My first trip to Norway (1/3)
I decided to start writing about this trip first because it is vaguely connected to the trip to North Norway which I’m planning now. In these past travel posts I won’t be able to provide an accurate budget for a simple reason: I didn’t make notes. Although I will try my best to give as much as I can. (I’ll include the budgets in the last posts.)
I organised this trip for my girlfriend’s birthday. I wanted to go to Norway for a while and this is a country we had never been to before. Also it is a northern one not the usual warm southern ones which we usually visited. I was looking for options what we can afford for a surprise trip and surfing through the plane tickets Oslo was the cheapest. (I considered the other scandinavian countries and Great Britain too.) So I got the tickets two- three months ahead and book the hotels. We were ready to go.
Fast forward three months it is now 24 November 2023.
Norwegian airline had wi-fi in the sky which was a huge surprise for us. Sadly only 15 minutes were free of charge. Anyway after landing we got our first and then second, third and fourth culture shocks. First we realised literally everyone spoke perfect english. I remember asking the old lady who sold train tickets where the train is which we need. I was a bit shy trying to speak slowly but when she answered I understood she could teach me. The airport is outside of Oslo so that is why we needed to take the train. About the other shocks, we found cabins on the train station which can keep us warm while we’re waiting. Ok it is a northern country but never seen something like this. I am more used to trash and beggars. The train came in time and had little retractable coat hangars I fancied very much.
Sunset on The Operahuset
When we arrived to Oslo it was around 3:30 pm. We had 1 hour of daylight left and a beautiful sunset above the fjord. We had to use it well. First thing we did was check out the Opera house which is right next to the main train station. It is right on the fjord and people can walk up to the top. That is where i first felt that I never want to leave. Oslo was quiet, calm and the roads were almost empty. We saw some electric cars but they don’t make too much sound. (90% of the cars we saw were electric there and I think 50% were Tesla)
When it got darker it was time to go and check in. The hotel I took was situated in the middle of the city, arount three minutes walking from the Opera. Perfect location and not so expensive. It was self check in so we went up to our small but cozy room, left our backpacks and headed out to experience the best Christmas market I’ve ever seen to this day.
Archway to the Chrsitmas market
It was as pretty as a picture. We entered through a lit up archway to find a ferris wheel, huge slides, countless vendors, a free ice skate ring where people were skating in their shoes, and drunk talking moose heads. Yes. That! In Norway public drinking is not tolarated so they had the coziest but fenced off little yard where people could enjoy their alcoholic beverages. The mooses were singing and talking in a drunk way and we could enjoy it sitting by the fire with a nice, hot mulled wine. We even saw some kind of an owl above us on a tree.
A singing moose head
I don’t remember how much it was but alcohol in Norway is worth it’s weight in gold. So not the best choice to relocate for practicing alcoholics. We finished in the market around 8 pm. As I said alcohol is super expensive so I decided we’ll check out a certain pub to have some good old norwegian beer.
Teddy’s Softbar
To be honest I had my reason to go to this pub. I am a huge Harry Hole fan. (Not the movie do not watch that!!) For the people out there who don’t know who he is, well.. He is the protagonist of the famous norwegian writer, Jo Nesbø’s book series. I admire the guy and his works and since most of the books take place in Oslo I wanted to check out the mentioned locations. It is a scandinavian crime series so the writer likes to torture his main character. He is an alcoholic in Norway and he has a policeman’s salary. Anyway one of the places he often visited in a book or two is Teddy’s Softbar. I had to check it out for myself. Let’s say it is a very local place and it was FULL. And I LOVED it. It has a working wurlitzer which sometimes goes silent. Then someone goes there gives a good punch on the side and it works again. Maybe I’ll have a separate post about the Harry Hole hunting in Oslo. But highly recommended to read.
Around 10-11 pm we slowly walked back to our hotel to have a good night sleep. We had a pretty long day ahead of us…
