First thing to familiarize myself with Oslo was the Frommer’s “Historic walking tour” and in the “Footsteps of Ibsen and Munch”, native sons that are much loved here. Doesn’t take long to realize what a compact city Oslo is. Anything out of the center to town is easily reached by public transportation which includes the tram, buses, and metro. My itinerary included:
The Edvard Munch Museum was two metro stops from me and I arrived before opening, so I spent 20 mins in the Botanical Gardens before joining the never-short entry line with airport type security. Both the Munch and the National Museum have had thefts of Munch’s “The Scream”—both were also recovered, but are under tighter security now. When Munch died in 1944, his entire estate was bequeathed to the City of Oslo. The collection includes 1100 painting, 4500 drawing and 18,000 prints. Besides just taking in the city, the Munch Museum was the Oslo highlight. He’s obsessed with death, love, and his own anxiety. Some of the collection is accompanied by his journal entries about the painting and the emotion he was trying to convey. Next to the Scream, is written
· “One night I walked along a hillside path near Christiana (Oslo) with 2 friends. It was a time during which life had ripped open my soul, the sun went down. It was as if a flaming sword of blood cut across the firmament. The air turned to blood with cutting veins of flames. The hillside became a deep blue-the fjord-cut in a cold blue-that shrill bloody red on the road and railing. The faces of my friends became a garish yellow-white. I felt a huge scream. I did hear a huge scream…………. Then I painted the scream.”
Another painting shows the upper torsos of a man and woman looking at each other and the journal entry states “when our eyes met invisible hands tied delicate threads – which went through your eyes in through my eyes and bound together out heart”. The museum was fantastic with and the only distraction came from an anorectic teenager who pirouetted through the galleries bumping into people and belching loudly. When guards asked her to stop, her mother took her in tow for a few minutes but soon was back to spiraling in and out of museum goers!
Another highlight was Vigelandsparken, a 74 acre park on the western side of Oslo containing 227 of Gustav Vigeland’s monumental sculptures. After 40 years working on the park, he died one year before its completion. The sculptures, depicting life from birth to old age and death line the entry to the park and lead to a 52 foot sculpture of 121 writhing figures carved into one piece of stone-- easy to find since it is sitting on the highest hill in the park. (Of interest is that Vigeland spent 40 years designing and constructing the park--all with taxpayer money. Munch found this reprehensible and made his feeling clear by donating all of his works to the city.)
There are many sites to see from the Nobel Peace Center and museums to the giant ski jump, Holmenkollen. I took the metro to Homenkollen and walked up the hill to the massive ski jump. The existing is a high tech replacement for the original built in 1892 and is not only the oldest in the world, but a symbol of Norway. It is only used in Feb. and March for ski jumping and all of Oslo and much of Norway stand in freezing winter weather to watch. The competition starts with a procession lead by the king and some of the royal family on skis. I heard that the king’s father had taken part in one of the Olympics in the jumping competition prior to WWII. The royal family is followed by the MPs (ministers of parliament) also on skis--obviously in better condition than our legislators! Cross country skiing is done by almost everyone in Norway from a young age. The ski jump itself is dizzyingly steep, and where I entered the stadium was at the 60 meter landing for the ski jump—it really looks scary and it is also narrow. Cannot imagine what would happen if you crashed on the way down! A simulator give one the idea what it’s like to go down the jump at 160 km. an hr.
Another thing I did that was quite interesting was a visit to the Storting, their parliament. Tours are offered in Norwegian and English 3 times a day. Lines form ½ hr to 15 mins ahead of time and 30 is the max number. Again, airport type scanners and everything is inspected. You can take your camera and nothing else-not even a camera case. Bags and purses are locked away before we begin. Norway has a long history of foreign domination with independence coming only in 1905 when the 100 year union with Sweden was dissolved. Before that Norway was under Danish rule from 1397 until 1814. They treasure their independence and have twice voted down joining the EU and their currency is still the Norwegian kroner. Anyone is allowed to observe any discussion when the Storting is in session, except the King. The podium where the speaker of the house sits is replaced for the opening of parliament in Oct with the King’s throne—his only visit each year. He reads a letter from parliament to him about what Parliament plans to accomplish for the next session. The King has to leave prior to any further discussion, but anyone else, even me could come to listen from the visitors’ gallery. MPs are seated alphabetically by the area they represent, not by party. If anyone wants to speak, they are required to go to the back to the room to a speaker rostrum. Even though women couldn’t vote in Norway until 1914, women now account for 46% of the members.
The picture is me on at the new Oslo Opera House. 
There are several places I didn’t see that I wanted to –like the Viking Museum. The Oseberg ship, a completely intact, well preserved, Viking ship c.834 that was excavated in the early 1900 and numerous other items from the Viking age are on display. So much to see……….. Oslo isn’t the little provincial capital that I expected, but a vibrant city with a lot going on! 
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