Ok. So I'm a bit behind on this whole blogging thing :-(. Let me start from Day 0 (the day before leaving) up through where I was yesterday which was Day 3. Today is Day 4 for me and since I'm in a new city, I'll write about it tomorrow.
Day 0 (Pre-Departure)
So my initial intent was to leave on Wednesday September 19th and travel overnight so I would reach Oslo on Thursday September 20th. Having only stopped working on the previous Sunday (9/16) and needing to move all my stuff into storage prior to my departure brought me to the realization that I was overambitious with my timeline. Instead, I moved my departure to Thursday, September 20th and arrived on Friday, September 21st. Fortunately, since I had booked an "around the world" airline ticket with Star Alliance, I was able to move my flight date with no penalty. Just when I thought all was good, I didn't remember my departure time (I thought it was at ~4pm instead of ~3pm) and ended up missing my flight on Thursday. Fortunately again, my flight was first to Newark and then to Oslo. I missed the first flight from Chicago to Newark, but was able to get on the next one and still successfully made my connection and arrived in Oslo as planned.
Day 1 (Oslo)
There wasn't much to report from Day 1. My flight from Newark to Oslo ended up being almost 1.5 hrs late, but we still managed to arrive almost on time at around 11am local time. Having not slept much on the plane, I was quite jet lagged but wanted to stay up as late as possible to adjust to the time. Taking the "Flytoget", I was able to reach Oslo's city center in 19 min with the train going up to 130mph. After checking into my hotel (see pic below), I just walked around a bit and gawked at how expensive everything is. When I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, I took a 6pm "nap" that lasted to about 9pm :-). After that, I grabbed a quick bite and met out with a local I met online for a drink. When I did go to the bar for the drink (and it was only two because I couldn't afford any more ;-), I ran into a group of about 10 American guys who I had recognized from the plane. It turns out they were from Chicago as well and were starting in Oslo to make their way down to Munich for Oktoberfest...small world.
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| Old Train Station which has now been converted, housing a the hotel at which I stayed. |
Day 2 (Oslo)
Having slept in a bit to try to overcome the jet lag, I finally mustered the energy to meet up with a 2 hr walking tour of the city. We started at the "world famous" Oslo opera house (I had never heard of it and it was only opened in 2005, but they seem to be proud of it) and made our way along the water to their version of a castle called Akershus Fortress. It was quite a lovely tour and I mostly learned a lot although since I was the only non-Norwegian, the tour guide spoke mostly in Norwegian and filled me in in English while we were walking. Somehow, I got the impression that I wasn't getting the full story :-)
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| "World Famous" Oslo Opera House - start of the walking tour |
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Oslo City Center - the Oslo Marathon was going on in the background
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| Akershus Fortress - where the walking tour ended |
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| Me with part of Akershus in the background |
Once I was done with the walking tour, I proceeded to walk around some more. My first stop after the tour was the Nobel Peace Museum. So for those not familiar, the Nobel prizes (chemistry, literature, biology, etc) are all given out in Sweden...except for the Peace Prize. That is given out by the Norwegians. Not completely sure the exact reason, but that was the way Alfred Nobel wanted it in his will. The actual Nobel Peach prize is given out in Oslo's town hall (which I think is atrocious architecture, but you be the judge), but right across the street is the Nobel Peace museum. Since it was free, I went in and wandered around a bit.
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| Nobel Peace museum |
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| Oslo Town Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize is actually awarded here every December. |
Now that I was exhausting from walking, I went over for some food at Oslo's version of Navy Pier called Aker Brygge. After having only eaten McDonald's and Subway (which each cost ~$14), I decided to splurge on an average costing meal. Average costing in Norway by the way is $50-$70! Once done with the food, I quickly walked it off by heading further west to pass first by the Royal Palace (yes, Norway has a king and queen as well) and then to this huge sculpture park even further west of that called Vigeland Park.
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| The Royal Palace from up the street |
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| The Royal Palace from up close. The nice thing about this palace is you can get practically up to the front door. |
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Vigeland Park (Notice the naked sculptures along the sides)
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| Me with the main phallus looking sculpture in the background (yes, the sculpture is a bunch of people intertwined) |
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| Oslo National Parliament building at night |
I completed the day by trying to immerse myself in some local culture by heading out to a dance party "thingee." Based on knowledge from the night before with the local, apparently, Oslo's nightlife has these moving events that are hosted at different venues. The one I attended was called "Fire" and was at the rooftop of some hotel. After waiting a little bit to get in and paying a ~$20 cover, I made my way to a tight space with too many young people. After my one drink, I left as it was pretty lame. Oh well, at least I tried.
Day 3 (Oslo)
Having stayed up late from the dance party the night before, I couldn't fall asleep and ended up staying up way late and sleeping way late :-(. When I finally did manage to get myself out of bed, I headed to the docks and took an Oslo Fjord tour (basically a boat tour of the waters around Oslo). Unbeknownst to me, the Oslo "fjord" wasn't a real fjord like I was expecting. The 2 hour boat tour ended up being about 1.5 hours too long :-(. At least there was a covered bar to keep me entertained. The only really informative thing that I learned on the boat tour was that Norway has 5 million people and there are about 1 million boats...so yes, almost every household has a boat.
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| The Royal Yacht |
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| View of Akershus Fortress from the water |
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| House "thingees" on ocean that people use to drink, swim off of, etc during the summer |
Once the tour was done, I proceeded to take a slow walk back to the hotel taking a couple more shots along the way.
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| Unlike most of Europe which is littered with churches, this was the only church I saw in Oslo's city center. |
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| Where the Oslo terrorist bomb went off last year. It's the offices where the Prime Minister used to have. |
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| Oslo's Main Street in the City Center |
Oslo Closing Thoughts
Oslo is a quaint city, but I can see how it could be quite forgettable. It's a small city of around 600,000 people with not a huge nightlife and not a lot to do. For an American (and many others) because of Norway's high GDP and high currency value, it's very very expensive. From a scenic perspective, at least it's very clean but there aren't many notable things that will stick in my mind. It's a changing city that is divided into an east and west by it's river. The west is older and where most of the city center is. The east is being revitalized and where most of Norway's new immigrants now live. The government is putting a lot of money into new museums along the oceanfront and building up the eastern part (e.g. a new contemporary museum is opening up next week along the water and the "world famous" new opera house anchors the beginning of the east side of the city). In short, I'm glad I visited Olso, but I don't think I'll be going back any time soon.
