Why you should make Oslo your next weekend break destination
Library Wx170824 Vogt Deichman Deichman/nicholas
“A thousand words will not leave sodeep an impression as one deed.”
Thus wrote Norwegian director and playwright Henrik Ibsen, who lived from 1828 until 1906, and whose life and work has been memorialised at the Ibsen Museum and Teater (ibsenmt.no) which reopened in 2023 after an initial launch in 2006.
But what about if a deed, an idea, an action, made a thousand words, and more, available to the public?
The impression made by the Deichman Bjørvika ( deichman.no) Oslo’s public library is indeed a deep one.
Here, Ibsen would see evidence of thousands upon thousands of words. The construction of the library was completed in 2020 which, in today’s climate of library closures and lack of funds for new books, seems almost more extraordinary than the building’s striking architecture — the work of local studios Atelier Oslo and Lund Hagem.
Five light-filled storeys — including a cantilevered top floor, thrusting habourwards — are arranged vertically, with the lower floors more conducive to group activities and gatherings (they house, among other things, a cinema, children’s books and gaming rooms) and the upper floors evoking a quieter, more introspective space.
At 10am on a Monday, it’s heartening to see that the library is abuzz with activity.
Fingers peck at laptop keyboards, a takeaway coffee within reach. People loll on bench-style sofas, brows furrowed over books while their iPhones charge from floor-level sockets.
A young mother, her baby asleep in a pram by her side, simply sits, gazing out towards Nordmarka, the forest just outside of Oslo, in which a future library of books is growing.
Behind her, The Future Library, an art installation imagined and realised by Fife-based artist Katie Paterson, is a hive-like wooden structure made from Nordmaka’s felled spruces.
The saplings planted in their place will one day form the pages on which books from celebrated authors — one each year over the course of 100 years including, to date, Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell — are printed.
Until then, they are sealed, unread by anyone other than those who wrote them, in glass vaults within those secretive, curved wooden walls.
But this, the library, is just one of the reasons why you should make Oslo your next weekend break. It is just one aspect of a long project of development along Oslo’s harbour, located about a 10-minute walk from its central station.
Around 20 years ago, this area was bleakly industrial, home to nothing more design-forward than shipping containers — a fact that makes the architectural magnificence of Deichman Bjørvika, as well as the adjacent Opera House, all the more striking.
The latter has been conceived to represent an iceberg; a gleaming confection of glass and white marble, its angles sloping towards the fjord waters, its roof scattered with people ambling skywards to lounge at an incline, basking in the warmth or watching the drawn-out descent of the sun in midsummer.
Like the library’s interiors, the Opera House’s sculptural roof has been designed to invite community and relaxation.
Set a little behind this, the 13-storey, £235m Munch museum ( munchmuseet.no) with its undulating carbon and steel facade, recalls a shipping container — which, to my mind, is in keeping with the area’s industrial past.
British design critic Oliver Wainwright was not so forgiving, describing it as an “ominous grey tower … the ultimate villain’s headquarters … almost comically menacing … with a thuggish hunch”.
For me, the vision-blurring exterior of the museum, reminiscent of heat haze, recalls the buzz of hectic, anxious energy around the artist’s most famed work, The Scream — an image, thanks to pop culture, almost instantly recognisable to most.
Now 80 years after the Norwegian artist’s death, it’s perhaps less recognised that his body of work was much larger (the collection consists of around 28,000 pieces) and more diverse, than this, including post-impressionist work in the vein of van Gogh and Gauguin.
As for The Scream, you’ll find it on the fourth floor. Well, three versions of it (there are many, if you include the lithographs) but no more than one is ever on display at once: Enter into a darkened space and you’ll see the Munch masterpiece, but two others will be undercover, protected from light.
Stay and sit for long enough and eventually all three versions — the drawing, the print and the painting — will, one by one, be yours to view.
Informed by a guard that the trio are only ever revealed simultaneously for royalty, I hopefully adopted a haughty stance — alas, to no avail.
It’s not just the interiors of the 13 floors of the museum that offer a visual feast — the views over the surrounding area are exceptional, too.
