Best Foot Fjor-ward - A Journey to the Norwegian Capital City
Saturday 23rd July 2011
After my early morning start in Selston (that’ll explain the yawns), it feels good to be able to write the first entry into my blog from my hotel in Oslo.
When I heard, read and watched the news yesterday I was pretty sceptical that this would pan out the way I had planned, but after some ‘umming and ‘arring, I am glad that I didn’t decide to call it quits and stay in the UK.
Had I not been due to visit Norway following yesterday’s (22nd July 2011) tragedy, I think I would have still been very aware of the events, due to my interest in world affairs and also in journalism, but the fact that I had already planned to come and stay in the Norwegian city rocked by a bomb blast and horrific shooting, AND that fact that I was due to stay about five minutes away from where it all happened, did have me questioning the wisdom of my decision.
As I checked news outlets last night and this morning, I was very unaware of what to expect. I had seen the pictures, heard the description of the events and listened as the story unfolded on my journey to St Neots this morning, and despite claims that “everything was back to normal”, as in the terrible events that happened in on 7/7 and in NYC on 9/11, there was a huge amount of uncertainty in my mind.
Heading to the airport this morning I expected news of delays, cancellations, and a general lack of people willing to board planes to Oslo. To my surprise however it seemed that many visitors, like myself, had decided to continue with their plans of flying to the city and spending a few days of their holidays there. Admittedly, many of them may not be staying in central Oslo, but to overcome their fears and doubts after the bomb blast is a commendable effort.
My plane was full on the way here, and worldly wise after my last visit on budget airlines, I decided to make sure I boarded as soon as the gate had opened. Despite the number of warnings you have on your boarding pass about only having one item of hand luggage on Easyjet and Ryanair, it does make me laugh the number of people who don’t read them or are ignorant to the fact that the bottle of alcohol you brought from the duty free surprisingly does count as an item of hand luggage. It’s a silly rule I know, but it’s funny how people don’t seem to thing it applies to them.
Getting on the plane itself when you don’t have a seat number is an exercise in our survivalist instincts if there has ever been one but today I saw it taken to a new level when some German guy refused to move from his seat so that a mum and her daughter could be sat together!! It wouldn’t be so bad but saying “no” on the grounds that you don’t want to because you don’t want the middle seat is pretty shameful!
Tucked up against the window, I was already asleep before the plane had got both wheels off the ground, and only waking up to solve the crick I had in my neck from an uncomfortable sleeping position, we were in Oslo before I knew it. Positioned towards the back of the plane I was one of the first people to get off the aircraft and through passport control which is always a bonus.
Heading into the Oslo terminal I seemed to be the only person stood by the correct luggage carousel as the bags came out. I’m no expert but I presume numbers in English and Norwegian are the same so quite why so many people looked surprised when bags started rotating on belt 1 instead of belt 3 that they were stood by I don’t know! Human nature I guess, that one was closest to the door so surely that was the right one to be standing next to!
The next issue I had was navigating the way I was going to get from the airport to my hotel. Being the Yorkshireman that I am, I was trying to do this as cheaply as possible so instead of heading to the bus like most people I headed for the free shuttle bus that was going between the airport and Rygge train station.
I managed to navigate the ticket machine successfully and work out where I was going which is always a struggle; I even boarded the train in the right direction as well!
It took about 45 minutes aboard a very comfortable train to get from Rygge to Oslo S, which is the central train station in Oslo. A long walk took me to the metro where I brought a ticket to my stop, NationalMuset, but I was to be disappointed when one stop from my destination everyone appeared to be leaving the train, except me who had no clue what was going on.
Very kindly a woman aboard explained to me that this was the final destination for the train because of engineering works, which go on at the weekend. I think she also said this was something to do with the bombing yesterday, but by this time my brain was ticking over to think of how the heck I was going to get to my hotel.
The station I stopped at wasn’t very far from the NationalMusset station so I managed to follow instructions and the map in my guidebook to get to the other metro station I should have stopped at, and from there after about twenty minutes I found my hotel.
The place itself is on a bit of a hill but it really is in downtown Oslo, the street where the bomb went off is about 6-7 minutes walk from here, as is the Royal Palace and the National Theatre. Once I had rested for a couple of minutes and put all my stuff down in my hotel room, I headed out into Oslo, firstly to find some dinner, and secondly to have a look at a few of the things I had walked past on my way in.
Managed to find a delicious burger at a place I’d walked past near the metro station I was forced to stop at, and then began my first bit of sightseeing. Unfortunately, these weren’t the type of sights I had hoped to see. Just outside the restaurant I ate at, there was an artist with a gradually filling up canvas which people were posting messages of support on relating to the bombing and shooting, in the building next to there, or just outside it, there was a huge amount of broken glass on the floor and as I looked up I saw a couple of boarded up windows, I presume these were smashed yesterday.
Just down the road to the national palace, which is now barricaded off by armed guards, there were bunches of flowers and candles dedicated to those who lost their lives. Particularly eye catching was one woman who became very emotional when she saw the sight, no indication if she had lost someone in the tragedy or just deeply saddened by the shocking events.
I think that really sums it up for me, the real Norway is the lady on the train who helped me and explained to me what was going on, the real Norway were the trees and rivers that I flew over, the real Norway is the independence that local people usually have to walk so close to the palace without being ushered away by guards as you would be at Buckingham Palace or the White House.
I walked down a hill and back up the other side to another grand looking house, which sat on the opposite side of the road. Again armed guards patrolled the area, and more flowers had been laid out to mark the tragedy.
Growing tired, I headed back to my hotel to upload some of my photos to show people back home, and before I hit the hey (which will be soon) I will be planning what to get up to during my first full day in Oslo tomorrow!
Sunday 24th July 2011
A heavy bout of rain during the night drenched the Norwegian streets as I ventured out of my hotel this morning. The weather itself wasn’t too bad, a bit cloudy but walking out in a jumper and a pair of jeans I was pretty warm.
I was unsure what to expect of the Oslo climate, I had been reading about rainstorms throughout the summer months but yesterday when I arrived it was positively tropical and I was starting to regret not bringing a pair of shorts with me.
I had a vague plan for today of exploring some of the things nearby my hotel, but due to the disaster of Friday and also with it being the traditional day of rest, I wasn’t sure how much was going to be open.
Heading out of my hotel I had seen a closed off street yesterday that I was interested in taking a look at as there seemed to be some kind of monument worth seeing at the end of it.
As I came upon yet more police tape I saw a large amount of broken glass on the floor next to one of the buildings towards the end or the road, and a police car blocked the other end of the street so that no vehicles could go through.
Interested to find out what was up there I flanked the street and came out next to a church and saw a few army guards blocking the road and preventing traffic and people from getting down there. On the floor in front of where they stood was a few dozen bunches of flowers and candles.
Leaving there and heading back towards the Royal Palace and where I had eaten last night I walked back down the hill towards the town centre. I grabbed a sandwich and a drink for lunch from a shop along the main street and planned an afternoon walk in the opposite direction to where I was staying.
I walked down the main road towards where I could see the top of a ferry sticking up, and it soon became clear that one of the main ports in the city was located down there. Heading down a small side street I soon came across a bit of a harbour, and a shopping complex with stores and restaurants dotted around.
This is more what I expected to see from Norway as you could walk along down by the water which was littered with yachts and boats, all of which were easily accessible via the pier. I walked down as far as you could go towards the water and it appeared that there was construction going on to expand the area even further.
As I turned to walk back on myself to see where the ferry had docked, rain filled the air and before I knew it I was caught outside getting soaking wet in a what appeared to be a brief rainstorm! I took cover under the umbrellas of an open shop but as the rain started to slow I continued back towards my next destination, which was the Bislett Stadium close to my hotel.
The Bislett Stadium is probably little known outside Norway, but I had spotted it on the map in my guidebook. Every year it hosts the Bislett games, a Diamond League meeting (which Usain Bolt ran at in June), and was part of the 1946 European Athletics Championships.
When Oslo held the Winter Olympics in 1952 the stadium hosted several events and current it is used by Norwegian second division side Skied Football who play their home games in the ground.
It took me a while to find the stadium as it is hardly excellently signposted but struggling through the now heavier rain I eventually found my way there. The stadium itself (unlike many others I’ve visited) was tightly locked down so I wandered my way around the edge, only able to peak through the shutters at certain points to see the track and football pitch in the middle.
By this point I was starting to feel like a drowned rat so I headed back to my hotel for some peace from the rain at about 4pm. It was nice to get out and walk about round Oslo, unfortunately the weather Gods haven’t smiled on me today but fingers crossed for tomorrow when I will venture out into Oslo a bit more and see what I can find.
Monday 25th July 2011
Looking out of my window this morning, it seem as though the rain had held off overnight, something I was pretty delighted about after getting soaked in the afternoon yesterday and also when I went for dinner.
I got woken up about 8.30am this morning by people dumping things into a skip on the ground floor opposite my window, I have to feel that was slightly unnecessary, but at least that was a sign that Oslo is doing it’s best to get back to normal.
Heading to breakfast this morning I was impressed by the hotel spread of sausages, eggs (boiled and scrambled), toast, cereal and pretty much everything you could want to start your day. After devouring as much free food as I could I came back to my room to check on the weather situation for the day and to decide what to do with myself today.
I had made a few plans last night but considering the weather forecast was 50/50 on rain all day I decided to change them slightly and head to a few of the attractions which were around the area near my hotel, that was if I did get caught in a rainstorm I wouldn’t have too much trouble diving for cover back at the Thon Munch!
I had also planned to go watch a Norwegian football game tonight at the Ulleval Stadium in Oslo, but as I checked the website for instructions of how to get to the stadium, I noticed something written in the native language which I soon translated as being that ‘the game was exposed, due to Friday’s events.’
