The Travelling Fox Blog: Sidestory: Northern Lightning ~ Oslo Day 2

26-Feb-2025

Kudos to my immune-system, beating down the Con Crud in a single day. I'm still coughing a lot, and my throat is sore, but my stamina is back, so I'm ready to properly explore Oslo today. But first things first: Robert - being my very one personal culinary advisor for this trip - has organized a breakfast made from original Norwegian ingredients: Rugbrød (rye bread) and Brunost (brown cheese). It's a quite sweet and tasty cheese that I can only recommend.

Incidentally, the fridge for this apartment is not in the kitchen, but rather one floor up, in an attic room. I only bumped my head three times trying to get the cheese!

And then, we're on our way for today. This great stray should be the longest of this entire tour yet: Over 8 hours of pure walking, and we cover a total of 25km during it, as well as over 500m of climbs. You can find the bikerouter map here.

It's a gray day outside, but this house here is colorful.

Our first stop is the Naturhistorisk Museum, which is actually mostly just a park with some interesting woven sculptures, labeled plant beds, and various kinds of rocks.

After that, we're making our way up the hillside. Did I mention that Oslo reminds me a lot of Wellington in New Zealand? Wellington sure has less snow, though.

Our first little peak is in Keyserløkka, from where we get a nice view of the town below.

We then walk through a bit of city.

I take note that the Fartsgrense is 30 here.

It looks like this is a little satellite downtown area.

We don't need it, but here's a bike repair station.

Also, here's two different flavors of garbage bins right across from each other. Vote which one you prefer by tossing your garbage in!

We cross over a single-track railway line.

And I suppose this is what you call green transportation.

Next, we pass through another park.

There, we find a chain-covered garbage bin. I suppose that is so that all the magpies don't routinely raid it.

We also pass by what seems to be a chariot racing track.

More park follows, and I notice that as we go further up and inland, the amount of snow increases. The path is still clear, though.

Here's a nice little deer sculpture.

And that's one very serious bus-only lane there.

Playtime ends as soon as we start climbing the heavily forested Grefsenkollen.

I think I am beginning to feel some sympathy for the Norwegians, as their definition of what counts as a way seems to be very much the same as mine.

However, the hardest part only begins as we reach ground that is covered with packed and highly slippery snow, and we actually have to navigate around those bits as well.

Also, at one point I need to build a makeshift bridge out of branches to get us across a little melt-water brook.

Eventually, we make our way to the Akebakken ("tobbogan run"), which is not necessarily an improvement, since that consists mostly of packed, slippery snow.

Making our way through the woods some more, we come across some disturbingly large canine footprints. That one is almost the size of my own hand.

Eventually, we grow tired of trying to force our way through the woods, and brave the Akebakken instead. Fortunately, it turns out that as long as you stay near the edge, the footing is actually reasonably solid.

And then,we also make our way up a ski slope. By now, the visibility is getting pretty bad though.

After over an hour on the mountain, we finally reach solid ground again.

Yeah, Siriusly!

Atop the mountain stands a restaurant, which offers a fantastic view of the city and the fjord below... on clear days, that is.

However, at this point, the prospect of a warm room and nice meal is enough to satisfy us. I go for a meat and cheese platter, while Robert orders the Tomatisert Fiskesuppe.

Still traumatized from the way up here, we elect to stick to the road for the way down.

Once we drop below the cloud level,we actually get a good view of the city of Oslo, the fjord, and the Maridalsvannet, a lake to the north.

We then walk down a road that is significantly more fun to walk than to drive.

By the way, here's the most artful manhole cover design I could find in all of Oslo. Denmark still wins this category.

Incidentally, we are on the Lachmanns Vei now ("Laugh Man's Way?").

Our next goal is the Maridalsvannet, and we are drawing closer to it with each step.

That lake is apparently not just shallowly frozen over, but the ice is so thick that we can spot people walking across the lake.

And then, we reach the shore of the lake. Its surface is dotted with little potholes of melt-water.

That marks the turning point of our stray. Now, we continue along a very phun park path that is almost exclusively covered in slippery, tight-packed snow. I don't actually have to lift my feet for minutes at a time here!

And know what's even more phun than skittering across an icy path? Skittering uphill across an icy path!

Suffice it to say that we're both quite grateful when we reach a proper sidewalk again.

However, before long, we enter the next park. This one takes us along the river Akerselva.

There, we come across a truly multi-functional sports court: This one is equipped for hockey, soccer or basketball, according to the season.

We follow that park for a looong time, grateful that the ground is mostly ice-free.

I am very impressed by the locals, who not only do jogging in these conditions, but also bicycling.

Once again, we get a brief moment of respite.

And then the dance considers on the other side of the river.

There, I spy an artful blue fox graffiti on the other shore.

After that, we leave the snowy park behind for good, and make our way through a snowy suburban area.

Here's an interesting dead-end road sign.

And here's a palace-like building at the Damplassen.

The avenues here also have some very funny-looking trees. I wonder what they look like with leaves.

Next, we pass the Universitetssykehus ("University Hospital"), which has a mix of old and modern elements.

In Norway, you will often see mobility impaired people ride around in little mini-cars like this one:

Oh, and for the record, this one's a supermarket too.

Next, we proceed to scale one more hill-in-a-park, the St. Hanshaugen park, to be exact.

There, we come across sculptures of what looks like a cougar and her cubs.

And once we reach the top, we get an amazing view of the setting sun shining golden on the Oslo fjord.

At the bottom of the hill, there's something I direly need right now: A pissoir. That one wastes no space. Right inside the door is a space barely half a square meter in size, and you just pee against the wall, which is constantly being rinsed with water flowing into a drain below. The sink is right above that.

Afterwards, we enter the inner city again, and pass by some large wooden toys.

We also pass in front of Det Kongelige Slott ("The royal palace"), which has a nice view of the "Freja" advertisement on the far end of the thoroughfare.

Walking down said thoroughfare, we pass by an university building.

And we run into a pro-Ukrainian demonstration calling for a trade embargo against Russia.

Our way next takes us through the walking mall.

There, a clothing shop with the name Fjäll Räven ("Mountain Fox") catches my eye. Don't we have that in Germany too, albeit under a different name?

It is now 18:30 and a good time for dinner. Naturally, I planned our stray so that it took us right to the last food place that Robert had wanted to try out: The Fiskeriet Youngstorget. It's pretty full inside, but after a few minutes of waiting we are shown to a pair of cramped little seats near the window.

One thing I want to mention about the menu here is the large selection of mineral water (note: might not actually be all mineral water).

Since I still don't have that much of an appetite, I only go for a small dish of very tasty Salmon Tataki, while Robert has a fish gratin and fish roe with chips. Those were not the kind of chips he was thinking in the context of fish though.