Antique

The control buttons of Stortinget's elevator.

Death from Above

Taking a walk along the streets of Oslo is not at all harmless these days...

Karl Johan

Karl Johan, from the royal palace.

McDonald's

Some days ago I met an American. He was pleasantly surprised for the simple reason that we have McDonald's and all the rest of american restaurant chains here in Norway as well – of course we have!

Kiwi

Kiwi is one of Norway's major discout store chains. After a profit of 400 million kroner in 2007, the Kiwi president decied to throw a party for all the employees called "Super Kiwiaden" which lasted for one overnight stay at Brunstad Conference Center (BCC). Some 4200 of the employees took part in it and the party was reputed to cost over 100 million kroner.

Fiskehallen

Fiskehallen in Oslo is Norway's largest fish market.

The Grand Thing

Stortinget is the Norwegian Parliament, and this is the big hall. There a 169 seats. To improve your mind: Stortinget betyr Stor (=grand) ting (=thing) – the grand thing!

Fight

Let's have a snowball fight?

Bird's Eye

...and this is how Norway looks from above when approaching Sandefjord Airport Torp.

Sandefjord Airport Torp

Sandefjord Airport (Oslo-Torp) is another airport, located some 100 km south-west of the city centre. However, busses and trains run several times a day from the airport to Oslo. In contrast to Gardermoen, Torp is a low-cost destination. It has direct flights to popular destinations all over Europe, such as Copenhagen, London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Milano.

Gardermoen Airport

Gardermoen was opened in 1998 as Oslo's main commercial airport. It is situated 48 km northeast of the city and functions as a national hub, with a total of 25 domestic destinations. Unsurprisingly – as a result of Norway's upper price/tax level and the fact that Norway is not an EU member – Gardermoen has the largest duty free shop in Europe.
The airport was designed by the same architect that drew Norway's internationally renowned business school, BI Norwegian School of Management.

Norwegian Air Shuttle

"Norwegian" is Norway's second-largest airline and the fifth-largest low-cost airline in Europe. It carried 9.1 million passengers in 2008. The photo was taken at Oslo's central airport "Gardermoen", Norwegian's main hub.

Bjølsen studentby II

Still a lot of snow in Oslo.

Bjølsen studentby

Bjølsen, built in 2003, is one of Oslo's newest student villages. You need to pay up to 2840* Norwegian Kroner for an unfurnished single room (11-15 m2). Is that expensive?

*320 Euro; 422 US-Dollar

Cards

Playing cards is really a source of great fun during Norway's long winter nights.
Solution of yesterday's quiz (apparently a little difficult, I'm gonna make it easier next time): Voldsløkka, a park close to the center of Oslo.

Snus

A used up portion of Snus on the floor – That's a common sight in Oslo (and all over the country actually). Snus is smokeless tobacco, and it is quite popular in Norway. It is consumed by placing it under the upper lip for extended periods of time, and unfortunately some addicts just spit it out afterwards (like here in Oslo's subway) instead of disposing it properly.

Peppes Pizza

I think Peppes Pizza is the favorite pizza of Norwegians. Everyone here knows this logo! However, it is expensive. A simple medium-size (30 cm) "Peppes Marguerita" is 136 Norwegian Kroner (which is 19,60 USD or 15,10 EUR today).

Obama Superstar

"A moment in history" – The entire first page of Aftenposten, one of the largest newspapers in Scandinavia, is just about the hero today. Everybody is Obama-mad. But aren't the hopes on 44 too high?

Downtown Oslo

This is the area around the station, central downtown Oslo. You see the Postgirobygget (110 meter high), the station forecourt with the Trafikanten Tower and the Byporten and Oslo City shopping centres. The photo was taken looking out 34 SkyBar.

The Nobel Peace Center

There is not too much daylight amongst my photos, as some of you might have noticed. Why is that? The capital of Norway is characterised by large variations in daylight hours during the year. This is because of Oslo's high latidude. These days, daylight hours are very short. Yesterday's sunrise was at 09:06, solar noon at 12:26 (altitude 9°) and sunset at 15:47. That is a 6h 41m 41s day – not too long. If you want to check sunrise and sunset for your location and compare it with Oslo (and also local time for dusk, dawn and twilight, Sun distance and altitude and day length), come this way! Oh, by the way: What you see is Oslo's Nobel Peace Center, a museum that tells the story of Alfred Nobel and presents all Nobel Peace Prize laureates.