I quickly gathered that ‘exposed’ meant cancelled, but hopefully I can go watch Valerenga play in Thursday night when they host PAOK in a Europa League qualifying game.
The match tonight had been cancelled due to Friday’s tragedy, and so I later discovered that the Norwegian people can pay respect to those who did in the bombing and the shooting in a service which is to be held at the Radhusset (town hall.)
I guess that meant that with no evening entertainment I had to busy myself as much as possible so I made arrangements to start off walking through the Palace Gardens and eventually take myself back down by the river where I was yesterday and to see what else I could find.
Coming out of my hotel this morning, I noticed that the police tape which has been up at a street close to mine since I arrived had been moved and there were now cars passing freely down by what looked like a monument. I decided to walk up in that direction first and soon discovered that some parts of the main road were still closed off.
The monument I had seen and commented on in yesterday’s blog turned out to be the entrance to a graveyard, but as I walked around the corner from there I saw more police tape and a crowd of people nearby.
I decided to walk down in that direction and I soon found that the people were crowding round what I grew to learn was the actual sight of the explosion. In the buildings nearby I saw smashed glass and boarded up windows, as well as a crowd of people on the opposite side who I soon found were looking at more damage.
I flanked around the side of the building where I encountered a large group of people, not entirely sure what they were waiting for but there were camera crews, police and all different types of people waiting out there. I continued walking round the corner to where I had seen the initial group of people crowded around, and from there you could seen the deserted street where the car bomb had gone off. It was pretty surreal and as I edged closer to the front of the police tape I saw more smashed glass and boarded up windows inside a shopping centre.
Down the road, life continued on as normal, but in this specific part of Oslo’s city centre there was a certain feeling of sadness and quiet as all you could hear were the occasional shutters of cameras going off and people talking quietly between themselves about what happened on Friday.
Being so close to such events is a pretty unique feeling, and it made me think about how people in Oslo must feel about such an atrocity taking place close to their work and their homes. I’ve been to Ground Zero as I mentioned before, but those attacks took place nearly ten years ago now, and whilst it is almost impossible in such a situation, life continues on with memorials acting as permanent reminders of what happened.
Here, the scars still seem fresh as just two days ago sad events occurred right in these peoples city, and it must be a confusing place to be right now. Even for a tourist like me, I feel sad for what happened, and I struggle to take it all in as I am walking past and seeing these things, but for people who lost family or lived and worked close to where the bomb went off, I can’t imagine the range of emotions they are going through right now.
From there I sombrely strolled through the town centre and back up towards the Palace where I had envisaged be starting the day. The street that Palace is on was now back working, but there was still a police presence around the Palace itself, which sits atop the hill, seemingly looking down in the city centre.
Having seen the Palace on my travels yesterday I walked through the garden where guards were randomly posted marching backwards and forwards, protecting entrances and presumably securing the area as is necessary in their job.
The gardens themselves are simply laid out covering the grounds of the Palace, and they are free to walk through. Each day there are usually tours of the inside of the building but roughly translating a sign I saw outside, these tours would not begin taking place again until Tuesday.
From there I was able to walk back down by the port where I visited yesterday, and navigating down the winding streets I soon came out at the start of Aker Brygge, the official name for the buildings and shops which have been converted into a new construction, converted from a former shipyard.
Walking along further than the rain allowed me to yesterday I came to the end of the site and found myself at the Radhusset, which is Oslo’s City Hall.
To enter the building itself is free, and you can walk through and look at some of the architecture and also the painting and furniture which has resided in there for centuries past. Out of the windows at the back of the Radhusset you can see the port in full functionality with ferries, tour boats and also fishing boats heading out to different parts of Oslo and beyond.
It reminds me very much of Stockholm in that way, and just as when I visited Sweden I was able to sit and stare at the boats working and listen to the general noise of people spending their days relaxing by the waterfront. I presume it’s Norwegian school holidays at the moment too, as there were plenty of parents and children in the area.
From the front of the Radhusset I moved around the opposite side, closer to the water. There are a couple of museums round there such as the Nobel Peace Prize museum and also the contemporary museum of art which is on the opposite side of the Radhusset.
Standing proudly at the top of the hill and close to the City Hall is Akershus Fortress and Castle, which I started to walk towards once I had done taking pictures of the excellent sights around me.
Climbing up the steps to the fortress, you get a good view of the castle itself and also of the port and the surrounding area.
Getting to the entry of the fortress, I noticed another sign saying that the attraction was closed due to maintenance work which I was rather disappointed about as I was looking forward to wandering around there and getting an excellent view over the city.
I continued to walk the perimeter of the walls, despite the castles closure and I soon came out the reverse side of them, which is down by the water. From there I was able to walk back up towards the port and also get a good photographic view of the castle which stands on the hill.
As I headed back toward my hotel for the evening, I felt the light drops of rain dripping on my head which encouraged me to head more promptly for shelter.
It was a good day walking about and seeing some of the things that Oslo City Centre had to offer. Pretty disappointed that the castle and fortress were closed, but taking in the sights on my own walking tour were enjoyable.
After posing my latest entry onto this blog I took a walk out into the city centre and wanted to add a few things. Firstly, I described earlier how a lot of people were waiting outside a building and I was unsure why… turns out it was the car park to the courtroom where the car bomber/gunman’s hearing was being dealt with earlier on. That would explain all the press outside.
I watched the BBC news and they showed footage earlier on, that’s how I discovered it.
Also after writing about the memorial service which was being held in downtown Oslo, I felt it only right that I went down and took a look at what was going on. The events began at 6pm Norwegian time at the City Hall and by the time I had walked down there at about 6:10pm the streets were packed and I couldn’t get anywhere near to take a look. Crowds of people showed up to pay their respects, and from what I saw on the TV, it was wall-to-wall people packed into the space I had visited earlier today.
As I headed out for dinner, I figured I would take a walk to Oslo Cathedral where I had seen shots of people laying flowers, but again as I walked through the streets in that direction I got marginally closer but still nowhere near. I’m going to take a look tomorrow to see if the flowers and candles are still there, and hopefully there will be less people around.
It seems like the streets of Oslo have been busier tonight than they were during the daytime today which is a great credit to those people who have been out and lit candles or laid flowers.
Tuesday 26th July 2011
Opening the curtains of my hotel room this morning, I noticed something odd… the sun was shining!
Also delightfully it seems like the construction workers from yesterday had filled their skip and had no need to be up bright and early throwing things in from a great height.
I headed down for hotel breakfast again this morning (something I had slept through on Sunday) and that gave me enough energy to get going and fill the day with lots of sightseeing.
First port of call for the day was Oslo Cathedral. As mentioned yesterday, I had tried to head there after I had seen the footage of all the flowers laid in front of it on the TV, but had no luck, so this morning I wandered down there to go and take a look at the mountains of roses which had been placed in the memory of the lives which were lost on Friday.
Once again it seemed pretty busy, but traffic was flowing down the road so I had to weave my way in and out of it to get across to the church and then find a space. As yesterday there were still a mountain of TV cameras in place from networks across the world. Round the far side of the church was some guy from the BBC I recognised, but the others were probably German, Swedish or Norwegian TV. I saw a guy from a Korean TV report much further out of the city square yesterday, but I’m sure that every piece of news media in the world is likely to either have or currently be covering the story from either the church, the parliament building or the court which I walked past yesterday.
I managed to get around the front of the church first off, but it was quite crowded with people and I was forced to take to the air with my camera and see if I could get a decent picture over people’s heads. I guess for most tourists and perhaps even Norwegian’s, this is a site that they all want to head to. The street on which the bomb blast took place (this happened to be en-route to the church) is also crammed with people on a daily basis. I walked around the side of the church across some well-trodden grass and managed to find a space to take a look at the sea of flowers which has been spread out in front of the building.
It was quite a sight from my angle and although I had to fight my way through for a picture of them all, this is an image which will stay ingrained in my brain for a long time to come yet.
Taking some time to gather my thoughts and take in what I was witnessing, I then took a walk towards Oslo central station where I caught the metro from the other day to my hotel. I didn’t realise how close the Metro stop itself actually is, probably a three-four minute walk from the church, but perhaps carrying a suitcase and a rucksack on the way back, I will still catch the metro.
Heading towards the station I managed to find signs to the Opera House which was my next destination on the agenda. Around the Opera House is a developing area of hotels and shops which is part of the port redevelopment, just a little further round from where I went to visit the castle yesterday.
Behind all the buildings you can see from the land you take a bridge across the major road into the centre of Norway (and which in the opposite direction takes you to Sweden) you come across a building whose outlook looks like a cross between a boat and the Sydney Opera House.
I don’t know if either were the natives intention, but it does look very impressive with it’s shiny white concrete top and glass which on a day like today reflects the sunlight beautifully.
The Opera house is right on the water, and I can imagine when it snows or rains that the surface where I was standing it probably underwater!
You can walk up the side of the Opera House to almost the top level. There’s a ledge about half way round that you can walk up to and look over the edge, but there isn’t really anything to see unless you like roads or car parks.
When you get all the way to the top, you get a good view of central Oslo, it’s not up that high but you can see the port being redeveloped, you can see the Cathedral, and also in the distance you can see Holmkollen which is where I was heading for the second part of the day.
Holmkollen is up in the mountains and is significant because when Oslo held the Winter Olympics in 1954 Holmkollen was basically at the centre of the skiing events. At the moment it is a ski-free-zone (mostly due to the weather) and at this time the ski jump and ski museum are popular visitor attractions (or so I read anyway!)
