Northern Europe | Norway: First Impressions of Oslo (4)

We flew straight from the Mediterranean, where temperatures were in the twenties Celsius, to Oslo. That shift in temperature was the part of this trip I’d been most looking forward to and was most excited about.

Early in the morning, we headed to the airport for our flight to Oslo.

All these flights around Europe were on budget airlines, with basically no baggage allowance included. Sticking to our principle of “whatever’s cheapest,” we had to lug our bags, big and small, along for the rest of the trip.

Oh, and we had McDonald’s at the airport. To be fair, it tasted pretty good. I’d never seen this particular burger back in China.

Next up, we were flying to Norway.

Before takeoff, the usual ritual: watching the safety demonstration first.

Still, I have to say, flying around Europe on this trip was pretty convenient. We bought our tickets and chose our seats online, then added our boarding passes to Apple Wallet. At the airport, we just showed the QR codes, with no need to check in at the counter. So handy.

Not long after takeoff, we could see snowy mountains stretching on and on.

A little over three hours later, we caught sight of the “forests of Norway,” a sign that we’d soon be landing in Oslo, Norway.

After we landed in Norway, it wasn’t as cold as we’d expected. We wandered around the airport, which was full of Christmas decorations too.

We made our way through the airport and took a train into the city. There are express and regular train services from the airport to the city center, with the express costing twice as much. The regular service costs a little over 90 yuan, but the journey times aren’t all that different. Naturally, we went with the cheaper option.

About half an hour later, we arrived in central Oslo. My first impression after leaving the station was pretty good: there weren’t dense clusters of high-rises, so the city felt open and spacious, but it still had plenty of shops and everyday bustle.

We also noticed something: the photo below was taken at around four in the afternoon, but it was already very dark. I looked it up afterward and found that Oslo only gets about six hours of daylight in December, with the sun setting sometime after three. To experience a true polar night, you have to keep heading north, as far as Tromso.

So those were our first impressions of Oslo: the city was more open and spacious than we’d imagined, and the weather wasn’t as cold as we’d expected. It was just the sun that clocked off especially early. But we weren’t ready to end the day so soon. After dropping off our bags, we headed out to see Oslo by night. As for the real polar night, that could wait until tomorrow.