"Four Days in Olso." Oslo by Openseas

We arrived in Helsinki at 2.30pm and had to wait for three hours for our flight to Oslo but at least we had the lounge, which was rather ordinary, but we did seem to get ourselves intoxicated by the time our plane departed.

The flight to Oslo was short {one and half hours} and getting into the city was easy as the train took about 30 minutes and arrived at the main railway station, which was about a three minute taxi drive to our hotel “Hotel Bristol”. Upon arriving we saw all the old faces and chatted for a while before checking into our room 371,a small but traditional and quaint room. After a lovely long shower Peter and I had dinner in the restaurant downstairs and retired to bed exhausted after a long day travelling.

Monday 24th May

Peter had to wake early and I decided to head down to the breakfast hoping to see some friendly faces. Had breakfast with the girls and arranged our iternary for the day. Jill, Gay and I decided to explore Oslo together. Firstly, we walked to the harbour “Aker brygge” a new waterfront development overlooking the fjord with shops, restaurants, and boating facilities. We decided then to catch a ferry cruise around the harbour for a few hours. It was a beautiful sunny day, with little wind made the tour so delightful. A rather stunning harbour where shrimpers and small sailing boats jostle with ferries and merchant ships, to where the city sprawls out from the compact centre around the quays to the flanks of rolling hills. We passed little islands dotted with quaint timber summerhouses painted in various bright colours, and large cargo and ferry terminals where ships depart to Demark, Russia, Greenland etc.etc. Marina’s and large old warehouses perched along the foreshores.

Feeling hungry, we had a lovely meal in one of the restaurants on the waterfront and then walked back to the main part of town to look at the shops.
Oslo is a small city consisting of only half million people and the town is very easy to get around as everything is in walking distance. I felt very safe here in knowing I didn’t really need a map to find myself around. The main centre consists of a large plaza with numerous shops, arcades, and restaurants. It is very expensive compared to home and our poor little Aussie dollar does nothing here. After about two hours walking the streets I headed back to the Hotel, which is famously situated about five minutes to the centre of town.

I had a shower and poured myself a glass of wine (very expensive here) and waited until Peter returned back before heading off to our beer tasting night with the conference people. Firstly, we did a tour around the city and took in all the major sights like the Royal Palace and the National Theatre, Parliament House, National Gallery, and to Holmenkollen Norway’s most popular tourist attraction where the Olympics ski jumping is held and then onwards to the Vigeland Park. A beautiful garden designed by the famous sculptor Gustav Vigeland. There are 212 sculptors in bronze, granite and wrought iron, consisting of over 600 figures.

The beer tasting night was held in an old brewery and we had an endless night listening to how beer is made. It was incredibly boring to me as I hate beer but the guys seemed to like it. The walk home took us 45 minutes as we somehow got lost and ended up in another part of town. So much for not needing a map! Bed was welcoming sight and we retired around 1.00am.

Tuesday 25th May

A good morning, no need to rush as Peter has the day off today, so we have decided to sleep in and have breakfast late. After a relaxing morning we headed down to the harbour to catch the ferry to see the Folk museum and the Viking Ship Museum at Bygdoy.

The Viking Museum was very interesting as it holds three Viking ships, which was found in huge burial grounds around the Oslo fjord. There is also an amazing range of exhibits including everyday objects and some unique artwork and clothes dating back 1,200 years ago.

The Folk Museum has gathered over 150 buildings from various districts in Norway. The main attraction is the Gol stave church and the “Old Town” with houses taken from several Norwegian towns. It really is a must to see whilst in Oslo as the houses and the architecture is fascinating. The whole tour takes about three hours but well worth it, the walk back to the ferry is refreshing, as the suburban gardens are pretty and sweet, and the houses unique in their design and shapes.

After catching the ferry back we walked to our Hotel to have lunch around 3.oopm, we had built up a large appetite after four hours walking and we were starving.
Peter decided he wanted to have a sauna to relax, so we headed down to the gym to sweat for an hour or so. It was good as we were the only people in the room so had a relaxing time just chatting and running in and out of the room.

In the evening, we had drinks in the hotel with all the conference people and then we headed off to a French restaurant in the city. The food was great and company good, overall everyone seemed to enjoy the restaurant. Later we all had drinks back at the hotel before retiring at 2.00am.

Wednesday 26th May

Peter woke early for work and I slept in trying to recover from a hangover and headache. I eventually got going and decided fresh air was what was needed, so headed into town to do some shopping and have a late breakfast. I found a great pair of leather boots which funny enough were made in Macau, so I rang Peter and he came down to the shop to buy them for me. I walked around the entire side streets looking at all the different shops and finally gave up and walked back to the hotel to have lunch.

When I returned to my room I noticed that they had given me the wrong shoe size, {so here I go again} a walk back to town before the shop closes.
In the evening we went to dinner with Jillian, David, Shell, Gay, Chuck, Louis and Peter, which was great fun and very entertaining. Afterwards, we had a few drinks in the hotel with Louis and Claude before retiring to bed at 1.30am.

• Cons:Expensive city.