What's Oslo like?

I'm here to help you. I love Oslo, I was going to move there in 2000 when errr...fate (!) intervened.

1) Oslo is not the most beautiful city, far from the most beautiful Norwegian city, but it is excellently situated and very easy to get around.
2)Everyone speaks English. I spent six months learning Norwegian before I left, and if you were to try it you would find it is really quite an easy language to learn, constructed very much like English. Practice rolling your tongue.
3)It is VERY expensive but also a young city and there would be lots of potential flatmates I'm sure. Also the main university (I'm assuming this is where your girlfriend is going) is massive and it looks like the students have an awful lot of fun.

Do it! DO IT FOR ME!

xxpost: It's not an incredibly beautiful city, no architectural wonders, but then again, it's certainly not an ugly city - it's very clean and cozy, with lots of nature.

It is quite expensive - on par with London. But then again, Norwegian wages are quite high as well. I found that Norwegian was a pretty easy language to learn, as long as you can actually find people that will speak it with you. Young people for the most part speak English pretty well, and always want to try it out on you.

As far as jobs go, I was a student and I got a part-time job at American Classics, a second hand shoppe in the centre of Oslo. Stop by [Grensen 9] and ask, they may be able to use some help. For a more serious job, check some of the job sites:
http://www.monster.no/
http://www.finn.no/jobb/
http://www.jobbnor.no/

Grünerløkka is the "hip" quarter (ie. gentrified working class area now student/boho hangout). "Løkka" is full of small cafes, shops, bars, green areas etc.

Yup, it's expensive. Booze and fags are heavily taxed so many buy cheap beer or wine (the 3 litre cartons of red wine did the trick for me) from the Vinmonopolet or supermarkets and get drinking before hitting the bars to save money.

Mostly though it's good for sport and activities in the wonderful surrounding countryside: fishing, lots and lots of fishing, rafting, canoeing, mountain hiking etc. In winter it's skiing, sleighing. And fishing. My god, the fishing.

There were quite a few Norweigan girls on my course at university. We used to do this with them (yes, we were in Sheffield, but we were also students...) Foreschpiel? Is that right? I know it's pretty similar to the word for foreplay (other fun fact: the Danish word for whore is the same as a Norweigan word for girlfriend, oh the hilarity that ensued etc.)

I remember that now! I think it's "Vorspiel" which might actually be a German word, I don't know what it literally means but the Norwegians used it as the name of the pre-piss-up piss-up.

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pretty serious looking explosion in govt buldings

One guess is it's related to this:

Norway charges radical cleric for death threats

(AP) – Jul 12, 2011

OSLO, Norway (AP) — A Norwegian prosecutor has filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he's deported from the Nordic country.

The indictment, obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, centers on statements that Mullah Krekar — the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam — made to various media, including American network NBC.

Norway ordered Krekar deported in 2005 after declaring him a national security threat, but the decision was suspended amid worries he would face execution or torture in Iraq.

At a news conference in June 2010, Krekar said that if he's deported to Iraq and is killed there, Norwegian officials would meet the same fate. He singled out former asylum policy minister Erna Solberg.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJ1T3qbtKpMPUw67TD7X5rTlwpWQ?docId=bac0246297764fc99cb097f616838f39

insane, looks like a huge explosion. windows out kilometers away from the blast. holy shit.

two dead confirmed so far.

fucking hell it really hits home when it's somewhere you were a few months ago

http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/TV2/archive/00896/Oslosmell6_896007i.jpg

Norway was the country of the mohammed comics, no?

senseless and horrible, double figures deaths you would imagine by the scale.

mohammed cartoons were in denmark

lol, ignorance.

link to grau live blog rather than just c/ping all the info on it - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jul/22/oslo-explosion-live-coverage

the cartoons were published in Norway too though along with most Scandinavian countries iirc

That bit about the Kurdish guy a few posts back seems to make more immediate sense more than the cartoons, still...

oh yes most likely so

and now NRK are reporting there's been shooting..!? WTF

a man dressed as a police officer apparently opened fire during a gathering for the social democratic party's youth organisation. not fucked up at all this.

hm i was updating the wrong thread it seems

what a nightmare

xpost -- The hell? Has there been weird government instability there this whole time or something?

Is Geir about to let us know what's happening fron a Norwegian perspective, and to check in that he's ok?

