June 22, 2023
Down day in Oslo
Enjoying all 19 hours of daylight in Norway's capital
I woke up in the hostel room at about 4:00am, with the sun blasting into the window. The three old men below me were still snoring like crazy. I tossed and turned, adjusted the hood on my sun hoodie to block out light, but I could not fall back to sleep. I got up at 5:00 and decided to begin my day. The first thing on my agenda was to charge my phone. I had misplaced my phone charger (which I later found), and needed to buy a new one so I could use google maps and google translate (both are lifesavers here). I found a shell station food mart that was open early, and rode down there on my bike. They had the charger I was looking for. While I was there I noticed that Norwegians sell wiper fluid in plastic bags instead of jugs. Also, all deodorant is roll-on here, no stick or gel type.
After returning to the hostel and plugging in my phone and charger pack, I then focused on tuning up my bike. My derailleurs had gotten jostled around during the flight and needed to be adjusted. I did this in the back lawn of the hostel, which overlooked downtown Oslo.
After fixing up my bike it was now 7:00am, and the hostel was serving free breakfast. The HI Haraldsheim had an interesting mix of demographics, both old and young people, families and friend groups, and even what appeared to be a school group of some sort. There were very few solo-travellers however, so I ended up eating at a long table by myself. Again, I noticed how culturally quiet the Norwegians are. In a dining hall packed with people, it was unnaturally quiet. People were talking, but it seems that when everyone speaks softly, there is no need to engage in a volume-increasing arms race in order to be heard.
Anyway, breakfast was quite gourmet for a free hostel breakfast. Fresh bread with Norwegian soft cheese and cold cuts were the main focus. There were also pickled vegetables to go with it. I tanked up on free calories/protein and ate 3 sandwiches.
I stayed at the hostel for a couple more hours organizing my belongings and attempting to dry my laundry from the night before and finish charging my devices. I also was planning my itinerary for the day.
After looking through the top ten things to do on Trip Advisor, nothing was really catching my attention. The norse folk museum looked cool, but reviews were saying you need the better part of a day to see it properly, which I did not want to spend. I decided instead to ride my bike to Oslo's ski jump, Midstubakken. Here skiers with more balls than I can imagine practice on a wetted-down plastic slope for long jump skiing. I watched about 6 nutcases jump as I ate my lunch.
The ride up to Midstubakken was incredible, bike paths and gravel roads led me to an alpine-feeling ski resort area, only minutes from downtown Oslo. I met a woman along the way who commended me for riding uphill with my loaded bike. She was Norwegian, but had spent 20 years living in Durango, Colorado.
I then decided to ride to Huk, a beach on the Oslofjord, only a few kilometers on gravel roads through birch forests from Downtown Oslo. Huk is known for being Oslo's nude beach, and also it's most scenic, close-by nature reserve. Half the beach is nude, and half is not. Both sides of the beach were packed. The sun was out and it was about 80 degrees, and humid. The water was surprisingly warm (I later found out on a ferry to Langøyene it was 22C, or 71F). Also, side note, the fjord water is salty, but far less salty than the ocean water I'm used to. The nude side wasn't giving me weird vibes, so I decided to go for a swim there and keep my clothes dry.
My next mission was to find dinner. I wanted to eat at an authentic Nowegian place without spending 1000+krona ($100 usd) (yes, lots of places on google maps in Oslo are marked in this price bracket, fine dining has a large presence here). The place I found was packed and had a long wait when I got there, so I instead went to a kabob shop across the street. 180NOK (about $18) got me three kabobs with rice and vegetable fixings, and it was delicious.
I then made my way to my final destination for the night: Langøyene. Literally translating to "Long Islands", the island was originally two long narrow islands separated by a shallow stretch of water. This shallow stretch was filled in to make one large island. Langøyene is an island in Oslofjord about 20 minutes by ferry from downtown Oslo (which, by the way, leaves from a different ferry terminal that Google maps says). Your best bet for finding ferry schedules is by looking up "B2 ferry" on the Ruters app. There were a few other groups of campers on the ferry with me.
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I cannot believe that a place like this exists. The island is a free-to-use pristine campground with full amenities. Spotless bathrooms with flush toilets, trash cans, mowed meadows. I arrived at the island exhausted around 7:00pm, and convinced myself I would be social with everyone after a short nap. Many people my age were hanging out at the beach/playing volleyball. "They're young, they'll be up til midnight" I thought. When I woke up at 8:30, everyone had settled into camp and gone to sleep, despite it being broad daylight. So instead I got on my bike and explored the island. I found a north facing rock to watch the sunset from, then took a dip in the fjord by jumping off a platform set up on the end of a dock. The sun went below the mountains around 10:15pm, but I didn't go to bed until proper dusk around midnight.
Today's ride: 20 miles (32 km)
Total: 52 miles (84 km)
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