A Weekend Away in Oslo, Norway

Another weekend available and another used to full effect, this time heading back to Norway to visit some more of my international friends. After wetting my appetite for Norway in Trondheim and it living up to expectations, I had to return and what better way to take it up to a notch than to head to the capital! This time I was visiting my friends Joachim and Robin, who I met TomorrowLand and stayed in touch with ever since. I’d given them a good heads up of me approaching so the itinerary was in their hands.

Thoughts on Oslo

If you read my Trondheim blog, you can probably guess that I’m a big fan of Norway and what it has to offer. This same impression is going to continue in this blog about Oslo for sure. As you’re about to read, I was certainly a fan of Oslo. This was definitely a city that I enjoyed being in and would for sure return if the opportunity presented itself and I shall tell you why.

For me, the city has everything you could want and need to be able to get an all round experience of a place. In the city itself, it is a thriving metropolitan with plenty for you to do. Whether that be diving into the history of the Viking era, enjoying the green spaces on offer such as Frogner Park and its sculptures, or getting lost in the city centre’s shops, cafes and restaurants.

Once the sun goes down and the lights come on, Oslo plays host to plenty of options for the night owls out there. From bars to relax with friends and enjoy a drink or two, to a variety of nightclubs for you to bust your favourite dancing moves, should that take your fancy.

Then once you want to escape out of the city into the nature that Norway is known for, all it takes is short tram ride and you can be surrounded by plenty of countryside for you to go out and explore. Even in the winter, when the snow comes and the temperatures drop, the areas that can be used for hiking in the warmer seasons become a small ski area, offering 18 slopes for you to test yourself on. What more could you want from a city?!

The only real downside to visiting Oslo, as with anywhere in Scandinavia, is the price of things there. Using Numbeo, it shows that the cost of living is about 30% higher than London, which isn’t the cheapest of places to live! It’s certainly something that needs to be taken into account when you’re budgeting for a trip to hear. But really, that’s the only downside that I can thing of for this great city!

Would I recommend a visit? If you can’t tell now what I thought of this place, I’m not sure wha you’ve been reading. I would recommend checking out Oslo 100%. Go for it!

Friday

Using my trusty technique of heading up to Gatwick from work on a Friday afternoon to grab a cheap flight from there to Oslo. However, I unfortunately was faced with a late flight as it was cheaper this meant arriving in Oslo a lot later than I’d have ideally liked but sometimes you have to compromise in life. Flying with Norwegian Airlines was a smooth ride though as usual and I got in on time and was in good spirits to get out there and make the most of my time.

The airport itself is around 45km (28.1 miles) from the city centre for getting to and from the airport, you have a few of options open to you. The first one is to drive, whether this is via a hire or someone picking you up, which is going to take you around 40 minutes to cover the distance but if hiring, going to be the pricier of the two options. The second option for you is to grab a taxi but these aren’t cheap, with prices being quoted around 600 NOK (the conversion to pounds is rough £1 gets you 10 NOK) and upwards depending on the time of day. The final set of options is public transport, this either being a bus in the shape of Flybussen (47 minutes/269 NOK return), regional train (23 minutes/210 NOK return) or direct train link (19 minutes/392 NOK return).

The saying goes that ‘It’s a small world’ and this was proven the case on the train journey from the airport to the city centre. Jus try chance, I managed to bump into a friend that I went to university with and hadn’t seen in a couple of years. Every time it happens, it always blows my mind how two human beings that know each other not only end up in the exact same at the same time but notice each other too.

Once in Oslo, the plan was an evening that was relaxed and a catch up between three friends and coming up with some plans for the next couple of days so that I can make the most of it.

Saturday

After breakfast, it was an early start for me and Joachim, heading out to explore the hills of the Oslo. One of the great things that I loved about Oslo was the close proximity to the scenic hills and trails, and it’s all accessible with either a short drive or tram. Our chosen method of transport was public transport, which in Oslo is easy, convenient and efficient. Firstly, the trams, buses, metro and ferries are all owned by the same company so one ticket covers you for everything and these come in several tiers. If you’re someone like me and just here for a few days and wanting to get to get around as much as possible then the best option is the 24 hour ticket for 108 NOK. This is the price as of when this blog was written so please visit the Visit Oslo website for the up to date information.

Getting the tram up to stop Voksenkollen, we got off and headed out to the Oslo Winterpark, which in the winter is a small ski resort but in the summer, it’s a lovely lake area just outside of the city with plenty of places to go walking. It felt so good to be back outside in the clean, Nordic air whilst being a maze of trails that took you through the green hills, covered in plush green trees wherever you looked. This was certainly a maze that you could gladly get lost in and just enjoy what Mother Nature has to offer.

