Oslo

(Again, I apologise for taking so long to write this)

The oldest of the Scandinavian capitals, Oslo is intimate, modern and elegant. More compact and less crowded than Stockholm, it is similar in size to Helsinki and feels like a town as opposed to a large city. For example, an accidental (and very pleasant) discovery was the presence of some lovely old houses a mere few blocks away from the main street. Small enough to be easily traversed on foot (with the exception of some attractions that are at a distance from the city centre), Oslo is nevertheless serviced by an extremely good public transport system. This is a trend that I have observed consistently throughout my travels, and one that also leaves me ruing the tragic state of the public transport system back in Melbourne.

Despite being only a few weeks from the official start of winter, the weather in Oslo was quite good and I was able to enjoy a number of outdoor attractions. The Akershus fortress is perched on a hill that overlooks the city, with picturesque views across the harbour in several directions. Unfortunately the central castle was closed, but it was very pleasant to walk along the high walls of the fortress. The Royal Palace was also a pleasure to walk around, situated at the top end of the main street (Karl Johans gate) and looking back along the street to the Parliament building and an outdoor ice rink (which would not open until December). The palace is surrounded by Slottsparken, lovely gardens that are open to the public and looked delightful with the golden leaves covering the grass and glowing in the fading afternoon sun.

The famous Vigeland sculpture park was the product of Gustav Vigeland’s final 20 years (a period during which the government provided him with a house in the park itself) and is adorned by countless statues of naked men, women and children, often situated in bizarre poses. I could not fathom the artistic intent behind these creations, but it was a very interesting and enjoyable experience to explore the park and happen upon so many unusual statues. See the photos to experience this for yourself!

Oslo is also famous for being the home of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded by a committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament and is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm. Alfred Nobel never explained why he wanted a Norwegian rather than a Swedish body to award the Peace Prize, leading many people to speculate about his intentions. Regardless, the massive city hall that faces out to sea is noteworthy for being the venue where the Peace Prize is awarded.

Only a few minutes on the local train (T-bane) I was able to find an outdoor ice rink that was open — the huge Valle Hoven rink — and spent a few hours cruising around, enjoying the sunshine and the crisp air. Not much further from the city centre, and also reachable by the T-bane, is the wilderness that begins at Sognsvann. Despite the complete absence of snow in Oslo itself, this somewhat hilly and densely-wooded area was covered in a white blanket. I spent an entire day following a number of hiking tracks around the woods and lakes (most of which were frozen), and saw countless mothers pushing prams (both one-child and two-child varieties) along the paths at good pace. As I pushed on further into the wilderness, the paths became much narrower and less-travelled, leading to spectacular views across silent landscapes with no visible sign of human settlement. Ultimately, I began to head back only for darkness to descend while I was still many kilometres from the nearest train station. Despite the fading light and the barely-visible paths that twisted through several dark valleys — not to mention a precarious climb directly up an icy ski run, where I felt that at any second I would tumble down the hill — I eventually located a train station and avoided the rather grim prospect of spending an autumn Norwegian night outdoors.

Quite possibly the highlight of my stay in Oslo was seeing the opera “Titus” in the spectacular opera house (I owe this discovery to Gesine, a German architect with whom I shared a hostel dorm). In addition to having English subtitles that explained most of the dialogue, the performance was filled with countless jokes, tongue-in-cheek moments and the fourth wall was continually broken (eg, when two lovers were left alone and began to get intimate, the conductor issued a polite cough and they apologised directly to him!). It was an incredibly entertaining, funny and extremely creative event, and it was well worth the extremely cheap standing-room tickets (that provided possibly the best view in the house). The fire alarm and forced evacuation of the opera during the performance was (most likely) not part of the show, but it only added to the novelty of the night. The opera house itself was only built very recently and is an astonishing piece of architecture — after the opera, it was possible to carefully walk up the sloping roof for an excellent night-time view across the harbour.

I further cultured myself (well, that’s debatable) by visiting several museums and galleries. The Nasjonalgalleriet houses a number of spectacular paintings of Norwegian landscapes and the original version of Edvard Munch’s “Scream”; the Forsvarmuseet presented a detailed look at the military history of Norway (a subject of which I knew very little and found to be quite interesting); the Frammuseet documented the history of arctic exploration and the museum itself was built around the ice breaker “Fram”, which was used for several arctic expeditions in the early 1900s; and the Vikingskipshuset contained the remains of three Viking ships dating back to the 800s, which were recovered from burial mounds. Accompanying the three ships was a display showing skeleton fragments obtained from the burial mounds, which included a presentation on the analysis of ancient DNA obtained from the bones, and other Viking artifacts. The only drawback of the museums and galleries in Oslo was the ridiculous opening hours: they are open late in the summer, when the weather is good and the sun shines late into the evening; but in the winter when the weather is poor and it would be nice to spend an evening indoors, they close as early as 3pm. Madness!

After a very enjoyable time in Oslo, my next destination was Bergen — the second largest city in Norway and also the rainiest city in Europe. What could possibly be the attraction of such a place? The town’s beautiful setting amongst seven mountains and the allure of the Norwegian fjords.

All the best!