A Trip to Oslo...Part 1!

Greetings, and welcome back to your irregularly scheduled broadcast of stuff from Norway.

Sorry again for how late these posts are coming, we're just getting busy! We've got lots to talk about, so this will be a multi-part post--but you won't (hopefully have to wait three weeks to read the rest)!

This trip to Oslo was something that came about rather sporadically! We asked some of our friends if they wanted to come, and sure enough, they did! After a few stressful nights of planning, flight/train price increases, and much frustration about payments, everything was set and all we had to do was wait!

Sunday, 9 October

Early in the morning on Sunday, we all met at the tram station nearby Fantoft--well, almost all of us. One of our friends had an alarm issue, and after giving him a call and telling him the time, he was down and ready with all his stuff in ten short minutes and away we went to the airport! Since it was so early, hardly anything was open, which was brutal since most people hadn't had much to eat. We waited around the airport for a while, drank our coffees, and soon got ready to board the flight. Energy was high and we were set to go. 

The flight was short and sweet thankfully, and while the take-off was a little rough, everything went smoothly! Steve fell asleep for most of it, as he usually does on shorter flights. He says there's nothing quite like a plane nap.

We then rushed off the plane and headed for the washrooms before jumping on the train to get into the city sentrum! It was a beautiful train ride to Oslo. The trees were starting to turn colour and the flat, forested landscape was very different to the mountainous Bergen surroundings. It was early morning, the sun was slowly rising into the sky onto the trees, giving us a nice view to start our Oslo adventure! We got into the city centre, and it was a completely new sight to take in.

Bergen, as I am sure that many of you have seen and noticed, seems like the traditional Norwegian city that most people imagine when they think of Norway: colourful buildings, huge mountains in the background, a fjord close by to everything, and forest all around you. Oslo, on the other hand, is much more like a traditional big city: tall buildings, statues and art displays everywhere, and a variety of things to do at every corner. But still, it was a new city and the six of us were eager to explore. 

We jumped off the train and headed straight for the hostel. Our check-in time was not until 15:00, so we dropped off our bags in the luggage storage room and headed out for the day. We visited the nearby cathedral, walked around the neighbourhood, got a great student discount at Johnny Rockets for lunch, and did a bit of grocery shopping for the next few days. Nothing too special. We headed back to the hostel and got settled into our room. It was a smaller room for six people, but it was home. It was a long room, probably close to 5-6 metres in length, so we had a lot of length to work with; the room wasn't too too wide, but we made it work. We had 2 bunk beds which our four friends shared, and then there were 2 single beds that we took, which one set of bunk beds and a single lining each wall. The back had some wonderfully large windows, that we later discovered were on ground level and people could just crack the window open and jump in easily if we left the windows too open (don't worry, no one did!!). Our kitchen had similar amenities to the Odda apartment we had for going to Trolltunga, but we had much more counterspace, plus a much better sink for doing dishes, which thankfully we could loan out. It definitely helped ease the costs by eating as much as possible at the hostel. The only downside to our room was the bathroom. Was it fine? Yeah absolutely, it had a sink, toilet and a shower. But the shower! Holy smokes it sucked. It was just attached to the wall with a curtain that you could pull around, meaning that the water went absolutely everywhere since there was no "lip" or bathtub that you'd step into. It was terrible, but it did come with a squeegee, so I guess that helped with the clean-up a little bit?

One of our friends on the trip is a PSG fan (French team with Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe) and was itching to watch a Champions League game on a TV, so that's exactly what we did. We found a pub, grabbed a comfy set of couches, spent an outrageous amount on just a couple beers each, and enjoyed one hell of a match. We were by far the youngest people there, but no one seemed to mind. We probably brought up the atmosphere, if anything. Afterwards, we trekked back to the hostel, made some dinner (props to Sina for making spaghetti with how little we had), played "name that song," then headed to bed! End of the first day, and only the start of the adventure.

Monday, 10 October

Today started off a little late in the day, but we made some great memories. After a quick breakfast, we made our way towards downtown and to the military fortress. One thing worth noting, this was an active military base, so we had to tread a little carefully and we made sure we stayed on the paths. It was an amazing thing to see, especially with all the history centred there. For example, over the ages, rulers wanted the castle and fortress to be bigger and grander, but they decided (each time) to forgo using the same design each time. Each layer of the fortress tells its own story and shows which time period it's from. We walked around the area for a few hours before deciding it was time for some lunch.

We grabbed some pretty great burgers from a place called Max Burger, which seemed a lot like a fancier McDonalds with some healthier and plant-based options. We chilled, talked, and relaxed for a while before continuing on our little adventure in the Oslo downtown. First up, we visited the government buildings and saw "Oslo West," which is regarded as the rich area of town with fancy and historic buildings. There was even a Freya store! And yes, we all stocked up on way too much chocolate.

This district was really interesting to walk around in, and we finally started considering Oslo to be the capital city based on the history we saw. It was a great long strip that was leading towards an absolutely massive royal palace. It was huge. The grounds looked amazing, there were guards stationed at every section, and there were tons of places to take some amazing pictures from. As we approached the palace, we noticed that there was a (small, since it was only a Monday) crowd gathering near the front of the building. After waiting a bit, we saw some royal entourage leave and even got a royal wave from...someone. Still not really sure who we saw to be completely honest, but hey! We can all cross getting royally waved at from actual royalty off our bucket lists. We did see a Finnish flag with a royal crest so we assume it was a member of the Finnish royal family... maybe.

Us, Paul from France, and Alicia our fellow Canadian, outside of the National Parliament Building!

We then walked through the embassy district and saw some incredible (and expensive) houses for all the ambassadors and embassies. It was a classy, Norwegian elite district to be sure, and we took some pretty great pictures as well.

Eventually, we got to Vigelandsparken, which is a massive city park that was gifted to a famous Norwegian artist to do with what he likes! And he decided to devote his time to amazing sculptures and detailed architecture, with bridges, monuments and standing structures everywhere. The park's grounds were also amazing, which seems to be a common thing in Norwegian parks. The paths all lead to the artist's (seemingly) greatest work, which was a ginormous column made out of marble, depicting humans in a variety of different positions and actions all squished atop each other, and this column sat at the top of a large, terraced-style pyramid. The top gave an amazing view to the park lands, which spanned a few square kilometres at the very least. You could spend so much time going through the park and you'd find something new with each visit!

It was getting late, and we had all had a pretty busy day and agreed it was time to start the long trek home, since we decided to not purchase bus passes and walk everywhere. And whooooops we found a liquor store on the way home and decided to get a couple drinks to have with dinner! We also witnessed a beautiful sunset and double rainbow on our way back! We, the two of us, decided it was our turn to cook dinner, and we made something that never fails: absolutely stuffed chicken burritos. And they. were. killer. But we knew they would be ;)

Once we finished dinner, we had a few drinks together and decided to hit the hay to prep for another busy day! It took awhile to fall asleep and get everything settled, but overall, one heck of a day! 

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Part 2 should be coming in a few days! We're currently enjoying a lovely visit from Anna's mother, so we've happily busy touring around again and finishing some last assignments! Hopefully, if all goes to plan, we'll have the next part up within the next few days. Cheers for now!