There's Norway I'm in Oslo
- Jessie Shen
- Feb 26
- 8 min read
I spent 48 hours in Oslo. Here’s everything I did and some tips along the way!
When it comes to traveling, I am quite type A. I research where I’m going, the best things to see, do, and eat, and make sure to have an itinerary so that I am prepared when I enter the new place. It makes traveling less stressful; plus, I can spend more time exploring the city than worrying about what to do next. Feel free to take this itinerary if you visit Oslo!
An eventful flight
I was randomly assigned an aisle seat (yay!) but when I got to my seat there was a man sitting there and he said he had leg problems so he asked if I’d be ok with the middle seat. It was a 50 minute flight so I really didn’t mind. Turns out the guy sitting in the window seat was his 17-year-old son! I was planning on taking a nap during the flight but that did not happen. I learned about the son’s exchange semester in Arizona (which was kinda crazy), the Norwegian tradition of a month-long pre-graduation celebration called Russefering, the best Norwegian snacks, got my itinerary reviewed, and talked politics. I guess the middle seat can lead to some great & interesting conversations!
*Tip #1: Getting around
Oslo’s public transportation, similar to Copenhagen, is great. Download the Ruter app to buy tickets for the metro, buses, and ferries.
Saturday, February 22, 2026
Walking Tour of Oslo
We started off our day with a 2 hour free walking tour of Oslo’s city center. (I’ve linked the one we used from Nordic Freedom Tours! Our guide, Camillo, is Polish but has lived in Oslo for 15+ years; he’s a history nerd so we picked up a lot of cool facts!). In general I highly recommend doing these walking tours; they’re not technically free because they’re tip-based, but you can learn a lot more than just wandering around the city on your own.
Oslo Street Food
Next, we had lunch at Oslo Street Food. It was very similar to Aarhus Street Food (where I’d been a couple weeks ago for my Core Course’s short study tour); it’s like a hip & chic food court offering different cuisines. This is possibly a hot take but I found it to be quite mid (I’m getting flashbacks to Aarhus Street Food…remind me to not get “Mexican” food in Denmark). Yes yes I know that Oslo is one of the most expensive European cities but it was just a few dollars cheaper than going to a restaurant where I feel like I could’ve gotten something more authentic to the culture. The jerk chicken I ordered really made me miss Jamaican Jerk Pit in my college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. There was a period of time where I got takeout from Jamaican Jerk Pit every couple of days because it was that good. Even in the U.S. I love a good food court (I miss Panda Express and Sarku Japan) but Oslo Street Food unfortunately did not hit the spot. My friends liked some of the things they ordered (e.g., the Greek food and Japanese food) so I still think it’s worth visiting when you’re in a group and want to try different cuisines!
Norsk Folkemuseum
We were already facing a time constraint because the museum closes at 4pm and it was 1:30pm by the time we finished lunch. To make matters worse, I led my roommates astray and we got onto a bus headed the opposite direction. We were two stops away from where the bus was going to end when Lena realized we were going the wrong direction. I had my maps app open the whole time and it still didn’t occur to me that the estimated arrival time was getting delayed. I know I’m directionally challenged but I didn’t realize it was this bad.
By the time we made it to Norsk Folkemuseum it was 3pm which meant we had exactly one hour to explore. Even with our limited time we had such a blast. The entire museum is set up like an old town, with many original buildings that date back to as early as the 1200s (i.e. the Gol Stave Church). There was a mix of exhibits where we saw traditional Norwegian clothing and cutlery, in addition to actual houses, rooms, shops, and farms you could walk into. The outside of the museum was open until 5pm so we spent some time wandering around during a beautiful golden hour and playing in the park.
*Tip #2: Spend a few hours at the Norsk Folkemuseum.
Unplug and experience life from centuries ago.
Harald’s Vaffel
Obviously we needed to try Norwegian waffles while in Norway! They are traditionally topped with brunost (brown cheese), sour cream, and jam, but I swapped out the sour cream for nugatti (a grittier version of Nutella). Brunost (brown cheese) is made by boiling down whey for hours which caramelizes the milk’s sugars. I thought it would taste more like caramel than cheese but it was still pretty good. Norwegian waffles are thin, soft, and light, which was a great snack before our walk!
For context on where the shop’s name comes from, Harald Hardrada was a Norwegian king who founded the city around 1048-1050. He’s known for helping establish Oslo as a major trading hub.
