Oslo, not quite like Epcot

I'm quite late with this post, as I was in Oslo about a week ago. Usually I try to post when I arrive in the next city, but between short stays in the cities I was in following Oslo and ramping up my apartment search in Berlin, I didn't have the time to post. Now that I have free time this weekend, I'll catch up on my blog. And without further delay...



My last post showed a bit of a sneak peak of Oslo, and I'll pick up from there. I arrived in the evening, around 9PM, and decided to try to get to my hotel to drop off my stuff before figuring out dinner. I went to the train station's metro station, found an ATM, and tried to get cash. However, the machine said my bank declined the transaction. Crap. I'd have to get to the hotel and get on WiFi to call them (otherwise pay 20c/min from my cell phone), and to get to my hotel I'd need to take public transit, which meant having Norwegian Kroner to pay with. I went to the ticket machine and saw it took Visa and Mastercard, so I pulled out my trusty Visa with Chip & Signature, put it in the reader, and it promptly asked for a PIN. My card doesn't have a PIN on the chip, so I was screwed. Luckily, I saw an ad for their mobile application (Android/iOS) that showed a person with an electronic ticket. I was able to get the app in English and purchase a ticket right from the app using my credit card. I ended up buying a 7 day ticket since I saw the price for buying 3 one-day tickets plus the single trips would come out more expensive.

Finally, I was reaching my hotel. This hotel (Thon Hotel Linne) turned out to be further from the city center than I had expected, and so was in a more quiet, almost industrial part of town. The hotel is more catered towards conferences, but it wasn't too hard to get to from public transport. It was about 500 m from the stop and took maybe 20 minutes to get into the center of town, with the advantage of being cheap for good quality.

The room

Lots of electric outlets, tea kettle

Chair and bed

Shower

Rest of the bathroom. Hey it's me!

After resolving my debit card issue with the bank (hurray for Google Voice!), I asked at the front desk what I could get in terms of food at that late of hour. They said most things were closed and I might have to order delivery (would have been really expensive though, delivery charges costing over $10USD!). Luckily another at the desk realized the Kebab and Pizza place nearby was still open and I could get something there if I hurried. I managed to get there 10 minutes before they closed and ordered a pizza.

The next day I set off for town. I took some pictures of the view from my room (as it was dark when I arrived at the hotel).

I'm on the top floor of the hotel, got some good views of the suburbs

Across from the main building is like an annex of the hotel

As a Floridian, the fact that there's terrain elevation is exciting!

Hotel building

Nespresso machine in the lobby

At this point I headed towards town and, with the weather forecast calling for rain, took my waterproof camera. Of course, that meant I had beautiful weather and didn't get rained on. This is where the Flickr album for Oslo starts.

I started my tour with the Akershus fortress. Disney fans might recognize this as the name of the restaurant at the Norway pavilion in Epcot. While walking around the fortress, I started seeing electric cars. I started taking pictures of the ones I saw. Then I realized I'd have thousands of pictures if I continued, because I stumbled upon the mother lode of electric cars.

Electric cars as far as the eye can see

I couldn't count the number of Teslas, Leafs, and other electric cars (some I'd never seen before) in that parking lot. Of course, the electric charging spots were why most of the cars were there, but I was so flabbergasted by the sheer amount of them. I wondered if they were handing out those cars for free to residents of Norway. Turns out, there's a whole Wikipedia article on Plug-in electric vehicles in Norway. Turns out, they're not free, but with subsidies and incentives, they cost as much as a regular car but have way more advantages, so a lot of people buy them.

After the fortress (and lunch), I went to the opera house. The opera house has a very unique architecture, and is made to look like a glacier. In good weather (like there was when I was there), you can walk around the roof of the building. There was a group setting up and doing sound checks outside, which I found out was for a live TV show that evening. I made a mental note to come back after dinner, and took some video that I'll have to edit and upload at some point. 

After a bit more wandering, I went back to the hotel, relaxed a bit, grabbed a sweater (it got cooler at night), and went back for dinner. The place I wanted to go to had closed early (at like 6PM or something) because it was summer. I eventually found a place in town that was open and it was really good (called Rice Bowl, if anyone was curious). With a full stomach I went back to the opera house and watched part of the show, including the musical act. It was nice, the audience was relaxed and orderly, and I had a good time (even though I had no idea what they were talking about).

I was in the background of live TV!

The next day I checked the forecast and decided to bring out the DSLR, so of course it was cloudy and looked ready to rain all the time. I did a lot, I visited Frogner park, which has the Vigeland sculptures that are quite... interesting. It's a beautiful park and was nice to stroll around in. Afterwards I went to the National Theatre, where nearby I heard music and found what I think was a changing of the guards ceremony. They had a marching band, and they eventually marched off in the street and the ceremony ended. I went up to the royal palace, took more pictures there, and headed over to the Aker Brygge area. Aker Brygge is the more modern part of town, with lots of cafes and modern buildings. It's juxtaposed with the old fortress just on the other side of the "city hall".

At this point, I was pretty tired of walking around all the time. I went back in town just for dinner (at this point it had started raining) and then it was time to wrap up my stay in Oslo. The next day I'd be taking a train to Gothenburg, Sweden. Or well, taking a bus part of the way because of rail work.

Metro station by the hotel. It was easy to remember because "Vollebekk" sounded more like something I'd hear in Belgium.

Oslo's train station looks somewhat like an airport terminal. To get to the platform they have long passageways that look a little like jet bridges.

My next post will be about my two-night stay in Gothenburg. At this point, I had reached the northernmost point I've ever been, and would start making my way back towards Germany and Belgium.