OSLO IN 2 DAYS

If you're bored at home, start looking at trips and you'll find a flight from Bremen to Oslo for €20. As soon as you find it, open Whatsapp and put it in your Erasmus group. This "assumed" trip is only a week away, but, what the hell! We're Erasmus students!

It only took an hour for all of us to have our tickets booked. It was the first Erasmus trip that I'd done, and I was very excited.

We only went for three days, but realistically it was more like two as we arrived during the night on the first day. In the follow lines I will show you our "planning" for these two days and I hope that it helps you in the future.

Day 1

Well, there's not much to tell from the very first day, so I would like to point out a few anecdotes that we had. When we got on the plane, one of the air hostesses, maybe because of our appearances and accents, knew where we were from as soon as she saw us and we started to talk to her in Spanish. After chatting to her from a while, she told us that Ryanair, the company we were travelling with, wasn't going to do many more flights from Bremen and that if you wanted to fly with the same company you would have to stop over in Hamburg. I know guys, it's a drag, but it is what it is.

Once we'd arrived in the Norwegian capital, we had to take a train to the city as we were mislead because Oslo Airport isn't actually in Oslo, and it's located quite far away. I remember it being more than an hour on the train. Well, the thing is, we were a little impatient compared to the attitudes of some of the passengers. The first impression of the place wasn't great when we got there, as we saw absolutely no one around us was talking. These Norwegians, what are they like?! -we thought. Until suddenly, one of the people who worked on the train warned us that if we didn't stop talking he would have to kick us out of the silent carriage. And although it seemed like a lie, we had then noticed the huge signs asking for silence everywhere; and not to mention the tone of voice that us Spaniards tend to talk in.

And the other thing, which is even more bizarre, was the attitude of the passenger sat right in front of me. And it's just that his shoes were on the floor, and he was sat in a way that was almost "too comfortable" to be sat on a train. And not to mention the smell that was circulating the carriage: a stench of rotten Roquefort cheese. There were a number of time that I had to try really hard to not start heaving.

Day 2

Our first day as tourists started early, much to my misfortune, because I was incapable of keeping my eyes open for more than a minute. We had booked a Free Tour at 10am, so we had to direct ourselves to the starting point, the Jernbantorget station. Afterwards, we walked alongside the Oslo Opera House, which I have to say is one of the coolest places in Oslo. Also, if you have the opportunity to visit it on a sunny day, it's even better.

We walked down the street Trondheimsveien until arriving at Christiania Torv, a plaza with diverse historical monuments, like for example the Old City Hall. I have to say that I wasn't in the mood and I didn't want to pay attention so forgive me if I skip a fact or two (or the majority). After that, we went to Aker Brygge, a place near the port where the restaurants are, which is where you could have a drink if you're not a student and you have a good monthly income. Afterwards, we went to see the current Oslo City Hall a building that, in my opinion, was moving further from what we might consider pretty; and it's that it's a building that still has reminders of its Soviet structures. However, there was a surprise inside, because in its interior, there are paintings on the walls and one of them, which caught my attention the most, shows the hardworking characteristic of the Norwegians.

Later on, we moved towards the National Theatre and after that, Karl Johans Gate, one of the main streets of the city, where you can find the majority of shops.

Finally, we finished our Free Tour with a view of the Norwegian Parliament; together with the Opera House, is considered to be one of the prettiest buildings in the city, and given the sunny weather, my friends and I made the most of taking some photos.

The Free Tour took up most of the morning, and we weren't sure if we would arrive in time to see the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace at 1:30pm. Fortunately, we arrived and we saw it, so if you have the option to see it, I would recommend it.

Like the good Erasmus students we are, with limited budgets, we took out our tupperwares of rice and started to eat them on the stairs. And the thing is that Oslo is a very expensive city; just to give you an idea, the bread will cost more than €3 in the supermarket. I would advise that you leave some space in your suitcase and put in some food that won't go off in those two days.

To finish off our day, we went to have dinner in the Bohemian neighbourhood Grunerlokka, where, surprisingly, we found a burger place with similar prices to Spain.

Day 3

We will call this day the "day of museums", as we mainly dedicated our day to them. First of all we visited the Vikings museum, Viking Ship Museum; personally I didn't have any special reaction to it because it's not a theme that interests me, but a lot of my friends were and are still hardened fans of the series 'Vikings' and so I had no choice but to give in. In the end, it wasn't that I was bored at all, but the opposite, I liked it! It's not a particularly big museum but there's enough there to learn about things.

Once we had eaten on the tables situated outside the museum, we went to the National Gallery of Oslo, where you could visit a few paintings by the artist Munch, and among them, The Scream. I'm not going to lie and say that we didn't take photos with the painting imitating the gesture; but you'll understand that in order to keep our reputations intact, I'm not going to show them.

Once we finished with the museums, we went to Vigeland otherwise known as the statue park. I would consider this as the cherry on top of Oslo; this park, just like its name suggests, its full of all kinds of statues. But the best thing is, because the park is so big, you can go jogging or have a picnic. I have to say that, I was awestruck at all of the statues.

Finally, as our plane was leaving late and we had to get a train back to the airport, we went back to the Opera House to take some photos that we couldn't take on the Free Tour, as the station was very close by.

In my opinion, Oslo isn't a city that has impressed me that much; however, I do think that is has two or three attractions, that I've already mentioned, that are above and beyond. I would recommend that you visit Oslo, although if you're not going to Norway for the Northern Lights, I would suggest visiting the city during sunnier periods because if not, you'll be a bit disappointed.

I hope that this has served you well as a tour guide, or as help.