Journals from the week ending June 20, 1997
Oslo, Norway
Charlotte Redway, 6/19/97, aboard ship...As we were coming into the port of Oslo, many people commented on how beautiful the land was—a rocky coast, perfect for sitting on, and just a few feet back, tall green trees. We docked behind a French navy ship, just a short walk to the main street. The first night, I went to the main street and saw many humorous performers.
On the second day, we were lucky enough to go to a Class Afloat student’s farm. To get there, we took his uncle’s ferry and enjoyed an hour and a half of peaceful scenery from the deck. After coming ashore, we toured the farm which was located right on the water. We then enjoyed a traditional Norwegian lunch and a relaxing day of playing games on the lawn. Most of us were tired after such a great day.
The next day we went to three museums and an amazing park. The first museum was about the Viking ships. The second was about the Norwegian anthropologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his famous voyages aboard the Kon-Tiki (a balsa raft modeled after ancient Peruvian rafts that he sailed from Callao, Peru to the Tuamotu Islands of Polynesia) and Ra II (a papyrus boat that he sailed from Egypt to South America). I found learning about Heyerdahl interesting because he made archaeological expeditions in two places I’ve been—the Galapagos Islands and Easter Island. The last museum was about polar exploration. They had built the museum around a ship, so we also explored the vessel. The park we went to after was filled with sculptures by a famous Norwegian artist, Gustav Vigeland. One could tell that he was a people watcher because each of his statues was of a person in an interesting natural position. The fountain at the center of the park had a sequence of sculptures showing how people age, die, and are reborn. That night we all went to a movie in English with Norwegian sub-titles. That night coming back to the ship, we were all sad to be leaving.
Ostend, Belgium
Trina Johnson, 6/12/97, aboard ship...Today I biked through the Belgian countryside with Charlotte. It was very beautiful. We stopped at a lovely field covered with smiling buttercups. There were also cows, horses, sheep, and goats roaming in this sunny pasture. Although we were only just a few miles outside bustling Ostend it was quiet and peaceful. We drank freshly squeezed orange juice at a cute roadside tea room and ate our lunch of freshly baked bread and cheese across the road in a church yard. The two of us then cycled back to Ostend along a canal.
We biked to a beautiful park in the Ostend with small canals crisscrossing it. It was here in this picturesque setting that we met the rest of the ‘floaties.’ Some of us played football, soccer, and frisbee. Others relaxed beside the water watching birds. Later, we all sat in a circle and told funny stories about things that had happened during the semester. We returned the bicycles at eight o’clock in the evening. It had been great to spend the day freely biking around the area.
Later that night, Charlotte and I found a line dance class in a near by town hall. They welcomed us to join in for a few rounds of dancing. All in all, it was another fantastic Belgian day!