I decided to hop on the tube at Oslo S station as I was only a walk across the bridge away, and after buying a ticket, I suddenly realised that I was going to encounter the same probably as the other day, because the line that I needed to go down appeared to be closed in my direction of travel.
Oslo’s Metro system is hardly complicated to understand, and each of the six major lines travels through the same four or five stops in central Oslo before branching off in their own directions. I decided to take the second train which stopped on my track and see if I could take that to one of the other stops which I knew was functional and then divert to the Holmkollen stop.
Once I got to Majorstuen, which is past National Theatret and Stortinget I soon realised that the deal with the metro actually was. Due to engineering work on the tracks, there was a bus replacement service between Majorstuen and the rest of ‘Line 1’ which happens to be where the ski jump is located.
I guess this was my opportunity to experience another form of transport in Norway.
Heading across the road from the station I was preparing myself to pronounce the station at which I wanted to get off at, and arranging my money thanks to the ticket machine at the metro station giving me my 177.00 Krone change in 10k denominations, but as it turned out, I didn’t need pronunciation or money as the bus driver let us all on for free before setting off.
I presume this is part of that Norwegian trust which is very similar to the system in Spain or Greece that I visited this year where you have to buy a ticket and make sure you validate it before you get on the train.
Obviously there is an element of putting the honesty of society to the test in this as you could theoretically get on the train or bus without a ticket and go to your destination gratis, but considering I already had a ticket from the metro, I would have been safe if my ticket had been inspected.
The ride to Holmkollen was relatively eventful with the bus stopping after about five minutes because the side door would no longer close, and then at the next stop the bus driver refused to let another cyclist get on because he already had two in what little space there was on the bus.
The cyclist was not pleased and proceeded to flip the bus driver the bird before an angry exchange broke out between the two. Not that I speak Norwegian but I don’t think translation would go down too well in my ‘E-for-Everyone’ blog!
The drive suddenly started to get very windy was we headed up a few steep hills and into the mountains. I presume most of the passengers on the bus were headed up to the ski jump site as most of them had cameras in their hands. It’s something I have noticed in my time here, but there seems to be a lot of German tourists in Oslo. Everywhere I go I seem to be hearing either American English, German or Norwegian. I’d also like to make reference at this point to another thing which I have spotted is that there seems to be a huge amount of Asian restaurants in this area. I guess they can prosper from the close proximity to the sea for their fish dishes, but it seems as if Far Eastern culture outweighs Western influences, especially in the culinary department.
The bus dropped us off at the foot of the hill, and soon I began climbing up towards the ski jump that I could see the foot of. Whilst most people walked the sensible way around the path to the centre of the building, I followed a couple of people under a railing towards the bottom of the ski jump which I probably wasn’t supposed to do.
From there I was able to get the full scale of the jump, and also see the ‘stadium seats’ in which spectators would sit. From there you do get a total perspective on how high the ski jump actually is, and what seems like a sport without too many complexities, soon began to develop a fear of hoping never to be forced into taking part!
I climbed to the bottom of the stairs where the seats were and looked up at the sheer drop that the competitors would be facing. I imagined hearing the noises of cowbells and waving flags, I bet this is a really great place to be in the winter when there is a competition on.
Walking around to the left side of the ski jump, I began tentatively climbing up the stairs to the level that I should have entered on. In these seats you wouldn’t get a good view of the skier coming down the slope, but you would be in prime position when they land as you can see the markers down the glass sides which show how far you are from the initial takeoff point.
I made my way up to the level at which the rest of the visitors were at, and looking to both the left and the right you get a panoramic view of Oslo. Trees and the stadium floodlights blocked the view a little but you could see as far as the Opera House, from which I had been staring up at earlier and also the port and the castle which I walked around yesterday. Up another flight of stairs was the actual museum itself and access to the top of the ski jump which I imagine gives you an excellent view. At 100k I thought I would give it a miss however and instead walk down the path and catch some sights from there.
The view was good as I walked down and again trees blocked my view, but there were a couple of openings which Oslo sprawled out at you from. I missed my first opportunity to catch the bus back as I was too busy taking pictures but the second one came along soon enough and I travelled back to the under construction subway station, and from there I was able to get back to Nationaltheatret to enjoy a relaxing walk back to my hotel through the city centre.
As far as Oslo goes for it’s sightseeing, I think that Holmkollen is probably one of the best locations to do so from. Norway is well known for its Fjords and in the wintertime skiing, and without a natural landmark to speak of the ski jump does a good job of providing an interesting place to go and visit. I would have liked to get a view from the top so you could see out over all of Oslo, but being able to walk down into the bottom of the slope itself did give you a degree of how difficult it actually would be to pull of a ski jump starting right at the top of the ramp.
Wednesday 27th July 2011
Today was/is yet another beautiful sunny day in the city of Oslo. Despite reading that it was going to be rainstorms pretty much from the day that I arrived, things have worked out pretty well in terms of the weather.
Good job because today I was in for a serious case of walking as I planned to go and visit Vigelandsparken which is a sculpture park just outside the city centre. The last time I had visited one was in Barcelona, which was Park Guell, a sculpture park with the influence of Gaudi. I wasn’t expecting today to be anything nearly as spectacular, but at least the sun was shining and it was a bright and sunny day.
Stepping outside into the tropical conditions made me wish even more that I had brought a pair of shorts with me. Packing my bag without some shorts (despite believing the weather to be rubbish all week) was a bit of an oversight and once again with a rucksack on my back I headed off in the direction of the sculpture park.
Even though I knew that I could probably get a ride on the Metro without a ticket I felt that it wasn’t necessarily a good idea to run that risk, and having seen online that walking directions took me just less than an hour to reach Vigelandsparken, I thought it would be an adventure to test my navigational skills.
I had some trouble at first deciding which road I should head on, and the map I have isn’t all together conclusive about the names of most of the streets, but once I started to walk past a few of the things which were indicated on my map, it was more or less a straight route all the way there.
The street that I walked down looked as if it was one of the main shopping streets in Oslo with plenty of clothes shops on either side (I kept a close eye out for some cheap shorts!) and eventually I got a huge junction where I turned left and navigated the way to Vigelandsparken.
On the corner of the sculpture park was Froggen Stadium. It is the third of the three major stadiums in Oslo, and unlike Bislett it is rarely used today. There were some nice looking clay tennis courts just next to the stadium and walking past them I came to the parks entrance.
I read that Vigelandsparken attracts almost a million visitors each year, and I assume that alongside Holmenkollen it is one of the main reasons why people visit Oslo. The park was full of open space as well as sculptures and with it being a sunny day I presume there were more people than on an average Wednesday in July.
The one straight path to the middle took you to the centre of the park where most of the sculptures lay, but before you got there, there was a bridge lined with sculptures and then a fountain as you climbed the steps to the centre.
The models on the bridge appeared to tell some kind of jumbled up story of a man, a woman, and their children. Quite what it was saying I don’t know as there wasn’t any writing which clarified my thoughts!
The central sculpture was pretty impressive. It was a tall statue of people all meshed together which stood out at the centre of the park, and can likely be seen from far around due to it’s raised height. There were plenty of people taking pictures round the middle, adopting some rather strange poses, all of which I probably ruined with my photos by reckless abandon approach!
Walking from there you went up one more set of steps and came to another sculpture, this time a wheel of people, and that was the end of the park. There were very few sculptures to the left or the right of the centre, but that left plenty of space for sunbathing as people were doing, or having a picnic.
I decided to find a good space in the shade and sit and read my book. A lovely breeze was constantly blowing so I moved to a spot in the sun, which then seemed to trigger the stopping of the breeze and the blazing of the sun. A combination of both urged me to head back to central Oslo, even if just to get a drink on the way!
I walked back a different way to how I got to Vigelandsparken, this time heading down the right side of the palace to complete a full circle. I think this route was a little quicker and I was able to navigate my way back to my hotel without to many problems.
Tomorrow is my last full day in Oslo before returning to England, and although my trip has been tinged with sadness, I have had a very enjoyable time so far. At the moment it is looking like a good decision to make the trip despite my initial fears when I heard of the attack on Friday evening.
Thursday 28th July
The sun was shining through my hotel window this morning as I awoke for my final full day in Oslo.
I had plenty of walking planned for today so I filled up on breakfast before heading out of the door.
Due to an unwillingness to spend lots of money (I guess that’s the Yorkshireness in me), I had decided to go looking for the beach which I head read about whilst on the Internet last night. Huk is just off the main island on which Oslo is situated, and usually the way to get there is by boat or by bus.
I decided to try and have a little bit of an adventure walking there to save myself a few Krone so I looked up the route before setting off from my hotel, map in hand, rucksack on my back!
The way I began walking was very similar to the way in which I went to the sculpture park yesterday, but instead of turning up towards it, I would continue to head west towards the coastline and basically follow the outline of this island and follow it onto the next one.
It was a pretty long walk, and soon I began to wish that I had packed those damned shorts in my bag once again! To solve the problem I rolled my trousers up and that gave me at least a little bit of fresh air going to my legs. I was very surprised about how warm the weather actually was. My only other experience of Scandinavia was with Sweden when I visited in November so the weather was pretty windy. It’s been really nice for the last three days, and on the day I got here which I wasn’t expecting, but it has been a nice accompaniment to my visit, particularly whilst walking today.
I followed the main road all the way round to a fork in the road where I turned left onto a path which headed towards Bygdoy which is the region of land next to central Oslo. On the map it looked very green and tree filled so I was expecting a bit of a trek but surprisingly the way towards Huk was signposted very well.
At once point as I was heading towards the beach it started to spit with rain. This isn’t that unusual for Norway I know, even in summer, but it wouldn’t have bothered me had it not still been bright sunshine with very few clouds in the sky! I was massively confused about what was going on, but enjoyed the moisture as I was getting pretty tired by that point.
