oslo

Date traveled: October 30-31, 2017

Oslo was quick – about 20 hours total – but we spent about 10 of them exploring the main core and the area nearby that came up when I searched for ‘hipster Oslo’.

I was surprised by the city’s quietness, even though a fair number of people seemed to be walking around. One guess is that there were a lot of electric cars so there wasn’t as much noise pollution.

The harbour reminded me a bit of Victoria, but it was more built up. In the early evening it looked like a lot of people take the ferry from the downtown harbour to the suburbs after work. Makes me think that Victoria could use its water space more effectively, but I obviously know extremely little about the intersection of water ways with urban planning.

The city was greener than I expected. There were parks everywhere. It had some of the same castle atmosphere but lacked the hi-rises that were in Stockholm. Everything seemed very new and sleek, including the trains and street cars, of which there were a large number.

As much as there were a lot of large parks mixed into the city blocks, there were also a lot of glass buildings. A lot looked pretty new. I don’t know if the choice of glass has anything to do with the cold or the wind or the fact that in the winter there are very short days (and subsequently long days in the summer). With so many tall structures I expected more noise and more people kind of hustling around, but the only place I remember being really busy was the central train station, which was in a giant building.

We wanted to go to a Munch exhibit but the museums close super early so we  missed it. Justin ended up flying through Oslo again on his way back from Ireland and he managed to spend some time there. It’s hard to rush through a museum anyway. But at least we stumbled across this nod to one of my favourite American artists, and the namesake of my pet rabbit.

We talked to a bartender and he said the city is sprawled – only 30,000 live in the downtown – yet on a Monday, some bars were open till 4am, and there were several musicians playing shows and other events going on. The nightlife seemed like a different world that worked to balance the city out, but I’m not sure how much of it we were really able to ascertain.

The people seemed relaxed and friendly. One person said we could borrow her phone to look at events while she sat across the bar. The conversations we failed to eavesdrop on (I don’t speak much Norwegian) sounded engaged but laid back. For a capital with a million and a half in their metro area, the pace felt slow yet vibrant.

Directly across the street from the bar there was a topless woman inside her kitchen in front of a room-sized first-story window. I’m not sure if nudity is less of a big deal there, or if this person is the exception, or if she completely forgot it was dark out and her light was on and she was a foot from a downtown sidewalk. I’ll never know.

To be honest it was hard to look away.

On the train ride in from the airport there is a lot of empty space. Then suddenly you start to see hi-rises, then eventually you end up in the middle of the city for the final stop. The city train stations form a much more central place in the northern cities we were in than I’m used to. I’m a big fan of travelling by train.

I don’t want to overstate anything since I was only there a day, but Oslo had a nice vibe. It’ll be hard to go back since it’s so far from most other cities I want to visit, but it seems like there’s more there to see, and it wouldn’t be terrible to be stuck there, particularly in the spring and summer.

If nothing else at least now I’ll associate Oslo with something more than snow.