Norway

Welcome to our fourth country, Norway! Admittedly this part of our trip didn’t make geographical sense when we were planning it, but we were working around the women’s champions league final which was on the 23^rd of May in Oslo. So we decided to visit my very good friend from college, Ida, in Trondheim before venturing down to Oslo.

When I stepped off the plane in Trondheim, it almost felt like arriving home. I’ve visited Ida and Trondheim once before, in December 2023 when Ida was veryyyy pregnant and the weather was much colder than it was in May (it was snowing). I think Trondheim has a really nice feel to it – it’s not too busy nor too small of a city, similar to Adelaide. It has a great coffee culture and a really stunning city. Maybe my opinion is slightly influenced because the people I know from there are some of the best people I know.

Anyhow, we arrived around 11:30 in the morning and got our bags almost immediately (Trondheim isn’t a very big airport) before walking about 7mins to a bus stop to take us into Stjørdal. Before getting on the bus, we downloaded the ATB app which is the app for public transport in Trondheim. The app is straightforward – you just select the route you want and purchase the ticket and are charged according to the number of zones you travel. For the short bus trip, it cost us about $7 each or 49KR (Norway also have their own currency which is about 7 x the Australian dollar) but I think the ticket was valid for 1.5 hours (at least that’s what it said on the app!).

Because Ida was at work, she recommended we go to a bakery called ‘Snurr’ which is highly recommended for their buns. And they didn’t disappoint! We got a kanelbolle (cinnamon bun), something we would end up getting almost every morning in Norway. We also got a $20 sandwich, which was expensive for what it was as we were still ravenous after finishing it. But that’s just Norway – not quite as expensive as Switzerland, but not too far off. Ida then picked us up around 3pm and took us to her house where we then walked down to their local childcare centre to meet and pick up little Hedvig! For dinner, Ida made incredible sweet potato tacos with pineapple, pomegranate (also described as grenade apples!), onion, corn, and lettuce. This was probably one of our favourite meals of the trip because it was so fresh and healthy. As those who have travelled a lot know, eating out really weighs on you (in more ways than one!) so to have a homecooked meal was extremely welcomed.

Another thing we were treated to whilst staying with Ida was her delicious homemade bread rolls every morning. Ida would put the mixture together the night before to let it prove overnight, before baking them fresh in the morning. The rolls were then served with our choice of cheese, egg, cucumber, strawberries, and my favourite – brown cheese! Something I wish we could get back here in Australia but we can’t. Brown cheese is a sweeter cheese and it sticks to the top of your palate. I found it to be particularly delicious with strawberries or cucumber (as that provides a buffer to the stickiness). Accompanying our breakfast, Ida served coffee from their Moccamaster (a highly renowned filter coffee machine). We both loved the coffee so much I ended up buying us one when we got back to Australia.

After breakfast, we caught the bus into the city so we could do a typical Scandinavian swim and sauna. I was fortunate to do this last time I was in Trondheim with Sjøbadet which is a members-only sauna, except for occasions where it’s open to non-members. The dates for the non-member swims didn’t fit with our schedule that week (plus Jas wasn’t too comfortable to do the nude part of it) so we ended up booking with Stu sauna at Brattøra. They have another sauna called Bunker’n which is a former WWII bunker converted into a traditional sauna. For $30 each, we received 2 hours to alternate between a floating sauna and private fjord swim as well as access to a public shower afterwards. The company is relatively new, so we’re not sure if that is why it was so cheap, but we had no other people there for the entirety of our booking (timeslots can hold up to 12 people). The public shower was also very clean as you need a code to enter, or pay to use.

After the sauna, we were in desperate need of some food and coffee. We walked to Onkel Svanhild, a place I visited previously with Ida as it is known for their food and coffee. Unfortunately though, they only had one vegetarian option…blue cheese with pickled red onion! So we shared a filter coffee before venturing out to explore some second-hand shops. There was one right next to Onkel Svanhild, Transit, which was super cute and affordable stocking all sorts of unique knickknacks. We found a few little gifts – matchboxes for the family while Jas found her family some matching rings. The other really good op shop that we came across was Uff – they sell some unique vintage clothes at affordable prices.  After exploring the op shops, we were in need of some fuel. Admittedly Trondheim didn’t seem to have much of a ‘brunch’ or lunch culture, at least not for vegetarians. We struggled to find decent food so we settled on a chain restaurant for some vegetarian focaccias.

The last few things we wanted to see in Trondheim, before catching the bus back to Ida’s was the Bakklandet houses and the cathedral. The bakklandet houses are colourful houses from the 1600s that line the Nidelva river. The reason for their unique, bright hues, was to make it easier for sailors to identify their homes and protect the wood from the harsh weather in Norway. A great view of these houses is from the Old City Bridge, often called the Gate of Happiness. The other incredible structure that we quickly walked around was the Nidaros Cathedral which was built in 1070. I can’t tell you much more about the history of it because we didn’t go inside haha.

