Oslo: Day 1
by Céleste | April 9
Our next stop on our two-city tour for April was Oslo, Norway. We chose Oslo because my family is Norwegian — well, I’m a quarter Norwegian, maybe more on the other side of the family too. So I had an interest in visiting Norway, and I figured that since we were already here in Europe, we might as well choose Norway as one of the places to visit. Little did I know that Oslo has been consistently voted one of the most expensive cities on the planet. Is it impossible to have a fun and cheap time in Oslo? No! As long as you plan and keep money in mind, it’s possible to have a moderately frugal trip. There’s plenty to do for free in Oslo, and with a little luck, we had a fantastic time on a small budget.
When we first got into town, we headed to our apartment, which we got through AirBnB. It was located on Mollergata, right in the center of the city. It was a nice little apartment, owned by two roommates. We had our own room and a shared shower, and they let us use the kitchen as well. Our room was also full of plants, as well as tourist maps and ideas for things to do.
I had already mapped out some cheap things to do and cheap places to eat, because I knew that most of our money would be spent on food. Most of the cheap restaurants were right in our neighborhood, so we knew we were in a good place. Also, our host Annette was really helpful, giving us tips about places to go and how to find nature while we were in the middle of the city.
We decided for our first day, after taking a refreshing nap, that we would just take a walk around the neighborhood. We had found a Use It map in our room that included walk ideas, and we chose to go through the “hipster” area of Oslo. Use It is a company that employs locals to make maps of interesting areas of their city. The map had fun information, and was irreverent in its descriptions. We loved using it throughout the time we were there.
Youngsgate
The first place we went to was Youngsgate, which was a square near our apartment. It’s a political area, and many of the headquarters of political parties are actually located here. Also, this is where the 2011 terrorist attack by Anders Brevik happened — the bombing in Oslo.
Fairy Tale Bridge
Next, we walked over the Akershus River, over the Fairy Tale Bridge. This bridge has sculptures of famous figures from Norwegian Fairy Tales. I wasn’t really impressed with the sculptures, as they seemed that they weren’t cared for. But I liked the idea of putting out fairy tale heroes and heroines.
Also, one thing we noticed about Oslo, was that they really like sculptures, and that almost all of the sculptures are typically naked.
Grunnerlokka (Hipster area)
Next, we were off to the hipster area of Oslo, Grunnerlokka. There were many coffee shops, parks, and a church that was now a cultural center. The area seemed to have mostly young people, and was very hip. We definitely saw a lot of interesting clothing, too.
Botanical Gardens
Next, we were off to the Botanical Gardens, which are free. We walked around in the Viking Garden, the American Garden, and the plants that were native to Norway. There was a lot of moss. Vincent and I had a nice time just strolling around, talking about our plans for the rest of our trip and what we missed from home.
Gronland
We next walked through Gronland, the immigrant section of town, which I read in the map was sometimes referred to as “Little Pakistan.” It had a lot of Indian/Pakistani restaurants, and one of the only mosques in Oslo. It seemed that there were also a lot of Somali immigrants, so it reminded us a lot of Minneapolis.
Mission Taco
We were hungry at the end of our walk, and we decided on Mission Taco, which had good reviews for the food and the ambiance, and we were excited for some spicy food. Mission Taco is apparently run by someone from San Francisco’s Mission District. We went in and ordered a fish taco for me, a beef taco for Vincent, and a bowl of chips and salsa. Vincent also got a beer, for about 80 kronor. Yes, things are very expensive. 80 kronor is $10! We were told that if you get any alcohol anywhere, it will be expensive. So for the rest of the trip, we mostly avoided it.
The waitress brought out the chips and salsa right away. The salsa was delicious and actually SPICY! This was a good thing for us, as France really doesn’t like spicy food, so we have been craving spiciness. We ate the chips and waited for our tacos. And waited. And waited. Finally, after about 4 minutes, I went to the counter and asked about our tacos. The chef wasn’t even cooking anything! They apologized profusely; someone had accidentally taken our tacos, apparently. So the staff gave us a free bowl of chips and salsa, and then quickly got our tacos to us. We weren’t mad, because we were happy for more chips. But we were also glad that they gave us the extra chips and salsa, because the tacos were small. For 70 kronor each, they were the size of ONE taco from Chipotle, which you can bet is not $9. Our expensive food journey had begun.
Akershus River
We decided to walk off our dinner down by the river. We walked along the Akershus, enjoying the chilly but nice weather, and taking in the sites. Interestingly, we saw a building that said “Stanley Security.” I’ll write more about this in a future post, but part of the purpose for this trip was to commemorate my grandfather, Stanley. It was a nice little sign that we were doing the right thing.