I'm in Norway, but not in Oslo so I don't have much to contribute, except I know a lot of people in newspapers around the bombed area. They've all checked in on my Facebook. Now the newspapers are all about this completely absurd situation of shooting on a tiny island where the labour party youth org is camping. Prime minister was scheduled to speak there tomorrow I think - clear connection to the PM/politics all around.

working at newspapers*

Looks like they're/he is after the PM who was (it's rumoured) due at the camp where the shootings happned/is happened.

fucking hell, the shooting's on an island and the kids on it are either refusing to talk for fear the shooter will find them, or trying to swim to the mainland

Sorry abcfsk! What you said...

This is a tiny island owned by the youth organisation.

Al-Q bomb plot there last year - not necessarily connected of course. Looked like those plots were aimed elsewhere.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10145737

at least five people hurt on the island. what a fucking nightmare.

4 reported killed at Utoya - but obviously not confirmed.

Multiple gunmen being reported now? Fucking hell.

Ned where are you picking that up?

one person said to be arrested at utøya now

haven't read anything about multiple shooters either

6.09pm: NRK is reporting that an unknown group called "Helpers of the Global Jihad" have posted a message that this is only the beginning of the reaction to Norwegian periodicals publishing the Muhammed cartoons, according to Andrew Boyle, a journalist in Norway.

assuming this is a "terrorist attack", it probably isn't a direct retaliation to the indictment posted upthread cuz these things usually take months to plan

Shooter has been identified as 'Nordic' apparently. Doesn't mean it's not connected to Islamic terrorism but might open up other possibilities.

gunman on utoya reported as being nordic and blond...so, not a jihad attack? or a muslim convert?

xp

guardian just posted this video of a "second explosion"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbCCR3YKnM8

crazy how it looks so similar to the screencap of the first, and how the people standing in front of the building don't move at all, and how there's no audio, and how it looks totally fake

sky news just assuming it's al-qaeda, i hear. rmde. along with this gem:

propagandaphoto

"We can hear the Norwegians talking whatever language it is they speak there." Kaye Burley #quote” How does she still have a job?
about 2 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

Crossed my mind it might not be a jihadist group but may be Norwegian Timothy McVeigh with a beef against the government.

Kaye Burley, unbelievable.

Seven deaths reported now

"We can hear the Norwegians talking whatever language it is they speak there." Kaye Burley #quote” How does she still have a job?
about 2 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

Why are Americans so bad at geography?

Guardian took the fake video down.

Dunno what to think about this blonde sniper thing.

Currently a bit chaotic.

My theory re the blonde sniper is he is some sort of mad racist who has gone out there to kill "naive" socialist politicians blaming them for the terrorist attack against Oslo. The Labour Party's youth organization is against the Afghanistan war, against the Libya war and against the Mohammed charicatures, so I don't exactly see them as a natural goal for Islamist terrorists.

Crossed my mind it might not be a jihadist group but may be Norwegian Timothy McVeigh with a beef against the government.

It has crossed my mind as well, however the attack against the government building seemed very professionally done, and with a very big bomb. Which makes it less likely.

so could the the bomb exploding and the shooting be unrelated? that is one hell of a coincidence

They could be easily related without having been coordinated by the same ppl, as Geir implies

Not exactly unrelated, as if this is some racist extremist, the terrorist bomb was probably what provoked him to do it. On the other hand, he must have planned it for some time as he had a police uniform and all.

Had not even occurred to me that the Utoya shooter might be REACTING to the bombing. Interesting thought. What was the time diff between the explosion and the shootings?

Acting Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim told broadcaster NRK that investigators suspect the bombing was linked to a shooting spree at the Labor Party's youth camp later Friday by a gunman in a police uniform.

Had not even occurred to me that the Utoya shooter might be REACTING to the bombing. Interesting thought. What was the time diff between the explosion and the shootings?

Around 2-3 hours, I believe.

well wait, wasn't the targeted building in oslo the PM's office? the PM...who's leader of the labour party.

Eye witness on Norway TV saying there's dozens of killed children? Is this true?

PM was going to the island tomorrow

Not kids exactly, late teens, early 20s. Sightings of dead people at waterfront and in the water around the island. Ugh.

Holy fucking hell! Whatever that was supposed to accomplish, it will certainly fuel a worldwide wave of revulsion toward anyone responsible. If this is al-Q, it seems utterly desperate and politically nonsensical.

bbc says eyewitness claims to have seen 20+ bodies at the camp

People have been escaping from the Island by swimming there, and it's quite a distance. Plus there are dangerous streams and apparently some kind of electric power supply underneath the water. So it is possible many have been killed because of that besides those who have been directly killed by the killer.

I know some of these details because I actually used to participate in this particular camp back in the 90s. I am very familiar with this island and this camp.

Wow. Thanks for that, Geir.

