Jane Lindsay

August 9, 2012

Museum Day.

I decided to visit museums all day, I took the tram, to the train first stop was Munch Museum.  Munch Museum was another beautiful stop it was next to the museum of Natrual History, Oslo University Zoological Museum, and the Oslo University Geological/Archeological museum.  So I visited all three.  The Munch exhibit was so intriguing, they had a very interesting documentary film about his life that I watched before I went into the exhibit. The film shed so much light on his life, ideas, and beliefs.  It was sad and the work seem to validate his experience all these years after his death.   He struggled with major depression and mental health issues most of his life.  He died alone, bitter, and wealthy in the end.

The “Death of Marat”, for me was the most emotionally charged piece in the “Red Room” exhibit.  The story eludes to Munch painting the piece at a friends house in Germany.  It is said that Munch used the couple as models but was really recreating  or even reenacting  a situation of domestic abuse and violence with his lover Tulia Larsen. The painting depicts a situation where Munch was shot accidentally during a violent argument with Tulia.  Their relationship ended bitterly after the accident and Munch blamed  her for the whole situation. (of course not that uncommon in domestic violence where the man always blames the woman for violence that occurs). I think Munch’s work is so powerful that I have thought of  it days later, looking at the images as they invoke new ideas and understanding within the artist and the viewer.

August 8, 2012

On this day I found my self at Vigeland Park, and an amazing park it is.  It happens to be the worlds largest sculpture park and all Sculptures are done by Gustov Vigeland. Imagine having 45 acres to put your sculptures on without having to share with any other artist. Edvard Munch imagined it and he hated Vigeland for it.  Munch only got a museum and he was dead when he got it. This park was the most wonderful park I have ever visited.  I will  never forget it and if I lived in Norway I would go there every week.  While the sculptures were truly magnificent I found my self attracted to tourist and their photographs what they photographed,  how and whom. For example see the following.

Well, it was kinda entertaining to photograph the photographers, but finally I thought these truly are magnificent sculptures so I joined in photographing the work.

Vigeland’s work seemed quite Freudian to me however, according to the literature the work is speaking to all humanity, love family, cooperation and human development.  And so it does, regardless it is truly a unforgettable experience.

August 7, 2012

I spent this day recuperating from August 6. Dan had to give me a pep-talk I just wanted to go home. But the day passed and the next day I was up and ready to go!

August 6, 2012

August 6, couldn’t help being a stressful day, but I think it ended up being the worst day I have had in Norway so far.  It was the day I was to return to Oslo from Horten and find my next  Hostel, which happened to be  in a very out-of-the-way place.  Finding my back on the busses has  been the big challenge for me because I have trouble figuring out the schedule,  remembering the stops, and reading the language. More than that, I have  a general fear that I will end up some where that I don’t want to be. That being said, I think getting through this day in the end was like surviving a storm and coming out of it realizing my owner inner strength was something to be proud of .  So, the first obstacle I was facing was my luggage issue way too much luggage to climb hills and get on a bus to the city center, and then to get on another bus for Oslo.  During my stay at the campground I met Rodger very nice man who offered to take me to the city center in the car.  What a relief!  I thought that getting to the center was my biggest obstacle to over come. Wrong…………… Still, sweet Rodger took me although he did seem concerned that my bus would not be stopping at the center.  Foolishly I insisted that it would. So I sat at the bus station waiting for my bus with my load of heavy luggage, one hour passed, then two hours passed.  It started to rain. I asked a lady of she knew of my bus and she said no. I started to worry.  So I asked another bus driver about my bus he said,” no it doesn’t come here its up the road turn left” on some foreign street that I was going to have to figure out; and so on up the hill in the rain, dragging ten million pounds of luggage.   There I am in the rain walking in circles and starting to get a major anxiety attack, when this young man passes by me carrying luggage so I follow him in hopes of finding my station.  Sure enough he gets us there and the bus comes shortly after, and he lifts my heavy suitcase into the luggage area yea!  I thought my problems were over and they were for about an hour.

Once I landed at the central station in Oslo I started the journey to my Hostel Ronningen.  I went to information and asked for the route with the least amount of  walking.  Another mistake on my part because the route was so complicated that I ended up walking up hill after  hill in the pouring rain dragging all of  my luggage, which by this time I was contemplating if I really needed my luggage, after all there would be a washing machine at the hostel.  I finally made it to another stop off the prescribed route and the strangest thing happened.  I ask two young adults if they could help me figure out my bus situation and it was crazy but the girl was friends with Anna my tour guide at the Akershaus Fortress and Anna told her about me and gave her the link to my blog.  So she knew me and she also knew one of the women at Juss Buss that I spent time with.  She and her friend got me on my way to Ronningen, I couldn’t believe it again a small small world.  Side note my stop was on the other side of the city from the fortress or Juss Buss. Amazing divine intervention just at the right time!

By the way below an image of my Hostel, almost worth the stress! It really is in a beautiful location. The staff is friendly and it is a clean place to stay with free internet.

