Three days in Oslo

What does a weekend look like for two young girls in Norway?

Here’s a glimpse:

I went with my friend, Jill, who I met two weeks prior in my Muslims in the West class!

After we landed in Oslo, we made our way to our Airbnb, dropped off our bags, and headed into the city to find dinner. We ended up at Cafe Cathedral, which served a lot of classic Norwegian dishes, like reindeer pizza and fish soup. As both Jill and I are vegetarian, we avoided those…intriguing…dishes and ended up getting our Norwegian food fixes through pastries throughout the weekend. 

After dinner, we ended up meeting two girls from Germany and hanging out with them for a while at a place called Angst on a very fun street in Oslo. It was so cool getting to know those girls, who are actually coming to Copenhagen later in the semester! It’s never bad to have friends throughout Europe!

On the next day, we wandered around the city, walking along the water where downtown Oslo sits! We got to climb on the roof of the Oslo Opera House, explore a “nomadic art project” called SALT , and have some incredible pizza at a place called Mamma Pizza. It was life-changing. Later in the night, we ended up at Oslo Street Food, a huge room full of a bunch of food stands with dishes from around the world. It was so cool getting to see the mix of people of all different ages, sitting at community tables and enjoying their food together. We also ended up making two friends from England, who were by far the most charming and hilarious people I’ve ever met.

On our last day in Oslo, we wandered around the Botanical Gardens for hours and met two kids from Sweden, who introduced us to the tea party that happens on Sundays in the gardens. We got to try tea from plants in the gardens and hang around with locals for a while.

On our way out, we stumbled upon a farmer’s market and got to try pastries, cheeses, jams, and honey from Norway. When we finally made it out of the gardens, we got to see Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” by complete accident and then walked down to the water.

We ate at a place called Vippa, which was pretty similar to Oslo Street Food, and got some long-awaited-for ice cream. On our way to the airport, we stopped in at SALT again and enjoyed some Norwegian hot chocolate while watching many local couples and families perform traditional Norwegian dances accompanied by live music.

Our trip to Oslo was nothing short of incredible, but I thought I’d compile a Do’s and Don’ts list if you ever decide to go:

Do:

• Eat a chocolate croissant from Kaffebrenneriet
• Walk around the city!
• Approach people (the locals are very friendly!)
• Go to Mamma Pizza – a must!
• Allocate time for the Opera House. You can walk up on top of the roof!
• Keep an open mind
• Find places where locals go (not just tourist destinations)

Don’t:

• Expect anything to be cheap
• Take a taxi ($40 for 10 minutes!)
• Make rigid plans. Our best memories from the trip were completely unplanned!
• Assume you can get in anywhere! We tried to get back into Oslo Street Food after a quick break outside and we couldn’t get in because neither of us are 23…
• Not go! It’s worth the trip:)