UPDATE 2:53 p.m. ET: NRK quotes police as saying they now suspect one or more bombs may be at the scene at Utoya.

also the guy opened fire w/ a machine gun, which is kind of insane

I heard it was a glock.

Not trolling, max, serious question: Given what we've seen over the last decade, it still bigoted to think that it's likely to turn out to be an Islamist thing? Not ruling out homegrown far right either, but it bears all the hallmarks of Jihadist organizations, and they've been pissed at Norway for a while.

"Bigoted" may be strong but it's generally best to find out who did something rather than assume someone did something and wait for confirmation.

Has Varg been accounted for?

i have seen something saying the shooter had a scoped rifle, can't remember where, don't think that's confirmed at this point

It's hard to imagine any good reasons to be angry at Norway. I can totally understand anti-U.S. sentiment, but hot the homicidal mindset.

I was honestly daydreaming about moving to Norway earlier this week, based on a vague idea that it's probably a more pleasant place than here.

I've never been but I have three friends who live in Oslo. They say it is beautiful and mellow but expensive as fuck all.

A terror group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, according to Will McCants, a terrorism analyst at C.N.A., a research institute that studies terrorism.

earlier today that had been characterized as a "group no one has ever heard of", i thought?

'Suspicious policeman' seen at bomb site 2 minutes before explosion. We can 'hope' for a lone lunatic being behind this.

I think McCants already walked back that report, saying that the group denied involvement.

Shocking photo with bodies on the island

christ.

Yeah, I think I will give that a miss :(

jesus

Un-fucking-real and too horribly real at the same time.

Multiple gunmen being reported now? Fucking hell.

― a more annuated ilx user (Ned Trifle II), Friday, July 22, 2011 4:51 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ned where are you picking that up?

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Friday, July 22, 2011 5:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

Yeah, sorry about that. It was just noise which I probably shouldn't have repeated. When these things kick off you never know what to believe and it becomes too easy to believe everything. Esp. with photos like that one above.

Why, is that photo a hoax?

Oh I see how you meant it now, nevermind

apparently the police are currently suggesting the bomber and shooter are the same person

CNN has began to go there too, and eyewitnesses describe him as tall, blonde, and Nordic-looking.

That is what I just heard too

xp

Yeah, wondering if the photo's genuine. CNN and BBC reporting 9 dead in the youth camp shooting.

an NRK reporter on CNN right now is saying that eyewitnesses are pegging the number of dead on the island closer to 20 or 30

The bomber and the shooter is probably the same person. That person (even though police aren't willing to confirm that) is blond and Scandinavian looking. The Labour Youth are against the charicatures and the Norwegian participating in Libya and Afghanistan. They have also recently spoken out in favour of boycotting Israel. Not neccessarily what you would expect to be first priority of jihadists. It seems more and more possible that we are speaking of a Norwegian Timothy McVeigh here (some Jihadists will of course take the "honour" for any terrorist attack against the west regardless)

she's saying that the shooter, dressed as a policemen, told the youths at the camp that he was going to speak to them about the bombings in oslo, and then he opened fire as they gathered

I think the police there have 'confirmed' 9 or 10 dead, but eyewitnesses are saying the count will be higher. CNN BBC only reporting what the police have confirmed.

A far right nutbag.

Wonder if News Corp is hacking phones of Oslo victims yet...

Too soon

hi Geir and other Norwegian ilxors, just want to say thanks for the info and hope all is ok with you & yours.

Norwegian tabloid journalist just told bbc that a police source thinks that this was the work of a "disturbed loner". he stressed that this was just a theory tho.

A terrorism expert tells the BBC that Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, a terror group that claimed responsibility for the explosion in Oslo, was not behind the attack.

\(o_O)/

How could a loner build a bomb that big?

Again, think McVeigh -- not alone but a pretty small group of people.

just seems too unbelievable this being the work of a single madman

Another shocking photo here

At least two of those ppl appear to be standing

yikes, there seem to be a number of bodies in the water

I wonder if any of them drowned :(

Live press conference now:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14254705

or there was..

you know setting off bombs is one thing but what kind of a person dresses up like a police officer, walks up to a group of teenagers/20yearolds and starts shooting? i just, i'm sorry but i don't get stuff like this fucking hell

Reuters
FLASH: #Oslo police say undetonated explosives found at island where gunman fired at youths #Utoya

how do we know that he wasn't a real police officer?

@runehak on Twitter, a Norwegian journalist, is bringing lots of updates. It's confirmed the suspect is ethnically Norwegian and 'speaks a dialect common around the area of Oslo'. And is (not surprisingly) 'willing to have a dialogue with the police'.

fair point, guess we don't xp

We do know he wasn't a real police officer (confirmed by police here).

ha yeah what the hell i realised just now watching the press conference with the chief of police he probably would have mentioned if he was a real police officer...

