Oslo on a shoestring (Oslo)

Member Name: kingseany

Product:	Oslo
Date:	12/05/04 (1065 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting city

Disadvantages: Not cheap

A couple of summers ago we decided we'd hitch our way from here in the Stockholm area of Sweden to Oslo in Norway. One way or another, in sweltering heat, and by more than half a dozen different lifts, and with virtually no money in our pockets, we made it. This is a a little bit of what we did.

After a first nights camping in the north of the city forest area called Sognvann, we decided that we would go and see some of Oslo today, so we made the journey by bus and train back to the Central Station, and put our rucksacks into lockers, although it was quite unclear how much they cost or how long you had. We took a chance. We were so happy to get the heavy bags off our backs, and looking forward to see Oslo without concentrating on getting a lift anywhere. The tickets which cost 50 Norwegian Krona, entitled us to travel anywhere in the Oslo area by bus, train, tram, or boat, so we took a trip from Vippetangen docks. This trip took us around the 4 nearest islands : Bleikøya, Gressholmen, Lindøya and Hovedøya. We got off at Hovedøya and explored for a bit. We saw the ruins of an old Catholic monastery that dates back to the year 1147. Among the ruins were a number of sheep and goats. The island was quite spooky, with what looked like millions of snake homes all around, a few canons and hardly any people at all. We had an expensive cup of tea at the cafe, although they only had strange flavours. We took the boat back to Vippetangen and continued to explore the city.

We looked at the Royal Palace, and it's grounds - Slottsparken. We did the usual touristy things, although the sky was a bit grey and not at all good for photos. We took some nonetheless.. We didn't go inside the palace, but imagined what it was like inside.

Later we went to Holmenkollen, a huge ski
jump and ski museum. The cost was around 100kr. To be honest the museum wasn't too interesting, and once we had climbed to the top of the ski jump and looked down for a few minutes, there wasn't much else to do apart from visit the gift shop. We'd hardly recommend this to anyone unless you are particularly attracted to the sport and it's history. As we decended, we spotted an interesting looking church, so went along to have a look, it was closed however. We started back to the train station and stopped off to look a a huge Troll sculpture, constructed recently in concrete. We just beat a group of Japanese tourists to a quick photo session. As we approached the station, more Japanese tourists approached us and wanted a photo of them altogether by the train station, no idea why, it wasn't particularly scenic, however we obligued.

Tired from all the sightseeing, we collected our backpacks, and made the journey back to Sognvann. We chose a different place to camp this time, almost in the lake. There was a place to make a fire too, and after a bit of effort the fire was alight and ready to cook. We had bought some tinned norwegian food from the supermarket earlier, but instead of emptying into the saucepan, it missed and landed in a nice heap on the floor. Luckily we had alternatives, and didn't starve to death. It was raining and the mosquitos were out in force.

The weather getting to Oslo had been fantastic, but now we were here, well - that night it rained and rained. The tent was absolutely useless, and we might as well have slept in the lake itself.

The following morning, the rain had stopped, but we were still wet from the rain during the night. The morning continued with Sean doing the dishes, and Karolina washing her hair in the Lake. Once again we packed up the tent, and got a ride to the Central S
;tation. We put our rucksacks into the lockers again, now confident of the price, a reasonable 20kr for 24hours. We noticed that many lockers had racked up debts of over 500kr, people had obviously either forgotten them or lost the keys.

We were starting to get used to the transportation in Oslo, and were confident getting on and off of the bus, train and the trams. Using the day pass is easy, you don't even show the driver, which I should imagine is open for abuse. The few days we used them, the ticket wasn't ever checked, but there is a hefty fine if you do get caught.

We visited the Åkershus Festning (castle and fortress). This dates back 700 years to King Haakon V Magnusson who initiated it's construction. Got told off by a guard when we entered a restricted area, oops. We also took a brief look at the City model of Christiana (now known as Oslo). This showed the history from 1624 to 1840, although it would have been better if we could have actually gone into the model a little. This was all free to see.

We took a train ride to the Botanical Gardens which is part of the University of Oslo. At first the place looked quite dodgy, a bit like a ghetto, until we were safely in the gardens. Here we found a spot to eat the ham baguettes and danish pastries we had. The ducks ate well too. The gardens themselves were fine, split into different Continents, although there wasn't nearly as much colour as there could have been. A lot of water features though. Free to enter.

Next was the National Art Museum of Norway in Universitegaten. This is the largest collection of Norwegian and International art in Norway. We saw the famous painting "The scream" by Edvard Munch. We thought of trying to smuggle one out under our coats
but decided against it in the end, sure it would have been easy enough though. Free to enter.

Last tourist tour of the day was to Vigelandsparken. This was recommended by the last two Norwegian nutters (just joking), who had kindly given us a lift days before. This is the number one tourist attraction of Norway with over 1million visitors each year. This is a park area full to the brim of naked sculptures (around 200 in fact). The sculptures and the layout of the park were created by Gustav Vigeland. Strange man he must have been. Really that's all there is to it, but they are all quite unique, some amusing, others just fascinating. This is free to enter.

After collecting our rucksacks again from the station it was back to the lake for more camping, taking more or less the same spot as the previous night. Our sleeping bags were still a bit damp from the previous night. We cooked spagetti this time using a disposable BBQ we had bought, as it would have been impossible to light a fire with no dry wood around. We prayed that it wouldn't rain. It rained. We swore (a lot). We tried to sleep. We got wetter as the the rain continued. We tried sleeping on each other in a effort to stay dry, it didn't work. We got out of the tent in the middle of the night, and took shelter for ages, and watched the rain. It appeared to slow down, so we tried the tent again. What we should have done at this point was to find a nice warm hotel, but we didn't. Instead we just tried to keep warm and wait til the morning, we got hardly any sleep....

The next day we were to be honest very ready to go home. We packed our wet things, minus the tent, which we purposefully left behind. We took a final walk around the lake before getting the early bus followed by a train to the Centre of Oslo. Went in search of &#
68;anish pastries again, but it was early. Saw some outside the supermarket, which we were tempted to have, but thought it was best waiting until they were on the shelves. Oslo early in the morning is completely dead, with only the trusty 7-11 open. The sky was looking a little bit bluer this morning, typical as this was the last day in Oslo. Once the Kiwi supermarket was open we raided the danish and bread section - supplies for breakfast and lunch later.

Walked around for a while, and then visited the Domkirke, Oslos cathedral - St. Saviours, which was first consecrated in 1697. There were a group of people practising for a concert the next day, which was relaxing to listen to for 20 minutes or so, and of course it was free to enter.

Made a brief stop to the library, before going to Margareta Church, where some of Edvard Munch's family is buried, including his parents and sister (who he loved to paint). We didn't actually find the graves themselves, as our lift turned up for the journey back home, via Gotenberg!

In conclusion, we'd both agree the week was an experience. An experience to look back on and laugh about, reflect on, and remember for ever. There were some things though which we may do differently next time, and there will be a next time - probably not to Oslo though.

Whilst we appreciate that the country is very beautiful, we do not appreciate the fact that the cost of living, or visiting is so damn high. We did manage however to find a good number of things to look at which cost little or nothing at all. It seems mad that Norwegians have to drive across the border to Sweden in order to save a whole load of money on just about everything. What is going on here? Sweden is expensive enough, but Norway is just crazy. We were warned before going, but never imagined the extent of e
xtortion. Sorry but unless we win a whole load of money, we won't be back, which is a shame.

For the complete story, including the hitch-hiking journey there, and photos, take a look on our website : http://www.angelfire.com/retro/seany

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