Oslo Pre-Trip

Oslo Pre-Trip

We're going to Oslo! 

Just in time, too - here's the forecast for France and for Oslo; what a difference, eh?

Here's what we have found out so far - future posts will give opinions on whether the info is right or not...

Flyr airlines (https://flyr.com) has direct 3-hour flights to and fro twice a week, between Montpellier and Oslo. We got tickets for $400 (round trip for both of us, plus one checked bag).

Oslo is a fairly expensive town, but we're happy with the Airbnb we found. It's not in the city center, but very near a transportation center, with metro, tram, bus, and airport transfers (Storo).

For getting from the airport to town (less than an hour of travel), there are several options

• Fly Bus (https://www.flybussen.no) seems to be the best option for us, as we are arriving late, and aren't staying in the center. You can buy a round-trip ticket online in advance for about $30 each
• There's also the airport train, direct to the center
• And taxis can be arranged at the airport; they give you a flat fee once they know where you're going

To get around the city, you can use just one pass for trams, metro, bus, and *even* the ferries! We can get a 7-day pass (other lengths are also available) either online or from a variety of shops. To go outside of town, you have to do something more (I haven't looked into that too much yet). Transportation stops seem to be all over (Oslo is tops on the list of cities with convenient public transportation). Apparently the Storo center can be confusing for the metro, so... Forewarned is forearmed

Given this, a few things don't make sense for us to do: 1) there is a hop-on-hop-off bus, but all we'd miss are the top-deck views and the commentary 2) there's an Oslo pass, but it's only for a few days, and includes museums; we're taking it a *lot* slower than that! No rushing around for us 🙂

We're looking at things to see and do (there are a lot!), and here's what caught my eye immediately.

• There's a Kon-tiki (Thor Heyerdahl's Pacific raft) museum, Fram (the polar boat) museum, and Folk museum, all on one island (unfortunately, the Viking ship museum is closed for another few years)
• There are *several* sculpture parks, including the 110 acre Frogner park  (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogner_Park)
• There are ancient palaces and fortresses, as well as buildings with ultra-modern architecture
• There's a food hall, called Mathallen - the funny bit is that we've been saying that we want to go to "the Mathallen food hall" - it turns out that "Mathallen" means "The food hall" so I've been saying "let's go to the The Food Hall food hall" ☺️
• Ferries are part of the public transportation system, and there's a special one that goes a bit farther down the fjord 🙂

I've started a course in Norwegian on Duolingo, and the first few lessons (really all I'll get through, I'm sure) show just how closely related Norwegian is to English - although, obviously *not* the word for food (mat) 🤣 - it's very interesting!

Det er en god dag

Means: It's a good day

Pronounced kind of like: Day are en goo dog!