This past weekend I visited my 30th country (!!!) with my aunt and uncle, a kind of pre-birthday/their biannual vacation trip.All in all, I had about 36 hours, arriving Friday around 12p.m. and leaving Monday morning.
Here is a detailed plan of how we spent those 36 hours, which I think is useful for just about anyone, because we hit the high points of the city without rushing around like crazy to see everything.
Friday, 12p.m.: arrived to airport and took the high-speed train to the city center, which was about 20 minutes away or 40 km. The train station is located right at the foot of the main pedestrian shopping street, which also features the cathedral. In walking to the hotel, I stopped by the cathedral and was able to go in–it has an awesome painted ceiling!
I continued down the main street to the hotel, dropped my stuff and went for a walk around the city to get a feel for it and orient myself. I saw the round Parliament building, the National Theater and the Royal Palace, which was on a hill that offered a nice view of the city below.
Saturday morning: we start out by taking the bus to the Fram Museum. You can also take the ferry, which I’m sure is a prettier route, but I get motion sickness so no ferry for me. The Fram Museum details the journey taken by a Norwegian captain who is racing to be the first to reach Antarctica. He is racing the British, and not to spoil the story, but he wins by a long shot and basically the whole British crew dies. The museum has the actual ship that was used and it can even be toured. Very cool.
Also close by to this museum is the Kon-Tiki Museum, which features the actual raft used by a different Norwegian explorer to go to Easter Island. There are replicas of the statues there, which I loved.
The last museum nearby which we went to was the Viking Ship Museum, which has three ancient Viking burial ships and lots of artifacts found on those ships. It is insane that these ships, almost 1,000 years old, can still be appreciated in their original form.
Saturday afternoon: after grabbing a quick lunch, we continued on to the Akershus castle and fortress. The castle featured the old living space of the royal family, as well as the mausoleum. After touring the castle we were able to walk around the fortress grounds and appreciate the view of the harbor from ou high vantage point. We finished the day with a nice (re: expensive) dinner (26 euros per plate! I almost cried.) The hours passed by quickly, and since at this time of year there is almost constant daylight–from 4a.m. to 11p.m.–it’s hard to tell what time it is.
Sunday morning: Sunday was more of an artsy day, as we started with the Munch museum, which was a short tram ride away from the city center. Before visiting the museum, I only knew Munch’s most famous painting “The Scream” (photo below), but was delighted to find that he has a wide array of themes to his artwork, including partnership and love. I ended up buying a print and quote a few postcards.
Next we went to the National Museum, which included Norwegian artwork as well as work from the Impressionists and other genres. They had monet, Picasso, el Greco, cezanne and more. I also liked this museum because it was really well organized. It had a set route you should follow, which museums hardly ever have, that also went chronologically. It was easy to see the development of art through the different periods with this trajectory.
Sunday afternoon: After seeing these two museums we had a pizza lunch, much more reasonably priced than the other meals we had had so far. Then we went to the City Hall, where they present the Nobel Peace Prizes, but unfortunately it was closed. The Nobel Peace Center is right around the corner and we went there next. The exhibition is almost completely digitized, so instead of reading information on plaques around the room, you can sift through articles on a screen. Not my type museum, but it was interesting nonetheless.
We then continued walking to the Aker Brygge harbor area which is very touristy and filled with cafes and restaurants. It was very pretty and worth a short walk.
Our final destination of the day was Vigelund sculpture park, also a short tram ride from the center, which is a park famous for its many sculptures of couples–holding hands, embracing in different postures, etc. It’s a huge park and we had a nice walk up to the top.
Oslo can be thoroughly visited in 36 hours with ease–but be prepared to spend. Everything is expensive, from postcards to coffee to meals, and for three days I spent nearly 250€, and I hardly bought any touristy items at all! (Normally I buy quite a few trinkety items, but not this time.)That being said, like any other destination, Norway is well worth the visit. Someday I plan to return to see the fjords, which is the other major site that Norway is famous for.
