Our long weekend in Oslo, Norway with Pooja!

Well well, we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus haven’t we? Sorry about going dark for a bit – we took a quick hop back to the US to attend a friend’s wedding and to see some additional friends and family, so I’ve been off the computer most of that time. But now I’m back to writing and we are on to the last post for Norway – the weekend we spent with Poops (aka Pooja, aka my sister) in Oslo!

Poops and I are super close and we have been missing each other a lot on this trip, so I was super happy when she decided to take an impromptu trip to Oslo to join us. We had so much fun with her in Lefkada and we knew we were going to have so much fun with her in Oslo. Spoiler alert: we did.

Day 1 (Thursday): Arriving and food hall number one!

Poops arrived on a Thursday in the late morning, so we picked her up from the airport and then headed into our hotel in the center of the city. We stayed at the Clarion Collection Folketeateret, which had a great location and was easy walking to most of the sights.

We were all pretty pooped (see what I did there?) so we got some take out for lunch, chatted and caught up for a bit and then rested for a while. It was also gray and cold outside which made us less in the mood to do anything. But, we did motivate later in the evening to head out to Vippa food hall!

This place had been recommended to us by a friend and it was awesome. It was located right on the water and had a bunch of different food stalls, of different kinds of food, run by different types of immigrants. Poops and Damian had Thai food, I had Turkish food and we had a grand time.

Day 2 (Friday): Food hall number two, Viking ships, ice bar and Escape the Rooms!

The next day was Friday and we started by sleeping in a bit – Poops was jetlagged and I just like to sleep in 🙂 We then all made a plan for the day, and we were off! Oh, but wait. We first had to stop at this awesome statue right outside of our hotel (it’s of Kate Moss) and do our best to replicate it.

We started by going to another food hall, this one called Mathallen Oslo Food Hall. We really enjoyed this one too and, on the way, also got to see some beautiful street art (which I love).

After that we headed out to the Viking Ship Museum, which is a bit out of the city so we took the 20-minute car ride there to check it out. To be honest, we were really excited about this and it was a little bit disappointing. It was neat to see the three Viking ships that they had unearthed, but it was a pretty small museum and a bit underwhelming. Also, it felt a little strange to be at this museum that glorifies a culture that did terrible things to women …

So, after that meh activity, we were ready for something a little more active and fun. And one of the things that Poops and I love to do is escape rooms. We go to them pretty regularly in New York, and often it’s just us two in the room figuring it out. So, we thought, why not in Oslo? We searched a few options and made a booking for the early evening.

We had some time to kill until then, so we decided to do another tourist-y Oslo activity – going to an ice bar! It was a neat and silly thing to do, though we didn’t last too long in the freezing cold! But, it was pretty fun to be in a bar where everything was made of ice – even the glasses!

And then, it was finally time to do Escape the Room! We decided to go with Adventure Rooms Oslo, and it was such a good choice. Sometimes we find the rooms to be too boring or one-noted (I mean, how many codes can you look for and put into locks?) but these rooms were so good. They were varied, smart and really interesting.

We started by doing the Original Swiss room and got out in 56 minutes (you have an hour to get it done) and then we were so excited that we did another (the Black Queen) and got out of that one in 34 minutes! The staff there were so excited to have us and so excited about our performance that it made everything even more fun. If you are ever in Oslo and looking for a fun activity we totally recommend them!

After that we got a quick dinner and decided to call it a night. It had been a busy and fun-packed day!

Day 3 (Saturday): National Gallery (Munch!), sauna time and more Escape the Room!

The next day Poops and I got a late start again, so Damian decided to take the morning and go to the famous Vigeland sculpture park in Oslo. There are a lot of statues of human figures in different forms and poses and, while some looked a little, let’s say, awkward, they still looked pretty neat.

By the time Damian came back Poops and I had both gotten up and we all started on a plan for the day! We decided first to go to the National Gallery to check out the Edvard Munch-es and other pieces. A tip here – when we got to the museum there was a loooong line outside, so we decided to hop online and buy tickets and got to skip the whole line. So worth it!

Inside the museum is pretty small, but it ended up being a good size for our attention span. We saw Edvard Munch’s most famous painting – The Scream, a few Picasso and Van Gogh pieces and a lot of beautiful paintings by Norwegian artists of the beautiful Norwegian landscape.

There was also a cool interactive room, where there was a statue in the middle of the room and art and drawing supplies for people to use to draw it. Damian took a stab at it and I love how his picture somewhat represents his own body – a big ear and a small butt, hahaha.

After that we headed to get lunch at Illegal Burger, which had been recommended to us by many people. Damian and I liked our burgers but Poops thought hers was amazing! Then, it was time for some good old Norwegian-style relaxation, but with a quick stop on the way – the Oslo Opera House!

The Oslo Opera House is right on the water and is such a neat building. Not only is the structure super cool but you can also walk up the sides and on to the roof, which gives you beautiful (but windy) views.

In the picture above, you can see our next stop on the right side. The wood teepees make up a temporary installation called SALT. SALT has a bunch of spaces for entertainment, eating and drinking but the big draw is a huge sauna that can hold almost a hundred people. A sauna in Norway was definitely a must-do and we headed over after checking out the opera house!

It was hard to get a picture of the inside of the sauna, but we spent a few hours there, enjoying the warm, relaxing and getting massages! They had barrels outside for people to cool off in, but with so many people using them it felt a little gross. So Poops and I used the showers for our cool-downs, while Damian went wild and jumped off the dock right into the ocean waters!

After sauna time we continued our relaxation by heading to one of the bars in SALT, drinking some champagne and playing backgammon. Even though Poops only recently learned how to play, she definitely kicked both of our butts!

And then, it was tie for our final activity of our trip – another Escape the Room! After our adventures the previous day we realized there was only one more room in Adventure Rooms Oslo’s repertoire, and it was supposedly the hardest one. Obviously we had to do it before leaving. And obviously we got out. It was so much fun and we were so grateful that Adventure Rooms Oslo could accommodate us. They even featured us on their Facebook page!

After that we decided to head back to the hotel and just chill and hangout on Poops’ last night with us. We ate junk food snacks for dinner, played cards, laughed and talked the night away. It was awesome.

Day 4 (Sunday): Chilling and planning and goodbye!

The next morning Poops had to leave super early to make her flight (booo), so we saw her off and then slept a bit more. After we woke up we hung out on our balcony a bit (the weather had finally turned from grey to sunny!).

We then packed up and headed to the airport (and saw these cool houses with greenery on the roofs on the way). It was time to leave Norway and head to our next adventure – Portugal! More on that to come soon!