A WEEKEND IN OSLO #1 | QUEENBEADY

We arrived pretty late in to the small hours of the Saturday morning, after an hour bus journey from Oslo Rygge airport to the main bus terminal (FYI book this in advance – click here to the link!), there’s a lot of buses that meet each flight as it lands but just to be on the safe side book it! After we navigated our way to our super hip hotel, HTL Grensen we were zonked, so got straight in to bed and head off to the land of nod.

Refreshed after a good nights sleep (my god, dem bed were comfy!) on our first day it saw me on a mission to find the Nighthawk Diner in the Grunerlokka area. After an amazing tip off from Emma about this place I knew we had to go, after all, Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I was ready to devour some eggs and pancakes, bro’. It took us about twenty minutes to navigate ourselves their from our hotel and we passed some amazing sights through Ingens Gate, we decided we would come back after for some photo opps (of course, duh, I’m a blogger of course?!) when we arrived we were expecting to queue but luckily, on this occasion we were greeted by a lovely lady and shown straight to our table. I had the poached eggs & bacon (with a side of fries y’allll) & James went for the Nighthawk Breafkast brunch and with much pestering a side of pancakes soaked in maple syrup so yours truly could scoff them ‘n all. Guzzled down with fresh coffee & a pot of tea we declared this a hard meal to beat (yep sadly, spoiler alert, nowhere did beat it.) Mr C declared he would have to be rolled out so we made a slow exit through Grunerlokka (to get me some plasters, ‘cos I have hooves.)

I knew this post would be photo heavy because I couldn’t stop snapping the amazing graffiti that lined the walls on Ingens Gate. It was a real hub for creatives and very cool people. I felt like I could hibernate here for the rest of my life people watching and listening to their stories because they all seemed so interesting. Even the chandelier at the entrance was a spectacle covered in bright coloured jewels. I mean a chandelier in the middle of a street. Just let that sink in. From art exhibitions to food trucks by the river it could have been easy enough to sit here for a full afternoon watching the world go by sipping (expensive) beer. But alas, we were going to head to the other part of the City to grab a boat trip round the Oslofjord.

We hopped aboard the 3.30pm sailing, the boat was pretty full, but we managed to arrive early(ish) but not quite as early as the keen beans that had obviously been stood there for at least an hour. So we managed to get a seat facing forward (yup, the ol’ sea sickness could’ve reared it’s ugly head if not!) and on the left side, which in boat speak is “Portside” (the side that is always docked at a port. Don’t say you don’t learn anything on QueenBeady.com kids!) so off we sailed on time, there was a lovely breeze and the sun kept poking through the fluffy white clouds that Oslo had decided would be with us for the whole weekend.

The trip was all in all, a two hour journey around the Fjord and with that we saw all the pretty, little painted boat houses that lined the shores off each little island. A place for local families to get out of the city and dive straight in to the crisp Norwegian sea in the summers. It’s very popular and I can see why it would be in the warmer months. It seems escaping the city is always high on inhabitants lists, wherever you go! As mentioned Oslo is pretty expensive, the boat trip cost around 700 krone, which is approximately £60 – £65 depending on your exchange rate. I would highly recommend it though to rest your legs and still taking in beautiful views.

Hat evening we got ready to head out & eat dinner, I wore my favourite top at the moment, this fluted sleeve / off the shoulder piece from ASOS with my new sandals from Accessorize seen as the sun was shining in to the late evening. It doesn’t get dark until around 11pm (sometimes later) which makes the city feel a lot safer too. Plus, it’s pretty difficult to get too drunk & rowdy when pints cost the equivalent of nine whole British pounds.