Kon-Tiki

If you had asked me, when I was around ten years old, what I most associated with Norway, I may have very well answered Kon-Tiki. If your first reaction to that is something along the lines of "that doesn't sound very Norwegian at all", then you are totally correct. Kon-Tiki is the name of the mythical figure in Polynesian folklore who came from over the ocean to colonize the islands of the south Pacific. What then has this Kon-Tiki to do with Norway? Well, shortly after World War II, a Norwegian biologist by the name of Thor Heyerdahl, who had lived in the South Sea Islands, hypothesized that the Kon-Tiki legend referred to a South American people from Peru, who had fled the Incas on balsa wood rafts and sailed to Polynesia. The major hole in his theory, everyone thought, was that such a voyage on such a raft was impossible. In response to such nay-saying, Thor Heyerdahl did what any good Norwegian would. He built a balsa wood raft himself in the ancient fashion, named it Kon-Tiki and together with four other Norwegians and a Swede, (who I guess they brought for comic relief), he set sail from Peru for the south Pacific.

The little bamboo hut they lived in during the 101 day voyage.

One hundred and one days later, they arrived and landed on one of the islands near Tahiti, proving that indeed, the trip was possible. Heyerdahl later wrote a book about the voyage (called appropriately enough Kon-Tiki), and while I was growing up, I read it over and over. It's definitely still on my list of 10 favorite books, perhaps even top 3. Thus, I was really quite excited when I learned that the raft is still in good condition in a museum in Oslo. This afternoon, I and two of my friends, both named Aaron, navigated the bus routes down to Bygedøy, where they keep all sorts of things associated with Norwegians and the sea. The viking ship museum is there, along with the ship, Fram, from Fridtjof Nansen's expedition to the North Pole, and the Norwegian maritime museum. But our destination was the Kon-Tiki Museum, and it did not disappoint. The raft is not actually all that large; it must have been real cozy, living in such close quarters. They also have a clever set-up, where the raft is suspended between two levels, so you can go downstairs and look at the underside. It was a lot of fun to see this part of my childhood, and while it looks like I will never be a sailor of any sort, if you happen to be walking near a body of water, large or small, and see me staring wistfully off into the distance, feel free to snap me out of it. I'm only day-dreaming about setting sail for seas unknown.