Oslo Photos


If you ever visit Norway, you should consider skipping Oslo. In the second most expensive city in the world, where a McDonald's value meal, for example, costs the equivalent of $16, the only things you can buy fairly cheaply are heroin and meth. Steep heroin addiction and overdose statistics have caused Oslo to be given the name “Heroin City” and “Heroin Capital of Europe.” The east half of the city consists of dumpy buildings covered in ugly graffiti tags and littered with garbage. The west half is occupied by opulent houses and the people there have the stereotype of being aloof and stuck-up. The outskirts contain run down tan brick buildings that made me feel like I was in eastern Europe. On top of that, there's really not much to see here other than a few mediocre museums.

While I was in Oslo's main park on July third, I stumbled onto a large Fourth of July celebration, complete with pony rides, a batting cage, and country line dancing. It was very strange to see people wearing NY Giants shirts and holding U.S. flags. I had no idea that Norwegians had any idea about our Independence Day, but several of them I met in Oslo did. One guy I met in the train station, when he found out I was from the U.S., said "Happy Birthday!".

The average age of the people staying in my hostel was approximately 40, which is very rare. There was some sort of convention involving people of Indian or Pakistani descent and they occupied most of the hostel beds. I tried to talk to them to find out what group they were, but they didn't speak English. On top of that, other people staying at the hostel, including two of the four people in my room, were not travellers, but were there for the Norwegian National Chess Championships. I was impressed until one of them told me that his ranking was 1300. I guess for most of the people playing, it's just another tournament to have fun in and they don't really have a shot at winning. Both of my roommates lost both of their first two matches before I left. It's surprising to me how most of the locals I meet have not traveled much in their own country. The Norwegian chess players had only been a couple of places outside their hometown. I would expect that of blue-collar small town people, but these guys were professionals and very intelligent. If I lived in a country as beautiful as Norway, I can't image not taking advantage of it. Even stranger to me are the Aussies. Obviously all the ones I meet are travelers, or else they wouldn't be in Europe, but most of them haven't been around much of Australia. One of them told me, “that's what you do when you retire”.

In addition to not enjoying the city, not having many people to talk to at the hostel, and not being able to go out at night because it was so expensive, I had an inconsiderate roommate who also snored. Waking him up to ask him to not lie on his back didn't help the snoring, so even with earplugs, I didn't get much sleep. One of the few people I enjoyed talking to at the hostel was lamenting the fact that he had bought a non-refundable train ticket for four days from now because he hated Oslo and wanted to leave immediately. I couldn't agree more.