There was clarification that he was wearing not a police uniform but a sweater with the police emblem on it.

I heard it described as a "fake police uniform."

He also had a fake police ID card.

Norwegian TV has apparently named him as a 32-year-old, Anders Behring Breivik, with unspecified links to right-wing extremism.

ht dom p

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002651290254

You and Anders
The Shield

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik

Behring studied at the Oslo Handelsgymnasium, and is a self-described Christian. He maintaned a blog entitled "Fluxblog".[3]

Matt Perpetua is the shooter?!

He certainly likes vocal trance. It looks a world away from the Youtube channel of the guy in the Gifford shooting.

What? This Fluxblog seems not to exist. The citation was not relevant.

His Facebook profile is rather new, as his previous one was deleted for racist activity, apparently.

Er ist ja doch ganz Anders.....

I believe I see the fingerprints of our Dom himself in that Fluxblog ref

he's making me lol in heaven now

sorry i meant "tsk tsk that's awful"

BreakingNews Breaking News
Norwegian police say at least 80 killed in shootings at Utoeya camp - Reuters

jeeesus

is that the deadliest spree killing... ever?

fuck

Port Arthur killings were 35 and thats the biggest we've ever had. 80 is a lot, jesus.

Friend of mine is a journo, she's just interviewed someone who was shot (or shot at?) on the island. Guess that'll be on the wires soon.

fuck

stunned.

according to wikipedia, the deadliest spree killing ever had 57 victims, so this would obviously beat it by some margin...

I almost have to think he employed some secondary means in addition to gunfire... like, my mind just rebels at the thought of a guy actually shooting that many people...

yeah, i was gonna say, you have to wonder if a bomb actually did end up going off

i guess it's also possible some people drowned while trying to escape

Feel like maybe this should have its own thread? Like maybe a more tourist-oriented thread shouldn't be marred by tragedy. Possible to move the relevant posts to a separate thread? Mods?

yeah, i think so too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IippcraBPKA

by the time we got to oslo, the snow was gone.

sitting here in San Francisco on vacation it seems unreal about these horrible things happening at home :-/ Selfishly speaking, it seems noone I know are killed or hurt; thoughts for those who aren't that fortunate...

this is unspeakable. how can a person do something like this?

only someone totally mentally unhinged would be able to carry this sort of thing through alone. members in a group would tend to reinforce one another, but mass killing by oneself is just a nut case.

The facebook page is down, but here's a screen cap:

http://www.solidprinciples.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Anders-Behring-Breivik-FACEBOOK.pdf

He looks like a male model.

o shit, sorry for posting that low clip. highly inappropriate, given the circumstances. it was the first thing that occurred to me when I saw the word "oslo."

Feel like maybe this should have its own thread?

Yeah I was going to say, whats with the strange habit here lately of reviving innocuous nice threads to start up a slightly related but usually awful different topic? Seems a bit weird.

As long as we're allowing a brief derail from this horrible story: do many people on ILX really post whatever comes to mind when they read a thread title, without reading the conversation within at all? Seems strange to me.

Suspect dude looks like a blond david duchovny :/ Quite jarring.

Just heard on local news that 7 died in the explosion, and he killed at least 80 on the island.

Oh no waking up to this new number, shit shit shit. This is so many magnitudes bigger than anything this country has been through before I'm not sure people are able to process it.

Has there been a history of this kind of right-wing violence in Norway in recent years? Obviously not in magnitude, but in terms of rhetoric and action?

Oh no waking up to this new number, shit shit shit. This is so many magnitudes bigger than anything this country has been through before I'm not sure people are able to process it.

― abcfsk, Saturday, July 23, 2011 3:00 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah they said on CNN that the country doesn't have the capability to deal w/ this many deaths in one day

xp No, isolated cases, few and far between. A big hate crime thing in 2001 but only one kid was killed. This is more out of the blue than an international terrorist attack would be.

Just saw the latest news and figured it was time for a new thread: 2011 Oslo/Utoeya Norway attacks

Has there been a history of this kind of right-wing violence in Norway in recent years?

The neo nazis have been seen as rather pathetic bunch of losers. They did a few violent acts back in the 80s though, killed one person by dropping a bomb at a 1st May parade and later one Muslim dropped a bomb at a mosque. But these were minor occurences compared to what happened yesterday. Also, Anders Behring Brevik was apparently not a nazi, rather used to be a member of the youth party of the Progress Party, which is a sort of "legitimate" right wing party attracting between 15 and 25 per cent of the votes.

