NBTD's Travels: OSLO (56 Pics)

[NBTD]

Places already visited

Amsterdam - http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=135022
Copenhagen - http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=135176
Berlin - http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=136192

Oslo

So, having shown you all the places mentioned above. Its time to move on to the capital city of Norway. I had my expectations that Oslo would be an expensive city, surrounded by natural beauty, rather clean and efficient, with the superb services and quality of life you expect of every Scandinavian city.

And, to certain extents these expectations were accurate, the city was expensive (unfortunately), and it was surrounded by outstanding natural beauty - in a few minutes on the train you are out of the city and at the top of a peaceful mountain. And it did have very good public transport - buses, trams and metro running quite frequently for a pretty small city.

However, and it came as quite a shock to me, and many other first time visitors, Oslo isn't quite as clean as you would expect - in many areas it has an almost run-down feel to it (grubby buildings, peeling paint...even the public transport felt rather old and dirty etc), and i have honestly never seen so many beggars/druggies and alcoholics in a first world city as i have in Oslo.

But, having said that - Oslo has is beautiful parts and is well worth a visit.

1. Arriving to Oslo by ship


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6. Karl Johan Street - Oslo's main street


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11. Is that Paris Hilton?...and James Dean? (if you look closely)


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16. The Royal Palace


17. The Royal Guards


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20. The University


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22. Moving down to the beautiful waterfront


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26. Oslo Town Hall


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37. Up in the mountains


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43. Back down to the city, and on to the surreal Vigeland Sculpture Park


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56. And finally, we got bored at the hotel (too expensive to go for a drink, but this was more fun ).....

[FREKI]

Great pics mate - I love Oslo!

[Bergenser]

Originally Posted by NBTD

Places already visited
and i have honestly never seen so many beggars/druggies and alcoholics in a first world city as i have in Oslo.

Many turists often metion this, it's a real problem in Oslo.
Anyway, looks like you had a great time, atleast you got some nice pictures!

[ukw]

don't know why, but i'm not impressed...
looks very small!

[mic of orion]

nice city

nice pictures

[jorgen]

Originally Posted by NBTD

i have honestly never seen so many beggars/druggies and alcoholics in a first world city as i have in Oslo.

You didn't see all the prostitutes?

ukw: it IS small, only 500k inhabitants. But small capitals can be nice too. Ljubljana is my favourite.

[mic of orion]

Originally Posted by jorgen

You didn't see all the prostitutes?

ukw: it IS small, only 500k inhabitants. But small capitals can be nice too. Ljubljana is my favourite.

I Love Ljubljana, it is very humane city, of good proportions, 250-300 000 is a nice figure as well, not to big, so it is ridden with the crime, not to small so it has all the aspects of major cities.

Zagreb is also nice, bit on a larger size (800 000) but short distance from Ljubljana and lot more to see.

Bratislava is also nice as is Tallinn

[:jax:]

From time to time the beggars (begging carries a fine in Oslo, not yet seen anyone beg with the reason that they need to pay down their fines though), prostitutes, addicts are moved around away from the tourists by the old principle of out of sight, out of mind.

I liked the old grimy Oslo of yore, and don't mind that it shows up here and there. Of course something has changed, 20 years ago tourists marvelled how clean it was, now the impression is often the opposite. There are a number of reasons for that, but Oslo isn't dramatically more littered than then, nor are the social problems higher.

Oslo is a relatively small city at 500k. It is growing, recently it was 450k and soon it will be 600k. Interestingly it is not going to grow in size, there will no sprawl, nor is the growth mainly going to be in the suburbs as was the rule before. Oslo is going to be denser, primarily along the edge of the city core. The recently constructed T-baneringen circle subway follows the route of highest construction activity. In addition the centre will be expanded with a small new district, Bjørvika, through filling in parts of the fjord. Cost aside, this is only a small part of the new constructions, but it is the one that gets the most attention as it is highly visible.