Oslo

Oslo is a city in Norway.

HISTORY

A little bit of history about oslo. Oslo Celebrated its 1000-year anniversary in the year 2000. The city has come a long way from its origins as a Christian settlemente of humble wooden houses with turf roofs and sheds for goats, sheep and cows.

It was around 1048 that king Harald Hårfagre is thought tot have established Oslo as a trading centre. The city was regarded as the capital of Norway from the reign of Håkon V (1299-1319) onwards. Håkon V was the first king to live in the city permanently and he began construction of one of the citys's prime historical and cultural locations, Akershus Fortress.

During the middle ages, the city covered an area the size of Slottsparken and had around 2000 inhabitants. Around half of these people died as a result of the Bubonic plague which hit the city in 1349. After this, Oslo's role was reduced to that of a provincial administrative centre as the unioun of Norway with Denmark resulted in Copenhagen becoming the official capital and royal residence.

In 1642, Oslo was burned down during three days of fire. The Danish-Norwegian king, Christian IV, set about rebuilding the town from scratch, this time in brick instead of wood, moving it slightly west across the bay near Akershus Fortress. He renamed the city Christiania after himself.

After the union with Denmark was dissolved and Norway was ceded to Sweden in 1814, the country wrote its own constitution on what is now Norway's much celebrated national day, May 17. That same year the small provincial town of Christiania was reinstated as Norway's capital city.

This new role led to the erection of new buildings such as the Oslo Børs (stock exchange market), the royal palace and the Norwegian Bank. In 1852, the countrys's first univeristy was built in the capital. Throughout the 19th century increased trade and industrialization resulted in the city expanding its boundaries, its economy and its population. Between 1855 and 1900 the number of inhabitants in Christiania incresed from 31.700 to 227.900. Poor people from all over Norway came to the capital seeking jobs and a better life, but were often greeted by poor working conditions and cramped living conditions.

When Norway achieved independence from Sweden in 1905, Christiania again had its own king, and became a true capital city. After 400 years of Danish and Swedish rule, the Norwegian royal family had died out so the country turned to the second son of the heir to the Danish throne to be their king, Håkon VII. In 1924, the city was once again renamed Oslo.

The current population of 528.500, 22% of whom are immigrants, makes Oslo one of the smallest European capitals. Over the past millennium Oslo has been transformed from rural settlement, to provincial centre, to industrial city and is now concidered to be a thriving political centre influenced by many diverse cultures.

Oslo is unique in the fact that despite its city status and character, it provides easty access, for inhabitants and visitors alike, to a hinterland of unspoiled nature and landscapes of breathtaking beauty; a position that is anticipated to last for at least another 1000 years.

This text was originally written by Johanna C. Leahy for the Oslo City guide magazine

CouchSurfers and CS activities in Oslo

CS AMBASSADORS IN OSLO

Ricard Salevik Norway Country Ambassador
Marianne Hunnestad Evensen Oslo City Ambassador
Jon Vesterøy Oslo City Ambassador

MEETING ORGANIZERS

<-- List yourself if you have ever organised a meeting, or would like to - people could contact you about organising a gettogether when they are planning to visit the city? -->

Ricard Salevik Norway Country Ambassador
Marianne Hunnestad Evensen
Knut Ole Sjøli

Do you want to organize events / meetings in Oslo?

CS MEETINGS IN OSLO

Oslo has many dedicated couchsurfers.
IF you wanna get information on whats going on in the city there is ONE good tip for you. Join the group "CS Parties in OSLO"
The group was founded by Ricard Salevik and Knut Ole Sjoli in Febuary 2007.

We meet up once a month for the official parties, but many of us also try to meet and arrange parties outside the official activities when we have the possibilities. This is where all meetings are announced.

If you are LIVING in Oslo or in the area around, be sure to join this group to get the latest meeting updates at:
Oslo couchsurfing club.

If you dont live here but would love to meet us all: Check the activities planned for your stay or contact members of it to find out more.

COFFEE OR DRINK

Many of the locals cannot host but they are definately interested in meeting with the travellers anyways. Ask them out for drinks or being your local contact guide.

Search for users on the couchsearch and coffe or drinks as a criteria.

TIPS

If you have no luck in finding CS accomodation in OSLO, then try CS members in Akershus as well. It is not far from Oslo and with lots of beautiful nature and very nice CS members.

In the summer it is definately harder to find hosts in Oslo. Many of the local hosts are travelling or visiting their parents (students) instead of staying in the city. Many of the hosts will also announce on their pages when they are available or not. The ones not travelling will recieve many requests for hosting. A very smart tip here is to apply 2-4 weeks BEFORE arriving. If you are asking just the day before you cannot expect to find a host. You will be very lucky if you DO find a host on that short notice though and show your host you appreciate that they can take you in.

Restaurants
http://vibb.no/ has a list of all the restaurants in Oslo with adresses, reviews, pictures etc.

FOr the restaurants with MOST traditional Norwegian food http://vibb.no/Company.asp?CompanyID=3721 - Hotell Bondeheimen. Not to expensive either.

This guide will give you free tips about Oslo on a budget http://use-it.unginfo.oslo.no/dokumenter/streetwise07web.pdf

Cheap ways to eat
The cheapest way to eat in Oslo is to buy it in the local grocery stores. To cook it if you are camping especially in summer the one time bbqs are great ! They cost you less than 3 Euros (10-20 kroner depending on where you buy them) but can only be used one time. Most places in nature (beaches and camp areas) there will be special dump containers for - exactly - the one time bbq. Great invention !
Oh.. And you can also go to the poor house and get food for free.