As I moved further into Bygdoy the paths became windier, and instead of following the main road I followed a cyclists path which took me round the western side of the island to the beach. After about an hour and fifteen minutes walking, I eventually arrived at Huk, ready for a relaxing rest on the beach.
Whilst the amount of sand there was pretty small, I guess due to it being a nice day, plenty of people had beaten me to the punch and were sitting on the actual beach, or the grass area nearby.
I decided to find myself a comfortable spot on the rocks close to the water and watched the boats sailing by and the people jumping in the water off a small pier.
To the right of my view, you could see the mainland with Oslo cathedral and Holmkollen immediately sticking out from the landscape.
I spent about an hour sitting on the rocks people watching and reading my book before deciding to move on a little bit.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that my journey would take me the circumference of Bygdoy but I continued to follow signs towards ‘Sentrum’ which is obviously back to the main island.
About half way round I saw signs for a couple of the museums which are on the island and thought this would be good time to get a rest, buy a drink and consider the rest of my journey.
Where the museums are is obviously the most popular part of the island, and because of that there were plenty of people around.
In this spot there is also a ferry service from the mainland which takes people backwards and forwards from close to the Radhusset to this spot and back.
After a little bit of time I began to head back towards the centre, but this time follow a different route once I got back to the fork in the road. This time instead of heading back to the Slotthaus, I was going back to Aker Brugge which is the developed area of the waterfront, and this would allow me to use the main route into Oslo as a guide.
Once again I found myself following the windy paths back to the fork in the road and then headed right towards water. My first task was to negotiate some rather threatening geese one of which decided to rush me and required a quick body swerve to get out of the way! I swear a woman and her child had just been feeding them bread, but watch out for the person without food who’s trying to walk through!
It made me feel better when I turned round and saw the same goose trying to attack another person who was walking along the path! Didn’t make me feel quite so ganged upon!
Once past the geese, I followed the path relatively simply walking by the water until I found a small shop where I brought a drink. Turns out this shop was also an Esso boat petrol station, never seen one of those before, but I have always wondered, if you have a boat then what do you do about fuel?!?
Returning to my hotel briefly I grabbed some postcards and quickly wrote them before heading back out of the door for this evening’s entertainment.
I was planning to spend this evening in a different locale altogether, the Ulleval Stadion, home of Valerenga. My initial plan as I mentioned earlier was to go and see the home team play against Odd Grenland in their league match on Monday. Due to the tragic events of Friday afternoon, the game was postponed but luckily for me there was to be another game at the Stadium in Oslo.
The game matched together Valerenga and PAOK of Greece in a Europa League 3rd round qualifying match. Aside from playing as the Norwegian side one time on FIFA ’11 before I left to see if I knew any of their players, I knew absolutely nothing about the team. I remember Tromso from the Northern part of the country once beating Blackburn, but aside from that I must admit that Norwegian football isn’t my specialist subject.
Still, it was football, European football infact!
I was going to hoof it to the stadium as it was only about as far away from me as the beach I had visited earlier but literally just as I was about to step out of the door the rain started to pour down and douse any plans I had of walking. This wasn’t so bad I guess as my legs were pretty tired from earlier although I was going to enjoy a good stretch of my legs before travelling tomorrow.
In the end I decided to get the Metro to the stadium which is handily called ‘Ulleval Stadion’. I boarded at Startget which is where I had initially been dropped off on my first day (remember the metro not going any further than there?!) From there it was a pretty easy ride up a choice of three of the six lines and I was at the stadium.
It was looking pretty promising as I saw two or three people wearing the red and blue of Valerenga waiting at the station as I purchased a ticket. Rather entertainingly I was standing behind a couple of people who were unable to purchase a ticket and in pigeon English and sign language I got the message across that they needed to press the button for the ticket first before putting their money in! They seemed to find it as funny as I did that a foreigner had been able to help them with a machine which is primarily in Norwegian, and the “Thank you man,” I received from one of them proved how grateful they were. I guess that repaid some karma from being helped by that lady on the train on my first day.
Soon the train came along and on the first carriage I noticed that there were a bunch of Valerenga fans noisily singing and bouncing the train up and down. They weren’t doing it in an aggressive was or anything, but I guess having been to watch football matches in England I know that travelling with a bunch of fans to a game is part of the fun.
Just to be safe I boarded on the next carriage but enjoyed the fact that every time we stopped and the train doors would open you could briefly hear their singing before the door closed and it was silent again. It was quite a good sound effect, and for how many of them there were, they seemed to be making a good noise.
Arriving at the stadium there were streams of people heading towards the shops and bars that surround it, but my first destination was to buy a ticket. I noticed a map on the corner of the road which directed people towards ‘billiten’, which I knew from the Metro and elsewhere means ‘tickets.’
I walked to the front of the queue after quickly surveying the prices on the wall and decided to take a seat in the cheaper side of the ground which was 100k in comparison to 200k for the ‘langside’ which was main stand.
Holding a solitary finger up and passing my money over I received a ticket and then headed to try and find my entrance to the ground.
I deciphered from the ticket that I was to go through ‘Entrance 6’ and then look for gate 231. All was well signposted and once I had grabbed my seat, the bunch of fans who were singing in the train came in and entered slightly to the right of where I was sitting.
They began handing out flags to supporters around them, which I presume is something they commonly do to help with the atmosphere.
I had arrived in my seat about 30 minutes before kick-off so they players were still warming up, and as they went in to make final preparations, the crowd rose to their feet to applaud. Over the PA system they began to play what I can only describe as the club’s anthem (I have no idea, but it was quite a catchy song) and then on the big screen of the ground they showed footage from Monday’s service at the Radhauss which got a bigger applause than any Valerenga goal would achieve on the night.
I spent the entire first half on my feet watching, and attempting to sing along as the players began slowly and picked up as the rest of the half went on. I didn’t recognise a single player on either side, but there were a few decent players on both sides who managed to get the ball around and play it around. Valerenga created very few chances in truth and they spent far too much time going backwards.
PAOK were marginally better and at least forced a save from the goalkeeper who tipped it round the post just before half time.
The first period ended 0-0 and finally I was able to take my seat for 15 minutes. The guy next to me tried to strike up a conversation but I informed him politely that I didn’t understand. His next words were “Not many people here,” to which I replied, “No, and the game’s not very good either!” He smiled, whether he understood me or not I don’t know!
At the start of the second half, the PA played another different song and then the supporters began their relentless singing once again as we were back on our feet. I wouldn’t say that Valerenga supporters had a lack of songs as they illustrated that they could sing 90 minutes worth of songs with very little repetition but they loved dragging the songs out for a long time.
I can remember in the first half, and I kid you not, they sang the same one versed song for a full ten minutes without giving in. Pretty impressive.
The supporters were quite vocal, but they could do little for the team on the pitch who went 1-0 down with about twenty minutes to go. An attack broke down after a bad pass and the PAOK number 20 broke onto the ball, ran from the half way line unchallenged and from just inside the box slotted the ball into the corner. The Greek fans opposite (most of which had de-robed) went crazy, and with little hope of scoring I think the crowd half emptied, something I found very strange.
Valerenga pressed forward but could do little when PAOK’s number 5 struck a free kick left footed into the top corner from the edge of the box with five minutes to go and sealed the game, most likely the tie as well. If the stadium (which was already two sides empty) had 500 people left in it by that point I’d be very surprised. The supporters were still singing as they are liable to do in such a situation, but as the final whistle left there was mainly contempt rather than booing from their supporters.
I wasn’t expecting too much from the game, but in the first half particularly it was disappointing. I can see why some of the teams who qualify through the playoff system are eliminated from the first phase without a trace as I think that if Valerenga do make it through and draw any of the English teams, they will be thrashed. PAOK in the other hand looked good on the break, and I bet their stadium is difficult to play in too.
They once beat Arsenal back in the days of the UEFA Cup but I haven’t heard of them since.
I thought getting out of the stadium was going to be a bit of a nightmare with all those people only having one way to go, but I hopped straight on the first metro and was home within ten minutes. I think that’s the easiest dispersed crowd in history, and although the stadium wasn’t full, to get rid of all those people either in walking distance or using some other method of transport it was a good effort.
I’d like to go and see what the atmosphere and traffic is like when Valerenga play Rosenberg or someone like that to see if it is the same. I reckon about 1000 people turned up to the match, which is a pretty poor effort, particularly for 100k. I’d go watch every opportunity that I had if that was the price on a weekly basis, even if the football is rubbish.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat at the shop I headed back to my hotel room for an early night and the journey home in the morning.
Summation of my thoughts…
DESPITE initial worries, and a travelling cock-up on the way home, I have to say that my decision to come to Oslo after all the initial fears was a good idea.
Norway is a country that I have wanted to visit after going to Stockholm in 2008, and I’m pleased that I went ahead and was able to pay the country visit. Perhaps I visited at a bad time, as Norway is known for it’s snow rather than it’s sun, and I’d have wished to arrive on better terms, but overall the country gets a big thumbs up from me.
The weather has been fantastic almost every day, the hotel I stayed in was ideally located, and I have found plenty of things to do with myself. Personal highlights included seeing the huge amounts of flowers left outside the Cathedral. I passed them again this morning and I was astounded by the number which are still there, goodness knows how they will ever leave!
I also really enjoyed the day at the sculpture park, and also Holmkollen which were perhaps things I would never get the chance to visit in many other countries. Each and everyday has been a discovery of something new, and once I had got over my initial fears about safety and security in the city it was a very enjoyable visit.
To anyone who enjoys the outdoors in a friendly and inviting city should think about visiting Oslo. It is one of the more homely locations I have been to, and I would definitely pay a visit again.