Drinking cocktails at Kranen, on the uppermost floor, looking out over the fjord and the city, is a delightful way to punctuate an Oslo stay. The brave can even enjoy a bird’s eye view by lying face down on the outward sloping glass.
Another intriguing stop during your stay is the National Museum, which opened in 2022 and united four formerly separate museums.
It’s been designed with rich materials to impart a sense of stateliness to its 87 rooms which, distributed over two floors, house around 5,000 items, most of which are proudly Norwegian. Leave aside at least a few hours to explore.
This museum has, without a doubt, put Oslo firmly on Europe’s cultural map.
Yet for all this development, the city has lost none of its Scandi appeal, with its sense of taking enjoyment from nature.
The fjord, once dank with industrialism, has been thoroughly cleaned up, and urban beaches now dot its flanks, as well as floating saunas, in which you can work up a sweat before cooling off in the fjord waters.
For one of the best views, choose Kok ( koknorge.no) which faces the glacial angles of the Opera House. Municipal ferries scud cheerfully to surrounding islands, where nature-watching, hiking, swimming and pristine beaches await.
A single 30-minute train journey, from Oslo Central to Frognerseteren, delivers you directly into vast tracts of forest.
In winter, the carriages bristle with skis as biking and hiking trails are transformed by snowfall.
An outdoor sculpture park is also witness to the changing seasons, and you’ll find it by heading beyond the royal palace to Frogner, where gelato-hued residences and cobbled streets tell the tale of the neighbourhood’s past as a place where the wealthy once summered.
In the area’s eponymous park, more than 200 sculptures are permanently displayed, their granite, iron and bronze forms impervious to the weather.
Created by Gustav Vigeland (1869 to 1943) they are just one of the free-of-charge attractions in the city.
And it’s worth seeking these out because Oslo is, even by Scandi standards, sometimes shockingly expensive.
It’s difficult to cut corners on accommodation and sustenance but buying an Oslo Pass (895 DKK/ €120 for 72 hours) gets you entrance to most museums, as well as unlimited transport (including ferries) and discounts at selected restaurants. A
As an example of its worth, entry to Munch is 180 NOK/€15, while the train from the airport to the centre is 210 NOK/ €17.60).
As for that cheek-by-jowl city/forest/fjord location … that’s there to be imbibed for free.
- Sarah was a guest of Visit Oslo.
- Scandinavian Airlines (flysas.com) flies from Dublin to Oslo for around €200 return in August.
- Trains from the airport to the centre run every 10 - 20 minutes (210 NOK/ €17.60)
- A standard room at Clarion Hotel the Hub is priced from €160 including breakfast and taxes for two people: strawberry.no
- For more information, see Visit Oslo: visitoslo.com
For all of its forward thinking, innovation and urban planning (even aside from the newer architecture, the city centre has been made virtually car-free) the Norwegian mindset is less steeped in that cosy and hashed-to-death concept of Danish hygge and more in a salty brine - just ask Halfdan, the star of a new marketing campaign from Visit Oslo.
Even so, the Norwegian capital is consistently ranked as one of the best and happiest places in the world to live.
There’s its proximity to magnificent nature, time in which is richly woven into its residents’ lives, a dislike of ostentation and a dry humour, all which combine to create an impressively egalitarian society.
As Halfdan says, ““You walk around the corner, and it’s like: ‘Oh, there’s the prime minister.’ Then you walk around the next corner and it’s like: ‘Oh, there’s the king.’”
It’s Norwegian for ‘bon appetit’ and you’ll certainly find much to smack your lips over in Oslo.
Head to Oslo Street Food (Torgatta 16) for a huge range of international flavours in a food court setting, which transforms into a nightclub every Friday and Saturday night.
Looking for authentically local cuisine? Try Stortorvets Gjæstgiveri, which is located in an historical building (Grensen 1) and serves up dishes such as duck breast with pickled carrots, blinis with whitefish roe, and oven baked beetroot with roasted walnuts.
For dazzling views over the fjord and the city’s landmarks, there are also a number of rooftop bars and restaurants, including Pancea (Stortingsgata 4) and TAK Oslo (Sommerrogata 1).