My first visit to Oslo part 1

I left work a little early to ensure we had enough time at the airport - didn't want a repeat of the Istanbul stress. Without any kerfuffle, we were on board and up in the air. We seemed especially high, with a glorious sun setting underneath cauliflower clouds. As the clouds began to separate, we could see thinner clouds (I suck at correctly identifying nimbus from cirrocumulus) and then darkness below. It was super bright up in the clouds. It didn't feel like we were heading to a capital city, but closer to something on the edge of the world. As we descended form the upper echelons, the clouds didn't disappear and even as we approached the runway, it was just trees and mist surrounding us. Our Airbnb host Petter picked us up from Sentral station as it was already 11.30pm. The airport train was super quick and swanky. As we drove the apartment, Petter pointed out a few things to us, and on arrival, took us up to the roof to check out the panorama views in the dark - it still helped us get our bearings. It was very peaceful up there - we were 20 minutes walk out of town - and we could see the ski jump Holmenkollen in the distance. Petter also mentioned that he has a lot of coffee enthusiasts staying in his place as there is a local guy called Tim (will find his full name) who has won the World Barista Championships - I don't drink coffee but still a good factoid. 

The apartment

  

The next morning we had breakfast  and headed out for a wander around the local area. We were staying very close to Our Saviour's Cemetery (Var Frelsers Gravlund), we walked past the wooden houses of Telthusbakken to the Akerselva River past bridges and waterfalls till we got to the main road. We looped back through Grunnerlokka (the trendy area apparently), Bergfjerdingen (more colourful wooden houses) and into the cemetery where we visited Munch's grave. We had lunch on the roof and chilled for a little in the sun before heading to the festival we were in Oslo for: Øya Festival. 

View from the roof

I was attempting to do the opera house on the way to the festival but we didn't have time. As we were trying to establish where we got our passes from, we wandered into the artist area (secure), we could hear Mount Kimbie soundchecking but didn't have much luck. We got in the main entrance queue and I called one of the festival team who were handling International stuff. We got in but missed all but one of Kimbie's set : (

Found our friends sitting on some hammocks and listened to Tame Impala from this sweet spot. It was then time for Wu Tang prep, it was the first time I had seen them, and they kept on bringing out more of the Clan as the set progressed. Blur were headlining and played a hits-heavy set - which is what I like for a festival headline act. They ended up on Song 2 in the encore of course. 

We headed to our friend's apartment for some drinks before heading to the Mykki Blanco/One Man Øya Natt show at Sukkerbiten. It was a cool venue, almost a container city on the edge of the desert but you're actually on the water's edge of the city. It wasn't very busy and it was getting late so we headed home as One Man came on.

Sunset on day 1 of the festival

Walking alongside the opera house

Sukkerbiten

All photos my own.