For dinner, we went to visit Ida’s parents. Their house is absolutely incredible and had the most stunning view over a fjord. When I visited in December, there was only about 4 hours of sunlight – the sun rose at 10am and set by 2pm. Now though, the sun rose at 3am and ‘set’ at 10:30pm…I put set in quotations because it never actually felt dark while we were there. You’d wake up at 2am and light was still shining through your window. I wonder how the excess light in summer and minimal light in winter affects everyone’s sleeping patterns and mental health. Anyhow – back to Ida’s parents. Her Mum made the most amazing salad – avocado, mango, feta, sweet potato, candied walnuts, red onion, and pomegranates with a homemade dressing. On the side, we had freshly made bread rolls and for dessert, a homemade ice-cream cake that her Mum had made for the Norwegian National Day on the weekend (May 17^th). This was such a pleasant evening with incredible food, views, and company. I love Ida’s family – seeing her parents is always a highlight of my trip as they're so easy to talk to and engaged in what you have to say. It's easy to see where Ida gets her gentle, patient and loving nature from.

On Wednesday, Ida took the day off work to take us to Midtsandtangen – a popular place (especially in summer) for a picnic by the sea. We were fortunate that the weather was extremely pleasant during our stay – sunshine and what’s considered warmth at 18 degrees! For our picnic, we had a similar ensemble of food – fresh bread rolls, cheese, fresh fruit, egg, and of course coffee. After taking Hedvig back home for a nap, we ventured out for a little walk in the afternoon. There aren’t a lot of ‘hikes’ in Trondheim but there are plenty of walking trails around rivers, fjords, and forests so we settled on a short walk around stavsjøen. A lot of the trails are designed around their winter season and cross-country skiing (no wonder they’re so dominant in the winter Olympics!). It’s also not uncommon for Norwegians to have a cabin in another country – Ida’s family have one in Sweden so too do my parent’s friends. I suppose this is possible when countries are so close together, something us Australians don’t know much about!

For our final full day in Trondheim, we were gifted with a personal escort around the city. We grabbed a coffee in the morning from Dromedar Kaffebar and lunch at Awake, which was surprisingly affordable (for Norwegian standards!). Ida showed us where she worked and took us on a really beautiful walk to Skansen. This little village is similar to the Bakklandet houses with pretty, colourful cottages. We didn’t stay too long in the city as we had a child who was unfortunately over-tired and very unsettled! Driving home, Ida explained that there’s two main ways they can get to the city via toll roads – the highway, which is almost double the price than using the old roads – it costs them $20 one way on the highway, whereas the old roads (which adds only a few minutes on) costs them about $10 for one way.

On the Friday, we said our goodbyes to Ida, Torkel, Hedvig, and their stunning house (with insane views!) before catching the SJ Norge train to Oslo from Trondheim central station. I grabbed a coffee from Jacobsen and Svart coffee roasters and this was one of the best coffees I have ever had. I met one of the guys who works there, who was also Australian, and we got talking about coffee and roasts. They use a light roast, which is a lot smoother of a ‘hit’ than what we’re used to in Australia. But it was delicious! We then grabbed some groceries to fuel us for our 7 hour train journey…except it wasn’t 7 hours. There was a power outage whilst we were on the train and further delays which meant we didn’t arrive until 6:30pm…an hour and a half after we were supposed to arrive. Which might not seem like a big deal except…we were hangry! The only saving grace was that because the train arrived more than 60 minutes later than it’s intended arrival time, we then received a 50% refund on our tickets. So our $150 tickets each became $150 total! The refund was processed almost immediately too. In regards to the train, it was spacious with plenty of storage for your luggage, chargers for your phones and laptops, and there’s a restaurant for food and drinks on one of the carriages too. Just be prepared to pay about $8 for a 500ml bottle of water.

In Oslo, they use a different public transport app – they use the Ruter app. Similar to Trondheim though, you buy your tickets on this app before you board a train or bus but you don’t always have to show your tickets. We checked in to our Airbnb before venturing out for dinner – we went to a highly rated vegan restaurant, Nordvegan, and ordered the weirdest assortment of food (this is what happens when you’re starving) – sushi with vegan chicken, a vegan burger, and a falafel wrap all for the cheap price of…$76! And the worst part? We were still hungry! So we grabbed a Norwegian waffle for dessert before exploring the city. We walked to a placed called Vippa – which was a bit out of the way, but a place that would have been cool for some food and drinks while watching the sunset. We then went to visit the public library, Deichman Bjorvika. I know what you’re thinking, why would you want to go to a library?! Go see this library and you’ll understand. Let’s just say, it’s an architectural dream! While walking around, we also saw the Opera house and a lot of floating saunas.

