Hello Oslo

We began our study trip with an overnight ferry ride from Copenhagen to Oslo. I saw ferry ride, but you should think of cruise. This ship had everything: pool, hot tub, buffet, night clubs, shopping, everything! After spending the first hour or so on the top deck, watching the church spires of Copenhagen fade into the distance, it was time to explore the ship, and that can only mean one thing... DUTY FREE SHOPPING. Samir (the arch intern in charge of our trip) was super nice, and bought us all chips (on DIS's dime) because dinner wasn't until 9pm. So late. A group of us all got different things, invaded a bench in front of a window, and treated ourselves to a chip and peanut buffet while watching the Sweden pass us by. It was a great start to the cruise.

After this, there was more exploring. The night club, the other stores, the pool (which cost 50dkk to get into. No way I'm paying $10 to swim), and all the decks. Finally a we settled on the top deck with a bottle of wine. Now we were on the open ocean between Denmark and Norway and the wind was blowing quite terrifyingly hard. We only lasted about half an hour because some people were never able to get their hair out of their faces. My friend Morgan was having a particularly difficult time and I'm fairly certain she had a mouthfull of hair for the full half hour. Protein.

Back inside we were getting tired. So the quickest way to speed up time is to nap. That hour and half flew by and it was time for the buffet. First gourmet meal of many on the trip and it was delicious. It even included a glass of wine. One glass... (The other study tours got endless glasses of wine. But at least we remember all of our tour.)

After dinner it was time to find something to do. After much walking and looking and discussing and deciding, a friend and I finally settled on building LEGO cities in the kid's lounge before going off to bed in our cabins. The ship was rocking so much by now that no two footsteps were in the same direction. Needless to say, we didn't need anyone to rock us to sleep.

Morning came and with it, beautiful views of the Fjord we were sailing up and another bodacious buffet. And I mean it was one curvy buffet line. Most of the morning was spent on deck, watching the scenery and waiting for Oslo to come into view.

Finally, around 9 or 10 (can't remember) we rounded a corner and the city came into sights. The closer we got, the more details we could see and after passing the fortress, we approached the ferry terminal. Across this harbor from the terminal was one of the most exciting buildings we were to see on this trip, the Oslo Opera House. It rose above the water like a gleaming iceberg, threatening to slide off a glacier and sink us like the Titanic (I'll never let go). After fighting through a mob of people rushing to go to the same place, we were on the bus on our way to our hotel. Oslo was now under seige by American architecture students. Would the city survive? To be continued...

Oslo Opera House

This structure was enormous. It is covered in Italian Carrara Marble, creating a new public space within the city on its roof. It appears as a large glacier rising out of the harbor. The large glass facade presents a preview of the interior, covered in oak panels. The entry sequence into the hall is like walking through the branches of a tree. This is a very Scandinavian design characteristic: the use of natural materials and the flooding of interior space with natural light. After an extensive tour, we had time to sketch and back to the hotel (which was literally 2 blocks from the Opera House. We could see it from the rooftop terrace).

After that, we went to the Norway National Museum of Architecture, where we had DIS bought lunch of salad with chicken. Desert was the most delicious carrot cake. I won't even get into the problems that delayed dessert by over 45 minutes... We were very hungry, it was a big deal.

Then, we took a stroll down the main pedestrian street of Oslo, passed by the City Hall, then were set free for the evening. We ended up finding a restaurant that served reindeer, but also cost too much. After much debating, we ended across the street eating burgers.

We lost ourselves in the city and just walked. I believe this is truly the best way to see a city, even if you have no idea where you are.

In the interest of time...

I'll give some of the highlights as well as the names of the sites we visited.

Hedmarkmuseet- Hamar, Norway

This is a museum on the grounds of a former bishop's fortress from the 13th century as well as a farm from the 18th century. Highlights include a large glass structure soaring over the ruins of a cathedral. Hamar is locted on Norway's largest lake, 2 hours north of Oslo.

Holmenkollen- Olso

This is the site of a large ski-jump constructed for the 1952 winter games. We rode an elevator to the top of the newly constructed jump for breathtaking views of Olso from above.

Dinner was at the restaurant with the reindeer. We decided it was worth it because YOOO (You Only Oslo Once). It was much better than I expected, and we even splurged on desert because we deserved it. Sketching is hard work!

Our last day in Olso consisted of the Olso School of Architecture and DogA, the Norsk Design Center. Lunch was on our own, which means sandwhiches stached from the hotel breakfast and, what else, McDonald's fries and McFlurry's.

After a metro ride to the burbs, we visited Villa Stenersen, which was the building my group researched and built a model of. To put it plainly, it was utterly underwhelming. It hadn't been very well maintained, it seemed a lot smaller than I expected, and I just didn't feel like it was a very welcoming or domestic structure at all. Disappointed.

After that, we followed our Arch Intern, Samir, to this Vigeland Sculpture Park. While it was a beautiful park, the sculptures were strange. They were the life's work of Gustav Vigeland, who must've had a lot of time on his hands, and were all nude human figures. Nothing wrong with that, right? Except that they were doing the weirdest things, like being eaten by snakes or kicking babies. The central feature of the park was a giant column of bodies, morphed together.

Street Car ride. So Fun.

Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art- Oslo

This structure sits on the harbor. The ceiling arcs over the entire building, acting like a sail. The art inside was really amazing as well.

Dinner... Oh my gosh, dinner. We had the most amazing fish and WINE!!! For dessert, creme brule. yum.

That night, we decided to go over to the opera house to just see the city lit up as well as the opera house itself lit up.

Bid farewell to Oslo but not before one more sight.

Mortensrud Kirke- Olso

This is a brand new church for a brand new parish. The interior is stunning, with an elevated mass of slate stacked in a way so that light shines through the openings, making it appear there were stars or sparkles surrounding you. I loved this site.

Back onto the bus for 3 hours, and onto Sweden...