last day in Oslo

Our first stop on Tuesday morning was the bus station to look at bus passes to Copenhagen (on a tip, we heard that bus was the best way to get there). After researching the options, we decided to try out the 'night bus' which departs at 11:00 p.m. and arrives at 8:30 a.m. the next morning. We purchased 2 Swebus passes for 818 Norwegian cronas (about $148 USD total, or $74 per person).

From there we took the bus to Bygdøy. This is a peninsula that is located about 20 minutes by bus (about 8 km) from downtown Oslo, and it is where there are a few recovered & restored Viking ships. First stop was a kebab stand for lunch. Dave got another pita kebab and Jen got a burger that was topped with some of the same toppings & sauce as the kebabs come. As before, the kebabs everywhere we've gone are delicious!

We went to the Viking museum next, but didn't necessarily want to pay to get in and to fight the large crowds to see a 3 wooden boats (especially since you could see almost the entirety of the exhibits from the entry and gift shop areas).

Instead, we decided to walk down the road to the Folk Museum - which featured an entire village of houses from the 1500-1800s that were moved to this area from different villages around Norway and were restored. The idea is to give museum-goers the feel of Norwegian life over the last few centuries. It turned out to be very interesting and we had a good time walking around for a couple of hours.

In the next picture, you can see some dwellings from the 1600s. The roofs were made by laying multiple layers of shaved bark over one another. In the short period of summer here, the roofs grow over with grass.

There are many 'workers' in the museum who act as period-specific village people. In one area, there was a guy herding sheep. After moving them around a bit, he climbed onto the roof of the house nearby and began cutting back the grass growing on the roof ... the sheep were going crazy trying to get to the fresh cut grass from the roof. We found this all very entertaining...

There were a few horse-drawn carriages sharing the path through the village with us.

We also happened across an 1800s farm-house, complete with animals!

There were a lot of gardens - some with vegetables and some with beautiful flowers...

From here we took the bus back to downtown Oslo. It was about 4:30 at this point. We have to be back at the bus terminal for around 10:30 p.m. so we decided to just goof off for a few hours. We'd heard from a few fellow hostelers about Norway's infamous 'brown cheese', so we decided to stop in at a grocery to pick up some (along with bread and sliced turkey). Then we headed over to the slanted roof of the Opera House, where many people sit and take in the views of the city.

We did a little research and learned that brown cheese is made by boiling whey, cream, milk and salt for hours until a cheese like substance is formed. It has a very interesting taste - sort of like a solidified cheez-whiz...

From there, we checked out a second-hand clothing store (many wonderful sweaters), a rather interesting pipe shop, walked over to the hostel to pick up our bags, set out for one last serving of Norwegian-style kebabs for dinner, and concluded the evening with people-watching on Karl Johans Gate until around 9:00 p.m.

We walked over to the train station and sought out power outlets to charge up the phones, iPad, and laptop. Then at about 10, we walked over to the bus terminal and waited for our ride to Copenhagen.

Boarding for the bus happened right on time and the bus was only about 1/3 to 1/2 full of passengers, so we had a little room to spread out. Although it took a minute to get comfortable, I was able to fall asleep just around midnight.