nawl

So, fun in Oslo.

There appears to be quite a lot of happy geek/goth/etc. subculture here. Hixie took me to not one but two large nerd emporiums, each with a wide collection of 1. games, mostly in English, 2. role-playing game paraphernalia, 3. assorted sci-fi and fantasy figurines, 4. DVDs of all sorts, 5. comic books of both superhero and modern angst persuasions, in both Norwegian and English, and 6. books of the genres sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and various Japanophilia, all in English. Later I was investigating his enormous pile of games, in a pile approximately 8x3 in size, and noticed a distinct lack of Set. Neither store above nor a nearby toy store had it. I'm shocked and disappointed.

We also investigated a store that captured a truly odd cross-section of guns, swords, knives, other potentially violent male-oriented gadgets, and military and rave clothing.

The touristy street and the palace. Apparently they just re-did the street so that it has underground heating to melt off snow. Because it's more efficient than plowing. The palace is just kind of hanging out, no major security (though there were guards in funny costumes at the door). Random people were sunbathing on nearby lawns. I don't think they want random people to sunbathe on the white house lawn.

The statue park. It's a park decorated with an enormous number of statues in iron and granite of naked people doing things with each other. There are men and women and adults and children, laughing and serious and in motion and still. Many of the women have braided hair. Two that struck me were the man drop-kicking a baby and the children on the back of a woman on all fours, using her braid as reins.

The ski jump. It's a ski jump on a hill overlooking Oslo. There's a museum about skiing. You can go to the platform of the jump and look at the view of the city, although right then the massive thunderstorms were just clearing up, so mostly it was city-through-clouds.

A fancy-schmancy dinner in a fancy-schmancy French restaurant. Some of the prices in Kroner (7 to the dollar) were approaching Budapest prices in forints (200 to the dollar). Hixie pointed out that the use of language on the menu was rather amusing; for example every dish was described in Norwegian, French, and English, but it only said taxe et service compris in French and Norwegian, and the wine list only informed customers in French and Norwegian that if they didn't find their wine they could ask for a more extensive cave book.

Every day in front of the train station are cars painted with "MTV: Fight for Your Right" blasting music. There was also an "MTV: Fight for Your Right" ad before the movie. Apparently the local cable company is cutting MTV from its service, so MTV is trying to stage a consumer backlash. Nobody I've observed seems to be paying much attention.

The shower in the apartment. No stall, no curtain, no nothing. Just a shower head in the corner, with a floor squeegee to push water towards the drain when done. The floor is heated to help evaporation in the winter.