It was a long day to wait for this 11pm overnight train back to Oslo but at least I didn't need to book a room which was the whole point to take a train during this time of the day. The ride as usual is not to comfortable if you're not taking a bed cabin room so you manage and deal with the never ending change of sleeping positions in your seat but I was able to setup my camera to shoot a time lapse facing the window toward the outdoor scenery for the 6 hour train ride journey. Surprisingly there was a decent amount of people leaving for Oslo on the train so I think they had the same thought process trying to save money from booking a room at a lodging.
I finally arrived around 6am in the morning at the Oslo central station and I headed toward the hostel I stayed at previously few days earlier to check-in. I didn't get a chance to have at least 1 full day to go around Oslo to do sightseeing and take photos of the area so that was one of the things I wanted to do before I stayed over my relatives place since my family wanted to meet and spend time with me. I pretty much headed to the downtown region and observed alot of the architecture and people roaming around the area and took alot of photos. I traveled to Frogner park which was northwest from the downtown center and was abit of a hike but I got to see alot of different types of homes that were built with the aesthetic art approach from the minds of these designers.
There were so much statues in the park I had to take a lot of photos, there was plenty of tourists and locals in the area appreciating the ambiance of the scenery. Alot of the statutes and architecture were focused on renaissance art compositions so alot of the poses of the persons being depicted had some type of meaning or message that were trying to convey to on-lookers. I shot a deliberate time lapse sequence of a tall pillar tower that had many persons carved into and I was creating a sense of motion by shooting a tracking shot of the subject while many tourists were in and out of my camera frame for each shot. And just like other areas I was shooting a time lapse, the locals and tourists were giving be the bewildered look of what I was trying to shoot and what would the outcome turn out. I remembered doing research before my Norway trip that there was the changing off the guard at 1:30pm everyday I believe so I didn't want to miss the whole event and made my way toward the Royal Palace.
On my way to the Royal Palace, I noticed the different route I took had alot of construction going on with the sidewalks and the streets which to me sounded like the city was trying to build up the appearance for 5-6 blocks of shops, boutiques and restaurants for the increase of tourism. And of course I'm thinking tourists are going to be spending alot of money to at these establishments which felt like I was walking around downtown San Francisco or even high end shops in Palo Alto. I cut through the north end of a park that is adjacent to the Royal Palace and was surprised that there was quite abit of people in the area since the weather kept changing from sunny to cloudy to slightly raining. Then I finally arrived at the front of the Royal Palace and located where the changing of the guard event would take place and noticed a huge amount of tourists waiting and filming everything that was going on.
There was a few showcase sequences of soldiers going through specific marching acts that was being directed from their commanding officer so it was entertaining to watch and film them. While that was going on before the proper soldier changing of the guard act, I ran into one of my roommates from a hostel I stayed at in Bergen and mentioned to him to check out Frogner park since he only went around the area close to downtown. The whole changing of the guard act performed by the soldiers was an interesting presentation, I never seen anything like it before but I heard about it going on in other countries in Europe and I really wanted to see how it is done.
From there I headed to this open plaza where locals, tourists relax and also do some people watching that were coming and going to restaurants, shops that was nearby the Parliament building. I did some time lapse filming of people around this plaza area of whatever they were doing just to display what's going on this part of the city. I found out the area is being developed to have restaurants setup their dining tables outdoors for more of a happy hour ambiance for the young to spend their money on. It is similar style to the cafes in other parts of Europe where you have customers have their coffee and snacks outdoors while they have conversations with others and people watch from their dining tables. So I could picture this area would be very lively in the evening but the funny thing is it would not be dark enough later in the day to really create the atmosphere for people to feel like they can really enjoy in.
After spending some time in the main plaza area, I headed back to my hostel to get ready to have dinner with relatives I haven't seen in a few years when they last visited me and my family back in the states. We met up at a specific restaurant the kids of my aunt suggested so I didn't mind what type of food to eat while it was more of seeing relatives and spending time with them as the main point of the get together. After dinner we headed to a pier that is considered one of the most expensive areas in the city that was mainly for highly rich individuals to reside in. The region just looked like I was in an environment for young people to socialize in that had many restaurants to choose from and condos/apartments to live in. I even heard Justin Bieber actually stayed in one of the most expensive hotels in the city that is location when he had a concert he performed at recently.
Even with the high costs of these condos/apartments that were built here, I still loved the architecture of the buildings. Whoever designed these buildings really wanted to push the envelope of what is possible to create a condo or hotel from their imagination. The next day was going to be busy for me since my cousin was picking me up at the hostel later in the morning, also we had a family get together in the evening but also I didn't get a chance to visit the famous Oslo opera house. It was quite a spectacle to observe the outside part of the opera house due to the design and it was a great location that was next to the water so there was a background that would complement the unbelievable structure. I didn't get to go inside in the building but I did get to walk all the way around and marvel the architecture.
Literally I felt like I was walking up and down an atypical incline where you can actually reach the rooftop of the opera house. Then I filmed another type of time lapse video which was a tracking shot sequence and I noticed alot of people from the cruise ships that just arrived in the morning. I then headed back to my hostel to pack up my gear and to get ready to check out before my ride arrives. My cousin picked me and we drove around the city where she explained to me specific districts and other areas where one place I found out was considered one of the most dangerous areas out of the whole city. Luckily, I didn't travel in that direction which was located eastern side of the downtown area but I heard its not bad during the daytime and its a very diverse neighborhood with people from different ethnic backgrounds though when the evening comes it becomes an area not to go around in.
We got to visit my cousin's son in a on-going development neighborhood that had new building apartment complexes and I could see the area fill up with new residents in the next few years. We then drove outside of Oslo to a high vantage point hill top where alot of go to for sking and the view of the region was just spectacular. I could imagine it probably wouldn't look appealing if this was during the winter season and just end up seeing nothing but white powder snow. We then headed to her home that was nearby which was out in the countryside but located up in the hills. There was a some family members I finally got to meet and we had a nice long conversation just before the evening get together of the whole family would arrive for dinner. We did have dinner outdoors with the majority of the family members I got to meet and speak to that I really enjoyed the time with. Alot of them were my nieces and nephews which came to the realization of my age just hit me feeling old from spending time with them.
The next day was a Sunday, so we took it easy but we got the chance to hike down the hill toward the town square of Drobak. The surroundings nearby was just beautiful with our walk toward the pier region of the town, it was basically the countryside but there was alot of areas to do hiking even in the residential area. I believe these walking paths were designed for people to explore around all areas of the town and to make it fun for the whole family experience. We arrived at the pier and alot of the homes appeared as very vintage looking cottages that were built I believe in the 1800s and they are considered local/national landmarks to the public. These homes could not be fixed up from the outside unless they were approved by the city and the improvements would only be implemented if the original parts were used and of course they were expensive and scarce to find.
By the shore was nice even though there was no proper sand beach for locals to go for a swim or to relax in the sun at but everyone seemed to enjoy the weather not matter how warm it might get since majority of the year the region is covered in snow and just plain cold. Later in the day, I got to meet another one of my cousins in another town and we all had one last get together dinner in Oslo city before my departure for the states. I stayed in another place from one of my other cousins I met and the following day we went around a nearby town to go shopping for some gifts just before my flight early in the afternoon. Norway is a very expensive place to travel to even if you're going on a backpacker's budget but its possible to see and traverse to alot of places without spending to much on lodging and food except for transportation. It is well worth the view of the nature landscape that has to be seen in person and but also seeing alot of my family I never met and spending time with them was the best experience out of my trip.
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