#9 Why We Liked Oslo

Oslo was one of the places we really liked a lot on this trip.  In no particular order, here's a list of why.

- It's a highly walkable city with lots of parks and pleasant places to walk.  Further, cars stop for pedestrians.  It was great to see people walking around, lots of babies in strollers, dogs taken for walks.  Walking is good for cities in so many ways. There are lots of lovely places to sit, watch the world go by, have a beer or a coffee, or just enjoy the day. 

- Children: they're adorable of course but they seem to interact with adults and the world around them in ways that struck me as different from North American children.  Somehow they seemed exceptionally adjusted to the world and very content with it and their place in the world.  We saw a group of ten children under four take the bus on an outing with three adults: they got on, sat quietly and contentedly three to a seat until their stop, happily got off and wandered off toward their destination all holding hands. We could all learn something from them.

- People: it takes a bit of time to get most people talking but they're all very nice, helpful, and interesting.  I learned a lot from talking to different people and they told me all sorts of things about Norway from them.

- The Vigeland Sculpture garden is absolutely remarkable.  It's almost overwhelming to see the scope and scale of this park. It's the world's largest sculpture park made by a single artist and has over 200 sculptures.  We also went to the Vigeland museum where you could see the artistry up close and begin to fathom the scale of such an undertaking.

- The language: after a week in Norway, it was getting easier to pick up in written form.  Everyone spoke English but almost everyone we encountered initially started speaking to us in Norwegian.  After seeing our confused looks, they'd happily switch to English.  It was nice to be challenged with a new language but I'll admit it was also really nice to be able to get by with English.  In an ideal world, I would have had some basic Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic before leaving.  Alas, it was not to be.

- Museums: there are great museums: we went to the Design Museum, the National Gallery, the Vigeland Museum, the Viking Ship Museum, the Norwegian Folk Museum and we could have gone to a lot more.  All were excellent.

The Mathallen.  See the previous entry.

- Wireless: as in many places in Europe, it's almost everywhere.  It's free, reliable, and strong.  What's the issue North America? 

- Bikes are everywhere in Scandinavia and it's great to see so many people biking.  Unlike Sweden, they don't seem determined to run you down (unless they have to).

- Public art and public spaces.  The Vigeland Park is a remarkable space and throughout the city there are little corners with sculptures, street art on buildings and lots of ways creativity finds a space in the city.  One of the most interesting public spaces I've seen is the stunning and inviting Opera house.  On the ground level, there are massive images from recent dance and performances that really engaged people.  But the best part was that the building itself was built to engage people-- people can climb up the building, look out over the city and the harbour, sit and watch the world, wander freely around the space.  I love how something like an opera house
  that is so often seen as a cultural elite is something open, public, inviting, central, and lovely.  We need more of these kinds of spaces in our cities.
It left me inspired about cities and what they could be.  It was a city that had transformed itself in response to a changing world yet still maintained much of what it had been.