It's been a year since I went to see Oslo, the capital city of Norway. I left on October 12th and had booked myself a few days to explore the city and the surrounding area. It was my first solo trip to another foreign country, so for me it was as exciting as finding out you were having candies on a Friday night back when you were a child. Planning was minimal, but I liked it - I was thrilled to go.
How come I decided upon Oslo?
For me, Norway has always been a fascinating country. They got a large wild habitat, enormous mountains, endless rivers, wonderful nature and a very stable economy. I have always been talking about how I might end up moving there one day. I feel that they are well equipped for the future and even though things are costly there (more about that coming up later), the standard of living is very high compared to a lot of other countries.
Before I left, I considered to visit quite a few places, ranging from Germany to Eastern Europe or Sweden. But only one would prevail. So, after thinking things trough for a week or so, I decided I would take a few days to experience Oslo for myself, see what it was like being a lone wanderer in the capital of Norway. I booked a ticket (both ways) with Flixbus, as it was the cheapest option, costing only 700,- DKK (~110$ USD). I'm one of those persons who don't mind being in a bus for +10 hours so that was a very competitive price to me. I set off to explore the urban suburbs of Oslo and to hopefully wander a little outside the city to experience some of the nearby nature. Its no secret that I want to go on a real "fjeldtur" in the Norwegian wilderness, so I just had to see how the nature was like first hand.
I had packed a very minimalist backpack. I brought just one mid-sized backpack for the whole trip, aka. 4 days. I arrived in Oslo late afternoon after a long trip from Copenhagen in Denmark.
Exploring the city of Oslo
I immediately felt the sensation of being in a large city as soon as I stepped out of the bus. I located the hostel I had booked, the Anker Hostel, checked in and went out to explore the city of Oslo as soon as I was ready. First on the agenda was to visit the Oslo Opera House. It is a very unique building as it has a very interesting slope design, but most importantly it offers an amazing view over the city. As I reached the top of the building, I got overwhelmed with a feeling of freedom and the usual "wow, I am actually here" sensation flowing through my body. It was amazing; let me tell you that. After spending a moment of succumbing to my body's sensations as I took in the view of the city, I decided to head back towards the Hostel, picking up some food and groceries along the way. The quest for food took me trough the streets of central Oslo and I saw a lot of places I wanted to visit the following day, so many in fact, that I had to write them down on a list so I could plan a route when I got back to the hostel. At last I found a kiosk where I got myself a nice sandwich along with some soft drinks.
An urban adventure
I woke up early the next day as I had a lot of places to see. I noticed another kiosk close to the hostel the day before and decided to get my breakfast there (it seems these kiosks are everywhere in the city). It quickly became my stable go-to option for breakfast, as it only cost 30 NOK (~20 DKK, 3.2$ USD) for 1 cup of coffee and 2 breakfast buns. First thing on the agenda after some breakfast was to go to the harbor and see the sunrise. It was still too early to go about exploring the city center as the stores were still closed. I had also brought a full vlog setup to record and practice video logs; something I have been wanting to improve on in general, so as I went along the streets of Oslo, I made sure to get some quality footage.
I eventually reached the harbor, it was located only around 15 minutes away from my hostel. As I stood there, overlooking the beautiful horizon, I looked at the Opera House again which I had visited yesterday and noticed something cool behind it. There was a mountain range in what looked like the suburbs a few kilometers away. Yet again, I took notice and added to my ever-growing list of "things to visit" while I was there. After spending the morning at the harbor while enjoying a second cup of hot coffee, I ventured into the central city as the stores opened their doors.
In the central city, I first went to see Glasmagasinet, one of the oldest shopping malls in the city. It was interesting to see such an old building being used as a shopping mall, it has the charm and looks of an 19th century building, but the atmosphere of a modern building with all its coffee shops and escalators. I ventured further through the streets of Oslo, passing by enormous stores such as XXL selling a variety of outdoor and sporting goods. Other interesting stores and places I found include DJI drone store, Oslo City shopping mall (this is another shopping mall, even bigger than Glasmagasinet), the central church, Torggata (the ultimate shopping street of Oslo), lots of pubs and even a special Japanese anime store called Neo Tokyo. All of this sightseeing made me hungry, so I made it my quest to find the finest Norwegian dinning the city has to offer, the classic burger bar.
While eating I allowed myself to do some research on Google maps about a certain fortress located at the harbor; Akerhus Fortress (Norwegian: Akershus Festning). It is an old military fortress overlooking the water which would be used to defend Oslo in case of an attack back in the days. Today it is actually still property of the Norwegian armed forces, but the majority of it is free to walk about. There is a museum inside the fortress, and for just a small entry fee, you can get inside and see the history of the German occupation during the second world war - it was very interesting to get some insight of it from their perspective. As a bonus, I also went to find a very specific spot at the fortress. I wanted to find the wall where my one of my favorite content creators, Johnny Harris, stood back when he did a video shoot in Oslo. He is an inspiration to me so walking in his steps and standing in his exact spot meant a lot to me.
