Vigelands Park

Vigelandsparken is one of the biggest parks in Oslo. It was designed by Gustav Vigeland, one of Norway's most famous sculptors. (Nope I'd never heard of him before I moved here either.)  I suppose in some ways he is the equivalent of Gaudi in Barcelona. The park is filled with his sculptures:

The most famous sculpture is The Angry Child (Sinnataggen), which the locals have rubbed smooth over the years:

In the centre, a fountain falls from an enormous bowl that represents the burden of life:

A twenty-metre-high obelisk that depicts the cycle of life is the main focal point:

The figures on it fight, play, teach, love, eat, sleep and climb over each other as they try to reach the top. The locals are also very fond of climbing onto the sculptures that surround the obelisk.

The park is extremely popular in the summer. People barbecue, drink, and play traditional games like Kubb (two teams aim to knock over the other team's wooden blocks by throwing wooden sticks at them, and then knocking over the King in the middle):

And given that we currently have lovely long days (or crazy long days if you're trying to sleep) where darkness doesn't really ever arrive, and the sun starts to rise at 3am, the park is used ALL the time. This is what people do at 11.30pm:

1. Walk their dogs (you might need to look closely)

2. Jog

I've also seen people playing frisbee.

Anyway it's a really pretty, tranquil space:

Total Blackout

No, this isn't a blog about a cross-Oslo power cut, but my so-far favourite/weirdest Norwegian TV show.

The setting: a disused warehouse (which actually looks a bit like the one they blew up at the start of Mission Impossible III but isn't). Six wet-suited contestants (boy can you see too much of these people's anatomy) compete for the princely sum of 2,500 kr., or in the grand final 5,000 kr.  Some of you may have already guessed this show's m.o. but just in case: all the rounds take place in complete darkness. The contestants can't see anything; we can only see them because the show is filmed on night-vision cameras.

There are 5 rounds, including some of the following:

1. In pairs, 3 teams in turn have to identify by touch alone 5 objects in large fish tanks. These objects include your usual fish-tank objects: a teddy bear, two child's baby dolls, a woolly hat, a (thankfully live) human head, a snake, rats, and cockroaches.

This round usually involves a lot of screaming, swearing and occasional blood: the rats have been known to bite.

2. Each contestant has to identify the age or weight of 4 people again using only touch. The twist to this round is that the people being felt (or, let's be honest, groped) are wearing only their underwear. They range from the fit and firm twenty-year-olds - the contestants tend to spend a lot of time feeling these ones - to fat men and women in their fifties and sixties.  Much slapping of arms, bums and cupping of breasts ensues.

This tends to feature a lot of shrieking, especially when the contestants get to the older people - the stomachs and body hair tend to freak people out.

3. Each person has to stand on a mat like the kind we used to have in PE. They have to jump at the exact moment before a metre-long ruler on a rotator swings 180 degrees. If they don't jump at the right moment they get slapped in the shins.  This isn't the most thrilling round, but obviously they can't see the blade so they usually do get hit first time round. The worst I saw at doing this was a guy who failed to get this right at least three times. Blood was drawn.

Much swearing usually features again here - fi faen! (Google translate it.)

4. Three sumo wrestlers await the contestants, standing on a bouncy castle-style mat. The mat has been oiled. Each contestant has to retrieve an item attached to one of the wrestler's belts - last time it was a rubber duck like the kind kids play with in the bath - having obviously slipped/wrestled their way past the other two.

5. This round is a little harder to describe. A small obstacle course has been set up, with two ramps.  All of it is soaked in water/oil so is again very slippery. In pairs, the contestants have to climb over the first ramp and then slide their way down to a small tank which is full of live eels. They usually end up sliding into the tank with the eels, triggering (you guessed it) a lot of screaming.

One of them has to pick up the eels and pass them to their partner, who has to climb up the second ramp  and deposit them in another tank.

6. The contestants take it in turns to crawl through a cruciform set of plastic tunnels. The tunnels have been filled with - here's another theme - rats. But they also have items of food in them, each under a cake dome: lemons, cheese, cupcakes. Each contestant has to find their way through the tunnels and retrieve the two cheeses.

The tunnels are built at a height where you can only kneel in them and are no wider than the average person - claustraphobics need not apply.

Bear in mind that all of the above takes place in complete darkness.  The rounds petrify people way more than you think they should sat on your sofa.

One person is eliminated after each round. Elimination involves being told 'Tre, to, en, hopp' and then they all jump onto a piece of heavy-duty paper/cardboard which has the symbol for radioactive material printed on it. The floor gives way under whoever is being eliminated and they disappear down a garbage chute.

The only thing that is disappointing about this show is the normal final round which is ridiculously tame and lame compared to what has come before. The two finalists are put into a room filled with fake cobwebs and plastic spiders. The winner is whoever can collect the most spiders in their plastic bucket. There is a live tarantula in the middle of the room, but it is in a tank and there is positively no threat from it. Yet this is presented as the most terrifying round of all.  Give me REAL venomous spiders and then I'll feel the danger.

Anyway, this show plays on one of Norway's biggest channels - TV Norge (I guess the equivalent of ITV) at half eight on Wednesdays, although sadly the season has just finished.  I sadly can't provide photographs but you can find videos and full episodes at the links below:

http://www.google.no/search?q=total+blackout&hl=no&prmd=ivns&source=univ&tbm=vid&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=8ofwTa6BMcfdsgb50-yHBw&ved=0CFQQqwQ&biw=1803&bih=898

and on YouTube.  Enjoy!