Exploring the city

As I didn't really have classes this week and the events of the orientation week all took place in the late afternoon and evening, I went to the city centre a few times. (I'm assuming the International Office scheduled the events on purpose at later times: this way, you can make use of the bit of daylight you get here. Oh, and if you're interested in the exact times of sunrise and sunset in Oslo, check out this website!)

Anyway, so on one day, we went to explore Oslo with a group of people (there's a photo to prove that we actually went to the palace, but it's still somewhere on somebody's camera, so I can't include it in this article). But I also did a bit of rural exploration on my own - since I, unlike others, did not have classes this week. Might have mentioned it before. ;)

So I'm just gonna spam you with photos of Oslo city, I guess.

The palace:

We coincidentally arrived just in time for the changing of the guard - or at least something like this. We were later told by somebody that the official changing of the guard is supposed to take place at another time of the day... :D But well, they were doing something there, that's for sure:

The harbour:

Just a bit grey on that day. :D

The Opera House:

This glass & marble construction is one of the new landmarks in Oslo (completed in 2007). And you can walk on the roof, if you like:

From the water - Operahuset, as it's called in Norwegian, lies directly at the Oslofjord - it looks even more impressive. Obviously, I couldn't just go there and take my own photos, so I'll have to redirect you to a Wikipedia photo for this view.

Those who read my Ireland blog might recall that I'm just a little bit occupied with seaside pictures. So I switched from the Opera House to the Oslofjord in between:

It's been minus degrees in Oslo for quite a while now, I'd say. That's why you could see birds on the water there - in the literal sense:

A day later or so it got a bit warmer. Not above zero degrees, just close enough to zero so that we could get snow. A lot of it, at least from my point of view. But that might have been due to the fact that it was snowing while I was walking around in Grünerløkka, trying to find cheap-ish fruits and vegetables there.

But fortunately, nothing seems to be able to stop public transport from running in Oslo, let alone a tiny bit of snow:

(I'm kind of counting on this, because we are planning to use our monthly public transport tickets for another small trip in the Oslo area tomorrow!)