Three days in Oslo

If you haven’t already seen our postcards, Bite Magazine took a short trip north, where we experienced an array of art, music and culture. Before sharing our top Oslo recommendations, we thought we’d express our first impressions of what Norway’s capital has to offer.

Ray Leach: First, throughout our travels we kept noticing an absurd sculpture that we later discovered was called ‘Angry Boy’. Upon researching, we found out that this art piece is by Gustav Vigeland, whose work scatters the city. Vigeland made a unique deal with the city in which he exchanged his art for a place to live. The motif of the angry baby reminded us of the depth of art and culture within the city of Oslo, of which we were barely able to scratch the surface of in a matter of days.

Sienna Bentley: While we were layering up to go out and experience Oslo at night (and by night, I mean 4pm as it was already completely dark), Ray turned on the TV in the hotel room to find some tunes to soundtrack our getting ready. She stumbled across Radio Norge, which ended up being a wonderfully happy accident. Its track-list became the playlist for our trip, encouraging us to reminisce on tunes from our childhood, much of which we spent together as kids. The songs were quite a far cry from the metal I had been expecting.

Songs included:

‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun‘ – Cindy Lauper
‘21 Guns’ – Green Day
‘Born in the USA‘ – Bruce Springsteen
‘Give In To Me‘ – Michael Jackson
‘Believe‘ – Cher
‘Never Easy‘ – Kurt Nilsen

RL: From the trendy Grünerløkka district to the gorgeous Oslofjord, it’s clear from its clean streets that the city receives healthy funding. Pair that with the fresh air and you feel like a brand new person after a brisk half-hour walk. It’s not difficult to romanticise a place like this, particularly when you add bright blue skies and the Christmas festivities scattering the city into the mix.

SB: On our walks around the most walkable city I’ve ever been to, we came across a very wide variety of posters, prints and street art, which fed our growing hunger for different typeface, fonts and graphic design ideas as we begin brainstorming ideas for our first full magazine. Oslo is remarkably clean and tidy, and these posters provide a bit of edge – a pop of colour – that enhance the sense of community by advertising various events and gigs or just serving to make you laugh. These were my particular favourites:

RL: Through art, film and conversation you quickly learn that the Norwegians have a dark sense of humour, one that isn’t a far cry from our own stiff British comedy. This made it easy to chat and make friends with virtually anybody at any time. The Norwegians are friendly folk who like a drink, so obviously we accumulated lots of bar recommendations that we wouldn’t dare gate-keep…

Himkok – underground cocktail bar

Oslo Street Food – food and drink stalls from around the world

Rouleur – wine bar/ bike repair (obviously)

Fuglen – espresso bar

Håndslag – indoor/outdoor bar

Hammerhai – colourful cocktail bar

Tilt – arcade bar

Kulturhuset – indoor/outdoor bar

Dattera Til Hagen – split-level bar/cafe

Blå – live music venue

Revolver – basement rock

Kjøkken og Bar – restaurant/bar