No way… I’m in Norway?!

Yesterday morning, I left my cozy room in Aberdeen and caught a bus to the train station. Then, I took a train to Edinburgh and a tram to the airport. And then… I met up with my friend Jasmin and we flew to Oslo, Norway!

It was a busy day of travel, but I enjoyed every second of it. Let me fill you in on what Jasmin and I have been doing in Oslo the past day and a half…

We explored the city at night

Even though it was only 4:30pm when we arrived in Oslo yesterday, it was already completely dark outside. However, we didn’t let this stop us from exploring the city. After checking into our hostel (which is very nice and comfortable), we went out exploring for nearly six hours by foot! The city was absolutely beautiful at night, as all of the buildings were lit up in the most enchanting way possible. The most impressive building we saw was the Oslo Opera House, which was apparently built to resemble a glacier. We were able to walk on the roof and had a great view of the city.

We were able to find many other beautiful places in the city by simply clicking on the attraction icons in Google Maps and then walking to those places. I don’t think we would have gone to many of those hidden spots otherwise, so I’m happy we thought to explore the city that way! We saw some cute houses, a waterfall, and a lot of interesting statues. These photos will be posted in the gallery on the main page 😊.

Akershus Fortress

Our first stop this morning was Akershus Fortress. Strangely, we were the only ones there… maybe because it was 9 am?! We didn’t spend a whole lot of time here, but we got to see the exterior of the fortress and walk along the walls. The military was actively guarding it as well which was interesting to see! I later learned during a walking tour that the last executions to take place in Norway were carried out at Akershus Fortress, and those who were executed were Nazi leaders.

Free walking tour

After visiting the fortress, Jasmin and I joined a free walking tour. This was the perfect way to learn more about Oslo! Here’s what I learned:

• Oslo was originally built entirely out of wood, but they changed that when the city burned down fourteen times.
• May 17th is a huge holiday in Norway, as it is the day that Norway got its independence from Denmark. The year was 1814.
• However, the constitution was written in Danish.
• And Norway was united with Sweden until 1905.
• There are two written standards of Norwegian: Bokmål and Nynorsk. One is like Danish but with a few changes, and the other was the combination of dialects collected from the most remote places in Norway since they lacked Danish influence.
• Queen Sonja (who recently visited St. Olaf) was not a Royal when she married King Harald. They fell in love while volunteering, and he said that he would not get married unless he could marry her.

Vigeland Sculpture Park (Vigelandsparken)

After the walking tour, Jasmin and I took the tram to Vigeland Sculpture Park: the biggest sculpture park in Europe whose sculptures were designed by one person. The sculptures in this park were designed by Gustav Vigeland, and they sure are interesting! The first part of the park consists of a bridge lined with sculptures of parents with their young children, all of which are expressing different emotions or performing different actions. The best part of the park, though, is this massive temple-looking sculpture that portrays a bunch of bodies being stacked on top of each other.

Holmenkollen Ski Jump

Skiing is very popular in Norway, so it only makes sense that Oslo has a ski jump. I never would have thought to visit the ski jump, but Jasmin is really into skiing so we decided to go. Her dad had also mentioned to her that the view from the top of the jump is incredible. It was easy to get out there, as the tram ran practically all the way up to where we needed to go. P.s. I love public transportation!

When we got to the jump, we could see absolutely nothing! It was hilarious. It had been raining all morning, so the fog was really dense. While we didn’t get the view we had hoped for, it was fun to see the jump anyway and have a good laugh. It was SO steep! I cannot believe people actually ski down that.

Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Folkemuseet)

Next, we went to the Folk Museum. Since we got there so late, we were able to get a discounted ticket price which was wonderful. We only had about 40 minutes to walk through the exhibits before they closed, but the rest of the site was open much later. I enjoyed seeing the clothes and household items from hundreds of years ago in the exhibits. In the outer parts of the museum, we were able to see village homes from various regions of Norway as well. I was excited to find a cow shed from Oppland, which is where my great, great, great grandparents were from!

National Museum of Norway (Nasjonalmuseet)

The tour guide this morning had mentioned that the famous painting, “The Scream”, by Edvard Munch was at the National Museum, so naturally we HAD to go see it. Apparently, Munch was inspired to create this work of art when the sky illuminated red after what was probably a volcanic eruption.

In addition to “The Scream”, there was a lot of other impressive art in the museum. I could have spent hours in there and still not have seen it all!

Tacos!

Since our tour guide informed us that the most popular food in Oslo is not lutefisk… not reindeer meat…. but TACOS, Jasmin and I decided that we’d have to get tacos somewhere for dinner. The place we went to was in a shopping mall. Not just any ordinary shopping mall, but a high-end one with stores like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, etc. This taco place, along with several other food stands, was just in the lower level of the mall which I thought was pretty funny. I’m still laughing at the fact that tacos are the most popular food… I mean, I love tacos too but why can’t it be lefse?!?! I cannot find lefse ANYWHERE…

Oslo Street Food

After eating our delicious tacos, we decided that there was one place we had yet to visit: Oslo Street Food. This is one of the locals’ favorite places and a must when visiting Oslo. When I first found out about the place online, I had imagined it to be street food in the form of food trucks. That is not the case. It is a building filled with picnic tables and just about any type of food you can imagine! And it was obvious that people love it because it was absolutely packed. There was not a single place to sit inside, so we ate our Nutella crepes outside instead. The crepes were delicious, and I can imagine the atmosphere would be even more fun with a larger group of friends.

Other observations

Here are some other observations I have made so far:

• Oslo is a clean, fancy-looking city
• The architecture is like nothing I have ever seen before
• There are SO many statues throughout the city
• Transportation is super easy to use! All I had to do was download the app “Ruter” and buy a day pass in order to use all modes of transportation.
• Everyone is able to speak English

Overall, I LOVE OSLO! I feel like a day and a half was the perfect amount of time to get a feel for the city. Tomorrow, we’re taking a 7 hour train to Bergen, which is a city on the west coast. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Until next time,

Clara