A weekend in Oslo

In mid-September, I and my loved one took advantage of the rare occurrence of a free weekend for both of us to spend it outside of Hamburg. Instead of the usual to go to Heligoland, my loved one looked for a cheap flight (yes, yes) and so the destination this time was Oslo. Pretty clever of us to fly cheaply to visit one of the most expensive cities in the world. But it was worth it!

It starts with the food. I know that Germany doesn't have good food. Germans like things cheap. But when you can eat tomatoes at the hotel breakfast buffet that taste just like tomatoes and are delicious, you want to move immediately. Every time we ate something somewhere, we felt like we were in heaven. Only in Norway. Even at the airport, we grabbed a green smoothie from the refrigerated shelf and we could taste the ingredients listed on the bottle when we drank it. My girlfriend loves drinking green smoothies. So I asked her if it tasted like that in Germany. "No, in Germany it tastes like sugar." We then compared the ingredients: a green smoothie in Germany has 25% more sugar. Norway, like other European countries, has a sugar tax.

And so everything we ate in Norway tasted better than in Germany. Even the sweets. And the food wasn't that much more expensive.

Speaking of expensive: we never once had cash in our hands in Oslo. We hadn't exchanged anything at all. We were able to pay for everything easily with a credit card. Even the stamp and the postcard. And while in Germany I'm often stared at irritably at the cash registers because I'm paying with my Apple Watch, in Oslo it wasn't worth a look.

Cars are also a rarity in Oslo's city center. A practical tunnel system keeps private traffic out of large parts of the city center. This leaves more space for branched and excellently scheduled local public transport. The e-scooters don't bother you and cyclists also have space to relax.

Conclusion about Oslo: interesting city, great people, great food.

We walked through Oslo without much of a plan and didn't really have any goals. We just took in the city and its atmosphere. When we booked, there was only one place on our agenda and that's actually how the travel planning started. One day my sweetheart said: "Can I invite you for a coffee?" Since she liked my preference for Third Wave Coffee knows and I know hers for traveling, my answer was spontaneous and apt: "Where are we going?"

Of course, we visited Tim Wendelboe, one of the best roasters in the world, on both days of our visit to Oslo and spent a lot of money. Although we afford it a monthly coffee subscription, but everything tasted even better there. A long line waited patiently in front of the counter. Thanks to the Aeropress brewing process, the wait wasn't long, but the line didn't get any shorter. And then the coffee is available in different cups to further enhance the aroma. By the way, there is nothing there except coffee. A very slim concept. The café is located at the intersection of Grünersgate and Fossveien. The small oasis is located in Oslo's Grünerløkka district - a very lively district. Comparable to Eppendorf in Hamburg with a pleasant slope towards the ski jump.

Some more impressions of our weekend in Oslo. The city certainly has a lot more to offer. We still walked almost 20 km over the two days.

I really enjoyed the weekend in Oslo. Of course I take a camera with me on a trip like this - I hardly leave the door in Hamburg without taking a snapshot. However, I was very involved in other photography projects at the time. So I decided to go to Oslo for a great combination of photography and relaxation. So I grabbed mine Leica MP together with the Nah-Summicron and the 28er Summilux. The Kodak Portra 400 was used as the carrier material. So my image processing only involved going to the post office and downloading the finished images myfilmlab. And I don't feel like I missed anything.