Oslo - The Old City that Never Lies

Oslo is the administrative capital of Norway and is found in the southern area of the country. There are evidences that the city existed before the 1000th year and hence is considered the oldest capital in the entire Scandinavian Peninsula. Its history is incredible – set on fire fourteen times and the last one, in 1624 leads to the total destruction of the town. After the tragedy it is renamed in honour of King Christian IV to Christiania. In 1924 the name Oslo returns. Today the city is famous for its unusual museums, beautiful parks and classy lifestyle. It is also the only city outside of Sweden that hosts a Nobel Prize ceremony, the one of Peace. You can easily communicate in English with the locals. They also often speak Spanish, French or German. But , please, have in mind that as every other humans, Norwegians like their own language and at some point might start being too cold with foreigners.

One of the most treasured places in the city is the Viking Ship Museum where you will see a lot of very preserved original Viking ships and other artefacts. For the admirers of the northern arts and history Oslo provides you with the Munch Museum, dedicated to the internationally acknowledged artist. Another pride of the town is the Nobel Peace Centre, where are exhibitions for every Peace prize given and also for the winners. Other notable buildings are the Parliament building, the King’s Palace, the Opera and Oslo City Hall.

Not only architectural fans can have their need for knowledge fed. The city also has an extremely beautiful park with the Emanuel Vigeland Museum, considered one of the hidden secrets of the capital. There you will see 212 bronze, granite and iron sculptures. This museum is named after its creator – Gustav Vigeland. The largest of the works is 16metres and the biggest attraction of the windowless museum is the 800 square meters fresco "Vita". Other natural eye-candies are the Botanical garden and the Ekeberg Park. In the Norwegian capital you can also witness some quite unusual monuments, as for example a paperclip – yes, a simple paperclip, but what would the world do without this clever Norwegian invention?

The city is also very loud and in the very centre there are tons of pubs, bars and restaurants. In the Summer the Aker Brygge street opens and it is one of the most populated in this time of the year. But have in mind that this is one of the most expensive cities in the entire continent and that the locals are not as social as some might want.

As every Scandinavians, the people from Oslo also do not like to be too close to someone they hardly know (hugs and kisses) or talking with strangers. Just don’t feel personally offended when no one sits next to you in the bus.