Nostalgic Norway: Another Heaven on Earth

I must be very small when I first heard of Norway. I had always heard of its name whenever there was a talk about countries with the highest standard of living, high salaries and yes, high cost of living. Even before seeing any pictures of it, I had always imagined a place with lots of greenery, perfectly clean roads, and small houses located at an adequate distance and not so many people.

Pre-Departure and an estimate for expenses:

After coming to Poland, I didn't really think of seeing Norway. But one day while searching random tickets on skyscanner, I found an offer by Ryanair so cheap that I couldn't just let it go. There was a ticket from Warsaw to Oslo that just cost 8 Euros. Now that I was going to Norway, I didn't want to miss its neighbour that is Sweden. And guess what, I found the ticket from Stockholm to Warsaw at the same price of 8 Euros. For traveling from Oslo to Stockholm, I bought a ticket from Flixbus which was around 16 Euros, but you can even find a cheaper one depending upon the dates. For accommodation I used Airbnb, finding a cheap option in the city centre is almost impossible but places which are slightly away from the centre can be found in economic prices. However, hostels can be another cheap option. You should be mentally prepared for some 25 Euros per night per person.

Warsaw to Modlin Airport:

Now that the tickets were already bought, I came to find out that the airport was quite far from Warsaw city actually and that I needed to take a special bus for that from the centre. The modlin bus cost some 8 Euros. However I am sure there are some other ways, but they may consume more time and require changing several trams and buses. For example, on our return, we found about another service which costs around 4. 5 Euros. You will first take the bus from the airport to the train station and from there to Warsaw. This was not very hectic either because you don’t need to buy separate tickets; rather this complete package is sold at the airport.

Torp Airport to Oslo:

Another tiny shock: the Torp Sandefjord Airport was also far away from Oslo. It was around one hour and forty minutes by bus. And the bus is also quite expensive, the student fare was 20 Euros and the normal ticket price is even higher. So, these all transfers “to and from the airport” compensated for the cheap air tickets that we had bought. I hope you got in what sense I used “compensate” here.

Still no regrets! Why? I will try to explain and show you on my blog.

Reaching Accommodation:

To reach the apartment from the city centre we took a train. It took some 10 minutes. It was a nice neighborhood with typical Norwegian houses. With much effort and numerous guesses, we found the house. Actually, it was located right in front of us, just that we were not sure if that was the house. The owner had already written to us that she won’t be at home. Finding the key also involved some struggle and skills learned from detective and mystery movies. It was already late and dark. Just a day before Oslo had the first snowfall of this winter. So we stayed at the house that day.

Finally Exploring Oslo:

Next morning we took our train to Oslo Central Station. Just to mention a single ticket there generally costs around 3-5 Euros depending upon the destination.

We came out of the station, and a splendid, joyful, bright Oslo was waiting for us. First thing you would see is this lion, tiger or jaguar, or I don’t know this something from the cat family, I am not expert in this area so you can just see it in the picture. Everyone was taking pictures with and sitting on its tail. You better try it because the real ones won’t give you this opportunity.

Then we stepped on the famous and the main street of Oslo – Karl Johans Gate. I know I wrote “gate” but trust me that’s the name of the street. It is actually named after King Charles III John. This was such a lively street full of locals and tourists. You can see a lot of interesting and touristic sites there. The small Christmas huts were already set selling different interesting stuff.

We were actually heading towards the Royal Palace located at the end of the street. Near the end there was this sky wheel and closer to it the Ice Skating Rink was set up.

It was quite cold when we finally reached the Royal Palace. Since it’s located on a slightly higher point, it was a good place to get a view of the Karl Johans Gate and in fact the city.

Coming to the Palace, It was very different than the typical palaces found in southern or central Europe. It looked more contemporary. The Palace is open for tours only in summer as it actually also serves as the residence for current Norwegian Monarch.

My Italian flatmate had lived in Norway for about a year or more as a high school exchange student. So I took her recommendations and suggestions before departing. One of the places she really encouraged me to visit was Vigeland Park. It is same as Frogner Park as it is located in Frogner or in other words it is actually located inside the Frogner Park. So that was the next destination. The park is open to everyone and that too all around the year. This park is not only famous only in Oslo but is in fact the most popular tourist attraction in entire Norway. It also holds the honour of being the world’s largest sculpture park created by a single Artist (who is Gustav Vigeland). According to most of the sources, there are more than 200 sculptures. Some people find them weird, some may even find them offensive as they are naked human beings, others who understand those depictions find them interesting and great work of art.

The statues mostly depict human pursuits, the relationships among men, women, children, and elder.

This below picture is for example called the wheel of life; it represents the journey of men from cradle to grave and is a symbol of eternity.

The place with the highest number of people was this 46 feet high Monolith. Interestingly, it is carved out of a simple piece of granite and consists of some 121 human figures rising towards the sky.

“It is designed to represent man's desire to become close with the spiritual world and the humans embracing each other are carved as if they are being carried towards salvation. “

Apart from the sculptures, just check these amazing views which be witnessed in the park.

What am I missing? Oh yes! I fell in the park because of the slippery ice! Come on, it was my first experience walking on that slippery icy surface.

After Frogner Park, we went to the Akershus Fortress which is at a walking distance from the Oslo Central Station. It was built to protect Oslo and has also been used as a palace and a prison in the past. Currently, it is opened to public every day; it still, however, is a military area.

Its location couldn't be any better. A marvelous view of the sea and the harbour! I could stare at it all day without getting bored. The historic stories immersed in every stone, in every brick of the fortress, the reflection of lights in the sea, the grandeur of the ships and the sun setting behind the mountains far away!

After Lungern in Switzerland, this was the place where I felt being in heaven, where I wanted to live forever!

And that’s all from my trip to Oslo. If you have time, I would recommend visiting Holmenkollen, it’s not very far, a 30 minutes tram ride from the centre perhaps.

Note: For an explanation of the sculptures in the Vigeland Park, I have taken help from the article published in Dailymail, UK

“The weirdest statues in the world: The incredible creations on display in a Norwegian park”

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