…you new here?

Oslo is great. It really is, despite the freezing cold and the tons of snow and ice during the winter, and part of the spring… and fall and sometimes summer. But yes, you get used to it, to the cold and dark nights and the never-ending days during the summer, it’s part of the fun of living in the North. A and I have been living here for a couple years now and we slowly got used to the culture, the living standard and wintersports. Obviously both of us do prefer the southern summer heat but as far as life goes, I cannot imagine a better place than Norway, not only because A and I are living here together but because life here is just awesome.

Every now and then we go look at museums, walk in the great and definitely worth-seeing parks, do some letterboxing and a little of sight seeing. But last weekend we got to be real tourists in Oslo. See, every year for one day Oslo arranges this great opportunity for residents to check out all the museums and ride the public transportation for free as well. The arrangement literally translates to “be tourist in your own city”. So I, of course, dragged A through all museums, that we could possibly get through in one day.

We started at the Nobel-Peace-Center and it was great. A collection of all the people that contributed to peace on this planet, what is greater than that? I believe close to nothing. And the technology they used to present the great thinkers and philosophers and action-takers of this world was simply incredible and very recommendable!

After taking in all the peace we could, we ran towards the National Gallery. And to be honest, that was a little bit of a downer. I mean seing Munch’s original scream was obviously awesome, but it also raises the question, why the original is not at the Munch museum, which we visited a few months ago. Norwegians have their own take on that… but either way, there was only one other room to visit at the National Gallery and that was a Medieval exhibition, which was neither mine nor A’s style of history. So after 20 minutes, we were out of there.

We jetted to the Akershus Festning afterwards. It’s a fortress and a castle, in a way and a place for soldiers to perform soldier-y things and a wonderful place to enjoy the view and a mausuleum. It was great, very enjoyable and a lot of fun. Many families were strolling around, couples were enjoying each other’s company, history lovers falling in love with old buildings and A and me, being tourists.

After all the cultural and historical stuff, A and I needed something for the children in us. So we headed to Oslo’s reptilepark. Which by far was the most awesomest experience, if you like children screaming, grown ups pushing you forward before you are done looking at exhibitions, bad air and overheated rooms. But no, seriously, it was awesome and I will return, most likely though without A. He apparently can’t handle the fact, that the staff takes out snakes and spiders out of their terratariums for visitors to look at them and touch them. I was the first in line, for doing that, after all, how often do you get to touch a spider as big as your hand or pet a snake? Not often, very true, but apparently to A that also didn’t seem like a lifetime goal anyways, so he ran like his pants were on fire, which of course they were not. But let’s just say, he was relieved being out of the reptilepark, double checking that there was no 8-legged blind passenger on or close to his body.

Our last stop was the Natural history museum. After all the living reptiles, A needed to look at something, that has been dead for years and years. So naturally, the Natural history museum was our frist choice. What we didn’t know, when we entered the museum at 4.45pm was that they closed at 5pm. So, we ran through the museum, ‘enjoying’ every little fossil we could possibly get our eyes on. And it was awesome. I mean seriously, name one thing that is not great about dinosaurs? I dare you. Name ONE thing.

All in all, Oslo is a great place to visit, it really is awesome and fun and if you haven’t visited before you definitely should… but take it from me, wait for the summer.