So Norway was the first country I went to for my extended trip. I semi-jokingly call this my first retirement as I don't have a deadline of when I need to go back to the real world and work. One of my closest friends, who I had never met before, lived in Norway (gamer nerd) and using kiwi.com found dirt cheap tickets to Norway from Florida.
One of the things I like to do when I get to a new city is spend the first day just walking the city. It helps get my barrings, I hate staring at the map app all day and justifies a few extra dinner beers since I walk about 8 miles that first day. Walking Oslo was amazing, it was a mix of architecture from a few hundred years old to new age contemporary. My first stop being the park with the Gustav Vigeland statues, it's weird. A bunch of adults and kid statues melted together - probably what you'd see in a Michael Jackson dream.
The next day I purchased an Oslo pass, which basically gets you into all the museums and transportation in the city. It's a great value - but I blitzed through a bunch of parks the first day and sort of slacked off after. I took the ferry to the peninsula SW of Oslo where you can see the heritage museum, viking ship museum, Kon Tiki museum, ocean museum and fram museum.
Yes, I hit all 5 in one day. My favorite was the heritage museum, it's an outdoors museum with recreations of houses of Norway past, to me it was like walking back in time. They also had a recreation of a Stave Church, which are amazingly shaped wood buildings. I had wanted to see one for years.
The Viking ship museum was also a treat, it's a small museum - but the impact makes up for size. I had been under the impression that vikings "buried" their leaders with a flaming boat at sea. Not the case.... A leader or important figures in the community would have boats pulled out of the water, a hole dug in the ground - ship moved into it, person buried and a dirt mound created. The problem is, the sail post was left sticking out of the ground. While it served as a memorial and place to go see the dead, it was also a literal flag pole for grave looters. So the three boats in the ship museum, they had been looted of the goods and only some skeletons were left. As this new found burial method was a shock to me, the museum was impactful to me.
The Kon Tiki museum has an interesting story and conveniently located next to two other exhibits, otherwise - I'd suggest just looking it up on wikipedia. The ocean museum is a very large and nice multi story building with everything from sea ships in the beginning, cruise liners, military history, whaling ships and everything in between. Spend the time and see this museum, I really liked it. The fram museum "best in Norway" was nice, the actual ship is there - but I feel like they could do a much better job of relaying the information and story of the multiple expeditions the ship was used for. If you love walking around the outer edge of a building reading signs with a ship at you back, this place is for you. The story is great, but really they need some help with the layout.
Like I mentioned, I love walking through the city - it gives you a way to see the local side. Especially if you can't speak their language, which is a different way to connect with them. While walking around I noticed some Naval ships in port - right outside the oldest fort in Norway. What was interesting, there were more people guarding the ship than guards at the federal reserve (which was across from my apartment in Atlanta).
It was interesting to walk around the harbor and the fort, when I end my trip I'm going back to Oslo - I'd like to see the armory / military museum in the fort.
Sadly, I missed out on the Oslo palace tour, they only have one English tour and if you don't pre-book you can wait outside and see if you're lucky enough to be added to it. I'm not a big fan of waiting around for a lottery, so I only saw it from the outside. Also, having been to London and Buckingham as well as Arlington in the U.S. I was surprised to see the palace guards chatting with tourists and taking pictures. Different strokes I guess.
Overall I loved Oslo, win the lottery and it's a place I'd move. A 900 sqft condo in the harbor goes for $2 million US, that'll buy you a 2,000 sqft condo in Miami at the same time. My Oslo hack was to eat pizza from seven eleven and the Oslo pass. Coming from the states, I was surprised to only see 4 police officers in the time I was there. I can see that as both good and bad, but never felt unsafe there. The only uncomfort I felt there was the beauty of Oslo residents, I guess it's the viking blood - I have no idea why they try to find models in France. Pro tip for Vogue, go to Oslo, throw a rock and it'll bounce off of 5 women and 2 guys who could easily be models. Everyone is blond, gorgeous and basketball tall. It's a wonderful place and I look forward to spending the last few days of my trip there with my best friend and one of my oldest friends I've now only met once.
