Meeting Oslo

Saturday was an epic Oslo adventure.  Nick who lives in Oslo offered to show Brittney and I around the city and I never pass up an offer to learn about a city from someone who lives there.  The pic above is from the roof of the Oslo Opera House...more on that later.

Our day began by taking the 9:00 train to Oslo, it was about a 45 minute ride.  As I said in my last post this is a dog friendly place.  This was our neighbor on the train. 

It was her first time on the train and she was a very good girl!  Once we arrived we waited for Nick to pick us up...since we had a little time we needed a PASTRY!! Again, at the convenient store they were wonderful!  I got a Belgian waffle covered in chocolate and Brittney got a Norwegian waffle with brown cheese and we split them both.  Delicious!

Then Nick showed us around the train station. It is the Oslo Central Station with very sleek and clean lines.  Scandinavian design - they know what they are doing!

Then we went outside and headed to the Oslo Opera house.  Just outside the train station we found this sculpture.  We found several works of public art throughout the city. I think I read something that Oslo is a leader in public art...don't quote me.

On the side of the bolder it says basically this place is for all people, all classes, and for everyone.  Nice way to be greeted in Oslo.  

And now the Oslo Opera House...and me!

The building was designed to look like an iceberg. And it really looks like it is rising up out of the water.  This is a better picture (that I did not take) so you can see the entire thing.

It was designed so that people could walk all over it.  There are people even on the rough above the large glass wall.  That is about where I took the picture at the top of this post. It's really beautiful outside and in.  Here are some more pics.

It was a very grey day, but the view of the water was beautiful. And we had a feathered visitor too!

This next pic is from the roof of the Opera House as well and they are financial buildings (Earnst and Young, Price Waterhouse Cooper, etc.) and it is called barcode because the buildings look like the lines of a barcode.  I love how each building has its own look, but also coordinate with the others. 

Inside was just as stunning and since it is a theatre I geeked out a little.  Here are some pics. 

This is just inside the lobby.  The brown layered wall above is the way patrons get to the different levels of the audience.  There was a ton of glass and light airy space.  

More gorgeous lobby and a ton of marble without looking ostentatious or gaudy.  It was inviting even with what could be considered a cold medium of marble.  

This is where people hang up their coats - even that had clean lines!  The next few pics I just couldn't help myself.  The bathroom was gorgeous!

I can't get over the design!  Just the lighting choices were so interesting! The tiles on the bathroom stall were gorgeous.  The picture doesn't do it justice. They were iridescent and sparkled but not in a 12 year old girl way, but a classic way.  

Next we walked around Oslo and saw some sights.

This is the road to the palace, you can see it up center, it also has shops and cafes...I could get lost here.

Parlement. Front and back.

National Theatre through the trees and a man making a snow sculpture. We then stopped to warm up and had some coffee and a sweet treat...or three.

Nick took us to Fuglen (it means bird) and is a coffee shop with a 70's retro vibe.  There is also a Fuglen in Tokyo and they sometimes do worker exchanges. 

We then made our way to Nick's neighborhood [insert Norwegian word here that I can't remember...sorry Nick]. It was very cute and had a more chill vibe.  We saw several galleries and second hand shops....I might need to go back next Saturday.  I feel out of respect I need to check out the sale signs I saw.  

Things we saw in Nick's neighborhood.  

Proof we were there.

We also had lunch at an American Southern restaurant - Lucky Bird. It was really cute and the chicken and waffles and hot chicken sandwich were great.  

As we were walking around I found my restaurant.

The Chinese take out restaurant is called Miss. Cherry.  What?!!??

We then picked up Kenzo (literally) and headed back on the subway to the train station.  

He is an old pro at riding the subway and train.  It was a great day.  Oslo is a wonderful and very walkable city.  In fact according to Apple we walked 23, 677 steps and 10.2 miles. I think that earned a treat don't you?

This might be heaven.  It is covered in chocolate and coconut (who doesn't like that?) and inside is a marshmallow, whipped cream, meringue baby that taste like coconut too!  I love your food Norway...and Oslo is pretty great too!