Please Note that this post contains some spoilers for those who haven't watched the first, four seasons of the HBO Series Game of Thrones. In fact if you're not familiar with/a fan of the show and/or George R.R. Martin's book series "A Song of Ice and Fire", you should probably skip this entry.I'm obsessed with it and was pretty pumped when it was announced that the traveling exhibit for the show was making a stop here in Oslo. The news of the stop over in Norway was, in and of itself, big news. All throughout the world, the exhibit, containing actual clothing, props, and other pieces from the show, was only hitting eight locations. Oslo was only one of two in Europe (the other, oddly, was Belfast).
So yeah, big deal for Norway.
And, with the showcase running for five days, I decided to make the trek on Day 2 to see the behind-the-scenes of my current, favorite TV show (nothing will ever top The Wire).
I didn't make it in.
The doors opened at 10 and closed for the day at 8. By 3, the line, which on the first day stretched for numerous, city blocks, had been cut-off for new entrants.
Failed.
Fortunately, the next day was Monday and since I had nothing better to do, I tried my luck again.
It wasn't easy.
The expo was held at the old, Post Office headquarters of Oslo (conveniently named "PostHallen") and the line I found at my 10:20 arrival wrapped around the block. Despite the spaciousness of the hall, it wasn't nearly large enough to safely hold the amount of people (early estimates put the first two days at over 50,000 visitors). As a result, security and staff kept a strict tab on people entering and keeping the rest of us waiting.
And so we waited.
The above picture was taken twenty minutes after my arrival to the queue marking the point when I was able to just make out the entrance. You can't see it from this picture, but it's up there.
It was two hours and twenty minutes away, to be exact.
But it was worth it.
And with that, I was loosed on a 30 minute odyssey to the magical land of Westeros. I saw some of my old "friends" (RIP Rob Stark), sang along to "Rains of Castamere" as it was piped in with a real organ, and got to relive all the magical moments throughout the course of the show (there was even an interactive section that included this headgear and headphones that simulated the experience of climbing the wall at Castle Black).
It was more than I could've even imagined.
And, yes.
I got to sit upon the Iron Throne.
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