We arrived in Olso, Friday night, April 19, 2019, and met my friend
Faith who had arrived earlier in the day from Stockholm, Sweden.
Stephanie and I stayed in an apartment I rented in the Barcode District
which was just south of the train station (Oslo S). Faith had a hotel
maybe 10 minutes away on foot. Even though it was Good Friday, there
were a number of restaurants that were open, and open reasonably late.
We had dinner that night at a restaurant called Pincho Nation, which
had a circus theme and was a tapas-style restaurant that's kind of
self-serve. It require a smart phone to order and you have to download
their program and run it on your phone. Fortunately, Faith had such
a device and was willing to risk its security so the three of us could
eat. They send you a message (through their program, not email or text
because that would be too interoperable) when your food is up and you
walk over to the window ledge and pick up your order. Whatever. It
tasted good and was open after 9pm on Good Friday.
The next morning, Saturday, April 20, 2019, we went on a free guided
walking tour of the central downtown area. It was good, interesting,
and informative and provided a little orientation of what's what, and
what's where, downtown. The tour included City Hall, but that's in a
separate album/folder.
After the tour, we went in the Cathedral and looked around.
We then headed to the Royal Palace and the Queen's Chidren's Park
next to it. Those are in a separate album/folder too.
By the end of the day, for some reason I was feeling miserable.
I went to be early-ish
The next day, Sunday, April 21, 2019, I was feeling somewhat better
but decided to take it easy and sleep for some of the afternoon.
Faith and Stephanie went out for Swedish fica, which is
basically a coffee break with a snack and socializing. They had a
grand time and I felt pretty normal by the time they came back.
We had dinner at the Cathedral Café which was right next
to the Oslo Cathedral. That night we walked to the Opera House
and I took some night pictures of the waterfront area.
On Monday, April 22, 2019, Faith checked out of her hotel and
stopped by our place and dropped off her suitcase. We then took
a bus to Frogner Park, where the amazing Vigeland Statue Park is
located. I didn't take many pictures, because Faith and I had
been there before a few years back, but it was still cool to see
and a beautiful park. We headed back and eventually walked Faith
to the train station (about 5 minutes from our apartment) and then
she went on her way. Stephanie and I then wandered around the
waterfront area and other places, looking for a place to eat and
eventually wound up a vegetarian place where Faith, Stephanie, and
I had eated previously.
The next day, Tueday April 23, 2019, we checked out and left our
bags at the rental office. we then went inside the Opera House
and then wandered around back downtown and went to an Indian restaurant.
Turns out their buffet had absolutely nothing Stephanie could eat,
so we wound up back at the Cathedral Café since we knew it
was safe had had food we both could eat. (She would have been happy
to go to the vegetarian place for a 4th time, but 2 is my limit.
That's where they went for their Fika.) The food was good. We
headed to the Oslo S train station, Stephanie got a ticket for
the train to the airport, we retrieved her baggage, hung around
the station for a bit, then she headed off. After that, I got
my bag and went to my next stop, the Helsfyr District, about 4km
northest of downtown Oslo, but that's in a later folder/album.
We joined a free walking tour of the city that started at the Oslo S tiger statue. Faith was there, but Stephanie and I were late. We caught up with the group just as they were leaving to go to the next stop which was the waterfront.
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The fountain at Christiania torv in one of the oldest areas in Oslo. After a...(more)
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Gamle rådhus (The Old Town Hall) is one of the oldest buildings in Oslo in the...(more)
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Akershus Fortres. That building houses horses. Not sure if they're royal or...(more)
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A somewhat bad stitching together of a few pictures of the wall around Akershus...(more)
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Irina, the tour guide talks about the Parliament building (Stortingsbygningen,...(more)
The Oslo Cathedral is in the middle of the touristy downtown area. A restaurant is next to it and a condom store is across the street because Norway is awesome. We walked inside the cathedral (they allow pictures if a flash is not used) and eventually headed to the Royal Palace after that. We also ate
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Big doors of the Oslo Cathedral. An organ concert was going on and the churck...(more)
Faith, Stephanie, and I explored Oslo. We had lunch at the Cathedral
Café and Faith was sitting near an overhead space IR heater that
cast an ominous red glow on half her face.
We went to the Vigeland Statue Park. Faith and I had been there before
back in 2015 and I took a lot of pictures then that can be seen
here. So I didn't take many this time, even skipping the Allstory of
Human Life, and only took a few iconic ones as well as Faith and Stephanie
posing with a statue.
After that, we accompanies Faith to her train at the Oslo S station and
she returned to Sweden.
After Faith left (a sudden loss of Faith), Stephanie and I explored a bit of Oslo by the harbor and then back towards the center of town to get some tourist postcard stuff.
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An art isntallation about immigrants, consisting of t-shirts hanging from a...(more)
The barcode district is an area of new fairly big buildings just to the east of the Oslo S trainstation, immediately south of the train tracks. There are busiensses as well as residential apartments. I rented a 2 bedroom furnished apartment for about 4 days. It was pretty nice and the aparatment had a balcony that wrapped around 3 sides of the building, so there were nice views in every direction except south (so no water, but that was OK).
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Panoramic north view of the Oslo S train yard from east side of our...(more)
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Looking up from the bottom of our building. The mesh panels make the building...(more)
We went inside the Oslo Opera House. There was some information about operas, and there was a poster with cut-outs so people can put their faces there and be part of an opera. The interior decorations were neat, with stark, dark tones in the bathroom, and space-age walls nearby by the coat-check area.
We went to the train station and got information about trains to the airport. They run frequently and there's no need to buy a ticket ahead of time. So we went to lunch then returned to the station with ample time.