After my early morning start in Selston (that’ll explain the yawns), it feels good to be able to write the first entry into my blog from my hotel in Oslo.
When I heard, read and watched the news yesterday I was pretty sceptical that this would pan out the way I had planned, but after some ‘umming and ‘arring, I am glad that I didn’t decide to call it quits and stay in the UK.
Had I not been due to visit Norway following yesterday’s (22nd July 2011) tragedy, I think I would have still been very aware of the events, due to my interest in world affairs and also in journalism, but the fact that I had already planned to come and stay in the Norwegian city rocked by a bomb blast and horrific shooting, AND that fact that I was due to stay about five minutes away from where it all happened, did have me questioning the wisdom of my decision.
As I checked news outlets last night and this morning, I was very unaware of what to expect. I had seen the pictures, heard the description of the events and listened as the story unfolded on my journey to St Neots this morning, and despite claims that “everything was back to normal”, as in the terrible events that happened in on 7/7 and in NYC on 9/11, there was a huge amount of uncertainty in my mind.
Heading to the airport this morning I expected news of delays, cancellations, and a general lack of people willing to board planes to Oslo. To my surprise however it seemed that many visitors, like myself, had decided to continue with their plans of flying to the city and spending a few days of their holidays there. Admittedly, many of them may not be staying in central Oslo, but to overcome their fears and doubts after the bomb blast is a commendable effort.
My plane was full on the way here, and worldly wise after my last visit on budget airlines, I decided to make sure I boarded as soon as the gate had opened. Despite the number of warnings you have on your boarding pass about only having one item of hand luggage on Easyjet and Ryanair, it does make me laugh the number of people who don’t read them or are ignorant to the fact that the bottle of alcohol you brought from the duty free surprisingly does count as an item of hand luggage. It’s a silly rule I know, but it’s funny how people don’t seem to thing it applies to them.
Getting on the plane itself when you don’t have a seat number is an exercise in our survivalist instincts if there has ever been one but today I saw it taken to a new level when some German guy refused to move from his seat so that a mum and her daughter could be sat together!! It wouldn’t be so bad but saying “no” on the grounds that you don’t want to because you don’t want the middle seat is pretty shameful!
Tucked up against the window, I was already asleep before the plane had got both wheels off the ground, and only waking up to solve the crick I had in my neck from an uncomfortable sleeping position, we were in Oslo before I knew it. Positioned towards the back of the plane I was one of the first people to get off the aircraft and through passport control which is always a bonus.
Heading into the Oslo terminal I seemed to be the only person stood by the correct luggage carousel as the bags came out. I’m no expert but I presume numbers in English and Norwegian are the same so quite why so many people looked surprised when bags started rotating on belt 1 instead of belt 3 that they were stood by I don’t know! Human nature I guess, that one was closest to the door so surely that was the right one to be standing next to!
The next issue I had was navigating the way I was going to get from the airport to my hotel. Being the Yorkshireman that I am, I was trying to do this as cheaply as possible so instead of heading to the bus like most people I headed for the free shuttle bus that was going between the airport and Rygge train station.
I managed to navigate the ticket machine successfully and work out where I was going which is always a struggle; I even boarded the train in the right direction as well!
It took about 45 minutes aboard a very comfortable train to get from Rygge to Oslo S, which is the central train station in Oslo. A long walk took me to the metro where I brought a ticket to my stop, NationalMuset, but I was to be disappointed when one stop from my destination everyone appeared to be leaving the train, except me who had no clue what was going on.
Very kindly a woman aboard explained to me that this was the final destination for the train because of engineering works, which go on at the weekend. I think she also said this was something to do with the bombing yesterday, but by this time my brain was ticking over to think of how the heck I was going to get to my hotel.
The station I stopped at wasn’t very far from the NationalMusset station so I managed to follow instructions and the map in my guidebook to get to the other metro station I should have stopped at, and from there after about twenty minutes I found my hotel.
The place itself is on a bit of a hill but it really is in downtown Oslo, the street where the bomb went off is about 6-7 minutes walk from here, as is the Royal Palace and the National Theatre. Once I had rested for a couple of minutes and put all my stuff down in my hotel room, I headed out into Oslo, firstly to find some dinner, and secondly to have a look at a few of the things I had walked past on my way in.
Managed to find a delicious burger at a place I’d walked past near the metro station I was forced to stop at, and then began my first bit of sightseeing. Unfortunately, these weren’t the type of sights I had hoped to see. Just outside the restaurant I ate at, there was an artist with a gradually filling up canvas which people were posting messages of support on relating to the bombing and shooting, in the building next to there, or just outside it, there was a huge amount of broken glass on the floor and as I looked up I saw a couple of boarded up windows, I presume these were smashed yesterday.
Just down the road to the national palace, which is now barricaded off by armed guards, there were bunches of flowers and candles dedicated to those who lost their lives. Particularly eye catching was one woman who became very emotional when she saw the sight, no indication if she had lost someone in the tragedy or just deeply saddened by the shocking events.
I think that really sums it up for me, the real Norway is the lady on the train who helped me and explained to me what was going on, the real Norway were the trees and rivers that I flew over, the real Norway is the independence that local people usually have to walk so close to the palace without being ushered away by guards as you would be at Buckingham Palace or the White House.
I walked down a hill and back up the other side to another grand looking house, which sat on the opposite side of the road. Again armed guards patrolled the area, and more flowers had been laid out to mark the tragedy.
Growing tired, I headed back to my hotel to upload some of my photos to show people back home, and before I hit the hey (which will be soon) I will be planning what to get up to during my first full day in Oslo tomorrow!
Sunday 24th July 2011
A heavy bout of rain during the night drenched the Norwegian streets as I ventured out of my hotel this morning. The weather itself wasn’t too bad, a bit cloudy but walking out in a jumper and a pair of jeans I was pretty warm.
I was unsure what to expect of the Oslo climate, I had been reading about rainstorms throughout the summer months but yesterday when I arrived it was positively tropical and I was starting to regret not bringing a pair of shorts with me.
I had a vague plan for today of exploring some of the things nearby my hotel, but due to the disaster of Friday and also with it being the traditional day of rest, I wasn’t sure how much was going to be open.
Heading out of my hotel I had seen a closed off street yesterday that I was interested in taking a look at as there seemed to be some kind of monument worth seeing at the end of it.
As I came upon yet more police tape I saw a large amount of broken glass on the floor next to one of the buildings towards the end or the road, and a police car blocked the other end of the street so that no vehicles could go through.
Interested to find out what was up there I flanked the street and came out next to a church and saw a few army guards blocking the road and preventing traffic and people from getting down there. On the floor in front of where they stood was a few dozen bunches of flowers and candles.
Leaving there and heading back towards the Royal Palace and where I had eaten last night I walked back down the hill towards the town centre. I grabbed a sandwich and a drink for lunch from a shop along the main street and planned an afternoon walk in the opposite direction to where I was staying.
I walked down the main road towards where I could see the top of a ferry sticking up, and it soon became clear that one of the main ports in the city was located down there. Heading down a small side street I soon came across a bit of a harbour, and a shopping complex with stores and restaurants dotted around.
This is more what I expected to see from Norway as you could walk along down by the water which was littered with yachts and boats, all of which were easily accessible via the pier. I walked down as far as you could go towards the water and it appeared that there was construction going on to expand the area even further.
As I turned to walk back on myself to see where the ferry had docked, rain filled the air and before I knew it I was caught outside getting soaking wet in a what appeared to be a brief rainstorm! I took cover under the umbrellas of an open shop but as the rain started to slow I continued back towards my next destination, which was the Bislett Stadium close to my hotel.
The Bislett Stadium is probably little known outside Norway, but I had spotted it on the map in my guidebook. Every year it hosts the Bislett games, a Diamond League meeting (which Usain Bolt ran at in June), and was part of the 1946 European Athletics Championships.
When Oslo held the Winter Olympics in 1952 the stadium hosted several events and current it is used by Norwegian second division side Skied Football who play their home games in the ground.
It took me a while to find the stadium as it is hardly excellently signposted but struggling through the now heavier rain I eventually found my way there. The stadium itself (unlike many others I’ve visited) was tightly locked down so I wandered my way around the edge, only able to peak through the shutters at certain points to see the track and football pitch in the middle.
By this point I was starting to feel like a drowned rat so I headed back to my hotel for some peace from the rain at about 4pm. It was nice to get out and walk about round Oslo, unfortunately the weather Gods haven’t smiled on me today but fingers crossed for tomorrow when I will venture out into Oslo a bit more and see what I can find.
Monday 25th July 2011
Looking out of my window this morning, it seem as though the rain had held off overnight, something I was pretty delighted about after getting soaked in the afternoon yesterday and also when I went for dinner.
I got woken up about 8.30am this morning by people dumping things into a skip on the ground floor opposite my window, I have to feel that was slightly unnecessary, but at least that was a sign that Oslo is doing it’s best to get back to normal.
Heading to breakfast this morning I was impressed by the hotel spread of sausages, eggs (boiled and scrambled), toast, cereal and pretty much everything you could want to start your day. After devouring as much free food as I could I came back to my room to check on the weather situation for the day and to decide what to do with myself today.
I had made a few plans last night but considering the weather forecast was 50/50 on rain all day I decided to change them slightly and head to a few of the attractions which were around the area near my hotel, that was if I did get caught in a rainstorm I wouldn’t have too much trouble diving for cover back at the Thon Munch!
I had also planned to go watch a Norwegian football game tonight at the Ulleval Stadium in Oslo, but as I checked the website for instructions of how to get to the stadium, I noticed something written in the native language which I soon translated as being that ‘the game was exposed, due to Friday’s events.’
