Back Well, yesterday after I wrote, I went back and sacked out for about two hours in my room. This room is a little bigger than the other one, with 10 beds, and enough extra floorspace for a couple of chairs. It even has its own little sink! Luxury! The people in the room seem friendly enough, but not very talkative.
After my little beauty nap (the nap was beautiful, not me...:) I headed over to Tivoli. What a place! It has gardens all over the place, with fountains and waterfalls. If that isn't your style, they also have live bands playing every now and again, while I was there I watched a Big Band. And then there are the rides. The rides work on either tickets, with each ride using 2 or 3 tickets, or you can buy a ride-pass for 168 kr (about $25). They don't have as many rides as Disneyland, but the rides they have are pretty good. Speaking of the evil rat...how does it compare?
Well, first of all, Tivoli could probably fit into one small corner of D-land. You could walk around everywhere inside the park in about an hour. And that's if you're not in a hurry. It has the same basic look and feel as Disney, except there are no 6-foot rats walking around. Instead you'll find equally cheesy toy soldiers looking at you from all the souvenir stands. I think Tivoli wins hands down when it comes to beauty. As I said before, there are gardens of all kinds, including some inspired by Japanese gardens.
The rides are about the same when it comes to thrills, that is they're all a bit slow to my thinking. There are some differences, though. Such as the ride through a fake hospital, where they have mock-ups of people in varying states of death. One room is obviously the morgue, with bodies hanging on the walls like in a meat locker. Some of them were whole, some had pieces missing. Near the end of the ride, you go under some poor soul who has lost the lower half of his body, and still has entrails hanging out. Can you picture that at Disneyland?
The other big difference that I noticed was that Tivoli feels a bit more like a carnival, with carny games all over the place. Plus they have four areas with video games and slot machines.
I saw a great show (free with 45 kr admission) just before I left. They started with a couple who seemed to prefer walking on their hands to the boring way you and I get around. Then there was a great act called something like 'The Invention Awakens.' There was one guy playing the inventor who was showing off his robot. The robot was another guy dressed in a old-time suit. At first I thought he was wearing a mask, but it was actually just make-up. After that, there was a group of acrobats doing springboard tricks. Awesome.
After the show, I wandered around for a bit more, taking pictures, and then headed to the hostel and crashed.
This morning I went out to the Botanical Gardens for a while, before touring one of their castles. took lots of pictures.
Oops, my time is up. I'll write more from Oslo!
Scott
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