Stefan…

IT’S DONE! Finally I’ve been to Oslo, although 10 years later than originally intended!

It has been about 12 hours of driving, doing a little bit more than 1000 km and spending way too much money for just two days, but it has been worth the effort!

Markus, Uli and I arrived in Oslo on Friday night just in time to check in the Anker Hostel after I picked them up in Göteborg where they had spend two days. On Saturday it was again the good old schedule for the classical one-weekend-one-city program: 1st get a map, 2nd find the tourist info, 3rd get going! Yes, you noticed correctly, in this schedule the breakfast is missing we had to speed up because of the short time with sunlight in this time of the year – there are things you can do while moving! And yes – we’ve been busy in Oslo! We’ve been to: Karl Johans gate and the complete downtown area with Universitetet i Oslo, Nationaltheatret, Stortinget … – Slottet – Aker Brygge – Rådhuset – Munchmuseet – Akerhus slott og festning. In the evening we’ve spend some time at Akerhus festning to watch the sunset.

Later we checked out Grüner Løkka and ended up in a Britsh Pub right in Karl Johans gate with great music and audience But the Norwegian prices are incredible high, especially regarding alcohol… 70 NOK (that’s ca. 8,50 €) for a pint of Strongbow! And just like in Stockholm there seems to be an “interesting” dress code for the weekends… there have been at least three girls dressed up as Playboy bunnies on the tram from Grüner Løkka to Nationaltheatret
On Sunday morning we went on a sightseeing bus tour (we tried on Saturday, too, but November seems to be a little off-season…). The tour lead us to all the other parts of Oslo and the museums we had planed to visit! Perfect timing! We went to see Frogner Parken, the nice quarters right outside the downtown area, Holmenkollen and the surrounding quarters with an unbelievable view to the Oslofjorden and Oslo itself and stopped by at the Vikingskipshuset, the Kon-Tiki museet and the Frammuseet. And guess what: At the end of the tour it was nearly dark outside!

And as a last hint – there is a tourist information booklet called “Streetwise – your budgetguide to Oslo”…