Because we only had the one day to explore Oslo, we got up relatively early on the Saturday, went to the flea market located at the Vestkanttorvet park (north west side of the city) before heading to the eastern side of the city to explore some op shops and grab a coffee. We weren’t able to get a coffee before the markets because, well, nothing was open before 10am. A lot of the op shops we wanted to go to were not open until 11 either which really hindered our ability to explore, especially given that the game was a 6pm kick off andddd we had lunch booked with my parent’s friends at 11:30. Safe to say, we tried to squeeze a lot in to a short period of time!

The main place we wanted to explore was Grünerløkka as we had heard great things about it – especially the independent stores. So our first coffee and cinnamon bun was in that vicinity at Supreme Roastworks. We killed some time here waiting for the op shops to open and managed to stumble on this super cool comic book store – Lucky Eddie. We’re not super into comics, but Jas’s little brother is so we got him a few at a very affordable price too. A lot of the op shops around the area were not op shops but expensive ‘vintage’ stores. We still managed to have some success in the Uff stores, where Jas found what looked like a Barcelona shirt for the game that evening. Our lunch was at Lorry’s – a really quirky restaurant but not-so-affordable. We ordered the only two vegetarian meals available, a salad and a burger for only $50 each! 10/10 would not recommend eating out in Oslo haha.

After lunch, we only had a little bit of time to continue exploring, so we went back to the eastern part of the city and went to Damstredet – a notable cobblestoned street with colourful houses lining the sides. We grabbed our second coffee from Solberg & Hansen concept store and were graced by seeing Christine Press and Tobin Heath! This was definitely getting us excited for the game.

Our only regret is we didn’t have time to go to the fan festival – it closed at 6pm on the Friday (and our train delay meant we couldn’t make it) and then it closed at 4pm on the Saturday. We had a quick shower at our Airbnb before trying to catch a train to Ullevaal Stadion. For some very odd reason, the trains were down from Oslo central station so it took us slightly longer to get to the stadium than we had originally planned.

The game itself was excellent. Barcelona vs Lyon. I was still salty that Arsenal weren’t playing as I think Arsenal might have stood a better chance against Barcelona. Despite the 4-0 scoreline, Lyon weren’t actually outplayed. The game was quite evenly matched, until the latter end of the second half. Barcelona just have so many players who can score – Lyon didn’t. And the one goal they did score, was ruled out by VAR. Given that we were pressed for time during the day, we decided to just grab some food at the stadium. And surprisingly, it was more affordable here than it was in the city! We got two wraps, a coffee, a smoothie, and a coke all for only $37. Meanwhile, we went out for dessert later at a place called Creamy, ordered a crepe with Nutella and whipped cream and that cost $33! For essentially 1 day and 2 nights in Oslo, we spent over $160 on food and coffee, and that is excluding lunch which my parent’s friends generously paid for! Safe to say…Oslo is veryyyy expensive. If we weren’t so pressed on time, we would have looked at cooking more in our accommodation.

The Sunday morning we had a very early departure. Our flight to Venice was at 6am. There are three ways you can get to the airport from the city in Oslo – train, bus, or Uber. Uber was going to cost nearly $200 so that wasn’t an option. And the trains? Well the first train in the morning doesn’t leave until 4:40am which gets you in at 5:05am…for a 6am flight, we didn’t think that was enough time to check our bags in, especially given that we didn’t know the airport or how big it was. So we opted for the 3:40am bus, which got us in at 4:50am and cost $40pp. Despite the airport not being very busy, security was extremely inefficient so we were glad we had the extra time. We had a short stopover in Copenhagen where we had about a 20mins walk to our next gate in which our plane was already boarding. So there was no time to get any food (or buns!) on the way. Next stop though? Italy!

Travel summary:

• Trondheim is a really liveable city, similar to Adelaide

• Tolls are expensive

• Each city has their own public transport app – in Trondheim it’s the ATB app and Oslo is the Ruter app

• Their compensation for longer train journeys is really good – 50% refund for a delay over 60minutes (to be honest, all of Europe is good with this, even with flights)

• ‘Brunch’ isn’t really a thing or if it is – it’s expensive for what you get

• Coffee is similar in price to Holland and they have very good coffee in both Trondheim and Oslo

  • Jacobsen and Svart was by far my favourite

• You must try their buns! We became slightly obsessed with having these during our time in Norway

• Uff is a really good op shop chain, and Transit in Trondheim is super quirky too