally different. Initially, I totally couldn’t appreciate his style of painting. Its like.. so childish and yet its different and his painting seems to tell stories. Seriously, I still cant appreciate his style. The way he paints the moon and its reflection is so predictable and child-like. However, his most famous painting was just absolutely genius. And I guess, everyone in the museum wanted to see his famous “screamer”. I couldn’t remember how old it was when he drew it, but in this modern world, the screamer really speaks into the depth of everyone’s soul. Especially so as a Singaporean, where the pace of life is much faster than in norway, and because of this “hurry hurry” mentality, anxiety, emptiness and loneliness, I feel is more prevalent in sg than here. Thus, everytime I see the screamer, I see a Singaporean in the painting. No joke.
“Wild Hunt of Odin” totally took my mind away.
The painting Albertine i politilægens venteværelse (Albertine in the police station waiting room), by Christian Krohg, which caused so much controversy that the painting and book was banned, was really simple but speaks about the corrupted situation and prostitution of that era to great content. There was so much emotion depicted in the painting.
I really couldn’t remember when was the last time I attended an art gallery and enjoyed it. Having been raised in a very art family, in an old previous home full of sculptures and paintings, by a father who is an educated in the arts and is an art trainer, I was put through several stages of art lessons as a child. Though a unanimous decision not to pursue this field when I was 12. Having attended countless galleries and exhibition as a kid, pictures and paintings have become a bore to me. For the past 10 years, I have not attended any single gallery, except last year, when it was hosted by my dad and it showcases paintings by his students. Hence, I never expect to actually enjoy a gallery this much, and to attend a gallery once more.

At night, the germans decide to eat out and not cook. I was really apprehensive about it, as you know, eating out in Oslo is the most expensive in the world. Macs alone costs 20 sing per meal. But I guess following the germans wouldn’t be that bad. After all, they know this place better than me and as I can tell for the past days, they are pretty good at saving money and going the economical way. And besides, I was so hungry as I had not eaten lunch. They wanted to go to some Japanese restaurant to eat sushi, much to my delight! But too bad, the cheap sushi restaurant was close will 5 jan. These Oslo people sure know how to take holiday and work less. Several shops close at 3pm, some earlier. The police station closes at 1pm. Right. You wonder why this city is so economically prosperous then. So we went to an Indian restaurant instead. And darn, the menu is in Norwegian. We were trying so hard to translate. I asked the waiter for an English menu and he said “It’s not that different. Norwegian is English. This is chicken, this is lamb, this is curry”… Later I found out, that in Europe, the restaurants are different from that in Asia. In Europe, they can throw you out of their restaurants if they are not happy with you, and tipping is common. Which everything sums up, bad service plus expensive (though good) food, plus tipping means the restaurants in Europe arnt really worth going. I mean, in Asia, the customer is the boss. The waiters and waitresses are of top quality, trained like a robot to serve and serve. And no tipping required. I ordered lamb curry with rice. I admit that the meal was good, or maybe because I din eat lunch and was thus super hungry. But paying 18 sing for that and tipping 2 sing is abit too ex. 10% tip. Well, for the experience in European restaurant. Faridus told me that this is one of the cheapest restaurant u can find in Oslo. Wow. 20 sing for a meal is the cheapest restaurant. Right.

At night, syl intro me over msn to this girl called esther who’s a sgrean studying in Oslo. I was asking her if I can siam the transport pass thing cos seriously, 1 week here, and no one checks train and tram ticket. Seems to me like, everyone is taking trains and trams for free. Even buses, a lot of people just enter from the back door and even if I enter from the front, the driver just glance at my pass. The exact date of expiry is too faint to see. Then she was saying then when semester starts, there will be more ticket checking. And that the ticketers are hard to spot on the train, because they’ll only tell u that they are ticketers after you board. Her friend got fined 750 kr (150 sing) on the spot. And the make it easy to pay, cash or credit. Sigh. Guess my cheap cheap thrill of breaking the law in a foreign country is gone. And saving some transport money.

Some things are really cheap here. Like bicycles (a lot of people here commute by bikes, and they sell good bikes on average because of the terrain). Handphones are really cheap compared to sg and germany. Brocolli is cheaper than cabbage. Salmon is cheaper than in sg.

Tmr is Sunday and I was told that ALL shops are closed. Including grocery stores. Thus, I went on my own grocery shopping. Enough of plain maggi/spaghetti. Bought a 0.5 metre long fish that they say is caught from the fjord nearby. Hah. Costs 25 sing but I can eat that for 2 weeks I estimate. Its really HUGE fish. Showed the germans my fish and they are just damn proud. Asked Ania to take a photo of the fish with me and Erik said “did u buy the fish for the photo?”. Germans have good sense of humour.