Free sightseeing tour by bus!

Today, we had the chance to participate in the last event of BI's orientation week. And it was probably the highlight of the whole week: a guided sightseeing tour of Oslo by bus - for free!

The meeting point for the sightseeing tour was the entrance of BI's campus (the library is open on Sundays, and as the campus is aggregated under a single roof, so is the whole building). Since there had not really been any communication from the International Office's side regarding the logistics of this tour (number of busses, maximum number of participants, or the like), lots of people, including myself, arrived a bit earlier than the official starting time of the tour, just in case the seats on the bus(ses) would be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis.

This concern turned out to be unfounded. When we left the BI building again, there was a fleet of 4 or 5 busses waiting for us (I only saw 4, but there was a bus with a number 5 sign). So it was not a problem at all to conveniently fit all of us into the busses.

Quite luxurious busses, by the way!

Each bus had a driver and a personal tour guide. Our driver was first getting lost a bit when trying to get out of Nydalen, but we finally made it. During the tour, we also got background information on the history of Oslo (I'm not gonna repeat everything in this article, just linking to Wikipedia once more) as well as further tips on where else to go in Oslo while we're here. Most of these, however, started with, "In spring/summer, ..."

So I'll just give you a quick overview of the stops of our tour, including a bunch of photos me and other people took.

Holmenkollen

Obviously, we had to do the famous - at least for the fans of winter sports, I assume - ski jumping ramp! It was quite cool though. We went up the hill to the stadium, where there's also a museum and a ski simulator:

The ramp...

... and the stadium:

And there were actually people training, which is quite rare according to our tour guide!

Vigelandsparken (Vigeland Sculpture Park)

I just consulted Google: actually, it is Vigeland Installation (Vigelandsanlegget), and the park itself is called Frogner Park. Anyway, it is probably most famous for the sculptures of the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, who did a lot of life-themed sculptures.

The Wheel of Life

The Monolith

The Fountain (telling the story of life)

And here, have some gender stereotypes included in The Fountain!

1. "Boys and girls are different: boys are active and climb trees, girls whisper secrets to each other."

The Dreamer

2. The man, represented by The Dreamer, dreams about all the things he is going to do in his life; the woman dreams about the babies she is going to have.

The Angry Boy

The Angry Boy is one of the most popular statues in the park. If you go there, do not take a photo holding the boy's hand. Too many people have done that before - that's what made his hand golden and shiny.

And here we have Gustav Vigeland himself:

A temporary attraction of attention in the park: two extremely fluffy dogs!

Frammuseet (Fram Museum)

Afterwards, we went to Bygdøy, a peninsula of Oslo, where lots of museums are located. We actually went into Frammuseet  - for free! (Thanks, BI, for paying our admission fee!)

There, our tour guide gave us a short introduction into the Norwegian exploration of the poles, North as well as South Pole. Then, we had could briefly explore the museum ourselves. The biggest attraction in the museum was probably Fram, the actual expedition ship!

And a photo of proof that we were actually there:

Operahuset (Opera House)

To end the tour with, we drove back to & through the city centre and were finally dropped off at the Oslo Opera House. As you might recall, I had already checked out the Opera by myself during the week. Therefore, I'm gonna link to the city exploration post for photos from the outside of the Opera House. However, it's also quite fancy from the inside:

As already mentioned before, you can walk on the roof of Operahuset - which we did this time!

Another photo of proof. ;)

Hi seagull? :D

After the tour, I went straight to vegankaketreff, a vegan cake event in the city centre. There, I traded chocolate and caramel sweets from Germany for lots of vegan cake. This way, I certainly did not miss the lunch I never had! (No photos for once. :P Edit: however, you can check out the photos on their Facebook page!)