Our journey to the 'North Pole' started early at Heathrow Terminal 5, from where we flew with comfortable British Airways to Oslo.
Welcome to Oslo - land of the beauties!
I say land of the beauties because not only it is full of with natural beauties from creeks, through scenic highways to fjords but we concluded that the most beautiful people on Earth also are the inhabitants of Norway! Men and women! Kids, adults and elderly people are all has that beauty gene in them! Though a little bit it seemed they all just came off the conveyor belt, because everyone seemed to be blond, with the smoothest tanned skin, blue eyes, kind smile on their faces, they are all tall nordic warriors (so...just like my love from Berlin: Udo) and we have not seen any overweight people. Maybe Norway should be our new home, we were dreaming of!
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| Welcome to Oslo |
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| Famous Norwegians: Edvard Grieg |
Once landed, as opposed to the book's information: It turned out that the cheapest, quickest and most comfortable way to the town itself was the train, which was 180NOK return and it goes in every half an hour.
Funny enough the airport's 'lost luggage' space was already full, thus we were not able to leave our small cabin bags there, however as we found, Norwegians were always so helpful, we were told that in the central station it is even cheaper and easier.
We just missed the train, so we had time for a cigarette in front of the airport. While we were there my friend and I already noticed that everyone is extremely handsome and beautiful!
In less than 30 minutes we arrived to the Central Station which is basically next to the new (2008)
Opera House in the waterfront Bjorvika district.
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| Opera House entrance, Oslo |
This district has many newly built buildings and it reminded me of the area around the O2 Arena in London with its modern constructions.
The huge Opera House, which in these past few years, since it's opened, has acted as a tourist magnet offering great views from the rooftop, (which is accessible for free), lies on the waterfront.
In front of the building itself usually some kind of photo exhibitions takes place every now and then. We also had the chance to see one of them.
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| Photo exhibition at Opera House, Oslo |
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| Photo exhibition at Opera House, Oslo |
If you are there don't only go to the rooftop. Go inside! If you have time, do the
50 minutes tour! If you don't have time anyway just go in and take a look at this great design! The grandiose interior is a good example of a harmonious use of organic wood and manmade plastic. The soft wooden interior is in great contrast with the cold white surface.
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| Interior of Oslo's Opera House |
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| Interior of Oslo's Opera House |
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| Photo exhibition inside the Oslo Opera House |
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| Interior of Oslo's Opera House, see the grandiosity of the inner space? |
It was boiling! 30C, no shades around, no clouds on the sky and the sun was almost burning! If I didn't experience it myself I would not have believed this. It was not great either that I wore long black jeans and ankle boots :) thinking ahead for the much colder northern area where we were about to go.
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| Guards at Akershus Fortress |
My friend, Ori has been to Oslo twice already, so he knew his way around and after I told him what I wanted to see, he took the initiative. He was my tour-guide for the day! After the Opera House we started walking towards the
Akershus Fortress and Castle. We reached in couple of minutes where the trees gave some shelter against the strong sun, but not to poor guard. He was standing their in his warm uniform...on the sun without any shade, carrying a heave rifle...hmmm I would have wanted to be in his place. But what happened in the next moment was surprising; a female guard arrived and brought a glass of water to the other one. He drank it, and then the girl went away. How nice to make sure their wellbeing.
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| Akershus Fortress and Castle, Oslo |
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| Akershus Fortress and Castle, Oslo |
From the fortress I finally had a good view at the city from above! It faces
Aker Brygge, which usually is a busy place and meeting point for many having many shops, restaurants and cafes on the waterfront.
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| View (Aker Brygge) from Akershus Fortress and Castle, Oslo |
Talking about cafes, we also decided that we needed something to keep us awake! Bear in mind I have only slept 1 hour since Thursday 5:45am...and now this is Friday afternoon!!! On our way to the Royal Palace we took a small road because my friend loves the famous '
Moods of Norway' shop. I must admit their stock is really nice and trendy.
Tadahhh...just next to one of its kind, there was a Cafe, where we could sit, relax, talk, listen to this strange language and phantasise about the big trip to up north!