Trip to the hills
After spending the most of the day in the city, the time had come to go see that mountain range I mentioned earlier. I found out you could take the tram to there (oh more about them trams later), but I decided to go on foot as I wanted to experience the suburbs of Oslo first hand. The suburbs were clean, orderly and well designed, considering the steep slopes and hills everywhere. Navigating my way through the suburbs took a little longer than expected because of construction work on a main road I had hoped I could follow, but at least that gave me some more time to wander about the suburbs.
At last, I made it to the hills, so now there was just one direction to go - and that was upwards. Going up the hills was a fun challenge as it was very steep in some places, something I am not used to, living in the probably flattest country on the earth. Venturing in the hills I took some time to practice more video logs and some filming techniques that I wanted to try out. You can see some of the clips in the travel video I made of the trip in the end of this post. The view from the very top allowed you to see entire Oslo, it was amazing and well worth the trip. In the distance you could even see Holmenkollen Ski Jump, a gigantic structure on the side of the mountain. It is one of those structures you probably have seen sometime during the winter Olympics, used to compete in making insanely long ski jumps. I never got to check it out, but next time I will make sure it is on the list of things to see.
The most expensive pint I ever ordered
When I made it back to the city after spending some hours hiking the hills I was absolutely drained of energy. It was late afternoon by now and I felt this was the perfect time to have an authentic beer experience at one of the local pubs. I expected pints to be somewhat costly, as it is no secret that all alcohol is way pricier in Norway compared the rest of the world, but how much exactly? I didn't have a clue, but let me tell you this; it was more than I expected. I found this nice pub called The Scotsman (probably the most touristy pub too, but whatever). They had a very well decorated interior, an enormous selection of beers and ciders and a lot of room for guests. I wanted to order the national beer of Norway, so I asked for that and got served a Frydenlund Pilsner. It came out at a price of 108 NOK (~72 DKK, 11$ USD) for 600ml. To compare, that is the equivalent of 2 draft beers back home. To me, that is expensive and will most likely always be for foreigners. But to the local population? Probably not so much; they live which such prices every day.
But to be honest, I didn't think too much of the price. It will not make me go bankrupt just yet. In fact, I would argue that it made me enjoy the beer and the flavors even more, as I subconsciously knew it was something that had to be enjoyed, rather than downed in the first minute. But there you have it - if you are wondering where to order one of the most expensive pints ever, visit Oslo one day.
The trams of Oslo (and electric vehicles)
Now, what is going on with trams and electric vehicles in Oslo? Well, let me tell you that. They nailed how to do it. Oslo has a very large tram system which can take you to pretty much all parts of Oslo in relatively short time. Not only that, but it is all electric too, so no noisy diesel engines polluting the city. So they are relatively quiet too, ensuring the nearby residents don't have to endure more noise than necessary in the evening hours. Even the design of the tram lanes are somewhat intriguing too as they made some of them very green indeed.
Another thing about Oslo is the sheer amount of electric vehicles you will see on the streets. I have never before seen so many Tesla's in one place as I did in Oslo. I am going to be bold and say that at a minimum, every 1 out of 15 vehicles you see there is going to be electric - and that's a lot for today's standards. It is not just Tesla's you will see, but also a lot of other electric car brands (such a Nissan Leaf), electric vans and mini trucks. You will probably be shocked what I am about to say so stay seated, because it is going to sound like something out of a science fiction movie. On the second evening I was walking home after a long day of exploring and passed by a construction site. I didn't think too much about it first when I saw a guy hammering away pavement with his jackhammer or they guy collecting the piles of pavement pieces with the excavator. But something was missing. It immediately struck me, there was no loud noise of the diesel engines. Because there were none. The jackhammer and even the excavator (yes, that too), were all electric. Now, to me that was so shocking that I stood there and just looked at 2 construction workers doing what you see every day. It was unreal how little noise there were. Coming from a city which has been one large construction site the last 5 years, it was truly one for the books (I hope you could partake in my excitement over something so mundane). Amazingly done Norway, only few countries have done so much to transition to electric vehicles.
Going home one experience richer
Going to Oslo gave me a better understanding of the city and Norwegian way of life. I finally can say I have been to Oslo and I was not disappointed any bit. I actually excepted Norway to be somewhat similar to Denmark (good old home country), we are neighbors after all, but I learned that it was not. It was full of Tesla cars instead (kidding of course). Norway is a fascinating country, with it's vast nature, mountain ranges and fantastic cities.
Another major point of the trip was that I got to practice some new filming techniques, and discovered that I am really into it. I am all for documenting your life so you got something to look back on later in life. It's kind of like making a very long movie your whole life so you can press that play button one evening in the distant future. With that said, and as a nice conclusion to this, have a look at my very first ever travel video from my trip to Oslo! What steps are you taking to document your life?