In order to keep ourselves awake, we knew we just needed to keep moving and stay fed and hydrated.
Breakfast was the perfect place to start once we had caught the train to the city from the airport (my second ever train ride).
Ian met us at the station, took our suitcase to store at his office, and pointed us in the direction of sim cards and food.
We discovered that a typical breakfast in Norway is sandwiches, similar to the ones we would have for lunch, but the cafe also had a selection of delicious looking pastries as well.
So, naturally, we ordered two different sandwiches (without being able to read the signs) and a giant hot chocolate – which DJ drank most of!
Breakfast is not really big thing in Norway – cafes etc only open for breakfast around 10-11am and the city seemed very quiet, only really waking around lunch time when it feels like a lot of people suddenly appear.
After refuelling, we sorted sim cards and then headed to the mall to find a public toilet, only to find you have to pay to use the toilet.
So, not wanting to spend 20NOK (4NZD) to have a wee, we went to the train station but it turns out you have to pay the same there too!
Apparently this is common in Europe, it was still quite fascinating though.
From there we went to visit the opera house and walked to the top of the building –Pro-tip: If you ever visit Oslo, toilets at the Opera house are free and quite nice.
Another interesting thing we found is that most places in Norway offer free wi-fi, which was super useful.
Oslo reminded us a lot of Wellington in terms of being really pedestrian friendly.
Fun-fact: Most of Oslo’s city centre is car-free – they had a plan to be car free by the end of this year.
Public transport is very good and everywhere else is easy to walk/bike/scooter to.
We really enjoyed wandering around and found ourselves some burgers and fries (expensive burgers and fries) for lunch along the waterfront, which were washed down with Softis (huge soft serve ice-creams) chocolate dipped and covered in strawberry bits.
While enjoying meandering in the sunshine, we stumbled across a massive fortress and castle.
Akershus castle and fortress was built around the 1290s in an attempt to improve the city’s defences after an attack that occurred in 1287.
This was our first taste of Oslo’s history, and it was so interesting to read about the different purposes the fortress has had over centuries.
It blows my mind thinking about walking the same ground that has been walked by people 800 years before my time.
Its so cool to imagine how they lived and how incredibly different things are now.
We chatted to an artist we’d seen drawing earlier at the opera house who was now painting in the fortress.
He recently travelled Europe painting and drawing, as well as running art workshops, and was trying to find the beauty in his home city again.
It was something that struck us and made us consider how we appreciate the place we live in.
Ian came to meet us when he finished work and we walked to the palace, via the parliament building and main tourist drag.
Norwegian summer working hours seem ideal @ 8:00am – 3:00pm.
We sat in the park chatting, it was a beautiful evening and soooooo many people were out picnicking and walking/jogging. People in Norway are generally very active and a lot of people also have dogs.
Our feet were very tired by this point and we were very grateful to have Ian share the load and carry a bag for the 20 minute walk to a waterfront street market for dinner.
Norway has the fanciest street food we’ve ever seen and it was very delicious – we tried a watermelon salad for the first time.
After dinner we caught bus home, showered and crashed.
We were both shattered after walking over 20km and being awake for almost 50 hours straight!
KJ & DJ x