I quickly gathered that ‘exposed’ meant cancelled, but hopefully I can go watch Valerenga play in Thursday night when they host PAOK in a Europa League qualifying game.
The match tonight had been cancelled due to Friday’s tragedy, and so I later discovered that the Norwegian people can pay respect to those who did in the bombing and the shooting in a service which is to be held at the Radhusset (town hall.)
I guess that meant that with no evening entertainment I had to busy myself as much as possible so I made arrangements to start off walking through the Palace Gardens and eventually take myself back down by the river where I was yesterday and to see what else I could find.
Coming out of my hotel this morning, I noticed that the police tape which has been up at a street close to mine since I arrived had been moved and there were now cars passing freely down by what looked like a monument. I decided to walk up in that direction first and soon discovered that some parts of the main road were still closed off.
The monument I had seen and commented on in yesterday’s blog turned out to be the entrance to a graveyard, but as I walked around the corner from there I saw more police tape and a crowd of people nearby.
I decided to walk down in that direction and I soon found that the people were crowding round what I grew to learn was the actual sight of the explosion. In the buildings nearby I saw smashed glass and boarded up windows, as well as a crowd of people on the opposite side who I soon found were looking at more damage.
I flanked around the side of the building where I encountered a large group of people, not entirely sure what they were waiting for but there were camera crews, police and all different types of people waiting out there. I continued walking round the corner to where I had seen the initial group of people crowded around, and from there you could seen the deserted street where the car bomb had gone off. It was pretty surreal and as I edged closer to the front of the police tape I saw more smashed glass and boarded up windows inside a shopping centre.
Down the road, life continued on as normal, but in this specific part of Oslo’s city centre there was a certain feeling of sadness and quiet as all you could hear were the occasional shutters of cameras going off and people talking quietly between themselves about what happened on Friday.
Being so close to such events is a pretty unique feeling, and it made me think about how people in Oslo must feel about such an atrocity taking place close to their work and their homes. I’ve been to Ground Zero as I mentioned before, but those attacks took place nearly ten years ago now, and whilst it is almost impossible in such a situation, life continues on with memorials acting as permanent reminders of what happened.
Here, the scars still seem fresh as just two days ago sad events occurred right in these peoples city, and it must be a confusing place to be right now. Even for a tourist like me, I feel sad for what happened, and I struggle to take it all in as I am walking past and seeing these things, but for people who lost family or lived and worked close to where the bomb went off, I can’t imagine the range of emotions they are going through right now.
From there I sombrely strolled through the town centre and back up towards the Palace where I had envisaged be starting the day. The street that Palace is on was now back working, but there was still a police presence around the Palace itself, which sits atop the hill, seemingly looking down in the city centre.
Having seen the Palace on my travels yesterday I walked through the garden where guards were randomly posted marching backwards and forwards, protecting entrances and presumably securing the area as is necessary in their job.
The gardens themselves are simply laid out covering the grounds of the Palace, and they are free to walk through. Each day there are usually tours of the inside of the building but roughly translating a sign I saw outside, these tours would not begin taking place again until Tuesday.
From there I was able to walk back down by the port where I visited yesterday, and navigating down the winding streets I soon came out at the start of Aker Brygge, the official name for the buildings and shops which have been converted into a new construction, converted from a former shipyard.
Walking along further than the rain allowed me to yesterday I came to the end of the site and found myself at the Radhusset, which is Oslo’s City Hall.
To enter the building itself is free, and you can walk through and look at some of the architecture and also the painting and furniture which has resided in there for centuries past. Out of the windows at the back of the Radhusset you can see the port in full functionality with ferries, tour boats and also fishing boats heading out to different parts of Oslo and beyond.
It reminds me very much of Stockholm in that way, and just as when I visited Sweden I was able to sit and stare at the boats working and listen to the general noise of people spending their days relaxing by the waterfront. I presume it’s Norwegian school holidays at the moment too, as there were plenty of parents and children in the area.
From the front of the Radhusset I moved around the opposite side, closer to the water. There are a couple of museums round there such as the Nobel Peace Prize museum and also the contemporary museum of art which is on the opposite side of the Radhusset.
Standing proudly at the top of the hill and close to the City Hall is Akershus Fortress and Castle, which I started to walk towards once I had done taking pictures of the excellent sights around me.
Climbing up the steps to the fortress, you get a good view of the castle itself and also of the port and the surrounding area.
Getting to the entry of the fortress, I noticed another sign saying that the attraction was closed due to maintenance work which I was rather disappointed about as I was looking forward to wandering around there and getting an excellent view over the city.
I continued to walk the perimeter of the walls, despite the castles closure and I soon came out the reverse side of them, which is down by the water. From there I was able to walk back up towards the port and also get a good photographic view of the castle which stands on the hill.
As I headed back toward my hotel for the evening, I felt the light drops of rain dripping on my head which encouraged me to head more promptly for shelter.
It was a good day walking about and seeing some of the things that Oslo City Centre had to offer. Pretty disappointed that the castle and fortress were closed, but taking in the sights on my own walking tour were enjoyable.
After posing my latest entry onto this blog I took a walk out into the city centre and wanted to add a few things. Firstly, I described earlier how a lot of people were waiting outside a building and I was unsure why… turns out it was the car park to the courtroom where the car bomber/gunman’s hearing was being dealt with earlier on. That would explain all the press outside.
I watched the BBC news and they showed footage earlier on, that’s how I discovered it.
Also after writing about the memorial service which was being held in downtown Oslo, I felt it only right that I went down and took a look at what was going on. The events began at 6pm Norwegian time at the City Hall and by the time I had walked down there at about 6:10pm the streets were packed and I couldn’t get anywhere near to take a look. Crowds of people showed up to pay their respects, and from what I saw on the TV, it was wall-to-wall people packed into the space I had visited earlier today.
As I headed out for dinner, I figured I would take a walk to Oslo Cathedral where I had seen shots of people laying flowers, but again as I walked through the streets in that direction I got marginally closer but still nowhere near. I’m going to take a look tomorrow to see if the flowers and candles are still there, and hopefully there will be less people around.
It seems like the streets of Oslo have been busier tonight than they were during the daytime today which is a great credit to those people who have been out and lit candles or laid flowers.
Tuesday 26th July 2011
Opening the curtains of my hotel room this morning, I noticed something odd… the sun was shining!
Also delightfully it seems like the construction workers from yesterday had filled their skip and had no need to be up bright and early throwing things in from a great height.
I headed down for hotel breakfast again this morning (something I had slept through on Sunday) and that gave me enough energy to get going and fill the day with lots of sightseeing.
First port of call for the day was Oslo Cathedral. As mentioned yesterday, I had tried to head there after I had seen the footage of all the flowers laid in front of it on the TV, but had no luck, so this morning I wandered down there to go and take a look at the mountains of roses which had been placed in the memory of the lives which were lost on Friday.
Once again it seemed pretty busy, but traffic was flowing down the road so I had to weave my way in and out of it to get across to the church and then find a space. As yesterday there were still a mountain of TV cameras in place from networks across the world. Round the far side of the church was some guy from the BBC I recognised, but the others were probably German, Swedish or Norwegian TV. I saw a guy from a Korean TV report much further out of the city square yesterday, but I’m sure that every piece of news media in the world is likely to either have or currently be covering the story from either the church, the parliament building or the court which I walked past yesterday.
I managed to get around the front of the church first off, but it was quite crowded with people and I was forced to take to the air with my camera and see if I could get a decent picture over people’s heads. I guess for most tourists and perhaps even Norwegian’s, this is a site that they all want to head to. The street on which the bomb blast took place (this happened to be en-route to the church) is also crammed with people on a daily basis. I walked around the side of the church across some well-trodden grass and managed to find a space to take a look at the sea of flowers which has been spread out in front of the building.
It was quite a sight from my angle and although I had to fight my way through for a picture of them all, this is an image which will stay ingrained in my brain for a long time to come yet.
Taking some time to gather my thoughts and take in what I was witnessing, I then took a walk towards Oslo central station where I caught the metro from the other day to my hotel. I didn’t realise how close the Metro stop itself actually is, probably a three-four minute walk from the church, but perhaps carrying a suitcase and a rucksack on the way back, I will still catch the metro.
Heading towards the station I managed to find signs to the Opera House which was my next destination on the agenda. Around the Opera House is a developing area of hotels and shops which is part of the port redevelopment, just a little further round from where I went to visit the castle yesterday.
Behind all the buildings you can see from the land you take a bridge across the major road into the centre of Norway (and which in the opposite direction takes you to Sweden) you come across a building whose outlook looks like a cross between a boat and the Sydney Opera House.
I don’t know if either were the natives intention, but it does look very impressive with it’s shiny white concrete top and glass which on a day like today reflects the sunlight beautifully.
The Opera house is right on the water, and I can imagine when it snows or rains that the surface where I was standing it probably underwater!
You can walk up the side of the Opera House to almost the top level. There’s a ledge about half way round that you can walk up to and look over the edge, but there isn’t really anything to see unless you like roads or car parks.
When you get all the way to the top, you get a good view of central Oslo, it’s not up that high but you can see the port being redeveloped, you can see the Cathedral, and also in the distance you can see Holmkollen which is where I was heading for the second part of the day.
Holmkollen is up in the mountains and is significant because when Oslo held the Winter Olympics in 1954 Holmkollen was basically at the centre of the skiing events. At the moment it is a ski-free-zone (mostly due to the weather) and at this time the ski jump and ski museum are popular visitor attractions (or so I read anyway!)
I decided to hop on the tube at Oslo S station as I was only a walk across the bridge away, and after buying a ticket, I suddenly realised that I was going to encounter the same probably as the other day, because the line that I needed to go down appeared to be closed in my direction of travel.
