In May this year I spontaneously decided to go on a weekend trip to Oslo. Why Oslo? Simply because I had the long Whitsun weekend in front of me and Oslo was the only interesting city with cheap flights on offer on such short notice! 😉

I started my trip Friday after work and landed very late in Oslo. I took the airport bus to the city since there was no local train anymore at that time. If there is, it’s much cheaper. The first impression of Oslo was not that great: Lots of weird people hanging around in the streets at night, run-down buildings,… I didn’t really feel so comfortable. My hostel was also located in one of these areas and welcomed me with a disgustingly musty smell. Do not stay at „Sentrum Hostel“ if you go to Oslo!! Apart from the musty smell there was a very odd audience – I had an African lady staying in my dorm who seemed to „live“ there and looked like a hooker… The hostel is probably cheaper than renting a room in Oslo,…?

Luckily next day was better! First I walked to the famous opera house which looks a bit like an ice berg floating in the water.

Then I walked down Radhusgata as a contrast, wherethere’s quite some old buildings which were preserved and not replaced by modern ones.

I walked further to the fortress Akershus which is alright but cannot keep up with other fortresses in Europe. There is however a nice view from the hill over the harbour where lots of great ships are anchored. From the modern cruise ship to the well-aged sailing boat. I just really like ships 🙂

Past the water and the less pretty city hall, towering over everything, I arrived in Aker Brygge – the modern / futuristic part of the city. I quite liked it – modern architecture, here and there some interesting sculptures etc.

I then decided to take advantage of my Oslo Pass and go on a boat tour through the fjord. The Oslo Pass costs 50 Euro for 48 h and is worth it if you want to visit a couple of museums and use public transport. There’s lots of different options for boat tours in the fjord (Hop On Hop Off, Champagne Cruise etc.), but you can also organize it yourself with the normal public boats. You can already see the islands quite well from the boat, relax and take nice pictures. I disembarked at Nakholmen and walked around a bit. I really liked the island – lots of colourful wooden holiday houses! 🙂

Back in the city I still had a lot of time left, so I took the tram to the sculpture park of the artist Vigeland. Simply amazing!!! The sculptures look sooo human… and if you like taking pics, this is great! 🙂 I spent a lot of time walking around and taking many, many photos.

After relaxing a bit in the park, I took the metro a bit outside Oslo – to the ski jumping tower at Holmenkollen. I already enjoyed the drive itself with lots of great views over Oslo and the fjord. The ski jumping museum at the tower was not that interesting for me, but the tower itself was, especially the view from up there! On the one hand it was cool to see how steep it really is, where the ski jumpers are going down. On the other hand, there was an amazing view in all directions! 🙂

I had received a tip to take the metro all the way to Frognerseteren where you can walk to a restaurant and enjoy another nice view – so that’s what I did. However, you re actually much higher up at the ski jumping tower and the view is much better from there. So I didn’t really see anything „new“ 😉 but still ate some really nice dinner!

Next day was rainy-ish so I declared it the „museum day“! 🙂 And I really did see a lot… At the Norwegian Open Air Museum you can see traditional Norwegian wooden houses from different parts of the country. Some look super cute! Overall, the museum could do with a restoration though!

 

 

A few streets further there is the Viking Ship Museum – where you can mainly see two huge old Viking ships. Nice, but overall the museum was a bit small – and without the Oslo Pass not worth the steep entrance fee.

Since I was already on the museum island Bygody, I then also passed by the Kon-Tiki-Museum, which actually impressed me most! I don’t want to spoil anything in case someone doesn’t know the story of Kon Tiki yet, so I’m just saying this much: Back then, there still were real adventurers…

At the end of the day, I just made it into the Munch Museum – long lines and crowds in front of the paintings, but still worth to see. 4 Museums in one day – I’m not sure I have ever done this before… 😀

The last morning I was luckily greeted by sunshine again, so I straight away went off to explore the inner city. The center of Oslo is not very big and compared to other European cities there are not many historic buildings to be seen. Still, of course you can find one or the other nice looking one 🙂

Since the Oslo Pass also included a trip on a sailing boat and since I enjoyed the boat tour on my first day so much, my next item on the agenda was clear. Even though I had of course seen a lot already, this trip was nice once again. This time I saw more of the city from the water, and not so much the islands in the fjord.

I still wanted to see one more museum afterwards – the Nobel Peace Center, where every year the Nobel Price of Peace is being awarded. I was lucky and arrived just when a free tour was starting which definitely made the museum more interesting. But anyways, it’s set up very well, very modern and with lots of interesting videos.

Finally I strolled through Grünerlokka, a trendy neighbourhood. Lots of students, pop-up restaurants and shops,… A nice area and a nice conclusion to my trip to Oslo!

Here you an see all my pictures of Oslo.