Although we had booked our hotel for three nights in Oslo, we could stay only for two nights because our flight got canceled and we arrived in the Scandinavian country a day late. We took the 2 p.m. train to Oslo central from the airport. 40 minutes later, we stepped out on the platform. The Radisson Blu hotel, where we had booked a room, was a hop, skip, and jump away from the station. Dragging our luggage out of the station and down the ramp provided for wheelchairs, luggage, etc, we made our way to the hotel.
I vaguely remember my husband saying, ‘Let’s go and see whatever we can quickly. Tomorrow, is Sunday. Everything will be closed here,’ before dozing off on the couch in the room. Our 11 hour journey from Dhaka to Norway had taken thirty-four hours because of the layover at Qatar Airport caused due to a last minute cancellation of flights by the Airways and a sleepless night prior to that as we waited in an uncomfortable, Dhaka airport, for information on when we could travel. Like they say, there’s a first time for everything. This was the first time in my life that I had allowed sleep to take over my hunger for exploring a new city. ‘You’ll not be able to sleep at night,’ I heard my hubby say.
I woke up only at 5.30 p.m. to bathe, have dinner and go back to sleep again. It was a beautiful Sunday morning when we stepped out on empty streets. As my husband had warned, all stores were closed. Thanks to ‘Thursday Doors‘ challenge hosted by Dan Anton, ‘Friday flowers’ hosted by Cee. and ‘Jo’s monday walk’ challenge, all was not lost. I had enough purpose to explore a city with closed doors and windows.
As we walked along the relatively empty streets ( like us there were a few others clicking away), we chanced upon a church. Being a Sunday, it was open and busy.
Strangely, I did not see a single church in service during my twenty- odd days in Norway.
A park on the way and some more closed doors.
We decided to walk towards the ocean and chanced upon this square with clothing stores.
The statue in front is titled Creature from Iddefjord and was built by American artist, Martin Puryear. You can read more about it here.
I did not get a chance to enter the library during this visit but it’s on my list for the next time I visit Oslo. The glass building that you see on the other side of the road is the Oslo Opera House.
The Munch museum is behind the Opera House. I’ll write more about it in my future posts on Norway.
This stunning pink building on the pier was used as a storage house until the 1920s and is now used as offices. A lot of sites will tell you that you can get a lovely picture of the building from the rooftop of the Opera house which means you probably need to buy a ticket to get in. I took this picture standing in front the Munch museum and I think it’s okay.
Below are some pictures taken around the pier
And here are pictures of flowers growing in the wild that I clicked along the way.
The city is full of flowers in the summer. The air is pure, free of pollution and dust, the sky is the sweetest blue, and the water is the deep of copper sulphate crystals ( as, I remember from lab experiments in school). Pansies, daisies, dandelions, and lilacs growing in pots and trees add color to a city that could otherwise look pretty much ‘blue’.
I’m tempted to link this post to Colleen’s Tanka tuesday where she asks us to write syllabic poetry using synonyms of the words, ‘open’ and ‘close’. I’m going to try and write the American Cinquain which is a 5 line poem with the syllabic count of 2-4-6-8-2
Shut doors
What treasures hold?
All that my eyes behold-
pure, unlocked and far more precious-
Nature
And with this, I end today’s post. I have another set of doors taken on this day. But these should suffice for now.
See you next Thursday.
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Last but not the least, I wish all my readers who are celebrating Eid today, Eid Mubarak. May the festival fill your hearts with love and your minds with peace.
To read previous posts on Norway, click here.
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