Short Time In Expensive Oslo

We have only been in Oslo a day and a half, and we are packing up to leave tomorrow. My quick impressions are these:

1. OMG this city is expensive!!!!
My husband and I live a well appointed life in NYC. But the prices in Oslo make me feel poor! I guess we can afford it... I just have a huge problem paying $10 for a McDonald's burger! Ok, I don't eat those ever - but I think you get the point of reference! Just an ice cream at McDonald's costs $5. Subway is a bit more reasonable here - probably the cheapest lunch you'll find as the pricing is about the same as the US. A simple sit-down lunch with 2 drinks runs you $80 easy.

1. This city loves pizzas. Every restaurant has pizza. Although, the actual Chicago-style pizza joint Pepe's ain't that good. By the way a medium pizza will set you back $30 US.

2. There are soooo many young people - college kids. Hence the pizza obsession?

3. People just sit and drink coffee, wine and beer allllll afternoon. Even on weekdays. It's like they stop for lunch at 2 and just keep sitting there allll day. Nice life! But at about $12-15 for a beer, how do they manage? Crazy.

Overall, it's a nice clean city. The shopping streets remind me of Munich - lots of high street stores and outdoor cafes and gardens.

The architecture leans toward traditional with square plastered buildings in colors and newer glass structures sprinkled in. There are a couple pockets of cute cottages smooshed onto hidden hills between the bustling streets. Those are the preserved areas from Edward Munch's paintings - close to his burial spot.


After a long walk searching for those historic houses (I'm a little confused if we found them all) we walked the opposite direction to check out the waterfront beside the opera house. Bust. There's nothing there but fisherman and some water. Oh, and I guess there was a really cool castle but we were too hungry to care by that point.


Instead we found Kafe Celsius (http://www.kafecelsius.no/ ) and relaxed in the sun like so many others.


For my husband a Nogne O (http://www.nogne-o.com/), a delicious, large, unfiltered, unpasteurized wit (wheat) beer made with orange peel and coriander. It tasted a lot like Blue Moon.


For preggy preggersons, that's me, a respectable German-brewed non-alcoholic beer: Clausthaler. Tired feet, hot, sunny, thirsty, it hit the spot in only the way a beer can.

I had the Lakseburger - a perfect fillet of salmon on a bun with tzatziki and greens with salt potatoes on the side. Heavenly healthy yums.

My husband had the Vegetargryte - a casserole of various beans and lentils with tomato and peppers, eaten with bread - don't forget the salt potatoes! He said it tasted like chili, it looked like a stew. Good high-protein lunch. We needed that.

Dinner was a tough call. We spent $80 on lunch... So were we ready to drop real serious coin on dinner? Not with the options nearby. Even the Italian place had meat in every dish. So it was tapas (again) or falafel. After some trepidation over a non-eventful dinner experience, we went for the falafel (also a pizza joint). Not much ambience - but more than a stand. Absolute right choice. 12" long rolls of proper flatbread filled with yummy sauce, falafel (chicken for me) corn, and salad. Huge. Tasty. So much more satisfying than a couple cheese filled peppers and asparagus spears at the tapas place. Full. Yum. Happy.

Dessert? Stopped at a deli for ice cream and this chocolate bar:



Troika: layer of crispy, layer of hard chocolate, layer of raspberry jelly, covered in chocolate. $3, serious? But very cool!

That's it for Oslo. We were lucky to get a day of sun. But lucky for our wallets it was just one!

Next stop: Helsinki.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Oslo, Norway

Comments

Trending Posts