Ekebergparken Night Walk
I came across gorgeous photos of Nordic Pixel Forest online which is how I found out about Ekerbergparken. It’s a sculpture park featuring mainly modern sculptures, but also some installations. Nordic Pixel Forest was created by Pipilotti Rist, a Swedish installation artist, and it’s one of the newest additions to the park. We also walked past Rist’s Nordic Hiplights installation which was really cool. If we had more time I would have loved visiting during the day to see more of the sculptures!
Nordic Pixel Forest was larger than I expected; you’re fully immersed in the art. The lights are continuously changing and there’s calming music playing in the background. It felt like being in a soundbath which I loved getting to experience.
Dinner & Movie Night
We picked up some groceries and ended our long day eating spaghetti and watching a movie! I also discovered my love for a Norwegian snack called Smash. They’re like Bugles covered in chocolate, making for a great sweet & savory snack. They were so good that I bought an XXL bag from the duty-free section of the airport the next day.
*Tip #3: Buy snacks from the duty-free airport section
Do not go to the small tax-free kiosks; find the large duty-free section selling makeup, hair products, etc. and buy your snacks there! You can find a lot of Norwegian snacks and chocolates. Try Smash (the chocolate-covered bugles) and Kvikk (basically a Kit-Kat but it’s 80% chocolate instead of 66%, less sweet, and creamier)!
Sunday, February 23, 2026
Korketrekken Toboggan Run
The highlight of the trip. I don’t think this is a common tourist attraction so I’m so glad I came across it while I was in the depths of doing my research! Because it had snowed earlier in the week (and it had snowed a bit the day we got there), we were able to go tobogganing! There’s a small rental shop directly next to Frognerseteren Cafe where we were able to rent toboggans for 200 NOK ($21) for the full day, which included a helmet and snow goggles. I had never been on a toboggan before this (to be honest I only thought it existed in the movies) and it was so much fun. Korketrekken is 2 kilometers long and takes around 10 minutes to get to the bottom of the run. It ends right at the Midtstuen metro stop which you can take back up to Frognerseteren and do it all over again! The view of Oslo from the mountain was stunning (and free)!
*Tip #4: Bring extra socks (and maybe snow pants) for winter activities
I don’t think we fully figured out how to turn and stop on toboggans so we were dragging our heels in the snow to maneuver. As a result, lots of snow got in our socks and the bottom inner layer of our pants. Thank goodness we were returning to our AirBnB after this because our feet were soaked and freezing.
Things got chaotic after tobogganing. It would have only taken us 15 minutes to get back to our AirBnB if we had a car but we were having no luck calling an Uber. It seemed like most drivers were in the city so we kept getting dropped by drivers who were prioritizing people who were closer to them. My friends and I were using both Uber and Bolt and seeing who could get a ride first, if any, but it still wasn’t working. At one point we were getting played by the same driver who was simultaneously on Uber and Bolt and cancelled on all of us one by one. He also sent us a message saying “You’re being frivolous.” We didn’t know if we should laugh or cry so we did both.
We had to take the metro instead; it took over an hour because it required going back to the city center then transferring to another metro to get into the more suburban area. Nevertheless, we made it back and checked out of our AirBnB.
Koie Ramen
I bookmarked this place and it was right next to the Munch Museum (our next stop) so it was a convenient lunch spot! I don’t typically like ramen so Lauren found it funny that I would recommend eating at a ramen place, but there’s something about the Nordic-style noodles that makes ramen better in my opinion. It wasn’t as good as Slurp Ramen in Copenhagen but it was warm and kept me full so it did the trick.
Munch Museum
The Munch (pronounced moon-k) Museum is home to Edvard Munch’s artwork. You might know his work from The Scream; there are actually four colorful versions and 30 impressions. Because of how fragile these paintings are, they are on rotation in the museum to limit the amount of light they are exposed to daily. Since being abroad, I’ve gained a deeper appreciation for art and museums generally. As a child I hated museums; now, I could spend hours in one, reading over every description and marveling at each work.
We headed to the airport where I bought more Norwegian snacks (I’m actually obsessed with Smash and am sad to have already finished my XXL bag) and left for Copenhagen. A successful first weekend trip out of Denmark! I’m hoping to quickly stop by Oslo in May, so…see you later?
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