Weekend Adventure in Oslo
Last weekend I went on my second adventure of the year, to Oslo in Norway. I think it was the prettiest city I have ever visited. I have always wanted to go there, so when we found return flights for £20 each whilst on our trip to Ireland, we couldn't resist.
We rallied up a group of eight people: six Australians and two Brits, and stayed in an awesome apartment from Airbnb, which was so close to the city centre.
As there were eight of us on our Oslo adventure, we found that the overall cost for accommodation was lower than we anticipated, which enabled us to stay quite central. We chose this amazing apartment on Airbnb, which took around fifteen minutes to walk to the city centre. There were lots of shops and restaurants near the apartment including an amazing coffee shop, which sold the greatest bagels known to man.
We didn't need to use any public transport or flag down taxis apart from the airport run, as everything was walking distance, which was great and helped us to save money. Walking around also allowed us to take in all of the beauty Oslo has to offer. We were lucky enough to witness this city in both the sun and the snow, which were perfect contrasts for our weekend getaway.
We arrived fairly late to our accommodation on the Friday night but stayed up and drank a lot of vodka purchased from duty free. Getting alcohol from duty free is a great tip if you are going to Norway as a pint of beer was around £8. Ouch. Despite a slight hangover the next day, we got up early and went to a coffee shop across the road and had the best bagels ever. Great start to the day.
(Photo via Jim Baker, Flickr)
After a bit of a wander through the city centre, we found our way to the Oslo Opera House which is an incredible bit of architecture and then moved onto the Akershus Fortress to make the most of our cultural experience. We ended up chilling at Oslo Harbour for a few hours as it was amazing in the sunshine and very picturesque, before going for lunch and then back to the apartment.
After a good hours nap, we woke up and got ready for our big night out. After one drink I felt rather tipsy again (probably topping up from the night before) but powered through the drinking games, trying to drink the Aussies under the table. However, this failed miserably. I ended up getting too drunk and forgetting my ID, which led me getting refused entry. At least I still look 'young'.
When we were deciding where to go out on the Saturday night, the owner of the apartment told us to go to either the East End or West End of Oslo. The West End is a bit posher and more expensive than the East End, which we got told was a bit grimier. However, we decided to go to a club called Vu – Oslo in the West End, which had some great reviews. We bought some alcohol from duty free to save some more money, as alcohol is very expensive there. I think a beer cost me around £8.50 in the restaurant we went to. We queued for around an hour, but everyone was so friendly that the time went very quickly. When we got to the door, I had forgotten my ID and got refused entry. The bouncers were fairly strict to make sure you take everything with you and you stick to the dress code. My friends however had a great night at Vu whilst I got a famous Norwegian kebab and went to bed.
I don't remember going to bed but I woke up fully clothed and still intoxicated. It must have been a good night. However, not only did I wake up to a horrible hangover, but I also woke up to snow. SNOW. I was so excited as I have never seen snow fall this heavily in my life. We walked around for as long as we could to get some fresh air but we all got a bit too cold and the lads got a bit happy with the snowballs, so we went back to the apartment one final time before making our way to the airport.
I wish I could have stayed in Norway for longer as it was beautiful and we all had so much fun. If you want to take a look at a few more pictures from my holiday, you can see them here. I wonder where my next adventure will take me? I heard it might be Denmark!
Skål!
Michael grew up in a little seaside town in Devon but moved to Bristol to study Business Studies at university. He then moved to London to work at a digital marketing agency in central as a Content Strategist. His passions are traveling, socialising and home design. He can be found at his blog, Bearded Couture, as well as on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
