Open Road Journal: Oslo Botanical Garden

Botanic garden near the museum

What are these? I forgot to check the sign

Azaleas

Some bad luck and bad timing conspired against us a bit today. When we decided to spend two days in Oslo we expected to spend Sunday visiting museums, including the Munch Museum as well as the National Gallery where Munch's "The Scream" is housed. Several of the National Museums have free admission on Sunday, but are closed on Mondays. However, we only learned after arrival that the Munch is closed for a few weeks while they rotate the collection, and several of the National museums are closed indefinitely due to a strike by the public workers union representing museum security personnel. A visit to the Botanical Garden was on our itinerary anyway, but as the day worked out, the garden was our major tour of the day.

Oriental poppy

Snowdrop anemones

The morning weather was supposed to be scattered clouds, and we dressed accordingly, only to arrive at the garden and promptly get spritzed by drizzle which continued on and off for the rest of the morning. While it was a bit uncomfortable for us, the flowers obviously enjoyed the local clime. The early spring flowers (for Georgia) were in full bloom, but numerous buds suggested the gardens to be about a month away from a summer spectacular.

We left the gardens around noon -- of course, that was about the time the drizzle cleared for good -- and wandered in the general direction (or so I thought) of the DogA (Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture). Unfortunately, I picked up the wrong map when we left the room, and the DogA wasn't marked on the one I picked up. Instead, we wandered into a revitalized fabric mill that I thought held art galleries. We were soon chased out of the place by a thoroughly unpleasant faculty member of the Architecture and Design School.

Red peony buds

We had been warned in Sweden about the generally unpleasant disposition of many Norwegians, and we've certainly come to experience firsthand what they were talking about. I was really ticked off about this guy's attitude for awhile, but then Gi and I walked through the government building area where a car bomb was set off in last summer's terrorist attack. Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured, and something like 8 or 9 buildings are still undergoing extensive repairs (a sign mentioned 800-900 windows that were blown out). I had forgotten that a car bomb had gone off in Oslo in those attacks since news services in the US (and most elsewhere) focused on the 69 kids that were killed at a lakeside summer camp northwest of Oslo. Given what this city went through last year, I too would have probably been pretty suspicious of a couple of complete strangers poking suspiciously around my school building, too.

Bleeding hearts

Bluet Cornflower

All the walking finally caught up with us, so Gi and I wandered back to the hotel (Scandic) and took a long afternoon nap. We went out around 6 PM to look for an inexpensive dinner, which doesn't actually exist in this town. We eventually settled for pizza and pasta at the Mona Lisa restaurant. One small pizza, one bowl of fish chowder, and one bowl of fettuccine ran 415 NOK (about $75) and we felt like we got off cheap. We did enjoy a pleasant conversation with our Swedish waiter who reminded us of the other thing Swedes had told us about Norway, which was that all the wait staff and service personnel in the country are Swedes. When pressed our waiter confided that the Norwegians generally considered waiting tables to be beneath them, and he dared us to find any waiter in Oslo who wasn't Swedish. That's not a dare I'd even consider taking.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset this evening, but are definitely ready to move on. We'll have a leisurely breakfast in the morning and then catch the 1 PM train to Gothenburg.