Chasing The Scream in Oslo

Storyline: Scandinavia

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Wed, Jun 25

Oslo is our last stop in Norway. Our home is an Airbnb apartment with a bedroom, a living room and kitchenette located a historic working-class district named Grünerløkka or Løkka as the local call it.

We arrive by train from Flåm, two trains actually, after 7:30PM.

Time does not bother us. With 18 hours of sunlight, the sun does not completely go to bed in late June, or sooner it goes to bed for about 4 hours, but is a “light” sleeper. The nights are white. According to Google we have about 30min or some 2.5km uphill to our new location. It takes us some time to get through a construction area by the central station.

Then we roll our luggage uphill on a street with many restaurants. Patios full to the brim with noisy customers. We cross a nice park and Mr. Google tells Alex that we have to turn right somewhere by the church on the top end.

First, we stop at a popular convenience store, Joker, to collect the keys. We’d use the same store on Sunday, since as we’d find out that all major grocery stores are closed Sundays. That caught us by surprise. After reaching our new accommodation and dropping the carry-ons we quickly check the supplies. Very well-supplied place.

Fridge full of beer and tons of other stuff. Pasta, rice, oils, vinaigrettes and much more in the cupboards. We actually don’t have to shop tonight, but Alex needs his milk and bread. Plus eggs and greens for breakfast, perhaps. It is after 9pm so we’d better hurry. Luckily there was a store closing at 11pm. Up another hill. We shop enough for a few days and back home while Alex is making us a quick dinner I am unpacking.

We had discovered some frozen mix back in the hotel in Boden, Sweden. This was the workers’ dinner, Carina, the hotel manager told us then. It was a mix of veggies, potatoes, ham, bacon, all chopped on small pea size cubes. We’ve been using it ever since, adding other ingredients, either for dinner or breakfast.

The apartment is big, but the closets are full of man’s clothes. Suits, ironed shirts, drawers full of socks and underwear, you name it. Six or more months ago, when I was trying to book, there was almost nothing in our price range for Oslo. I eventually found this one on the Airbnb site. Apparently, it was our host’s apartment. He was living here and perhaps renting it when he is on a business trip or vacation for some extra income.

The next morning we’ll realise that our week in Oslo coincides with Pride week, and one of the biggest Pride parades in the world. Everything falls into place now. The lack of accommodations, the busy restaurants, the crowds literally everywhere and our young host escaping the city. Perhaps staying with his girlfriend (we did find woman’s shoes in the closets).

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Thu, Jun 26

For the first time since we left Stockholm it is sunny and warm enough for short sleeves. Afternoon temperature rises to about 23 or 24C. It feels warmer to me, but perhaps this is because Oslo is on Oslofjorden fjord, although we are far uphill from the water.

All the parks around and any public and private green spaces, are full of sunbathing people with their small bikinis; not something one can normally see in a North American park. Same by the water. Where there is a space, even a small one, it will fill with sunbathers.

This is our first exploration day. Walking to the train station which we exited at the back last night, then through and onto the square full of people, cafes, patios and more.

This will be our main route for the next few days. In front of us is the beautiful Opera House designed to look like an iceberg.

Blue skies with fluffy clouds reflect in the glass walls. It looks so light and even fragile.

A miniature glass iceberg sculpture in the waters in front of it. Next is a totally different building, somewhat contrasting the lightness of the Opera House,

a heavy metal like guard rails structure with glass in front on the top few floors. The Munch Museum.

Despite the contrast, these two look like they’re living in harmony.

We walk up past the glittering glass wall of the Opera House, and up a few floors by the sloping ‘iceberg’ surfaces.

A Spanish-speaking group dancing at the back. Views from the top are spectacular.

Descending from the other side we walk inside. The café is closed.

There are no opera performances, but we buy tickets for a show for our last night, which will allow us to see inside.

Or so we thought. But for this later.

Up the hill to our place, we call it a day. It is about 3 km uphill and with all the stops and photos it takes us over an hour to get there.

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Fri, Jun 27

Our main goal here is to see The Scream. We haven’t done our research yet. We saw the Munch Museum yesterday and today we’ll visit it. Thus, we head back downhill about 50 to 60min walk.

After taking more photos of the really photogenic Opera House, we buy out museum tickets and go directly to “The Scream room”.

What we’d find in this museum and in the National Art Museum later is that Edvard Munch was very prolific artist, often re-examining the same theme over and over again.

