I grew up here. And I temporarily live here. Unfortunately.

August 14, 2024 9:18 AM

Is it (Oslo) even a city?

BBC has some background.

posted by signal (11 comments total)

feels more like a village, maybe?
posted by HearHere at 9:25 AM on August 14

You walk around the next corner and it's like "Oh, there's the King"

Last time I was in Oslo, I was in a quiet corner of the National Art Museum and I turned around and the Queen was standing right next to me. Her one bodyguard* was on the other side of the room. When we excitedly told our Norwegian friends about the encounter they shrugged and seemed confused why it would be worth even mentioning.

Anyway, aside from the high cost of everything, I adore Norway.

*Was he even a bodyboard? Plenty of random Norwegian men look like stylish bodyguards.
posted by gwint at 9:44 AM on August 14 [8 favorites]

I went to Oslo for a week on a business trip once, and I loved it. One afternoon, I did practically walk from one side of the city to the other! Of course, it helped that sunset at that point in the year was something like 10:30pm.

But yeah, it is not inexpensive; I'm glad I was there on per diem or it would have been an even shorter visit.
posted by solotoro at 10:54 AM on August 14

I was just in Oslo, and while it's true that restaurants prices are at least double that of the US, hotels seemed about average, and is not clear to me how much more expensive actually living there would be. Grocery stores seemed comparable, maybe slightly more. The (electric!) trams and buses were great and there were very few cars in town, which negates the higher cost of gas.

Also, depending on the industry, you might be making a better wage and no exorbitant heath care costs, so it seems pretty decent from my limited experience.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:38 AM on August 14 [2 favorites]

Of Montreal thinks it's a nice place to visit in the summer time, pretty people with sunlamp tans and flaxen hair.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:32 PM on August 14

I visited Oslo several years ago, and I was astounded at how much I was paying for beer.

And I enjoyed the hell out of everything that astronomical beer tax paid for.
posted by gurple at 12:44 PM on August 14

Uff dah !
posted by hortense at 1:05 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Friends of mine go skiing to Norway, and more than once have had the royal family behind them in the queue for the ski lift.... and they are quite happy to wait in line.

And an apocryphal story: the king went to buy something and was asked for some proof of identity when paying by card, so he got some coins out of his pocket and asked if those would do.

Thought one from a Brit: would a member of royalty be paying for something themselves?

Thought two: do they know what a credit card is?
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 1:49 PM on August 14 [5 favorites]

(I used to live south of Oslo in 1973-74.) But 5 years ago I moved to Copenhagen. It's bigger than Oslo, but still bite-size, Scandinavian chill.

Once I went into a bookstore and ran into the (first female) ex-prime minister - No bodyguards either.
posted by growabrain at 2:03 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

*Was he even a bodyboard? Plenty of random Norwegian men look like stylish bodyguards.


The king in 1973 got on a tram and was asked where his bodyguards were, and he answered "I have 4 million bodyguards."
posted by ocschwar at 4:18 PM on August 14 [4 favorites]

The chill scandy no-bodyguard thing didn't work for sweden's PM so well.
posted by lalochezia at 5:36 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]