Oslo Day One

Or do I look Norwegian?

Well it was another bank holiday here in the UK, making it a great time to head off to explore more of the continent. This time is was Norway, or more specifically, Oslo.

We stayed at Heathrow the night before and headed to the airport about 6am for our 7:20 flight. After a fairly uneventful flight (although you had to pay for food!!) we landed in Oslo, collected our bags and caught the train into the centre of the city. We dumped the bags at the hotel and headed out to grab some lunch. It was pretty strange walking through the city. On previous trips to the continent, locals could tell I was a tourist, this time though they immediately assumed I looked like a local and started talking in Norwegian to me!

We then went for a bit of a walk through the city and along the way we saw a Karaoke Taxi which was pretty cool!

Following this we joined a line to go for a tour through their parliament house - or the Stortinget. It was a good decision because as we were in line it started absolutely pissing down, so a trip inside was good.

After going through security the tour began. It turned out there were about 25 tourists and 5 Norwegians, which meant the Norwegians joined our group and got a tour of their own parliament house in English (luckily they all speak English very well).

We learnt a bit about their history (the Norway link above will tell you more) and got to see the two chambers. While we were in the main chamber, the changing of the guard was occurring at the Royal Palace. This involved about fifty soldiers marching through the centre of the city up to the palace. It looked pretty cool.

After parliament we headed over to the art gallery to check out some of the art they had on offer. The most famous of which was The Scream, by Edvard Munch. He had some other interesting (and disturbing) paintings in there as well.

By now the rain had stopped, so we headed up to the palace to check it out. You could get pretty close to it (unlike Buckingham) and walk pretty much all the way around it. At the back they had a lovely park which was full of people running, feeding ducks and the like. It would make a nice backyard if you were the King!

We then headed down to the docks where they had some pretty funky outdoor sculptures. They also had a peace flame there (Oslo being the place were they award the Nobel Peace Prize). After walking along the waters edge, it was time to have a beer!

We headed to a bar in the main part of the city. Beers came in 400mL or 600mL sizes. 400mL cost 55Kr which converted to $12.50 or about 5 quid! Getting drunk here would be an expensive exercise!

We then headed out for dinner to Pepe's Pizza, a Norwegian Pizza chain. The pizzas were bloody huge, but absolutely delicious (with strange toppings like Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato!!). After rolling out of here we went for a bit o a walk (it was 10pm and still very light).

We were stopped by a couple who were celebrating the fact that they were getting married in a few weeks. Apparently it is tradition to celebrate together and they have to dress up and go around and sell things. We bought a painting off them for 50Kr and had to sign their shirts!




Karaoke Taxi!



The Main Parliamentary Chamber



The back of Parliament - looks like a big ugly Sydney suburban house!!



The Palace



The Main Drag



Not sure why the guard cant be in the little box....



Behind the Palace



More behind the Palace



I wonder how long it will take to get to the other side?



The Water Front



It is a little chilly for that I think!