Day 18 (July 9): Oslo.
It was supposed to be a hot one in Oslo today (28C/83F). We “slept in” since the sunrises are now after 4am and Marc jerryrigged the curtains to somehow get some cool air in the room while still blocking out the early sunshine.
Minimal cloud cover for our walk around Oslo today. Sunscreen definitely required. We had 3 missions for the day:
Eating proper Norwegian waffles.
Visit a museum that I wanted to surprise Marc with.
Eat sushi, sashimi, etc. based on local seafood in Norway.
We started out by walking towards Akershus Fortress. Oslo is pretty quiet, even at 10am so it was nice to be able to walk around with minimal crowds. Then we checked out the Rådhuset, which is the Oslo City Hall.
I’ve really liked most of the architecture in Oslo as it has been a nice combination of old vs. new. Yes, some really ugly post-modern buildings exist but not too many. My favorite example of this is the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris - love the art, hate the building. But I digress.
Then we ventured to the Aker Brygge pier, which is on the waterfront. On the way, we saw the Nobel Peace Center. Right next to Aker Brygge is the Tjuvholmen neighborhood, which has a fair amount of restaurants, coffee shops and apartments/condos. It also had some interesting sculptures interspersed between buildings. Given the weather, lots of locals were out lounging getting some sun. It was crowded, but not terrible.
We then spent a fair amount of time walking through the Frogner neighborhood on the way to Frognerparken. It has to be the “high rent” district of Oslo. Parts of that area reminded me of some neighborhoods in Paris. It was really enjoyable to be on some quiet streets just taking things in.
Frognerparken was very crowded. Tour busses everywhere. The sculptures were interesting but endless people everywhere.
On the way to our next destination, we turned away from the chaos of Frognerparken and were again on a quiet street. Lots of trees for shade, which was welcomed.
After seeing the Royal Palace and National Theatre, we walked through the campus of the University of Oslo. All had very picturesque buildings. We then walked through Damstredet and Telthusbakken. They have old wooden houses from the 1700s and are on cobbled streets.
It was time for lunch. We checked out a food hall called Mathallen Oslo. They had lots of great options but we had to stay focused on Norwegian waffles. Unfortunately nothing there for that, so Marc googled a place not to far away. Off we went.
Achievement #1 unlocked. It was a small place called Harald’s Vaffles. Yes when you Google it, it says ‘dessert restaurant’ but we are talking about Marc Beck so it was perfect. I had a waffle with Nutella and whipped cream. Marc opted for Nutella and ice cream of some kind. It was great.
Then we were off to visit the museum I have been wanting to go to. Fun fact: I am a fan of the band ‘a-ha!’, who were big in the 80s. They are from Norway. I found a museum that is focused on the history of Norwegian music but didn’t tell Marc. I just said that the place was open on Sunday, a rarity in Norway, and that I wanted to go. My love of the band is a running joke with Marc and my sister, in particular.
The museum, called Popsenteret, talks about the evolution of musical instruments from early 20th century to today. It has some similarities to MoPop in Seattle. As we were working our way up and checking off the decades, I could tell Marc was not connecting the dots yet on why we were here.
We finally get to the 80s and it’s around a corner that I see first. I tell Marc to close his eyes and I bring him around the corner. He sees the award winning video from “Take on Me” and he starts to laugh hysterically. It was a short tribute, but I enjoyed it. Achievement #2 unlocked!
Back into the sun we went. We spent time in the Markveien, Kampen and Tøyen areas, of which the latter was much more multi-cultural in terms of the people you saw and shops/restaurants on the streets. By this point, we had been out for 6 hours and our feet were done.
Went back to the hotel, rested up, and got ready to head out for dinner. SUSHI. Finally!
I spent some time in Stockholm a few years ago and had some of the best sushi of my life there. It’s a lot easier to get someone who knows how to handle nigiri quality fish vs. sourcing that kind of quality of fish. The place I chose, Kanpai, had plenty of non-seafood options for Marc. The food was great. Achievement #3 unlocked.
We got out of there quickly to head back to Operagata to see the sunset, which were now at an “early” 1030pm.
The sunset was pretty good and it was nice to be on waterfront for our last night in Oslo. All in all, Norway has been wonderful and we have a couple of places that we would love to revisit and some we missed on this trip.
