Day 17-18-19 : Arrival in Oslo at hotel Lysebu
Sorry for the delay this time but we have been rather busy. First things first, when you plan to come to Oslo, puhleeese stay in Hotel Lysebu in the mountains with a stunning view on Oslo. Price-quality : unbeatable (opt for the slightly larger junior suites, worth the money) : http://www.lysebu.no/. Just watch this movie and be charmed :
They also have a chicken shed with quite peculiar chickens. We baptised them “poedelkiekens” (fluffy chickens). Take a look at the picture below.
Breakfast is perfect but we would recommend to dine in Oslo and not in the hotel. There are too many really nice places to dine and staying in the hotel (although okay) will be a tad more expensive. Go out and discover (as we did) and you will have no regrets.
Our first day was a bit about settling into the hotel (with charging capabilities for electric cars, yejjj) but in the evening we went to grab a bite in a local bistro that was really great. It was called Heim (http://heim.no/heim-st-hanshaugen/) and they had a shitload of beers (a lot of Belgian stuff by the way, all ridiculously priced). Natalia had to pretend she was 18 in order to drink an Apple Cider. Beer, cider and everything under 20 degrees alcohol has an age limit of 18, above is 20 years.
But hey, Once a Belgian, always a Belgian so I dived into the local Pale-Ales that are very popular in Noway. And they were “delicious”. For dinner Kristan had Fish and Chips, Natalia a salad, Valérie a grilled salmon and I went for a local dish with Pølse (sausage) and mashed potatoes. I finished my meal with an Aquavit (and coffee 😊).
Maybe a small update on drinking and driving in Norway : don’t do it, just don’t. depending on your level of alcohol you get a huge fine or prison. Being a foreigner is no excuse. The limit is 0,2 promille (Belgium is 0,5 promille) but they are WAAAY less tolerant with drunk driving). Cause an accident while drunk = prison. Get caught while being drunk = maybe prison. In Norway people really respect the rules concerning alcohol and driving. Their public transportation is great and taxis are affordable so why take the risk.
The second day we visited Oslo. After some necessary shopping for Natalia we went to visit the museum of modern Art “Astrup Fearnley” (http://afmuseet.no/).
We have some pictures but as always with art and especially modern art : you have to see it with your own eyes.
The building itself is located on the border of the fjord and it’s AWESOME. We took a big stroll through Oslo and again the weather was perfect. The city is really beautiful with lots of modern architecture that blends well with the many waterways (Kai or Brygge in Norsk). There are certainly similarities between Antwerp and Oslo when it comes to being trendy. Lofts, restaurants, and the feeling of “savoir-vivre” is quite present but maybe with a touch more internationalism.
To conclude the day we went to a classy Asian restaurant and stuffed our bellies as never before. Foie-gras, Wagyu-meat, lobster… we all had it while the kids were waiting outside for us to finish our meal. That last thing is off course a joke, they were allowed to wait inside until we had finished 😊.
The last day in Oslo was filled with sport and Indian food. First we went to the Oslo Summer Camp to play monkey in the trees.
Quite a challenge I have to say but really fun. During winter this summer camp is actually a winter resort with many ski slopes. Our hotel (by the way) is 5 minutes from the official Ski-Jumping slop of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. Just seeing that behemoth already make you shit your pants, imagine having to go down that huge beast. Even during summer it’s a tourist attraction and there is literally nothing to do but just facing this slope and imagining that an athlete goes down this thing gives you a sort of awe.
We also noticed that Norwegian people are very, very into sports. Almost everybody is jogging, cycling or is doing summer-langlauf. The latter is fun to see but it seems quite hard.
Tomorrow we leave Norway to take the ferry to Kiel. It has been 20 wonderful days were we have been able to discover Norway (at least a part of it). It’s a beautiful country and we can recommend it to everyone. It’s different from 2 weeks in the south of France or Spain or even 2 weeks in Bali and that’s just the reason why you should go there. It’s not far, it’s cheap to get there by car and you will have a wonderful time, in winter and summer. We hope that this little blog might inspire you to go there and discover it for yourself. Maybe there will be a post tomorrow from the ferry. Depends a bit if we have Wifi or not 😊.
