Summer is a beautiful time in Oslo. During our stay the sun has shone nearly every day. The air is crisp. the days are pleasantly warm, and the nights pleasantly cool. It is utterly perfect for recovering Floridians, and we are outside as much as possible! Even though we’ve noticed the days getting shorter, it’s still almost 16 hours between sunrise and sunset.
And boy are the natives taking advantage of it! You can’t go anywhere in Oslo without seeing huge numbers of people sitting outside at restaurants, coffee shops, and bars, soaking up the sun (and often, the sunburn: Norway has the fifth highest skin cancer rates in the world). When we walk through parks and gardens, we see tons of other people, parents and children included. And of course there are dogs everywhere. Since the July holidays ended, we’ve had to fight to get tables at all of ‘our’ spots.
We’ve really been enjoying the being outside too. Oslo, like many European cities, has lots of attractive public spaces. We’ve already talked about Vigeland (which sits in a beautiful park) and the Botanical Garden, and we’ll soon post about Ekeberg high up in the city. Vigeland and Ekeberg are not only parks but also sculpture parks, something they seem to like quite a lot here in Oslo. Even the old cemetery has ample benches; we see people enjoying themselves outside there too.
In fact, we haven’t seen a single park or public space, no matter how small, that does not have some piece of art in it, and often more than one. There are always benches as well, and there are people young and old sitting out on them. You may remember the post of our walk along the Akerselva, where we could hardly go a few hundred feet without seeing some sort of green area to sit down in and contemplate the beauty around us.
Speaking of water, the Osloites (yes, that’s the toponym) immerse themselves at the drop of a hat. Whether it’s in small ‘beaches’ along the harbour or in recesses along the rivers, we see people in the water from sunup to sundown. Some are swimming, a few are fishing, and others are kayaking. And oh, yes, the dogs love being outside in the water too!
We suspect that this frenzy of outside-ness may have something to do with what is coming. While Olso has about 16 hours of daylight now, there will be a point in the winter where it has as few as 6 hours, and that darkness will be accompanied by some serious cold. So we think that people are trying to enjoy what they have while they have it. We’re really pleased to be enjoying it along with them. Also, we’re not un-pleased to be moving on before the sun goes in.
That said, we could be wrong. Norwegians don’t seem to mind the cold that much. We have several times heard the phrase “no dårlig vær, bare dårlig klær,” (no bad weather; only bad clothing), and that seems to exemplify the general attitude. And they certainly have the right clothing to be outside in all temperatures: we’ve seen dozens and dozens of shops selling rain gear, camping gear, gear for ice-fishing; you name it. We are almost-tempted to come back in the winter, equipped with the right clothing. Almost.