 

August 5, 2012

Ah, but for the kindness of strangers.   Ingunn and Ida Elisabeth

The day after the party I realized my time in Horten was coming to a close so I decided to take a trail behind my cabin that would eventually lead to Munch’s house.  I was told that the walk would take around an hour and was a beautiful walk.  Indeed it was but it was a very long walk 10 km which is approximately 6.2 miles 12 miles both ways. I am glad I didn’t know this before the walk or I probably would have never done it and miss out on meeting Ingunn and Ida Elisabeth.  First mistake I made was wearing Teva sandals, rocks, sticks and sand were always in my shoe. Even still the trail was so beautiful I kept stopping to make photographs.

So the   walk wore on and I had to remember my goal was to see Munch’s house.  I started contemplating and wondering if there would be a bus I could take from Agardstand back to Horten. My feet were not happy by this point.  Finally I reached Agardstrand and continued up a hill to find the   Munch house and there it was so quant and story book like.  I went in to pay to go in to find they did not accept American debit cards. The lady said, ” go down the road look for the store and there will be a mini bank. Reluctantly I left to find the mini bank but I ran into a lovely coffee shop, (they did take debit cards) so I had a sandwich and an ice tea it was delicious.  Then I decided I didn’t need to see the inside of the house  so I started the journey home.  Images below are outside of Agardstand and inside the little town.

So I started the journey back and decided that I should try not to stop for images and not think about my feet which were blistered.  But the photographer in me insisted I stop to make images with my pin hole camera.  While I was making one image a woman passed by me I noticed she was picking raspberries.  But my exposure was a long one so it took a little while.  When I started walking again, I saw her and said “hello”.  We started a conversation, introduced ourselves, and walk together for a while. Her name was Ingunn, I thought a very lovely name.  We had children of similar ages.  Both owned our own businesses at one time, and she loved history. My daughter Maggie, a historian.  We walked on and she ask me if I wanted a ride home as her house was much closer to our location.  I did want a ride!  We got to her house and she introduced me to her daughter, Ida Elisabeth.  It was a lovely day and we sat in her yard (which was beautiful) drank lemonade and coffee, and visited the afternoon away.  They invited me to see their home which was first Norwegian home I have been in.  It was stunning.  Ida Elisabeth is also an artist.  Such a small world in so many ways.  My only regret is no image of either Ingunn or Ida Elisabeth.  But I think mostly I make work intuitively and somehow my intuition did not call me to make a photograph. Maybe photographs were not appropriate on this day.  I know I will be friends with Ingunn and Ida Elisabeth for the rest of my time on this earth, so I feel an image will come at the right time.  I will not forget this day and I will not forget the prayer I made earlier in the day, for God to send me a friend someone who I could   relate too on many levels. What a rich life I live.

August 4, 2012

There have been days on this journey I consider to be dark days.  They can be lonely, frustrating, wet, or scary.  On these days I have very few if any photographs to share.  I feel like on these days I plunge into darkness and things just don’t go right. August 4, was such a day.  After the wonderful day with Christine, I felt like the next day would be a perfect day for blogging and resting contemplating my experience thus far. Well um things didn’t work our that way, the campground  campers excluding my self and I mean only myself  had a major party that lasted 24 hours.  The parents planted their teenage kids in the cabin next to mine.  Need I say more it was the day and the night from hell.  Music blared for 24 hours straight. Complaining was a waste of time so my little serene cabin turned into a hell hole in which there was no escape! ahhh I had to suppress a constant urge to take my tripod and use it to smash their stereo in to tiny bits and pieces. It was so aggravating and I was stuck! I am still thinking about ways of getting back at those people, not really.

Preface

This blog is a personal journal about my trip to Norway.  The writing is informal and casual, most of the pictures at this point will be simple snap shots.  As the trip progresses the images may become more formal but the writings and thoughts will be continued in the same format.

Traveling to Norway seemed like a far away dream, but here I am! My goal is to visit prisons and inform my work on human rights. More than that I want to   learn as much as I can about the country and people who live here. So I have decided  to start at the beginning on the 24th of July during dinner, I found that there was a bone in my hamburger patty. It became obvious when I took my first bite and bit down on the bone.  I knew immediately I needed a dentist and fast!

So, Happily I found a dentist that would see me the next day, one day before departure.  Oh man pain!

The Dentist had to pull the tooth because it was cracked past my jaw bone! Ouch!

After all the work I have done to get to Norway, I wasn’t going to let a little oral surgery stop me so I packed my pain pills and my film and got up at 3 am and called the Bastoy prison.  I was really afraid to call the prison, because I worried  that they would not allow a visit to the prison. Bastoy receives  many requests to visit the prison from foreigners, so the visits are competitive and must be approved.  But some how the tooth ordeal made the call much easier I don’t know why but it did.  I was told to be there at 10 am on August 1, 2012!  Yea!