Exploring Oslo: Day One

If you stalk me online, you may have seen countless tweets and Instagram posts of my trip to Oslo. I chose to visit Norway because I think it's a beautiful city to explore and really love. As much as I enjoy laying around on a beach with headphones in all day, I wanted to experience more of the world and Oslo happened to be one of my first choices. After arriving on Sunday night, I got an amazing night's sleep at the Anker hotel, which is only a few minutes from the city centre. 

On Monday, the first place I visited was the Vigeland Park and Sculpture Museum. Despite only planning to spend an hour or so there, I ended up spending most of the day there as the weather was certainly on my side and made my camera very happy. The park was busy and full or people of ages enjoying every aspect of art and leisure. 

I then headed to the pier and Oslo Central Station. The views from the pier were amazing, and watched the boats and enormous cruise ships sail by was magical. One thing I loved was the line of restaurants and food trucks, ice cream in Norway tastes 10 times better than it does over in the UK. The Central Station was a simple landmark but still one of my favourite. Despite the area being very small, I still feel like it capture that essence of New York City, even though Grand Central Terminal is on the other side of the globe. The station had a colour display outside, which isn't usually there, but really brightened up the area and weather.

The one place I was most excited about visiting was the Oslo Opera House after seeing so many photos through Pinterest and Tumblr during the research days. The architecture was outstanding on photos but doesn't capture the real magic the building omits. Not only is the the entire building and its grounds made out of solid white marble, but the Opera House sits on a coastline to an enormous lake that gives off the most amazing views. Upon arrival, there was a show about to start, so I got to see hundreds of people flood into the House in beautiful gowns and dresses. You are able to walk to the roof and take a look at the phenomenal architecture Oslo has to offer.

At the end of the day, I managed to squeeze in a trip to Akershus Fortress an enormous castle by the pier. The castle was originally built in the 1290s out of solid stone to protect Norway's capital city. The castle has also been used as a prison and still has government and military guards protecting the grounds. Unfortunately the price of going inside was a little above my budget, but my favourite moment from the Fortress was being escorted off the grounds by a military general after staying at the top of the tower past the closing time without realising! My first day in Oslo was full of laughs and plenty of photos, it was a real challenge not to post all 300 from day one!