My sister Angela and I traveled to Oslo, Norway for the weekend during her visit to Europe. Angela's high school friend Charolette has lived in Norway for the past seven years so was our personal tour guide during the trip. November is the worst month to visit Norway due to the short days and gloomy cold weather, but we figured we never would get another chance to travel to Oslo so wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.
Oslo was recently ranked as the most expensive city in the world in a survey conducted by UBS. Zurich and Tokyo were the second and third most expensive cities. London came in at number 10. Our first stop when we got there was for a small plate of nachos, two glasses of wine, and a Coke which produced a bit of shock when our bill was the equivalent of $65 USD. Oil was discovered in Norway about 40 years ago turning Oslo into an affluent and prosperous city. Taxes are extremely high especially on goods where the government wants to control consumption such as alcohol and on imports to promote the purchase of local products making the city very expensive. The trade-off is great wages and very low unemployment for Oslo's residents.
The city is very compact and easily walkable. Everything in the city seemed so new and modern compared to London. Despite the rainy and cold weather, we did a lot of walking to check out the various areas of the city. My favorite stop was the Vigeland Sculpture Park. Other than that, most of our time was spent eating the local cuisine. We had some really fabulous food in Norway.
Here are some pictures from our trip.
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| Our first taste of brown cheese - kind of like a sweet Velveeta |
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| Vigeland Sculpture Park - amazing |
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| Ang with our fabulous hostess Charolette |
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| The rain finally stopped and out came a rainbow! |
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