Oslo – One Massive Deep Freeze

Norway is a beautiful country. They people have a good quality of life, they dress nice, get paid shit loads of money and generally, Norwegians are not know for making much trouble around the world. So when an opportunity came up to do a work thing in Oslo in Feb, I snapped it up without thinking much of it. I was actually looking forward to it as my first and last time in Norway was a job interview in Stavanger and the whole trip was less than 48hrs. All in all, this trip was going to be a lovely trip.

The only thing I did not bargain for was the frigidity of the Norwegian state in the month of February. My Lawd!! Words do not begin to describe the coldness of the situation. It was snowing constantly and ice was piling up on ice. Temperature was at -12degC (10.4 degF) and I was totally perplexed with snow. All i wanted to do was go to the office, back to the hotel and jump under the blanked. However, i did not resign myself to such a boring fate. I went out as much as I could, drink as little as i could because i did not have the 6 pounds to pay for a simple bottle of J2O. Did i mention how expensive things are out there??

The highlight of my trip to Oslo was looking for Vigeland Park with my French workmate. Now, i had heard that the Norwegians had a park which was filled with naked statues so i thought i would be doing a great dis-service to myself by not going. Only problem was that the temperature was well below freezing, it was snowing buckets, we were on foot for a long time and my French friend even managed to hit the floor on slippery ice! By the time we found Vigeland Park, yours truly had turned into a pillar of ice, frozen fingers and toes. Hehehe, this was not a funny matter. For a split second, i panicked because i could not feel my own fingers.. lol..

To be honest with you, i was happy when the trip ended. I was looking forward to the warm 2degC temperatures that London had to offer. Everyone on the plane had a runny nose or one kind of transmutation of the cold.

All in all, if you intend on going to enjoy Norway (and you don’t intend to go skiing), do not go in the first quarter of the year. You may just be disappointed. (And do not go when you are broke)