Somehow, I always thought The Scream was a big full-wall painting like Picaso’s Guernica. So when we entered the very small room, I was stunned to find a small painting on one of the four walls. That’s it??? We’ll learn that there were 3 Screams in the museum: oil painting from 1910, a crayon drawing from 1893 and a black and white lithograph from 1895. Each of them occupied a small wall, but only one at a time was exposed to air and visitors. After 30 min everyone would be asked to leave, while the staff closed the exposed painting and opened the next one.

We also learned that the first painted version (1893) was housed in the National Gallery. Is it bigger? I ask. No, it is the same size. This first work, depicting a skull-like figure reacting on existential dread with blood-red skies has become the symbol of modern angst, loneliness and despair.

Well, we’ll have to visit it, but another day. Back to the Munch Museum. When a Scream is open the room becomes rather crowded. We tried to take some photos, but not all.

In between we walked through the other rooms and found much more interesting to me themes of love,

loss, insanity, various emotions, life, and death.

We need a break. There is a rooftop café. We take the elevator up, and later discover that we can’t go back into the museum, because we have exited it.

 

The views of Oslo from the top floor are worth the $74 for a cocktail for me and a beer and a tiny-miny container of fries for Alex.

After the refreshment we had a choice – to take the elevator to the ground floor and re-enter the museum of which we’d only covered part of the floor with the Scream or just call it a day. It is close to 4pm, so we take the second option. Gone are the days we could cover not one but two museums in a day, as it was with Reigna Sofia and Prado in Madrid, and still have some time for a show in the evening.

We walk down through what seems to be the main drag, Karl Johans Gt.

Every patio, big or small, full of people having their afternoon drinks.

A Ukrainian demonstration in a small park, Pride flags decorate the surrounding buildings,

interesting sculptures in the parks… Our goal is to walk to The Royal Palace.

However, when reaching the National Theatre, we realize that the Palace is on a hill still some distance away.

We decide to turn towards home.

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Sat, Jun 28

This is when the things became interesting.

After breakfast we headed towards the National Academy of the Arts very close to home. Our first destination is actually a small street with the only wooden houses in Oslo.

Well-preserved houses from 1700s and 1800s with people still living in them.  They are on a cobbled street Telthusbakken.

Across from the houses is a large area of allotments gardens.

Passing by the Academy we enter nice gardens, full of hiking trails by the Akersevla River.

We pass by a small waterfall,

cross the river and slog up the hill to the houses.

After spending some time on this really short street we head down towards centre aiming at the National Museum for the first Scream and the Nobel Peace Centre next to it.

We spend sometime photographing sculptures in front of the Historical Museum, down to the National Theater we left last night.

The crowds are getting denser and denser. We realise that we are in the middle of the Pride Parade. It’s definitely a party atmosphere with lots of music and dancing. There is no way to cross the fenced streets or speed up our walk in a meaningful way.

We are in the museum around 3:30PM. Enough time to run upstairs and see The Scream, after purchasing tickets of course. The museum itself is full of Pride participants, not for the art, but for the toilets. We ask which way to go for Munch exhibition. Finally, we are in.

And there it is the first Scream! On the wall. No need of preservation time. It is all taken care of in this building.

After enjoying The Scream in quiet (no crowds here at least today), we walk by many other paintings, versions of which we saw yesterday.

The Puberty,

The Sick Child,

The Day After, Madonna…  Perhaps the Munch Museum attracts the crowds and if anyone makes the effort to come here, they are enjoying the art undisturbed by the crowds.

An interesting construction outside in front of The Nobel Peace Center.

Because of the delayed arrival and approaching closing time we opt out of visiting its exhibition.

Outside we are lost in the crowds heading towards Akershus Fortress for a party as far as we could tell.

We mingle with them, stop for photos,

walk by the City Hall,

Oslo Domekirke, meander through the streets until we reach the main drag. We stop for ice-cream in Ikea. We were here yesterday and liked the inexpensive self-serve machine. We get our ice-cream and head towards home. Little did we know that Alex had picked up a virus somewhere in the crowds. (Hah! to those who have said I’m too slow to catch a cold – A)

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Sun, Jul 29 is our last day in Oslo. We are supposed to visit the Opera House for a 5pm show. But Alex is not feeling well. After some discussions in which he insists he could do it we decide to try walking down the hill. It is only 30 min walk after all.

We only make it to the nearest park. Alex gives up and we turn back. I pack our luggage. Tomorrow will be a very long day since we’ll go all the wat to Malmo, Sweden. In the morning, we walk downhill to the train station and say goodbye to Oslo. We are almost home, Canada that is. We only have 4 more sleeps before that.