House and lilacs

This beautiful house can be found near the Monolith in the Vigeland Park. Isn't it just beautiful?!

Red

Another building from the Majorstua area. I just love these brick buildings with the beautiful colours and details. If I had to live downtown, I'd love to live in one of these.

Anno 1915

This is a building in the Majorstua area, close to the center. There are a lot of really nice buildings in this area. I will post more later.

Bogstad

This is the Bogstad lake, a beautiful area west in Oslo. Translated it means something like "marshy place lake". The yellow buildings you can barely see to the right, are Bogstad Estate from the 16th Century. It's a beautiful place which I will visit soon to get more close up-photos. They have a cafe and guided tours of the estate. They also have some animals there, and an art exhibition. This is an excellent place to take the family on a Sunday.

To the left (not visible in this photo) there is a nice spot for playing golf. Close by is a large, all year open camping spot; the Bogstad camping.

Here's a close up of the Estate, but I'll return with better photos later.

The Dubliner

This is an Irish pub in Oslo: The Dubliner. It's located in downtown Oslo and is my favourite place to go out. Always great atmosphere, good bands and lots of fun people. I love meeting people from the UK, and this is the place they go. :) The building is quite old, I think, and looks kind of scary in this photo. But it's very nice inside!

I spent yesterday here, it was a grand night!

(by the way: old photo as I didn't bring my camera last night. We do not have snow now.)

Spring sign

This photo is taken by my guest blogger, Stormel. This is a typical spring sign: Kids parking their bikes outside their school.

Troll

This little fellow is standing outside of the ski museum at the Holmenkollen ski jump. He looks quite happy and content. I guess he enjoys all the tourists taking photos of him.

Trolls are mythic creatures from the Norwegian folk tales. They usually live in the deep forests, inside mountains or under a bridge. According to the fairy tales, trolls don't like sunlight. In fact, if the sunrays hit them, they'll turn into stone.

Some trolls are very mean, some are kind, some are huge and some are small. They're also known to be quite gullible, so if a troll captures you - keep your head clear and try to fool him. Like "Askeladden" (Ash lad) in this story:

One day Askeladden and his two older brothers were out in the forrest, they met the Troll. This troll was not a good one, and it caught the three brothers and brought them to his cage. Askeladden realized that they would all be eaten the next day. But he would try to fool the troll.

"Let's have a competition", said Askeladden to the troll.
"If I can eat more of that porridge than you, then you will set us free."

The troll thought this boy was very funny. How could this little boy eat more than him? But the troll agreed to the terms, and they started eating. After they had finished the first bowl, the troll was very surprised that Askeladden still seemed hungry. What the troll didn't know was that Askeladden had his bag inside his sweater and that he used this bag to put the food in.

"Why don't we bring another bowl of porridge on", said Askeladden, but now the troll was starting to get full. After a while the troll said to Askeladden that he could not eat any more. Nor could Askeladden, so he suggests to the troll that the can cut their belly open with a knife. The troll may be stupid, but not that stupid, and he laughs and says that he will do it if Askeladden does it first. Of course Askeladden just cuts his bag, while the troll, who really don't want to lose the competition, cuts his belly.

After the troll is dead, Askeladden releases his brothers, and takes all the gold in the trolls cave with him back home.

For a more modern version of another fairytale (Little Red Riding Hood), check out the link in the menu to the right - under Norwegian comedy.

Holmenkollen kapell

This is Holmenkollen chapel, a small church stituated quite near the Holmenkollen ski jump that I've showed you earlier. The chapel was built in 1903. It's famous because it's often visited by the royal family. In 1992 it was set on fire (probably by a self-declared satanist) and it was completely destroyed. After some years a big fund had been raised and the chapel was rebuilt in 1996, quite similar to the old chapel. It's inspired by the old stave churches.

Something cool I just found on a map service online. Here you can see a 360' panorama photo from Holmenkollen, showing the church, the view over the city and fjord and of the ski jump. I hope you'll enjoy it! Underneath you'll find a similar panorama of the ski jump (it's even better) and also the other Norwegian cities/places they've added panorama photos from.

Here's a closer look at the chapel. Click to enlarge.

City roofs

Some roofs for you today. A wild mix of this and that. :-)

By the way, I recommend a blog named The Jeremy & Christine wild in Oslo Tour 2007. They travelled just recentely from America to Norway and has written a lot about their experiences here. It's quite funny and has lots of cool photos.

Travelling in Oslo

It's quite easy to get around in Oslo without a car. There are lots of busses, trams - and the subway, which doesn't only go underground. These can take you either downtown, out of Oslo or to the opposite side of Oslo. Usually, they go every 15 minutes, which is quite good. In the weekend you can find night busses to get you home in a less expencive way than by taxi.