Thankfully this wasn’t a maze that we were going to get lost in as Joachim knew his way around and had a target for us. When we got there it was some target too with it providing a brilliant view out over Oslo and the northern section of Oslofjord. Even with it being a slightly cloudy day, the view was pretty spectacular!

From here, we continued south towards the ski jump of Holmenkollbakken, which was the sight of the 1952 Winter Olympics that were held here and my word, what a ski jump it was, as it rose up to the sky in front of us. From picture you can see it is a pretty impressive structure but has been updated a few times since the original design. However, that day it wasn’t being utilised in its primary role, this time hosting a biplane, which may be something for you note in the future should you be in the area. Little did I know at the time that this is also plays host to the world’s oldest ski museum.

Attention turned to the city centre next with a tour of some of the landmarks hosted within Oslo itself. Again, we hopped on the tram and headed back into the urban areas, with my trusty friend and tour guide Joachim leading the way. The first stop on our tour was Frognerparken, which is host to over 200 interesting sculptures by Gustav Vigeland of varying shapes, sizes and themes. I must admit that I’m not really an art geek but I can appreciate the odd painting or sculpture for sure. The piece that mostly took me back was the interesting centre piece called Monolitten, which depicted a variety of weird and wonderful elements once you look closely. Another one that stood out for me was the fountain a little further down.

The next few stops on our route were firstly to the Royal Palace, which really shocked me how close you could walk past it compared to the security and fencing that encompasses Buckingham Palace in London. To me if felt like a modest version of the palace that I would find in the capital of my own nation but with a very similar format, with a square containing a statue in front, surrounded by lush greenery and a pleasant place to visit.

The whistle stop after this was down at Aker Brygge, playing host to a developed area for shopping, dining and entertainment, all whilst over looking the harbour. Colocated in this area of Oslo is the not only the Oslo city hall, though maybe not the biggest tourist attraction for most, but also the Nobel Peace Centre, which is a museum for the Nobel Peace Prize, what it stands for and the story of Alfred Nobel, the man who’s will requested 94% of his assets be used to create the Nobel Prizes. Regretfully, we didn’t enter the museum.

This was followed up by taking a short wander around the Akerhus Fortress, a 13th century fortress which stands in tact and in all its glory on the periphery of the harbour. A very pleasant to place to just walk around, never mind the inclusion of the military museums on offer, which unfortunately I didn’t get chance to go in on our planned walk.

The last couple of stops on our little tour of Oslo were firstly the sculpture outside the central train station depicting a hammer smashing a Swastika. This was erected in honour of the World War Two resistance organisation Osvaldgruppen (The Osvald Group) that fought against the Nazi invasion and conducted sabotage on the regime when in Norway. This was followed up by our final stop of the impressive opera house that Oslo built in 2007. A stunning white building with a very interesting and modern design, it not only plays the role of an opera house but is also utilised as a viewing platform based on its ramped design allowing pedestrians to walk to the top.

The evening’s entertainment was of course going to be us heading out into Oslo to get a flavour for the nightlife. Heading into town, the first stop was to one of the many bars around the city centre to meet up with Joachim’s friends before heading to our final location of LaWo, which is a bar consisting of plenty of seating in the front with a nicely sized dance floor in the back and small stage for you to really show off your dancing moves. As an establishment, I certainly had a lot of fun which was supported by the choice of music consisting of popular EDM tunes rather than the same selection of pop songs you get in an English nightclub. Fortunately for me, as someone who doesn’t drink, I wasn’t stung by the higher drinks prices with my soft drinks but that’s one thing to always look out for with partying in Scandinavia. To highlight this, using the cost of living website for Oslo and the exchange rate (converted 9 Aug 2019), the price of a 0.5L domestic beer is around £8!

And that was pretty much that for the evening, partying with the occasional few moments sat down to cool off. As for getting home, we just got one of the night buses that headed back towards Joachim’s flat.

Sunday

The late night from partying all night meant that it was an easy morning for Joachim and I. With a later wake up, this meant that there wasn’t much of the day left, especially with the added factor of a relatively earlier flight compared to my trip. So all that I really had time for was to head out for a brunch with Robin to try out a place called Texburger, which he claimed to be the best burger in all of Oslo, and all I can say is based on the that burger and others that I’ve had, it certainly has a strong claim for that accolade.

That ladies and gentlemen, rounds off my trip in short but definitely sweet trip in Oslo, as once our burgers were polished off, we jumped back into Robin’s car and he dropped me back into the city centre at the train station to allow me to hop on the train back to airport to catch my flight. I do wish that I had given myself more time in Oslo to do more and make the most of my trip however, that’s only through the power of hindsight and has helped me shape my future trips.

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