Author: Ulises E. Hernandez

Location: Oslo, Norway

Pronouns: He/Him/His

On December 8th , as my last trip in Europe, my best friend and I went to Oslo, Norway for the weekend. From Stansted International Airport in London, we flew to Oslo early in the morning in hopes to catch just a few hours of sunlight. During the winter months, Oslo only has six hours of daylight and what to me seemed like extremely cold winters. The first thing we did as soon we arrived was to find our Air B&B which was conveniently located in the heart of the city. After checking with our very lovely host, we explored the magnificent city that was full of lights, Christmas decorations, carnival rides, and other tourists who were looking to experience a unique Christmas season.

As we wandered through the cold streets of London, we came across what looked like an Ice bar. As we got closer to the establishment, we paid a small admission fee and we entered what looked like a giant commercial freezer. Inside, we saw many ice sculptures that were cut from huge pieces of actual glacier ice that was brought from the northern parts of Norway. Once we walked around for a few hours, we decided to go and explore a Christmas market that was located a few blocks from the Ice bar. Once we got there, we had the opportunity to try many local delicacies like reindeer, elk, whale, and a variety of different cheeses.

On our second day, we visited two different museums. We first visited the Oslo Historic Museum which focused a lot about the nomad history of the Norway and how ancestors of that land survived through the use of many unique skills that have now been lost due to the development of technology. After we finished walking through Historic museum, we took a bus to the Viking museum located 20 minutes away. The Oslo Viking Museum is home to about 5 different actual Viking ships that were found in the burial grounds of important Viking figures. Some of the ships had been restored, but others remained intact for historical preservation purposes.

After spending our day visiting museums, Ben and I decided to spend our last few hours near the pier in order to admire the beautiful winter scenery and the well-preserved sail ships. Before taking the train back to the airport, we eat dinner a Mexican restaurant, which are very popular in Norway. After spending many hours in the airport and having to wait for our delayed flight, we made it back to London Stansted. Unfortunately, we missed the last train to Cambridge and we were forced to take the bus back home. After a very long day of traveling, we made it back to Cambridge very early Monday morning just in time for our last week of classes. Overall, we had a very good experience and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to meet the Norwegian people.