Visiting Oslo

One of the things I like to do in Oslo is visit the various boat museums on Bygdøy. Perhaps the most famous is the Vikingskiphuset, where they have 3 of the first viking ships to be found and exhibited, but there is a collection of them.

The museums are at Bygdøy. You can either catch a ferry there from the main harbour, or catch a bus number 31 from the central station. Three of them are where the ferry lands, the vikingskiphuset is a couple of bus stops or 15 minutes walk away on the bus route back into the centre. (One stop past vikingskiphuset is the folk history museum - an outdoor museum of norwegian history, but without boats). My favourite is to take the bus to Vikingskiphuset, walk down to the point and see another museum or two, take a ferry to the main harbour and wander round there looking at boats for a bit. For a long day, have lunch in the forest or on the beach at Huk.

Vikingskiphuset

This building contains the Gokstad, Oseberg, and Tune viking ships which were dug up in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Gokstad is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful ships ever built, although most people say that is actually the case for the Oseberg. There are also the various things that were found with them - since they were burial ships, an interesting collection of items for daily life...

Kon-Tiki Museum

Thor Heyerdahl was a famous (or slightly mad) Norwegian anthropologist. Shortly after the end of World War II he decided to test his theory that South American people could have sailed their balsa rafts to the South Pacific, in the obvious way. He and a group of like-minded blokes went to South America, cut down a handful of balsa trees, tied them together with a bit of a platform on top, added a tiny bamboo hut and a mast, and set out for the South Pacific. Eventually they were shipwrecked, on a South Pacific island. I read the story as a boy, and it is a classic "boy's own adventure story", although it allegedly had a serious research goal. The raft is now in the museum, along with Ra II (a papyrus boat he sailed across the atlantic 20 years later, because Ra I only made it most of the way), stuff about Easter Island and his work there, and various other bits and peices as well as lots of information about Thor heyerdahl and his projects. Heyerdahl himself only died earlier this decade.

Fram Museum

The website says "Fram is the strongest vessel in the world. This remarkable vessel has advanced further north and further south than any other vessel". It's a big claim, but true. The ship was purpose-built in the 19th century for Fritdjof Nansen, one of Norway's great polar explorers. He used it in his attempt to deliberately get trapped in the arctic ice-pack and float across the North Pole. It missed, but not by very far - the only people who had been further north were Nansen and his mate Johanssen, who had left the ship to try and ski even further north. It was also used by Amundsen when he became the first person to reach the South Pole. You can walk around on the ship, and there is a display of various related stuff as well.

Sjøfarts (seafaring) Museum

I haven't been in this one for ages - never enough time. It's the first one I am going to when I get to visit Bygdøy on my own next. It's a general museum devoted to the history of doing things on and by the sea in Norway. For a country which is mostly coastline, that's a pretty big part of the history and culture...

While you're there...

There are a couple of other attractions. Between the ferry and the museums, there is a little boat standing high and dry, called the Gjøa. This is the boat that Amundsen used for teh first successful expedition to sail the NorthWest Passage. There are a handful of other interesting little boats dotted around the little harbour there. It's also not far to Huk, a nice little beach in the forest. As mentioned above, there is the Folk History Museum on the way back by bus. And little walk around Bygdøy is a pleasant way to see very nice houses or very relaxing forests.

(These are pubs that don't have bands as far as I know - I listed some of those already in "music in pubs" which you should also check)

Comments welcome, I will happily add to this page.

Evergreen
Pilestredet 39

Small place that a lot of Opera folks know. Very cheap beer (29NOK, cheaper during the day), gets very crowded many nights with a mostly young but mixed crowd. Open 7 days to 3am.

Waldemars Café
Waldemar Thranes gt

Upstairs and downstairs, has food, very cheap beer. Generally mixed not too packed-in crowd, usually open until about 1am.

Oslo Brewhouse
Somewhere near Uranienborg

A micro-brewery. Not a bad place, I am just not often on that side of town.

Havana Social Club
Bogstadveien

Upmarket, heated "outdoor" space, made me a very bad mojito once.

There are a couple of places where people go to listen to live music over a beer. A couple of recommendations...

Underwater Pub.

This is up the road a bit from Opera, by St Hanshaugen. Mostly it has a very watery theme, but Tuesday and Thursday nights (except in the imddle of summer) they also get a couple of Opera singers to come in. They sing four sets of three songs usually, with a break of about 20-30 minutes between sets. Although the sets are usually introduced in norwegian, a request to the publican and impresario might get him to speak english for the evening...

They have a standard range of drinks, and an arrangement with a pizza place that delivers to the pub. There is also a sushi place across the road, and other places to eat close by. Wifi, is turned off for the opera session but otherwise available.

Muddy Waters.

On the Opera side of downtown, near Stortorvet, this is a blues and rock pub. Has some great acts, a Sunday Jam session led by the house band, and Saturday afternoon blues. A long thin type of bar, black inside, it can feel quite odd to come out after the Saturday afternoon blues and walk into a sunny day, although by the door they open the whole wall to the street in good weather.

Following the common pattern, no food, although there is a burger king next door, and real food all around. And there is open wifi.

Dubliner

Down past the town hall near Akershus, on the edge of the red light district, this is a typical Irish Pub. Large, comfortable, with enclosed, sheltered outside seating (in Oslo, this means "place you can have a beer and a cigarette at the same time, even if it is raining"), and a couple of bars. Tuesday night and Saturday afternoon there is a "session" for people who turn up with an instrument, or occasionally just sing a song, and in the front bar there is music most nights, and cover charge on weekends. Galway it isn't, but the place has a nice atmosphere, quiet and loud parts, they have strongbow cider on tap, and room to move.

Per på Hjørnet / Herr Nilsen

These two pubs are next door to each other, together taking up a corner just on the Opera side of downtown. They each have music a couple of nights a week. Both of them are pretty small inside, not the place for claustrophobics but otherwise pretty friendly places, with drinks and wifi to go with your music.

Scuba

The far end of Grunerlokka, an easy walk from Opera past lots and lots of places to eat. This is a bar downstairs, with a covered "outside" for smokers, and a room upstairs where there are often bands of various kinds. Standard bar, makes a reasonable mojito. (There are a lot of places in Oslo that don't...)

Some other places people go for music:
Rockefeller - somewhere between there and Muddy waters. Big old theatre, a venue for big name bands.
Andy's - opposite parliament. Sports bar with a piano, loud, young crowd
Last Train - behind the hard rock café on Karl Johan's gate. Sometimes has bands. Small dark blue bar. (Not called "Blue train" as I wrote initially - CMN)