Oslo Trip Recap: Day 4

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I hope you’ve been following along with my recap of  our trip to OsloIf not, check out the links below to see what you missed.  We took it a bit easier during Day 4 of what should’ve been the last day of our trip.

We got in one last museum visit with the Oslo Pass before heading back to the City Center. We wandered around a bit before picking up an awesome lunch to take back to our hotel. After relaxing for a bit we headed out to visit an interesting neighborhood.

Here is what we did:

  • Visited the Museum of Cultural History (Norwegian Folk Museum)
  • Some play time for Lucas
  • Tried out some local Freia chocolates
  • An awesome seafood lunch
  • Wandered around Grunerlokka 

IMG_0738We had debated whether or not it was worth heading back to the Bygdoy peninsula to visit one more museum. After our visit we were definitely glad that we did.

The Norwegian Folk Museum is not your typical museum. It is an open-air museum which has over 150 traditional houses & buildings from all around the country showing the culture and history of Norway’s many regions and cities. 

The most famous building, the Gol Stave Church (show above) dates to the 1200s.

IMG_0745We weren’t able to go into many of the buildings but were able to peek inside a few. It was interesting to see how the houses went from a single room with a fireplace in the middle to homes with multiple rooms. There was also an apartment building which still was furnished like it would’ve been when lived in years back.

A few indoor displays were also worth checking out. One building was dedicated to the Sami people while another had a variety of items on display related to the history of Norway. A couple of favorites were the weapons room and the displays related to traditional sweaters. Yes, the info inside varied that much!

We were told that when it is warm out, there is staff dressed in traditional clothes and also a variety of events are held at the museum. Visiting the museum in the winter had its advantages. There were hardly any other people there and Lucas had a great time running around in the snow.

I’d definitely recommend a visit to the Norwegian Folk Museum!
IMG_0765We passed by a really cute toy store a few times while on the bus and wanted to  do something fun for Lucas so we had to pay a visit. After finishing at the museum we got off the bus and ended up wandering around a good 20 minutes before finding it!

Lucas had a lot of fun and it was also a good place to warm up. He found his way into a little wooden play house and had so much fun that he didn’t want to come out! Offering him a couple of different toys didn’t really do the trick so Kim had to crouch down and go inside to get him!

To reward Lucas for being such a good little traveler, we got him a cute but over-priced wooden toy car.

IMG_0770Kim, Lucas and I love trying local chocolate when we travel. We had read about Freia prior to getting to Norway and happened to pass by its only store during the first day. When we passed by again, it was closed so we figured if there was time we would stop by another time.

After wandering around a bit, we ended up a block or two from the store so we stopped in. Freia had lots of variety- dark & milk chocolate as well as bars and small pieces of flavored chocolates.

I wasn’t overly impressed with Freia’s flavored chocolates but the plain chocolate was very good.

FYI- We found out that Freia’s factory will be opening for tours in the near future.

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We wanted to try some good seafood in Norway without breaking the bank and Fiskeriet was the perfect place to grab a meal. We came across it online and it was also recommended to us by the tourism office.

After walking a few blocks from our hotel, I happened to notice some dried fish hanging in a shop window. When I looked at the sign, it happened to be the place we were hoping to visit during our trip.
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Fiskeriet is a seafood market as well as a small dine-in restaurant. You can also take food to-go from a limited menu.

We decided to take food to go since the dining area was relatively small and prices were cheaper to take out.

We ordered fish & chips and a fishcake. The fish & chips orders were huge but amazing at the same time. The fish tasted fresh as can be and the breading had a sweetness to it which made for a pretty unique flavor. The fishcake was very dense and tasty but the texture was a bit odd.

The meal was so filling that we ended up hanging around our hotel in the basement lounge area for much longer than expected. We also didn’t bother to have dinner since we had such a filling, late lunch.

I’d definitely recommend a visit to Fishkeriet. I would’ve liked to have had a chance to dine in and try some of the other offerings from their menu.
IMG_0789It was recommended to go and visit some of the different neighborhoods in Oslo but we only had time to really visit one.

Grunerlokka is kind of like the “Williamsburg” of Oslo- artsy, with lots of good dining options. We planned to visit the area and have dinner at one of the restaurants but we were way too full from our tasty lunch.

We ended up being able to walk to Grunerlokka from our hotel, which took around 15-20 minutes. On the way we passed some parks and squares before seeing lots of restaurants, boutiques and street art.

The area seemed pretty cool but I couldn’t see the need to visit here unless you planned on grabbing something to eat.

That’s all for our fourth day in Oslo. Check back for a post about the 5th day of our trip which only happened due to being stuck in Oslo thanks to an approaching winter storm.

Find out more about the rest of our trip:

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