Vikingskipshuset

Wow, I realize I have been waxing poetic about the sky for far too many posts lately! The whole point of this blog is to entice people to come visit me in Norway, and I don't think sunrises are gonna do that! But maybe Vikings will! One of the most popular museums in Norway is the Vikingskiphuset, which houses 3 actual Viking ships from the 9th century. 2 of the ships are remarkably well preserved (the ship above is the Oseberg). The ships were dragged ashore to be used as tombs for nobility. The dead were entombed in wooden tents in the bottom of the ships, along with horses, dogs, food, furniture, sleds, clothes and jewels--you know, the basic provisions for an opulent afterlife. The whole ships were then buried in clay within valleys of the Oslofjord region. When they were discovered in the last century, the ships had already been looted and the jewels were long gone, but so many other treasures remained. Sculptures of dragons and serpents, intricately carved sleighs and furniture, tools, camping gear (8 foot long tent poles with carved dragon heads)...there is so much and it is absolutely amazing.
My favorite city in the U.S. is Boston. It's so beautiful, so old, so full of history--I always get chills and goosebumps when I stand on a cobblestone street and look around and think of all those people immortalized in my American History books who have lived there. Boston is a city full of ancient burying grounds, Federalist architecture, cobblestone streets, and every time I go there, I am awestruck...Boston was founded in 1630. Wow, 1630, that's so old! But now I'm in Norway, and I have found a new frame of reference for words like "old" and "ancient." Everything in the Vikingskiphuset is 800 years older than Boston...my mind is officially blown! (I guess I should never visit Rome or Athens--my head would probably explode!)