Oslo’s Metro system is hardly complicated to understand, and each of the six major lines travels through the same four or five stops in central Oslo before branching off in their own directions. I decided to take the second train which stopped on my track and see if I could take that to one of the other stops which I knew was functional and then divert to the Holmkollen stop.
Once I got to Majorstuen, which is past National Theatret and Stortinget I soon realised that the deal with the metro actually was. Due to engineering work on the tracks, there was a bus replacement service between Majorstuen and the rest of ‘Line 1’ which happens to be where the ski jump is located.
I guess this was my opportunity to experience another form of transport in Norway.
Heading across the road from the station I was preparing myself to pronounce the station at which I wanted to get off at, and arranging my money thanks to the ticket machine at the metro station giving me my 177.00 Krone change in 10k denominations, but as it turned out, I didn’t need pronunciation or money as the bus driver let us all on for free before setting off.
I presume this is part of that Norwegian trust which is very similar to the system in Spain or Greece that I visited this year where you have to buy a ticket and make sure you validate it before you get on the train.
Obviously there is an element of putting the honesty of society to the test in this as you could theoretically get on the train or bus without a ticket and go to your destination gratis, but considering I already had a ticket from the metro, I would have been safe if my ticket had been inspected.
The ride to Holmkollen was relatively eventful with the bus stopping after about five minutes because the side door would no longer close, and then at the next stop the bus driver refused to let another cyclist get on because he already had two in what little space there was on the bus.
The cyclist was not pleased and proceeded to flip the bus driver the bird before an angry exchange broke out between the two. Not that I speak Norwegian but I don’t think translation would go down too well in my ‘E-for-Everyone’ blog!
The drive suddenly started to get very windy was we headed up a few steep hills and into the mountains. I presume most of the passengers on the bus were headed up to the ski jump site as most of them had cameras in their hands. It’s something I have noticed in my time here, but there seems to be a lot of German tourists in Oslo. Everywhere I go I seem to be hearing either American English, German or Norwegian. I’d also like to make reference at this point to another thing which I have spotted is that there seems to be a huge amount of Asian restaurants in this area. I guess they can prosper from the close proximity to the sea for their fish dishes, but it seems as if Far Eastern culture outweighs Western influences, especially in the culinary department.
The bus dropped us off at the foot of the hill, and soon I began climbing up towards the ski jump that I could see the foot of. Whilst most people walked the sensible way around the path to the centre of the building, I followed a couple of people under a railing towards the bottom of the ski jump which I probably wasn’t supposed to do.
From there I was able to get the full scale of the jump, and also see the ‘stadium seats’ in which spectators would sit. From there you do get a total perspective on how high the ski jump actually is, and what seems like a sport without too many complexities, soon began to develop a fear of hoping never to be forced into taking part!
I climbed to the bottom of the stairs where the seats were and looked up at the sheer drop that the competitors would be facing. I imagined hearing the noises of cowbells and waving flags, I bet this is a really great place to be in the winter when there is a competition on.
Walking around to the left side of the ski jump, I began tentatively climbing up the stairs to the level that I should have entered on. In these seats you wouldn’t get a good view of the skier coming down the slope, but you would be in prime position when they land as you can see the markers down the glass sides which show how far you are from the initial takeoff point.
I made my way up to the level at which the rest of the visitors were at, and looking to both the left and the right you get a panoramic view of Oslo. Trees and the stadium floodlights blocked the view a little but you could see as far as the Opera House, from which I had been staring up at earlier and also the port and the castle which I walked around yesterday. Up another flight of stairs was the actual museum itself and access to the top of the ski jump which I imagine gives you an excellent view. At 100k I thought I would give it a miss however and instead walk down the path and catch some sights from there.
The view was good as I walked down and again trees blocked my view, but there were a couple of openings which Oslo sprawled out at you from. I missed my first opportunity to catch the bus back as I was too busy taking pictures but the second one came along soon enough and I travelled back to the under construction subway station, and from there I was able to get back to Nationaltheatret to enjoy a relaxing walk back to my hotel through the city centre.
As far as Oslo goes for it’s sightseeing, I think that Holmkollen is probably one of the best locations to do so from. Norway is well known for its Fjords and in the wintertime skiing, and without a natural landmark to speak of the ski jump does a good job of providing an interesting place to go and visit. I would have liked to get a view from the top so you could see out over all of Oslo, but being able to walk down into the bottom of the slope itself did give you a degree of how difficult it actually would be to pull of a ski jump starting right at the top of the ramp.
Wednesday 27th July 2011
Today was/is yet another beautiful sunny day in the city of Oslo. Despite reading that it was going to be rainstorms pretty much from the day that I arrived, things have worked out pretty well in terms of the weather.
Good job because today I was in for a serious case of walking as I planned to go and visit Vigelandsparken which is a sculpture park just outside the city centre. The last time I had visited one was in Barcelona, which was Park Guell, a sculpture park with the influence of Gaudi. I wasn’t expecting today to be anything nearly as spectacular, but at least the sun was shining and it was a bright and sunny day.
Stepping outside into the tropical conditions made me wish even more that I had brought a pair of shorts with me. Packing my bag without some shorts (despite believing the weather to be rubbish all week) was a bit of an oversight and once again with a rucksack on my back I headed off in the direction of the sculpture park.
Even though I knew that I could probably get a ride on the Metro without a ticket I felt that it wasn’t necessarily a good idea to run that risk, and having seen online that walking directions took me just less than an hour to reach Vigelandsparken, I thought it would be an adventure to test my navigational skills.
I had some trouble at first deciding which road I should head on, and the map I have isn’t all together conclusive about the names of most of the streets, but once I started to walk past a few of the things which were indicated on my map, it was more or less a straight route all the way there.
The street that I walked down looked as if it was one of the main shopping streets in Oslo with plenty of clothes shops on either side (I kept a close eye out for some cheap shorts!) and eventually I got a huge junction where I turned left and navigated the way to Vigelandsparken.
On the corner of the sculpture park was Froggen Stadium. It is the third of the three major stadiums in Oslo, and unlike Bislett it is rarely used today. There were some nice looking clay tennis courts just next to the stadium and walking past them I came to the parks entrance.
I read that Vigelandsparken attracts almost a million visitors each year, and I assume that alongside Holmenkollen it is one of the main reasons why people visit Oslo. The park was full of open space as well as sculptures and with it being a sunny day I presume there were more people than on an average Wednesday in July.
The one straight path to the middle took you to the centre of the park where most of the sculptures lay, but before you got there, there was a bridge lined with sculptures and then a fountain as you climbed the steps to the centre.
The models on the bridge appeared to tell some kind of jumbled up story of a man, a woman, and their children. Quite what it was saying I don’t know as there wasn’t any writing which clarified my thoughts!
The central sculpture was pretty impressive. It was a tall statue of people all meshed together which stood out at the centre of the park, and can likely be seen from far around due to it’s raised height. There were plenty of people taking pictures round the middle, adopting some rather strange poses, all of which I probably ruined with my photos by reckless abandon approach!
Walking from there you went up one more set of steps and came to another sculpture, this time a wheel of people, and that was the end of the park. There were very few sculptures to the left or the right of the centre, but that left plenty of space for sunbathing as people were doing, or having a picnic.
I decided to find a good space in the shade and sit and read my book. A lovely breeze was constantly blowing so I moved to a spot in the sun, which then seemed to trigger the stopping of the breeze and the blazing of the sun. A combination of both urged me to head back to central Oslo, even if just to get a drink on the way!
I walked back a different way to how I got to Vigelandsparken, this time heading down the right side of the palace to complete a full circle. I think this route was a little quicker and I was able to navigate my way back to my hotel without to many problems.
Tomorrow is my last full day in Oslo before returning to England, and although my trip has been tinged with sadness, I have had a very enjoyable time so far. At the moment it is looking like a good decision to make the trip despite my initial fears when I heard of the attack on Friday evening.
Thursday 28th July
The sun was shining through my hotel window this morning as I awoke for my final full day in Oslo.
I had plenty of walking planned for today so I filled up on breakfast before heading out of the door.
Due to an unwillingness to spend lots of money (I guess that’s the Yorkshireness in me), I had decided to go looking for the beach which I head read about whilst on the Internet last night. Huk is just off the main island on which Oslo is situated, and usually the way to get there is by boat or by bus.
I decided to try and have a little bit of an adventure walking there to save myself a few Krone so I looked up the route before setting off from my hotel, map in hand, rucksack on my back!
The way I began walking was very similar to the way in which I went to the sculpture park yesterday, but instead of turning up towards it, I would continue to head west towards the coastline and basically follow the outline of this island and follow it onto the next one.
It was a pretty long walk, and soon I began to wish that I had packed those damned shorts in my bag once again! To solve the problem I rolled my trousers up and that gave me at least a little bit of fresh air going to my legs. I was very surprised about how warm the weather actually was. My only other experience of Scandinavia was with Sweden when I visited in November so the weather was pretty windy. It’s been really nice for the last three days, and on the day I got here which I wasn’t expecting, but it has been a nice accompaniment to my visit, particularly whilst walking today.
I followed the main road all the way round to a fork in the road where I turned left onto a path which headed towards Bygdoy which is the region of land next to central Oslo. On the map it looked very green and tree filled so I was expecting a bit of a trek but surprisingly the way towards Huk was signposted very well.
At once point as I was heading towards the beach it started to spit with rain. This isn’t that unusual for Norway I know, even in summer, but it wouldn’t have bothered me had it not still been bright sunshine with very few clouds in the sky! I was massively confused about what was going on, but enjoyed the moisture as I was getting pretty tired by that point.
