Trip to Oslo
First real trip of the year.
My company was nice enough to send me to Oslo to meet the team there, and then to the company offsite in Copenhagen!! They even allowed me to extend the weekend if I wanted to.
For Oslo, I was quite unlucky because it was the week of the train strikes and I had to get to Gatwick Airport, a place that was completely foreign to me. I ambitiously tried to take the bus to London Bridge train station, where I was supposed to meet my boss. Halfway while I was walking to the bus stop, it started pouring and the Citymapper app seemed to indicate that the bus was delayed. It was quite stressful tbh because this was my first trip with my boss and I didn’t want to make a bad impression. Ultimately everything was fine and I got there about 7 minutes before we were due to leave but I learned a couple of lessons:
Always check the weather in the morning to decide what to wear.
When commuting, wear comfortable shoes only. For London, wearing waterproof boots or shoes helps, especially if it’s rainy season or the weather forecast expects some rain.
Bring a sensible bag. At least in my company no one really seems to care about whether the bags you’re carrying are formal or not, so I’m definitely going to be bringing a backpack instead of a handbag next time.
I kind of regret not putting more thought into the shoes that I brought to London. In the first place, I can’t seem to find my commune wear flats that I wear all over Singapore so I think I might have forgotten to pack them… So that was a bit of a disaster. I tried buying M&S shoes but wow they are so badly made, I’m definitely returning them.
We ended up standing for the whole of the train journey to Gatwick, so comfortable shoes next time for sure! Our flight was quite delayed so after dinner with my colleagues, I got some time to relax at Starbucks myself (yes don’t judge me I love starbucks). The flight was uneventful and upon landing we took a cab to the hotel since it was too late! We were put up at the Hotel Christiania Teater, which used to be an old theater. It was quite spacious and very comfortable:
There were quite a few sculptures and paintings all over the hotel, which gave it super artsy vibes.
The next morning we took a quick walk to our company’s Oslo office, which was 10 minutes away - omg Londoners walk so quickly, I was seriously struggling to keep up with them - and I met the team! They were really friendly, super tall and had really nice skin (overall superior genes). They asked me to join a session where they gave a presentation about the company, and after that they asked me to go sightsee and walk around since I hadn’t started work yet.
I went to two museums, the National Museum of Oslo and the Edvard Munch Museum.
The National Museum was quite interesting - I only looked at the lower floor as I was very sleepy but it illustrated the history of the country until the present day, including the use of different items showing the way of life at each point in time.
I saw the above painting by Degas, which I had to take a photo of because it was so “me” and Degas is one of my favourite artists.
I was really struggling to stay awake as I didn’t sleep very well the night before, so I went back to the hotel to take a nap. My shoes were very drenched since it was raining so much in Oslo, so mental note for me to bring waterproof shoes next time if possible… or at least leather shoes so that I don’t end up walking with soggy shoes.
The Edvard Munch museum was quite a long walk from the hotel but it was quite a scenic one. I walked past the Oslo Opera House, which is an attraction in itself because of its interesting design and the fact you can walk on the roof. The opera house also has ballet performances - one of my colleagues told me that ballet is quite a big thing in Norway, more so than music!
I really enjoyed the Munch museum! I took a photo of a couple of works which resonated with me (see below). Munch seemed to be a person who was very depressed and troubled, and this was shown through all of his works. One thing that surprised me was that Munch’s lithographs and drawings appealed to me more than his paintings, which is what he was more remembered for. I was also surprised that he had more classical style paintings that were very aesthetically pleasing - this is different from the impression I got from his most famous painting, The Scream.
I was lucky to have stayed long enough to see two renditions of The Scream - the museum only displays one version every half hour (see the last two photos below). That was quite surreal, but also the painting was a lot smaller than expected.
I had team drinks at a hotel nearby and then we went to my favourite dinner since I’ve left Singapore - Le Benjamin!! I was told it was very difficult to book, but my colleague offered to help me book a slot on the weekend for James and me. I would definitely go back again if I can.
The next day was basically a free and easy for me apart from lunch. James was also going to join me at night, so I was quite excited. I slept in and then had a really nice cinnamon roll from WB Samson before walking to the lunch location. Lunch was at Restaurant Arts, which was ok only, can’t say I was very impressed.
I went for a run after at the Vigeland Sculpture Park. It was super beautiful, even in the rain. I even saw a rainbow :)
James finally arrived and joined me for dinner, and we went to a Bib Gourmand place called Brasserie Blanche. I really liked it, although my steak was a bit overdone. There’s something about French food in Oslo… I could say that it rivals the food I’ve had in France! Note to self: I would come back for the tarte tartin alone if I could. It was so good.
The next morning, we went for a sauna session and a swim in the lake! My Norwegian colleague said that this is more of a ‘trendy’ popular thing to do in Oslo but not really a cultural one, and that it was more of a Finnish cultural thing. I thought it would be a good idea since we were in the Nordics and it was very easily accessible + it would be a nice memory! Just look at the view and the vibes:
No regrets. You’re supposed to switch between the sauna and the lake multiple times, so that’s what we did. The water was so cold (although they told us it was only 17 degrees) that James couldn’t stay in it for long, but after going in and out a few times, I managed to feel comfortable in the water. To anyone who is looking to try this, you just have to bite the bullet and quickly get into the water, rather than slowly lowering yourself in because it feels much worse. It feels better after you’ve been in the sauna for a while though! There’s a bit of a tingling/numbing sensation but with the calmness of the surroundings, it feels very very zen.
We got our Norway starbucks cup next. We have begun to collect the Starbucks “You Are Here” cups from the countries/cities that we have visited. This started because we had just moved into our new place, which is only very partially furnished, so we had zero cups at home. We are going to buy the London one soon, we currently have the Copenhagen one and Norway ones!
We went to the Frogner sculpture park next, the same one that I had gone for a run in. It was interesting to see the sculptures, but apart from that, it’s just a huge park. Unless you want to run here (which is encouraged) or you have lots of time and not much to do, I would skip it.
We had a really early dinner at Le Benjamin, and it really didn’t disappoint. The Oysters here were super fresh, the tarte flambe was so good, the meat of the day (pork shoulder) was rich and creamy and the chocolate souffle was to die for. We also ordered the lobster salad just because we needed the veg but that can be skipped. I got the vongole, which was very nice but I can’t say it’s the best thing I tried there. If I were to go back, I would order:
Oysters
Tarte flambe
Fish of the day (it was trout the previous time I ordered) or meat of the day
Chocolate souffle
After the hotel breakfast, we went to explore a little bit on the other side of the pier. I had been seriously craving good Korean food and I have no idea what came over us but we decided to try the Korean food in Oslo. I was so pleasantly surprised!! It was a little takeaway-only store called HANKKI K-MAT - I got beef bulgogi while James got the beef bibimbap. We also got a seafood jeon. If we were to go again, I would stick to the beef bulgogi and seafood jeon, James said his bibimbap was ok only. Got a decaf coffee and a cake at a nearby cafe, and we were off to the airport!
It was so easy to get to the airport from Oslo city centre, Singapore could really learn from Oslo (and Copenhagen) from this.
Mango was super happy to see us!!! We left her with a dog sitter who stayed over at our new place. Sound on for my random comments and Mango’s excited whining.
All in all, I think Oslo is a beautiful place with very nice people (I didn’t feel any overt racism). I was told that the city centre is nice, but the outskirts are even better, so I definitely want to visit the other parts of Norway soon.