Oslo! (Not really in chronological order-just highlights, mostly because I'm bad at sorting out pictures)

After arriving, I headed to baggage claim to claim my carry-on that LH checked since it exceeded weight restrictions. After the priority bags were unloaded, there was a ~10-minute wait before another group of bags was unloaded. There was then another 10-minute wait before the final bags were unloaded before I got my bag.

Oslo has an express train that runs from the airport to central station every 10 minutes. The journey itself lasts 19 minutes and prepares you for what this country is: one giant NatGeo spread. This country is the most beautiful country I have ever been to, and it isn't even close.

But of course, we have to get there first. When going to the airport train station, there is a separate area for the express route to central station (right next to the regular trains-the NSB). The ticket machines only take cards with chip and pin (watch out Americans!) and in theory if you go up to the one desk that is manned, you're supposedly charged an extra 30 krone. Luckily I wasn't charged above the student rate of 85NOK and scurried along to catch the train.

Outside the train (at central station)


A look inside:


Obligatory legroom shot:


I more or less zonked out the entire ride into Oslo, and awoke to find the train pulling into central station. I headed over to the Radisson Blu nearby to find the remainder of my family (we arrived in Oslo from three different places). Unfortunately no pictures, but I'll give a short review.

I had a decently-sized room with two twin beds that I shared with my brother, similar to most decent/good hotel rooms you find in the US/Europe, though I wasn't a fan of the bathroom having one of those rotating glass barriers instead of a curtain-water seems to get everywhere
Breakfast, on the other hand was worlds better than any hotel breakfast I've ever had in the US (though this seems true in a lot of Scandinavian hotels). In addition to hot foods (usual eggs, bacon, etc + MEATBALLS!) and continental-style foods, there were also nice cheese, cold cuts, and smoked salmon spreads.

Onwards to Oslo!
The first thing I found out was how ridiculously expensive everything was. Beer ran around $15 per glass and dinner would routinely run $40+ per person. I'll do my best to try to remember some of the costs to boggle your mind

We used the Oslo pass, which includes entry to some places and public transit use. If you intend to get a pass at the student pricing (children are priced even lower), you'll have to go to the main office and show some proof of your current student status (they'll have wifi so you can show them proof), which is a first (and last). I suppose this is to prevent people from just showing old university ID cards to exploit the cheaper pricing.

Oslo Opera House:


Designed so that you can walk on the roof:


For those of you who enjoy (classical) music and looking inside really awesome buildings in general, they offer daily tours of the Opera house in English and Norwegian. The Opera house takes you through the auditorium and some of the behind-the-scenes work that takes place.

The auditorium from the back of the top balcony:


Interesting architecture outside the bathroom:


Holmenkollen (the ski jump on the mountain) was recently expanded in 2011 to its current size, and you can zipline from the top of the jump to the far side of the landing area for somewhere in the neighborhood of 600NOK (a little less than $100) (!!!)






Of course the top of the jump provided a nice view overlooking the surrounding area


Since my parents tend to be more of the on-the-beaten-path type of travelers (there's nothing wrong with that), a lot of the things we saw were museums/monuments/parts/etc, so just a few more highlights to close out Oslo

Statues at Vigelandsparken, a statue park of Gustav Vigeland's work


Tram station


Visitors' versions of Munch's "The Scream" at the Munchmuseet


Funny painting at the National Museum


In Oslo we ate a fair amount of Norwegian food, including shrimp, reindeer, and potatoes. However, the most interesting thing I ate in Oslo was minke whale, which was served at a restaurant by the Grand Hotel (Grand Cafe I believe). This is the only meal I photographed, since I'm not a tweeter/instagramer/whatever who documents my entire life to share with no one who's actually interested. The whale tasted most similar to beef, but more tender, a richer flavor, and a lot more connective tissue. Granted I don't know what part of the whale the meat came from, so I can't necessarily do a direct comparison.