This past weekend was spent in the frigid, Scandinavian air of Oslo, Norway. I took off from the Florence airport before 7am on Friday, watching the sun rise over the Swiss Alps. Upon arriving in the Munich airport 20 minutes late, I had to find the bus to my terminal and ran to my connecting gate. The flight was basically empty, leaving me with a whole row to myself. I guess Oslo isn’t a popular destination for those Germans. When we were landing in Oslo, I could see snow on the ground! I could spend no time worrying about whether I packed the right clothes or not, as I was more worried about finding the express train to the Oslo city center. Thank god for English signs in these major airports. I quickly exchanged my Euros for Norwegian Kroners, or NOK, and headed to buy my express train ticket. I had expected to buy the ticket from a ticket window, but a nice, English speaking man told me they charge 30 NOK extra to use the ticket window and guided me through using the machine.
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| Swiss Sunrise |
The train ride was 20 minutes into the Oslo city center. We passed through the countryside, where the snow was beginning to melt in the midday sun. I got off at the Oslo S station, where I whipped out my directions to the hotel. The hotel was conveniently located right across the bridge from the train station, or so I thought. I found the hotel and upon getting to the front desk, I was told that I was at the wrong hotel! Supposedly they had two hotels in Oslo, and I was at the other one! Sick of lugging around my huge bag (never bringing my computer again), I hopped in a cab to go five minutes up the road. I dropped off my bag and decided to get in some sites because Carolyn, Hilary, and Katie weren’t getting in until late that night. My first stop was the Nasjonalgalleriet, or the National Gallery. My trusty Scandinavian Europe guidebook said this was a must for any trip to Oslo. There was an impressive collection of Edvard Munch’s best known works, including The Scream. I also loved Harald Sohlberg’s Winter Night in the Mountains. The painting depicts both isolation and beauty- the image below doesn't do the real piece any justice.
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| Winter Night in the Mountains |
My next stop was the Radhus, or Oslo’s City Hall. From the outside, the building looks like a plain, municipal building, but the inside is covered with colorful murals that depict Norway’s rich history. I was able to walk though the entire building, including the assembly room where meetings are held and banquet hall. From one of the windows on the second floor I could see the water and resolved to head in that direction.
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| Inside of the city hall |
I left the City Hall and found the main shopping street and the docks. It was chilly down by the water, but it was so worth all of the goosebumps. I walked along the docks admiring the Viking ships and sailboats before my fingers were numb. I ran into a café and grabbed a coffee before heading up to the Akerhus fortress, where there were amazing views of the Oslo Fjord. It was nice to see all of the fall foliage and leaves on the ground, something we don’t have in Florence and what I miss most from home! By then I was exhausted and headed back to the hotel to check in.
Carolyn, Hilary, and Katie were to arrive in Oslo around 11:30 that night, so for dinner I grabbed a sandwich and hot chocolate at a café recommended by our hotel and headed back to get a goodnight’s sleep before a full day of sightseeing on Saturday. Carolyn and I woke up bright and early to get a head start on our day. We wandered downstairs before 8 to have some breakfast before heading to meet Katie and Hilary (who were consequently staying at the other hotel I originally went to). We were surprised by the odd breakfast selection of meats, cheeses, vegetables, sausages, and other hot dog looking things. Luckily we found some fresh fruit and yogurt- I was not going to settle for cucumbers and tomatoes at 8am.
I brought Carolyn down to the water where I was on Friday and through the Akerhus fortress before making our way over to the Oslo Opera & Ballet House. The hall is an architectural phenomenon, with the roof sloping down to the sidewalk. The Opera & Ballet House looks out over the water, with amazing views of the city. We were able to climb all the way to the top, careful not to slip on the ice!
Katie and Hilary met us here and we had a Wilton reunion before heading to our Viking ship cruise. The cruise took us on an authentic Viking ship all the way to Bygdey, where many of the museums are housed. We opted to see the Vikingskiphset, or Viking Ship Museum, first. We had no idea how to get there and decided to follow everyone else from the boat. The museum houses three Viking ships excavated from the Oslo fjord region. We still hadn’t thawed from walking all of the way to the museum by the time we were done, and decided to grab a coffee on our way back to the ship. We stopped at a cute Norwegian coffee shop on the side of the street and sipped on cappuccinos and hot chocolates while catching up on everyone’s Euro adventures. We headed back to the ship just in time and were off to the City Hall stop. We were able to snag seats and blankets this time on the ship, making the ride much more bearable.
