First of all, I have an update to an earlier post! I have pictures from my visit to Vegard, Berit, Magnus, and Christian. Tusen takk til Berit for å sende bildene!
Today was one of my favourite days so far in Oslo. I got to tour the Royal Palace, Akershus Fortress, walk around Oslo with Christina and Alina, visit the Moods of Norway store, sit outside and enjoy the outdoors, and have a glass of wine and have prawns on bread with mayonnaise and lemon juice.
First, Christina, Alina and I toured the Royal Palace. It is quite a sight and an amazing place to be when one thinks of the history of the building, the royal family, and the people of Norway. Sadly, I have no pictures because they were not allowed, but I got a couple nice books about the palace and I have pictures of ducklings; that has to count for something!
The Gate Entrance
Ducklings
Ducklings
Royal Guard
I learned a lot that I didn't know. The King and Queen are not allowed to wear crowns because they are not coronated. There has not been a coronation in Norway since King Haakon VII was "adopted" from Denmark. Ok, here's a history lesson -- when Norway became fully independent in 1905 and no longer was under the regency of the Swedish King, so Norway did not have a king. However, the people of Norway voted to have a constitutional monarchy in place in Norway. This was a problem for one reason -- Norway hadn't had a king since the 1300s and it didn't have a surviving royal family in 1905. So where does a country go looking for a king? Why, Denmark of course! King Haakon VII was imported from Denmark and to show the European countries that Norway was really a monarchy, a coronation was held for King Haakon VII and King Maud. After this, a paragraph was added to some official document saying that coronations would no longer take place. Therefore, Norway's "first" and last coronation was in 1906 and that's why the King and Queen of Norway cannot where the crown.
Also, it appears to be that none of the Scandinavian royals are actually Scandinavian by blood. They're actually French or German or English or something else. Take Karl Johan, King of Sweden and Norway in the early 1800s. Karl Johan, born Jean Bernadotte, was born in France to an aristocratic, but not royal family. During the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden was lacking an heir to the throne and, Karl Johan caught their eye. He was instated as King of Sweden and Norway in 1818.
Another quick interesting item is that the dinner menus for Royal Galas (of which there are two a year) are in French.
After our tour of the palace, we walked down Karl Johans Gate to the "Moods of Norway" store, behind Stortinget and next to Louis Vuitton, looking for a cool t-shirt. We found the store and the t-shirts, but they were 499 kr. That's a lot of money for anyone who doesn't know! Needless to say, I didn't buy one.
We continued on to Akershus Fortress where we took a free tour about the "Prisoners of Akershus." All the way from the 1300s or earlier up until 1950, Akershus was used as a prison. It was very interesting to see different cells and find out about the Nazi occupation and how they used the prison.
After returning to Blindern Studenterhjem for a couple of hours and sitting outside, Alina and I went to go see The Twilight Saga: Eclipse at the Colosseum theatre in Majorstua. It was good, and pretty much what I was expecting. It was also very hilarious, but it was not meant to be -- the best kind! An interesting note about the Oslo cinemas is that they are state-owned and have assigned seating. You can also go to any cinema in Oslo and buy tickets for any other one.
At around 9pm, Christina and I went down to Aker Brygge to a bar/club/restaurant thing that is on this floating dock thing. We had a nice time enjoying the view, having a glass a wine, and eating prawns on a baguette with mayonnaise and lemon juice -- peeled, spread, and squeezed yourself (a very Norwegian thing to do.) The prawns and bread pictured is not mine, but is close to what we ate sans the fancy bread and vegetables.
Oh, I also ordered my plane tickets for my flight from Oslo to Venice.
Now I'm back writing this blog and thinking back upon the great day I had!
Tomorrow I plan to soak in some rays at Sognsvann and catch the last match of the World Cup 2010.
See more pictures on Facebook!
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