So for my first blog, I thought I would write about a really nice place to check out here in Oslo. The other day I took a bicycle ride with my roommate to this place, which is one of the most famous tourist attractions in the city. It is a park called the Vigeland park. This is a sculpture park inside another park called Frogner park.
So this sounds kind of confusing but its really not. The Frogner Park is a big facility, which contains both green areas, and outdoor swimmingpool/waterpark, a stadium and tennis courts. Within the area is also the most famous part, which is the sculpture park AKA the Vigeland park, however the two names are usually used synonymously to refer to the same thing which is the whole park in its entirety.
The area has a really cool vibe about it, and in the summertime, the grass fields are filled with people making barbecues where they stuff their faces with the Norwegians most simple but cost effective barbecue food which is grilled sausages that are put inside a potato pancake (that actually originates from Sweden).
You also see a lot of people sunbathing (or trying to at least…Norwegian summers can be rather fluctuating), doing capoeira, jogging, playing Frisbee, walking their dogs or just enjoying a few beers with friends. There are tourists there all year though. They mainly come to see the sculptures, which are the lifework of the Norwegian sculpture Gustav Vigeland (hence the name). The park contains a total of 214 sculptures and most of them are made out of bronze.
The most famous one is a small statue of a little angry baby. The statue is called “The Angry Boy”, and it is probably the equivalent to “The Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen. Everybody is taking pictures while they hold the hand of the statue, which has eventually led to the hand becoming completely shiny.
Personally I find it much more amusing to imitate the statute, also it usually leads to people looking at you in a strange way while you do it. It has also been stolen several times and the culprits have done so by cutting it off at the foot, so at the foot it is noticeable that it has been “put back” some times. Even though the park is really nice in the summertime, it is also spectacular on a sunny autumn day, because when the sun is low it hits the statues in a really nice way. There are some pretty funny and obscene statues other than the Angry Boy. For instance this one that depicts a man kicking and punching babies.. It might seem a bit weird, but the expression is powerful.
There is also a huge monolith made of stone. Within the monolith are human bodies holding each other together, and around it are stone sculptures that depict the life from birth and childhood to old age and death. My favorite one of these is this one because it reminds me of my twin sister and me when we were kids. This park is the most visited tourist attraction in all of Norway and I would definitely recommend everyone who visits Oslo to check it out. Even if I have lived in Oslo for 6 years now, I still like to come back there from time to time, whether its to look at the sculptures, work out or eat a grilled sausage in a potato pancake with my friends.