Vanessa goes Oslo!: 17th of May!

Hi again!

I'm back from my trip to Tallinn & Helsinki and still have two articles to write (more everyday life from before my exam and the trip, of course). However, I decided to abandon the chronology of articles for once in order to publish this post in a timely manner. Can't really postpone the 17th of May until forever because, you know, it's the 17th of May! :P

So Syttendemai (pronounced Søttendemai, for no particular reason) is the Norwegian national holiday. It commemorates the 17th of May 1814, when Norway got its constitution, which is why it's also called Constitution Day (Grunnlovsdagen).

And unlike in Germany, the national holiday is a big thing here. I mean, I'm giving up the chronology of this blog for this:

Never before have I seen so many people anywhere in Norway! I think, a lot of people came to Oslo specifically for this day. That would at least explain why the city was so full of people when we came back from our trip yesterday evening: the airport train, the metro, the city centre - the 16th was basically one big pre-party for the Constitution Day. (I kinda got my private pre-party when I unknowingly entered the kitchen of my place upon return, just to drop my Grønland groceries...)

However, this morning, on my way to the city centre, public transport was obviously more crowded. Basically like rush hour, just that it was probably like this the whole day. Only then (to be fair: and when my Norwegian fellow student texted something about heading home to change into a suit) I realised that BI's international office had been serious in their post on Facebook to inform us internationals about Syttendemai: dressing up for the national holiday is a thing here!

If you're wondering about the people in the gowns in the background: these are bunads, traditional Norwegian dresses. They look different depending on where you are from, and people wear them for important occasions, like the national holiday. I felt like generally women were wearing bunads and men suits, but I also saw some men in traditional clothing and, obviously, women in non-bunad dresses.

Upon arrival at Nationaltheatret, the T-bane station closest to the royal palace, things got a bit messy. As in: there were just so many people! They actually created two lanes at the entrance/exit for people coming and leaving and had people guiding the masses there. And yeah, Karl Johans gata, the main street which the parade was taking on its way to the palace looked like this:

Us three confused exchange students actually managed to find a spot where we could see something when the Kongens Garde (the King's guard) and its corps passed:

Then, we - and a bunch of other people, obviously - made our way to the palace. Fortunately, we had found out beforehand that you needed tickets to make it to the area closest to the palace. You didn't even have to pay for them, you just had to get them in advance, e.g. at the tourist information centre. I literally got mine while waiting for the airport train on the day of my flight to Tallinn. So this ticket has travelled to Estonia and Finland before coming back to Norway. :D

Yup, somebody got a flag for 30 NOK. xD

Yeah, and the area of the palace place was were we spent the rest of the event. The centrepiece of the Syttendemai celebrations is the children's parade. Children from around 150 schools in the Oslo area (including a German school :D) as well as marching bands (not only playing marching songs, I also heard Chained to the Rhythm, Eye of the Tiger, and When the Saints Go Marching In) constituted this parade on Karl Johans gata to the royal palace. I have never seen so many flags and heard so many "hipp, hipp, hurra!" calls ever in my life!

Enjoy a bunch of photos!

Oh yeah, the parade didn't end at the royal palace for no reason: the royal family was standing there, waving at all the children for at least three hours!

And about the children: I heard different things about who gets to attend the parade today. So apparently, attendance is mandatory at some schools for certain grades (pupils aged 8 to 10 or so). However, some schools do not attend the parade every year - somebody even said some schools only do it every 7 (?) years, so you only get the chance to participate in the children's parade once in your school career. And the schools have to register/apply for the parade, I think. So I guess it all depends on your school...? I should probably ask actual Oslo people about the details...

However, next to a lot of small children, there were also the high school graduates. Remember when I said that the 17th is the climax of russeknuter? There were surprisingly little graduates among the parade. Except for the few that were members of the bands. And it was fairly easy to spot them obviously...

Dress code issues: graduation > band!

However, they came in crowds at the end of the parade:

Still crawling to graduation at the palace...

... and greeting the royal family!

All in all, it was really nice (peaceful, emphasizing children and education rather than the military, and surprisingly little police presence - they were probably somewhere in the background though), so I'm gonna refrain from commenting on "nurturing patriotism" for once. :P

The most annoying part was getting out and taking the metro back afterwards, actually. And even that was not too bad. The "major disruptions" my public transport app warned me of were mainly delays on all metro lines - to be expected...

In the afternoon, we celebrated in our own way: we took the ferry to Hovedøya, the first island in the Oslofjord, and had a picnic there. (Not my photos, not my filters!!)

Before going back to the real life, we stopped by the monastery ruin again and of course made the whole round trip with the ferry rather than just going back to Aker brygge directly.