Oslo is a great city! It has all the excitement and energy of a bustling, big city, but is geographically condensed enough that even I, who am navigationally challenged, can find my way around pretty easily. Most of the buildings are intact from the previous century and have the grandeur, beauty, and history of old Europe. People are constantly out and about filling the parks, trails, streets, cafés, pubs and clubs. There’s even enough of a pulse at 5am to keep the prostitutes in pretty purses (they look at me like I’m a looney as I run by).
Oslo is very child friendly. Below: leaving our apartment building for a bike ride (before Niklas’ bike was stolen–see further below)…
There’s always something going on in the city whether it’s an environmental fair, marathon, movie or music festival, you name it, it’s happening in Oslo. On this particular walk, we ran into a city wide bike race and got a free ride in a hot air balloon! 
The Norwegian Royal Family lives in this castle (background below) which is surrounded by a huge park. It is about a 10 minute bike ride from our apartment.
Below is the Norwegian Crown Princess, Mette-Marit. We stood less than 5 feet from her as she chatted with a couple of marathon runners after her own run (she’s the blond). If she had security, they were skilled at being inconspicous since I have a highly attuned radar for picking up clear plastic coils emergerging from ears or people talking into their sleeves. In fact, I saw just this combination the other day at the gym and asked ever so innocently (in English to give me more leeway) who was in the building, but it was just the American Ambassador…why he needs that kind of security detail when the Crown Princess doesn’t is bizarre.
I had become enamored with Oslo’s charm, thinking it quite quaint when, while waiting for a bus one day, Joakim picked up a syringe with needle in tact and said, “look what I found, mom!” Of course I properly freaked out and immediately instituted the no picking things up from the ground rule. After instituting this rule, we had to amend it because the kids love picking things up from the ground so much. New, new rule: only pick up things if you have a plastic bag ready and only trash, no dangerous substances!
Niklas’ bike was stolen from the inside yard of our building which also helped splinter our impractical and inappropriate image of nicey, nicey Norway. Truth be told, he did leave it unlocked and bike crime is normally about as grim as it gets so in that respect, it is still very “nice” here.
For example, Norwegian drivers will stop if you so much as glance across the road as if you are contemplating crossing. Sometimes I feel bad if I’m not in a hurry and know they are, say if it’s during rush hour traffic. I want to carry a sign that says, “seriously, please go ahead, I’ll wait for a break between cars” if I’m not near a signaled crossing. But if you try to wave them on, you’ll just cause an accident because they won’t budge and the cars start piling up behind them.
It’s a Norwegian custom that I genuinely love when I’m with the kids because I know the drivers are looking out for them. It’s also a Norwegian custom that I find frustrating when I let the kids run a long way ahead trying to give them a sense of independence. I have been yelled at on more than one occassion to mind my children better. It’s really that the kids tie up traffic since everyone stops to accommodate them not knowing our rule that they have to wait for me in order to cross the big streets…
Overall, Oslo is a phenomenal city and I don’t say that lightly. It has so much to offer and I promise concrete examples in another post…
Moes in Oslo 