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| Spider shop sign, Oslo |
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| Cafe in Oslo |
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| The Menu and prices |
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| Selection of pastry and coffee |
Alright, we were full of with energy again to walk through Karl Johans gate to reach the Royal Palace. This is the main street of Oslo, the main artery of Oslo. On one side many cafes and restaurants tempt the onlookers to enjoy a coffee or maybe a light salad, meanwhile people can watch the others passing by on this busy street.
Opposite, parks and Oslo's famous landmarks; the Parliament Building or the National Theatre, statues, an pool and an interesting fountain can be found and more cafes.
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| Oslo Street view |
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| Oslo Centre with Freia sign |
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| Karl Johans gate, Oslo's main street |
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| Karl Johans gate |
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| Karl Johans gate with Cafes |
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| Oslo, Norwegian Parliament Building |
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| Karl Johans Gate, fun fountain |
The Royal Palace, just like in London, is the actual residency of the royal family, but visitors can also enter and go through the building via a guided tour. The surrounding gardens are free to enter, where one can have a nice afternoon nap or just sit out next to the pond, read a good book, listen to the birds or watch the handsome boys playing football or some other sport.
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| Royal Palace in Oslo |
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| Karl Johans Gate leading to the centre of Oslo |
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| Royal Palace's door, Oslo |
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| Royal Palace Park, Oslo |
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| Royal Palace Park, Oslo |
Oslo is small compared to London. Everything is close to the other thing, so we could just walk further and on the other end of the park we found ourselves in the
National Gallery.
Because we only had one day here....we could only rush through the museum to go to the main attraction of the museum. The scream by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. I think the painting is almost or as famous as Mona Lisa by DaVinci or the Sunflowers by Van Gogh and this should be in the top 10 art that people should see! I know this picture since I was a kid and I knew if I am in Oslo, I must see it! Ori knowing that I love art, looked at me strangely when we literally rushed through the museum to get to the Munch room but unfortunately we could not take a photo of it. In the end it is bigger than I imagined. I stood in front of it for ages... checking every square centimetres and layers, technique of the painting.
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| Edvard Munch: The scream |
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| National Gallery, Oslo |
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| Painting at National Gallery, Oslo |
Don't make the same mistake what we did! If you have one day in a town, knew how much time you will need in different places and know how long it would take you to get there!
Google map says 15 minutes? Add another 5 to it, as for sure you will not just run through the street in the same way you would do on a familiar street from the place you know by heart. You will look around, you might take photos, you might need information and have to stop people. You might just talk to strangers etc. So always add some more time to that!
And if there are places on your list, that closes at a certain time? Make sure you will start with them? I heard an Oslo visit is not full without going to the Viking Ship Museum. I wanted to go to there but by the time we arrived it was closed. So leave Frogner Park for later, it is open later too, unlike museums that have the strict opening hours. Always check this before you go to the city!
After the disappointment owing to the closed
Viking Ship Museum, we were walking around the
City Hall and finally took a tram and rode to Vigeland Park within Frogner Park.
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| City Hall, Oslo |
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| City Hall, Oslo |
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| Radhausbrygge, Oslo |
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| Majorstuen, Oslo |
Vigeland Park, named after the Norwegian sculptor: Gustav Vigeland. 212 individual sculptures of Vigeland line up in this park, leading to his main monumental creation, which itself has more than 100 figures.
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
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| Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, Oslo |
Other things to see is the various design shops! Just like many thousands or millions, I am fond of the Scandinavian interior design style. If you also love it then you will find yourself in heaven in Oslo :) from cheap but good quality shops to unique designer items.
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| British design in Oslo |
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| Moomin mugs, Oslo |
And for clothing check out the aforementioned
Moods of Norway:
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| Moods of Norway, Oslo |
As a kid I had lots of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse magazines...but I think they are not sold in Hungary anymore. It was a pleasure to see them in Norway :)
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| Donald Duck magazines, Oslo kiosk |
Thanks for reading!
To be continued....to the North Pole!
