From: jerry@siesoft.co.uk (Jerry Webb)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Re: Recommendations for Oslo?
Date: 27 Aug 92 15:42:38 GMT
Organization: Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Ltd.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

Get an Oslo card to get free entrance to all the sights and museums, plus
free transport between them.

Folklore and tradition seem to play a big part in Norwegian culture, so it's
hardly surprising that that their Norwegian Folk Museum is truly outstanding.
I visited it 2 days running - it's on Bygdoy Island. Wooden buildings
dating back to the 1500's, dozens of them, have been re-erected here to
demonstrate the different building styles of different areas. They are
laid out as a series of little hamlets in a big wooded area that you walk
through. Most of the houses are furnished in the way that they would have
been originally, and you can wander in and explore them at your leisure.
During the summer they are brought to life by multi-lingual students from
Oslo university who wear traditional folk dress of the area the building
style comes from, and who answer questions and presumably stop the
tourists from writing the walls or dropping butts in the thatch. If you
are not goingto explore the rest of Norway, you can the massive wooden
stave church from Gol here too. Indoors the museum has amongst other
things Ibsen's study and the reconstructed 19th century Norwegian
Parliament chamber. The Folk Museum is open from 11am to 6pm in
September, and it costs 10 Kr to get in.

The Kon Tiki museum, the Viking Ship Museum and the Fram Museum are all
close by ... the Kon Tiki Museum is very dark inside to preserve the
raft and you don't learn very much about the voyage from it. The Fram 
museum is an eye opener - this is built around the ship that took
Amundsen to the start of his Antarctic expedition in 1911. The wooden
ship was built to withstand being trapped in ice for 13 months at a time
so although it's big on the outside it's as claustrophobic as a submarine
on the inside because most of the space is taken up by massive wooden
beams ... it's well worth the 10 kr entry fee to find out just what polar
exploration involved at the turn of the century.

You can get a bus very easily from the center of Oslo to Bygdoy, or there
is a ferry that you can take from the town hall across the bay to it.

The Vigeland Statue Park in Frogner Park is another must - its bizarre
60' high obelisk of writhing naked figures is one of Oslo's most
prominent tourist attractions, but all the sculptures are terrific.

For eating out, Oslo is incredibly expensive. About the cheapest meal I
had was a beer and plate of lasagne at the Kafe Celsius, Radhusgata 19,
which has a pleasant courtyard with ample seating and does mediterranean-style 
food from about 50 Kr upwards. I don't know how much mine cost me in Kr, but I
remember it was about $14.

Oslo station has an excellent accomodation service for interailers and
other travellers. In fact, the Interail/Eurail center is the best I've
been to, with it's hot showers and cooking area, and you can leave bags
here for the day for free - if you have an Interail card. The
accomodation people will sort you out a room in a private house for a
night for about 100kr for a single room, 180kr for a double. You usually
have to stay for 2 nights minimum, food is not included. The rooms tend
to be out of the city center and can take a while to track down :-) 

Hotels cost a minimum of 300 Kr for a single room, 450 Kr for a double.
I have a list of about 5 but you would be better off getting up to date
information there.

Not surprisingly, nearly everybody you meet speaks better English than
you'll ever speak Norwegian, but it is good to learn at least how to say
hello, please, and thankyou.

Jerry