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| Our Viking Ship! |
I had read in the guidebook and on several websites that the restaurant Frognerseteren was highly recommended. Upon reading the reviews and looking on their website, there was no way I was going to leave Norway without going. Getting to the restaurant was going to be a challenge in itself, but we were up for an adventure. We headed to the tram station to find out our best route to get up into the mountains. It turns out we had to take a bus and tram to get there, so we opted for the 24 hour transportation pass, allowing us to use the bus, tram, metro, and boats to our heart’s content over the next day. To all of our parents: you would have been so impressed by our use of public transportation to get around the city. But, no, we wont be taking the buses in NYC any time soon.
After a couple of mishaps, including getting off at the wrong stop at the famous Holmenkollen ski jump and running up a hill after our bus, we finally reached Frognerseteren. The restaurant is perched on a mountainside overlooking the city, with big fireplaces giving it a ski lodge feel. We decided to sit inside, Hilary and I opting for a brie salad, Carolyn meatballs, and Katie, our resident daredevil foodie, an elk burger. Our visit would not have been complete without taste testing the famous apple cake. AH-MAZING.
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| Frognerseteren |
After taking some scenery pictures, we caught our bus back down to the city center and headed over to Vigeland Park. We had a quick pit stop to buy some Norwegian hats to keep our heads warm and entered the vast sculpture park. There are nearly 200 sculptures of granite and bronze by Gustav Vigeland presenting human form in a variety of emotions. The most impressive structure was at the end of the park, which was a huge sculpture of intertwined bodies.
We took the tram back to the hotel to pursue our hunt for Norwegian sweaters. After trying several different stores that were all closed, we deemed our search an epic failure. Supposedly nothing in Norway is open on Sundays, so we were straight out of luck! We went to three different concierges to ask if they knew of any place that was open on Sunday that sold sweaters and we were told that our only chance was an open air market. (Note: We found the market on Sunday and it wasn’t open). We also asked for a dinner recommendation of where we could get fondue and took the tram to a very residential area in the western part of the city. Just our luck: we could not find the restaurant and called the number, which was ultimately out of service. We resolved to go back down to the water and try one of the other suggested restaurants. Our luck turned around, as we were able to be seated at D/S Louise. This was a fabulous restaurant right at Akker Bridge. There were Norwegian nautical themed pieces on the wall and even a stuffed polar bear, conveniently towering right over our table. In the mood for something very warm after our day spent mostly outdoors, we got warm goat cheese salads and french onion soup. Our meal wouldn’t have been complete without a round of desserts, including crème brulee and chocolate torte. Our meal ended around 9 o’clock and we were exhausted from all of our walking, so we decided to call it a night!
Sunday morning got to sleep in a bit, knowing that nothing opened in the city until later. Carolyn and I grabbed breakfast and headed to Hilary and Katie’s hotel to store our bags and find the market. I must say, we got to know the streets of Oslo pretty well this weekend. We ended up finding the market, which was just a bunch of empty tents. So, we hopped on the tram to head down to the water to get a coffee at one of the outside cafes. All of the cafes in Oslo have outdoor seating, even when it is below freezing. They have heat lamps and fuzzy, fur blankets for everyone to wrap up in. When we walked by these restaurants on Saturday night, people were eating even outside with their hoods of their jackets up! We Oddly enough, T.G.I. Friday’s is very popular in Oslo, and they even have T.G.I. monogrammed blankets for customers to wrap up in. ended up sitting inside by the fireplace at the nearly empty café, The people of Norway must sleep in on Sundays because there was not a soul walking around even at 11 am! After a quick trip to the souvenir shop to buy a pair of gloves (the only shop open at the time), I parted ways with the girls, who were going to head to the National Gallery, and made my way back to the airport. On the tram back to the hotel to get my bag, I was mistaken for a local and asked by tourists if I spoke English and could point them in the direction of the Opera House. This is one of my highlights of the trip, as I knew exactly how to get there! Maybe I have a future as a Scandinavian tour guide! My trip to Norway has inspired me to learn a Scandinavian language… Swedish Rosetta Stone is definitely on my Christmas list!
Ha det!
B
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