Day 41 – Oslo

Today I woke up at midday, had some breakfast then drove into Oslo city with Soph to check out the sites.

Regardless of if you’re in a car or motorcycle — being driven around a city is, in most cases, more interesting than driving/riding around it. Simply because you don’t have to concentrate on what’s in front of you. You can relax and look at the sites without fearing something terrible will happen during a micro lapse of concentration. I guess even I can understand the appeal of hop on/off buses — even if they are offensively overpriced and infested with stupid tourists.

Anyway Soph gave me a personal guided tour of Oslo. She lives on the outskirts of the city, so we followed the grey fettuccini freeways around and down underground into the city centre. In an attempt to lessen traffic in the city centre, Norway has been building these gigantic highways and gradually phasing out smaller roads. I’m not sure I’m really a fan of how they look — but they are incredibly convenient, super sophisticated and built for a good cause. When I think of Oslo I think of these roads.

We approached the little city centre, passing by leafy parks and crossing over ashfelt streets, pressed neatly with metal tram tracks. We drove past the incredible architecture of the Oslo opera house and Frogner park. And drove past a few other things I can’t recall. Then we called it. Time to have a beer.

And that’s about it for today 🙂