Wait, the Norwegians hate their natives too? Damn, we all suck...

I'm totally stealing the Laundromat Cafe idea. Popped in in the morning around 9am-ish. Threw my clothes into the machines in back. The front of the place resembled a nice Portland local coffee shop. A library up some stairs in a corner. Sofas and comfy chairs. Plus they served a nice breakfast too. People reading books or using the free WiFi while sipping their lattes. As a society, we have failed.

Went back to the hostel, dropped thangs off, and headed out TO PILLAGE!

Ok, maybe just to hit the Viking Museum. But it was seriously cool. They found two burial Viking ships back 100 years ago and they tried to preserve it via the methods they had then, which was alum. What they didn't know was that it would develop into sulfuric acid inside the wood. So now they are trying to figure out ways to keep the wood from disintegrating. Whoops. But it was pretty cool to see two fully formed Viking ships. Also you couldn't pay an entry fee, you had to cut the living heart out of villager and eat it in front of a chieftain. The good news is, lunch solved!

The ships really were beautiful. Though without the blood dripping off the sides, it could have used some color.

The ticket to the Viking Museum also allowed entry into the Historical Museum downtown. Unfortunately, the Viking Museum was across the bay along with the Kon-Tiki, etc. There was however a Norwegian Folks Museum down the road one bus stop. Since I was there, I figured "the hell with it, why not"

It was completely and utterly worth it. The exhibits were meh, though I found out that there is a native tribal culture called the Sami that the Norwegians have been screwing for centuries, just like us! They had an exhibit about their culture and how they have been taking their land while destroying their culture. Whoa. This is a Sami in Oslo now.

The rest of the folk museum was a tour of the buildings throughout Finland's history. You start with the typical wooden structures and eventually they went to the decades prior to present day. It was pretty cool as they had an actual set of streets from different periods with storefronts and items you could check out. One of the coolest things was a 13th century ornate wooden church that they had moved onto the open air park grounds (most of the "museum" was like that). It was a LOT of walking but well worth it to get a feel of how people used to back in those days.

After that I hopped on the bus to the Kon-Tiki/Fram area, and then a boat back over the the central docks. At the end of the boardwalk was a modern art museum. Those are usually hit or miss for me. I generally like about 20-30% of the art, but the rest is just garbage to me. Don't get me wrong. It is art, it is made to evoke emotions, and it does that. A lot of the time the emotion is a desire to vomit as its really hard to shock me anymore. Some of it was cool though. They had a huge mosaic of just different types of butterflies.They also had a variety of penises and vaginas and fake blood, yada yada yada. A cow that was cut in half and preserved was pretty cool, along with some of the paintings I seen. Most of the photography was crap. Just picture of jumbled things assembled and warped to try and invoke "terror". I'm not a slasher flick type, so it wasn't working for me.

I got some good pics and generally enjoyed the gallery, so it was a win for me. Plus I decided to treat myself on the boardwalk to a really nice meal of Angus steak in a red wine reduction sauce, with pickled onions, asparagus, and a layered potato and egg pie slice. It was expensive, but it was worth it for the treat.

After that it was just getting home and relaxing. I did walk around the local neighborhood for a couple hours for the hell of it, then came back and tried to figure out how to microwave some TV dinner thingy I bought. Corned beef, cabbage, and potato. I think. Whatevere, it was good.