Oslo, wowzers.
We got off the ship in a port, and it looked pretty much like an industrial area, and everyone was like ‘what to do? Where to go? There’s nothing here!’
But somehow we split up into groups and wandered off in the direction of the city centre. We were really surprised at how empty the city was! Apparently all the action starts later in Oslo because there were considerable more people out on the streets when we were going back.
I and my colleague had no map, so we didn't really know where we were going and didn't know what we were looking at, so only later when I got back on the ship and looked at the map I found out that I had actually managed to see most of the important buildings in Oslo - and here I thought I missed the city centre somehow XD But Oslo really doesn't have much of a centre, no old town like in Riga or Tallinn (to compare with cities I know)...
The first buildings we saw really reminded me of Hamburg and Hafen City.
There is also something like a port or a promenade in the city, apparently it is the coast of Oslofjord.
That building in the distance is Akershus fortress.
The City hall
What it says on the front XD
Stortinget, the Parliament of the country
Oslo Cathedral, apparently the main church in the city and really unimpressive for something so important
Oslo has a Hard Rock Cafe XD
Some random buildings...
All in all the architecture is rather monumental, severe and really channels that stern Nordic spirit. Maybe that was the influence of winter, but Oslo did not seem a particularly colourful city, and it made an impression of not being very tourist-oriented, there were not too many souvenir shops, although there were several Christmas fairs selling mainly woollen hats and mittens and elk burgers XD
But somehow the atmosphere of the city felt very peaceful, despite it being the capital of the country, there was no hustle and bustle, no noise or dirt... And I even saw police officers on horses, that is something so exotic! The city had a feeling of a quiet, cultured place.
We went to some shops, got shocked at prices, but I still bought some chocolates as a present and some potato bread for me. It was called Pølselomper. No idea, whether it is a generic name or a brand name, but they made similar bread in Latvia and marketed it as Finnish bread, and then the production was discontinued, and I looked for this bread for ages, so I was totally happy to buy some of it at last!
And then we were almost late for the departure of the ship, we ran up to the terminal and there was nobody there, and we couldn’t find the entrance back to the ship, and then the ship pass card of my colleague was not working, so basically I thought we would not manage to get on the ship in time and will have to stay in Oslo XDD But somehow we managed and could go back to Germany, yay!