As I moved further into Bygdoy the paths became windier, and instead of following the main road I followed a cyclists path which took me round the western side of the island to the beach. After about an hour and fifteen minutes walking, I eventually arrived at Huk, ready for a relaxing rest on the beach.
Whilst the amount of sand there was pretty small, I guess due to it being a nice day, plenty of people had beaten me to the punch and were sitting on the actual beach, or the grass area nearby.
I decided to find myself a comfortable spot on the rocks close to the water and watched the boats sailing by and the people jumping in the water off a small pier.
To the right of my view, you could see the mainland with Oslo cathedral and Holmkollen immediately sticking out from the landscape.
I spent about an hour sitting on the rocks people watching and reading my book before deciding to move on a little bit.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that my journey would take me the circumference of Bygdoy but I continued to follow signs towards ‘Sentrum’ which is obviously back to the main island.
About half way round I saw signs for a couple of the museums which are on the island and thought this would be good time to get a rest, buy a drink and consider the rest of my journey.
Where the museums are is obviously the most popular part of the island, and because of that there were plenty of people around.
In this spot there is also a ferry service from the mainland which takes people backwards and forwards from close to the Radhusset to this spot and back.
After a little bit of time I began to head back towards the centre, but this time follow a different route once I got back to the fork in the road. This time instead of heading back to the Slotthaus, I was going back to Aker Brugge which is the developed area of the waterfront, and this would allow me to use the main route into Oslo as a guide.
Once again I found myself following the windy paths back to the fork in the road and then headed right towards water. My first task was to negotiate some rather threatening geese one of which decided to rush me and required a quick body swerve to get out of the way! I swear a woman and her child had just been feeding them bread, but watch out for the person without food who’s trying to walk through!
It made me feel better when I turned round and saw the same goose trying to attack another person who was walking along the path! Didn’t make me feel quite so ganged upon!
Once past the geese, I followed the path relatively simply walking by the water until I found a small shop where I brought a drink. Turns out this shop was also an Esso boat petrol station, never seen one of those before, but I have always wondered, if you have a boat then what do you do about fuel?!?
Returning to my hotel briefly I grabbed some postcards and quickly wrote them before heading back out of the door for this evening’s entertainment.
I was planning to spend this evening in a different locale altogether, the Ulleval Stadion, home of Valerenga. My initial plan as I mentioned earlier was to go and see the home team play against Odd Grenland in their league match on Monday. Due to the tragic events of Friday afternoon, the game was postponed but luckily for me there was to be another game at the Stadium in Oslo.
The game matched together Valerenga and PAOK of Greece in a Europa League 3rd round qualifying match. Aside from playing as the Norwegian side one time on FIFA ’11 before I left to see if I knew any of their players, I knew absolutely nothing about the team. I remember Tromso from the Northern part of the country once beating Blackburn, but aside from that I must admit that Norwegian football isn’t my specialist subject.
Still, it was football, European football infact!
I was going to hoof it to the stadium as it was only about as far away from me as the beach I had visited earlier but literally just as I was about to step out of the door the rain started to pour down and douse any plans I had of walking. This wasn’t so bad I guess as my legs were pretty tired from earlier although I was going to enjoy a good stretch of my legs before travelling tomorrow.
In the end I decided to get the Metro to the stadium which is handily called ‘Ulleval Stadion’. I boarded at Startget which is where I had initially been dropped off on my first day (remember the metro not going any further than there?!) From there it was a pretty easy ride up a choice of three of the six lines and I was at the stadium.
It was looking pretty promising as I saw two or three people wearing the red and blue of Valerenga waiting at the station as I purchased a ticket. Rather entertainingly I was standing behind a couple of people who were unable to purchase a ticket and in pigeon English and sign language I got the message across that they needed to press the button for the ticket first before putting their money in! They seemed to find it as funny as I did that a foreigner had been able to help them with a machine which is primarily in Norwegian, and the “Thank you man,” I received from one of them proved how grateful they were. I guess that repaid some karma from being helped by that lady on the train on my first day.
Soon the train came along and on the first carriage I noticed that there were a bunch of Valerenga fans noisily singing and bouncing the train up and down. They weren’t doing it in an aggressive was or anything, but I guess having been to watch football matches in England I know that travelling with a bunch of fans to a game is part of the fun.
Just to be safe I boarded on the next carriage but enjoyed the fact that every time we stopped and the train doors would open you could briefly hear their singing before the door closed and it was silent again. It was quite a good sound effect, and for how many of them there were, they seemed to be making a good noise.
Arriving at the stadium there were streams of people heading towards the shops and bars that surround it, but my first destination was to buy a ticket. I noticed a map on the corner of the road which directed people towards ‘billiten’, which I knew from the Metro and elsewhere means ‘tickets.’
I walked to the front of the queue after quickly surveying the prices on the wall and decided to take a seat in the cheaper side of the ground which was 100k in comparison to 200k for the ‘langside’ which was main stand.
Holding a solitary finger up and passing my money over I received a ticket and then headed to try and find my entrance to the ground.
I deciphered from the ticket that I was to go through ‘Entrance 6’ and then look for gate 231. All was well signposted and once I had grabbed my seat, the bunch of fans who were singing in the train came in and entered slightly to the right of where I was sitting.
They began handing out flags to supporters around them, which I presume is something they commonly do to help with the atmosphere.
I had arrived in my seat about 30 minutes before kick-off so they players were still warming up, and as they went in to make final preparations, the crowd rose to their feet to applaud. Over the PA system they began to play what I can only describe as the club’s anthem (I have no idea, but it was quite a catchy song) and then on the big screen of the ground they showed footage from Monday’s service at the Radhauss which got a bigger applause than any Valerenga goal would achieve on the night.
I spent the entire first half on my feet watching, and attempting to sing along as the players began slowly and picked up as the rest of the half went on. I didn’t recognise a single player on either side, but there were a few decent players on both sides who managed to get the ball around and play it around. Valerenga created very few chances in truth and they spent far too much time going backwards.
PAOK were marginally better and at least forced a save from the goalkeeper who tipped it round the post just before half time.
The first period ended 0-0 and finally I was able to take my seat for 15 minutes. The guy next to me tried to strike up a conversation but I informed him politely that I didn’t understand. His next words were “Not many people here,” to which I replied, “No, and the game’s not very good either!” He smiled, whether he understood me or not I don’t know!
At the start of the second half, the PA played another different song and then the supporters began their relentless singing once again as we were back on our feet. I wouldn’t say that Valerenga supporters had a lack of songs as they illustrated that they could sing 90 minutes worth of songs with very little repetition but they loved dragging the songs out for a long time.
I can remember in the first half, and I kid you not, they sang the same one versed song for a full ten minutes without giving in. Pretty impressive.
The supporters were quite vocal, but they could do little for the team on the pitch who went 1-0 down with about twenty minutes to go. An attack broke down after a bad pass and the PAOK number 20 broke onto the ball, ran from the half way line unchallenged and from just inside the box slotted the ball into the corner. The Greek fans opposite (most of which had de-robed) went crazy, and with little hope of scoring I think the crowd half emptied, something I found very strange.
Valerenga pressed forward but could do little when PAOK’s number 5 struck a free kick left footed into the top corner from the edge of the box with five minutes to go and sealed the game, most likely the tie as well. If the stadium (which was already two sides empty) had 500 people left in it by that point I’d be very surprised. The supporters were still singing as they are liable to do in such a situation, but as the final whistle left there was mainly contempt rather than booing from their supporters.
I wasn’t expecting too much from the game, but in the first half particularly it was disappointing. I can see why some of the teams who qualify through the playoff system are eliminated from the first phase without a trace as I think that if Valerenga do make it through and draw any of the English teams, they will be thrashed. PAOK in the other hand looked good on the break, and I bet their stadium is difficult to play in too.
They once beat Arsenal back in the days of the UEFA Cup but I haven’t heard of them since.
I thought getting out of the stadium was going to be a bit of a nightmare with all those people only having one way to go, but I hopped straight on the first metro and was home within ten minutes. I think that’s the easiest dispersed crowd in history, and although the stadium wasn’t full, to get rid of all those people either in walking distance or using some other method of transport it was a good effort.
I’d like to go and see what the atmosphere and traffic is like when Valerenga play Rosenberg or someone like that to see if it is the same. I reckon about 1000 people turned up to the match, which is a pretty poor effort, particularly for 100k. I’d go watch every opportunity that I had if that was the price on a weekly basis, even if the football is rubbish.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat at the shop I headed back to my hotel room for an early night and the journey home in the morning.
Summation of my thoughts…
DESPITE initial worries, and a travelling cock-up on the way home, I have to say that my decision to come to Oslo after all the initial fears was a good idea.
Norway is a country that I have wanted to visit after going to Stockholm in 2008, and I’m pleased that I went ahead and was able to pay the country visit. Perhaps I visited at a bad time, as Norway is known for it’s snow rather than it’s sun, and I’d have wished to arrive on better terms, but overall the country gets a big thumbs up from me.
The weather has been fantastic almost every day, the hotel I stayed in was ideally located, and I have found plenty of things to do with myself. Personal highlights included seeing the huge amounts of flowers left outside the Cathedral. I passed them again this morning and I was astounded by the number which are still there, goodness knows how they will ever leave!
I also really enjoyed the day at the sculpture park, and also Holmkollen which were perhaps things I would never get the chance to visit in many other countries. Each and everyday has been a discovery of something new, and once I had got over my initial fears about safety and security in the city it was a very enjoyable visit.
To anyone who enjoys the outdoors in a friendly and inviting city should think about visiting Oslo. It is one of the more homely locations I have been to, and I would definitely pay a visit again.