My First Impressions of Oslo
By Darren Cronian on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

A lot of people are put off DIY holidays where you book the flight and hotel independently but I actually enjoy organising my trip, and feel its part of the excitement about travelling.

My First Impressions of Oslo

Having landed at Torp Sandefjord airport from a very quick 1hr 40 flight with Ryanair from Liverpool’s John Lennon airport, I took in the fresh Norwegian air and was introduced to a very cold, dark and snowy airport departure park.

Thankfully, I had researched my trip beforehand and knew of a coach service that would take me to Oslo, but had I not done so I would have been looking at an expensive taxi ride, for what is a journey time of around 2 hours depending on the weather.

The cost of the return coach ride was only £20 which is great value for money considering how expensive Oslo can be for a traveller running on a travel bloggers budget. I got chatting to a girl from Brisbane who has backpacked all over the World, and she confirmed what I already knew and that’s England has Europe’s most unreliable transport system.

I feel like I am been anti-British when I am writing this, but travelling new countries really does make you realise how poor our transport system is considering we are one of the richest countries in Europe. Anyway, I arrived in Oslo, and thanks to a few locals found the City AS hotel which was only 5 minutes walk from the bus and train station.

So what were my first impressions of Oslo; I’d have to say the people are friendly, the coldness [minus 10 when I arrived in Oslo] and the shear amount of snow. It really makes you wonder why England comes to a complete standstill when it trickles a few snowflakes.

More to come tomorrow..


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8 responses to “My First Impressions of Oslo”

Karen Bryan | 27 February, 2007 at 8:55 pm

The whole issue about the UK grinding to a halt when there is a little snow really annoys me. I suppose the rationale must be that we don’t have enough snow to justify investing in sufficient equiprment to deal with snow. So local authoriites cross their fingers and hope each Winter that the weather won’t be too bad.

I also agree about the public transport in the UK being unreliable and expensive. if only all that Air Passenger Duty collected by the UK Treasury could be spend on improving our public transport. But as if we don’t already pay enough tax as motorists there is talk of paying per mile to drive on the roads. I assume that tourists in hire cars would also have to pay per mile?

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Garri | 27 February, 2007 at 9:12 pm

The UK is indeed baffling and stupid at times, but beautiful in places, especially Scotland and Northern Ireland ;-)

The thing is, it’s not just the snow, it’s the wrong type of snow. You know, the wet sort of snow that is like white rain. We don’t get enough of the real stuff.

Anyway, welcome back Darren, looking forward to your next installment (did you manage to visit Bergen?)

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Darren Cronian | 27 February, 2007 at 9:17 pm

Karen,

I remember it taking me 4 hrs to get from the city centre to home which usually takes 30 minutes, when we had a snow storm a few years back. People had to stay in one of the city theatres – we would be a laughing stock abroad.

Garri,

Have you ever worked for British Rail? Haha Wrong type of snow – Wrong type of leafs! :D I only visited Oslo, but I would of liked to have spent more time there and gone further afield and taken in the Fjords.

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Rohan | 27 February, 2007 at 10:31 pm

Welcome back Darren.

Don’t rely on public transport, buy a car, kill the environment and forget public transport.

Me wait in a bus queue I think not.

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Vero | 28 February, 2007 at 11:41 am

As a Canadian who’s been living in the UK for 5 years now, I’m still giggling like a child every time I see the state of panic Brits get into when it starts snowing! However, the giggles stop quickly when I look at how packed the roads are on the way home. Thankfully, I now try to work from home on those days to cut down on road rage risks…

Also, on the topic of snow, it’s worth noting that naughty snowmen in Britain result in big fines… A Cambridge student made a snowman of a rather phallic shape in the middle of a city park and got fined some £500 for expressing his creativity!

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Lee Harrison(owner Select World Travel Malvern) | 28 February, 2007 at 1:49 pm

Talking of Snow Darren (Welcome back) and how Britain comes to a standstill, take a look at my Recent Video Blog entry

This was the centre of Great Malvern recently with Cars struggling to cope up Church Street outside our Shop. I Also think the problem is that a lot of these drivers have never driven in snow before. Listen to some of them driving in First gear and revving the engines, No wonder they were skidding.

Tip. Always use a higher gear in snow, and avoid hitting the brakes.

Look forward to hearing all about Oslo Darren

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claire | 6 November, 2007 at 8:13 pm

i am looking to go to oslo on the 17th feb, would this be a bad time weather wise to visit the city? when does it go dark during feb,

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Darren Cronian | 7 November, 2007 at 12:04 am

Claire, you’ve picked a good day to depart, it’s my birthday! :)

I went to Oslo on the 19th Feb last year, the weather was snowing, but that’s what you want when visiting Norway in the Winter. The city centre to be honest wasn’t too bad, it’s gritted reguarly, so you don’t see a great deal of snow there.

It went dark around 4pm, the same time as back home in the UK. I heard alot of stories from people saying it’s dark in Norway from 1/2pm, but it’s not in Oslo, the further north you get the darker it gets earlier.

Hope this helps.

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