Friday Aug. 3 / 12
After sleeping in a bit. I ventured off to the Bygdoy Peninsula.
I started at the Kon-Tiki Museum.
Thor Heyerdahl was a scientist. One of the only scientists who undertook adventurous expeditions to prove his theories. His work sought contact with people from different cultures and strata of society. He crossed the oceans of the world with simple vessels in order to demonstrate that culture contact could have been possible also in prehistoric times.
He became famous in 1947 after his second expedition with the Kon-Tiki raft.
There were arguments that American Indian cultures lacked the knowledge and vessels necessary to conduct large-scale ocean voyages and that the balsa raft would not stay afloat to reach their destination of 8000km.
Thor set out to prove them wrong.
Thor and his crew (5 other men) were at sea for 101 days, with only the wind pushing them forward. They went an average distance of 79km per day. People said it was a suicide mission. But after 101 days, the voyage had successfully proven the feasibility of ocean voyages using South American Indians' vessels in pre-Colombian times.
From this expedition, many books were published, and a movie was made, which Norwegians are very proud of. It also created a lot of scientific debate, mostly in the archaeological and anthropological fields.
In 1970, Thor and a crew of 8 went on another famous voyage called the RAII expedition. They sailed 6100km from Morocco to Barbados using a raft made of papyrus reed from an Ethiopian Lake.
Once again people thought it was impossible to sail the Atlantic ocean using this kind of material, and once again, Thor proved them wrong.
Thor Heyerdahl a brave scientist, underwent several different voyages and expeditions proving his theories one after another.
After this museum, I walked to the Viking Ship Museum. This museum housed 3 different Viking ships - all found in burial mounds in the Oslo Fjord area and excavated between 1867 - 1904.
1. The Oseberg Ship - built around 820 AD, constructed from oak timbers. It could hold a crew of 32 men and in 834 AD it was used as a burial ship. The remains of a woman were found. They thought of her to hold a status of power as she was buried in the chamber with several gifts and artifacts.
2. The Gokstad Ship - build around 890 AD. The remains of a man laid in the burial chamber but they think grave robbers stole most of the gifts, as they found no weapons.
3. The Tune Ship - build around 900 AD. Also finding the remains of a man in the burial chamber.
There were more displays of artifacts that had been excavated.
It was interesting that many of the findings from these Viking ships were similar to the depictions from the Viking burial grounds that I went to in Aalborg Denmark.
I didn't find this museum quite as interesting as the one in Denmark.
I took the ferry back to the central city. Next I walked to the Akershus Fortress and Castle.
It was also under construction but I still toured the castle.
It was originally built in the 1300's primarily to defend Oslo, capital of Norway.
It survived many attacks from Sweden. In the 17th century the castle was remodelled to be more renaissance in appearance.
After WWII and the Nazi German assault on Noway, many parts of the castle were destroyed and later restored in the 1900's. There were a few rooms that survived.
The castle is still in current use as it houses the representation rooms of the Norwegian Government.
It was close to 4pm by the time I finished my tour of the castle, and I met up with Frank. We ate some crepes and walked around the city a bit.
We wondered through a cemetery where the most famous Norwegians are buried.
This is Edvard Munch's grave ------->
He is one of the most famous painters in Norway.
Frank and I spent the evening hanging out in a popular park. We went to a pub later on and played some foosball. It was great fun!
