Lom, Oslo, and good day, Norway!

 

From the west coast, we made our way back through the center of Norway, through the Trollheimen mountain range. We stopped to meet some of the eponymous trolls (nicer than they look), and to ride a cable car up a mountain in Romsdal. 

We made it to our last house in Norway in Lom on the shores of Lake Vagavatnet, part of the river Otta.

On our quest to see some megafauna, we spent some time in the nearby Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park on the trail of the elusive musk ox. It was a decent hike through scrubby forest which turned into tundra, with lots of interesting lichen and views of mountains. While we saw a good amount of ox shit, we didn't run into any creatures.

But fear not, dear reader. I used the time wisely to develop my astral magic and bring forth my first spark!

At this point we were getting kind of Norway-ed out, but we had one more stop. We left Lom for our last Nordic city, Oslo.

We spent a rainy afternoon sauna-ing in an old aquavit barrel at SALT. Did you know that aquavit is matured on ships at sea? Something about the rolling waves and the changes in temp and humidity helps it develop, apparently.

For me, the most interesting spot in Oslo is Vigeland Sculpture Park, which contains over 200 sculptures of naked people engaged in all kinds of shenanigans. They're not all this weird, but pictured are a few of the standouts: man fighting babies, angry baby, and a couple of different poses of man wrestling woman. That monolith in the center has 121 human figures entwined on it, and is not phallic at all! 

All of these sculptures, and the layout of the park itself, are by the same artist! This ray of sunshine, who definitely had no issues to work through, did it all! Pretty neat!

Norway's been good to us: fresh air, cool water, amazing scenery. Now we've moved on from the land of the elves (tall, beautiful, maybe a little aloof) to Ireland (friendly, talkative hobbits, perhaps?). Let the adventures continue!

Peace, Jon