It angers me that the immediate media response was "omg islamic extremists" to this, like thats the ONLY terrorism that exists in the world now.

wow difficult to resume the tourism talk on this thread - but any recommendations on what to do in Oslo for the weekend? I've been already a couple of times a long time ago - my priority is to see the new opera house, but any tip would be most welcome! I've heard something about an incredible sculpture park, does it ring a bell?

Tomorrow's the constitution day, so if you're there for that, well, expect crowds!

The sculpture park is Vigelandsparken.
Euh, I dunno what else is worth seeing there, to be honest. The castle's not very exciting, but it's close by that park, and at any rate right at the end of the major shopping street (Karl Johan)
There's the Munch museum, of course.

For a pretty good overview of cultural arrangements, go see the underskog website. I guess you should go through google translate (link to get a better idea of what some of those arrangements are.

As I don't live there anymore, I haven't any good idea of what's going on these days. I see there's gonna be naked yoga on the beach though!

yeah I'm partly going for 17 maj - I expect crowds and good-natured patriotism - will cafe and bars be open?

Yes, but probably crowded.

thinking about going to oslo in march. madness?

It's a bit grey and ugly in march.

try the pickled herring. it will fit your mood. and if it doesn't fit your mood, it will change your mood, so that your mood will fit it.

I've been in March and I ate whale, it was great

Weird, I just got off the phone with my dad, who asked if I'd be interested in going to Norway with him (and my brother) in May. Think I'm gonna do it.

May's the best time to go

Most expensive city.

tbh it's not terribly interesting - the great thing about Norway is the nature/landscapes, not the cities.
As far as Scandi cities go, Stockholm and Copenhagen are far more worth your time (bigger as well). In Norway itself, I'd try to check out quaint little Bergen (if you can do take the Oslo-Bergen train ride which is a 7 hour summary of all that Norway has to offer)

thinking about going to oslo in march. madness?

― ||||||||, Monday, 23 February 2015 bookmarkflaglink

Going in January

I never wanted to live anywhere as much as I did after I visited Oslo once (and it was during a cold autumn). Crazy expensive, but everyone knows that. Enjoy!

The coffee and bun opportunities look tremendous.

Might even go to a sauna

Coffee and bun is good.

Had a Munch cookie at the Munch museum.

Found an excellent Trattoria last night.

Sauna later today.

The sauna + swim in the fjords is a reason to come just by itself.

You munched a Munch cookie?

Yup. The cookie was plastered with some lines in chocolate that look like the weird guy from the painting.

The painting = the scream

They've missed a trick not having The Scream Ice Cream.

Good timing. Yesterday was the snowiest day since 1998.

Yeah it has been really amazing. And funny to walk in all of that snow and muck.

Didn't realize it was unusual thought it happened every year!

Weird, I just got off the phone with my dad, who asked if I'd be interested in going to Norway with him (and my brother) in May. Think I'm gonna do it.

― Tove Lo Tove You Baby (jaymc), Monday, February 23, 2015 9:48 PM (nine years ago) bookmarkflaglink

This was a fun trip! And one I think of fondly because it's the last time I spent that much time with my dad, who passed away a few years later. We did Oslo and Bergen, with a fjord cruise in between.

Don't miss the Vigeland sculpture park.

Coincidentally made one late afternoon visit just an hour ago. Its amazing, lots of great views of Oslo too.

Brown cheese is great. But coffee shop really like to sell it a bit.

The quality of the bread here is second to none. The sandwiches are fantastic and they really cater to veggie tastes too.

The Vigeland garden wiki mentions 'Nazi aesthetics' but its lack of connection to antiquity made me ambivalent. It gives a weird experience.

Best 'The Scream' version is in the National Museum, not the Munch museum btw

best version was iced onto the biscuit alphie already ate

For coffee I found Tim Wendelboe was fine, but the shop is trendy and in a cool neighbourhood, so if you're into coffee you might like it. There's a food hall near there (Mathallen?), with a well-known duck sandwich that was delicious...

Public transportation is very nice. We took a tram to Holmenkollen (the ski jump area). You can take an elevator to the top, with nice views of Oslo.

Was looking at Tim Wendleboe but just ran out of time. Am about to depart back home.

--

Best 'The Scream' version is in the National Museum, not the Munch museum btw

― abcfsk, Thursday, 9 January 2025 bookmarkflaglink

Sure was aware. Only had time for one museum and it had to be that one. It has three versions in Munch museun, one of which was the sketch which I really liked.

He made some bizarre bigger paintings, one of which was like the Vigeland tall column of these figures.

The paintings from 1890s to 1910s was great.