Internet use
There are also many internet cafes. They are not free but you can buy 120 minutes for 3Euros (be aware - the minutes expire after 3 days) Libraries has free use of internet. The time is limited for about 20 minutes a user but its free.
WiFi:
If your lucky enough to have a laptop and wireless card with you there are a number of places you can find free wireless and power to spend those much needed hours on email and internet procrastination. Firstly, basically all Burger Kings and Peppes Pizza stores have free wireless internet and Peppes has power points at the tables. Some centrally located cafes that have both wireless and power are 'People and Coffee', located on the corner of Akersgata and Radhusgata and another couple of cafes with similar facilities from the corner of Grensen and Løvre Slottsgate including the Bakarat cafe. The best place to go if you dont wish to spend any money on coffee in the mean time is any of the biblioteks (librarys), but they generally close quite early, like around 6pm.

Accomodation in case of emergency
Oslo is quite popular in summer and members get booked long time ahead. Remember to ask for a couch a good 1-4 weeks in advance if possible. If you do not find a couch for your stay also remember that hostels and other services get booked early too.

If it is absolutely impossible to find a couch with the CS Members, Oslo has a few hostels and services like Use-It, in Mollergata 3, in the center. Use-It will be able to find you a place to stay in a private house for something like 150 kr (less than 20 Euro).
The cheapest but better hostels are:
Anker Hostel
Harladsheim hostel

Additionally if you are still stuck you can always find free accomodation if you can get hold of a tent. There is a rule in Norway which specifies that if you are > 300 meters from a residential area then you can camp there legally. This means that basically anywhere in the surrounding forest is fine. The best bet is to catch the ferry from Vippentangen to Langøyen island where you can camp for free. It used to be a payed camping location but is now free and has retained some basic comfort facilites. If you stay for longer than a few days you need to ask security for a permit. This can be acquired at zero cost but you must provide them with your details just for their record keeping.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo has a great coverage on public transportations.

Train, Trikk, Buses, Subways and even ferrys to the smaller Oslofiord Islands travel the distance of crossing the world several times a day every day.

Sporveien and NSB - National Railway Company are some of the companies that offer public transportation services.

It's subway is remarkingly shabby, but the whole collective transport system is going through an improvement.

The Circle subway line started august 2006. New subway wagons is being phased in from february 2007 into 2009. To find out more information about schedules and prices in Oslo and its surroundings check out the public transports webpage Trafikanten, just type in adresses and select time you are starting or ending your journey.

OSLO PASS

THe OSlo pass gives you FREE entrance to many museums and all public transport. It is a limited day or 2day or 3 day pass. Check out here what is included: www.oslopass.com If you wanna see many museums this is definately worth the money.

What to see and do in Oslo

A GREAT link to this site would be the http://www.visitoslo.com site. It has all the information about tourist destinations that you would need.

Tourists in Oslo do go to the Munch museum, but they miss out on the National gallery (with the main version of Munch's Scream and Madonna), and a few other museums for contemporary art which are some of the better in the world.

They also go to the Vigelands park , part of the Frogner park in western part of Oslo. Frogner Park opened in 1905. In 1914 the Frogner park was the site of a fair marking the Norwegian centennial independence celebration. This included (sadly) a village of 80 people from Congo demonstrating their life and cultures. Africans was a rare sight in those days.

Gustav Vigelands life-sized statues started being placed in the 1930's, the last one appearing in 1988, 45 years after Gustav Vigelands death. Gustav Vigeland cast a large number of small scale bronze statues, which skilled craftsmen carved out the granite statues. The focal point of all the sculptures is the Monolith a 17 meter high phallic pillar comprising of 121 figures. Adjacent to the park is the Vigeland museum.

Emmanuel Vigelands museum is also worth taking in. It is an art experience even very few Norwegians know about. Emanuel Vigeland was the brother of the more known Gustav Vigeland, the artist behind the Vigelands park. The brothers complemented each other in their motives and art forms. This museum is only open on sundays.

Holmenkollen Skijump, Norsk Folkmuseum, The Vikingship museum, Fram the southpole ship and the Kontiki museum are all very popular attractions.

http://www.visitoslo.com has lots and lots of information of things while in Oslo

Active in OSLO has links and tips to many, many outdoor activities, festivals and stuff like that. Check it out.

What many tourist miss out in Oslo

The nature! Oslo is surrounded by a large green belt of hilly woods called "Nordmarka", and a fjord with islands and beaches. Also in July Norway has "common holiday", where many of Oslo's citizens take several of their 5 weeks holiday, and thus leave town. This creates less crowds, everywhere. Bygdøy has many museums, but it also has nice coastline with nice beaches. Huk is the main one, which can get crowded. Nearby is a nudist beach. Further along the Bygdøy coastline one find the "Paradis bay" with less people. Around in the Oslo fjord there are many islands, too many to mention here. If you get hold of a bike many are accessible, and others by ferries. Remember that your travel passes are also valid for these!

Kayaks can be rented a few places and are a great way of seeing the coastline. Maps of "Nordmarka" can be bought in bookshops or the office of National trekking association . Accessing Nordmarka is done by taking bus or subway! to their end stations. And continue walking or biking. Subway line no.1 take you to Frognerseteren, with its spectacular view over Oslo. Alternatively one can take the train from Oslo Central station to Gjøvik. Several stops on this line are in Nordmarka. In winter skiing, both cross country and alpine is at the doorstep. Literally. Ski Oslo (a bit touristy and commercial) and The Association for the Promotion of Skiing is a start.

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