First off, I need to apologise to Merete about our arrival. I didn't match up the dates properly, between leaving on the 10th from Edinburgh and arriving early on the 11th. We had arranged to arrive late/early on the 11th/12th instead. Thus we arrived one whole day early. Despite this, Merete still welcomed us in and got our room ready within 30 minutes at 3 am.

The room is exactly as pictured and is pretty cozy. Her apartment is about a 5-10 minutes walk away from the central bus station in Oslo and is very easy to find. Being on the top floor, the room has an glass ceiling window which allows you to view the stars at night. The drawback being that if you sleep in late, the sun also shines in.

Merete is at home most of the time and available for us to ask any questions that we might not be able to find on the internet. She also has plenty of books about the culture in Norway as well. She provided a map and the relevant information, such as the pass to the door and wifi passwords on post-its. If she is going out and needs to leave information, post-its will be left around in visible places so you do not miss them. You can ask her for her evaluations about the tourist attractions in Oslo.

Oslo, being in Norway, tends to be a little on the expensive side. There is a, relative to Oslo, cheap Indian restaurant near her apartment (5 mins) and a cheap and good Thai restaurant (Rice Bowl) at about a 10-15 minute walk. Being from Singapore, it was nice to have a taste of home, although the Indian restaurant does cater to the local tastes and lacks spice, thus my father and I ate all our meals at the Thai restaurant instead. There is a supermarket (Meny) which is opposite the Indian restaurant as well. If you are around the royal palace, I highly recommend a bakery called Backstube which serves oven-fresh and really delicious bread at cheap (Oslo) prices.