Relaxing

As part of the Myrens sports center in Oslo, where you can also try climbing, squash or regular gym training, the golf simulator is a lazier and more cozy alternative to the outdoors activity where at times you need to travel long distances to locate the tiny golf ball.

But here we had to, at most, dig it out from under the ‘walls’ (think of them as curtains). There is a wide screen representing the gold bane, where the computer is projecting the terrain, nature, obstacles, etc. We had the regular selection of clubs, could define difficulty levels and adjust some weather settings and there were different surfaces for normal grass, taller grass or sand. And once the settings were in place, one of us would hit the ball and the sensors in the room calculate its speed and trajectory and place it on the track. After hitting the ball, you simply go back to the table and grab a snack (we ate very good tapas) or a drink and that’s as sporty as you get.

So this is definitely not for those too much into the game, but rather for some relaxed time and it could even be perfect for an opening mini party to an event. Especially since it doesn’t require you to carry any equipment with you. Everything can be found there, you just have to bring along a lot of good mood.

If passionate about reptiles, insects, if interested to see a feeding session for one of the snakes or the alligator, a little time in the Oslo Reptilpark would satisfy your curiosity.

It is located at short walking distance from the National Museum. It is not a huge park if the name has inspired you that. It is more or less some wide rooms of a house in the neighborhood, which has been decorated with plenty of glass aquariums, bigger or smaller, depending on the size of the inhabitants.

There are about 80, but the owners plan to add more to the current collection of snakes, spiders, frogs, tarantulas, fishes, the cayman Brutus, Charlie the iguana and the talking parrot Junior. I personally had the chance to interact with Charlie and hear him say few sounds that might have been words and little singing. I also enjoyed watching how he eats nuts and breaks them with the big beak.

Every Tuesday at 17:00 the animals are fed and the public can assist this event. I was brave enough and get to hold one of the snakes while its cage was cleaned or refreshed. Felt quite sneaky. And you get the chance to handle the food to the reptiles yourself.

If it’s your birthday or coming with a big group, send them a mail at kontakt@reptilpark.no and you might get a discount. The group discounts are listed here.

A 1.5 hours trip in a traditional sailing ship that picks you up from the touristic harbor in the city center, right by the City Hall (same pier as the boat leaving to Bigdøy, just on the other side) and slowly takes you to see the interesting Opera house, you go through the main islands close to the city harbor and then the last stop is at Bigdøy, the area hosting famous Oslo museums such as The Vikingship museum, Folk museum, Fram museum or the maritime museum. You can obviously step off (or on) at any of these locations if you desire.

But I personally recommend a full trip in the boat since it’s a rather relaxing experience to sit on the deck (mainly with good friends around) and simply enjoy the view and the fresh breeze. If lucky, the warm sun as well. Another bonus offered by such a cruise is that it allows you to view the objectives mentioned above, and also the Akershus Castle (check the Akershus castle article), from totally different angles than what the shore offers.

It was also a lot of fun to wave at people who were either getting fried under the warm sun on the islands or spending some time on the deck of those huge cruise boats that we passed by.

I have personally never been much into martial arts until one day when a friend asked me if I want to come and try Kung fu (Chinese martial arts) for free. I think accepting the invitation was one of the best things I ever did.

This is how I started training with the Nofødra club in Oslo, a club offering Kung fu classes three times a week,  for all levels. The trainer has been practicing martial arts for 20 years now and it’s one of the best sport trainers I encountered. I think that his skills, both sport wise and social wise, led to a very cool and pleasant collective of people to train with. Besides the hard physical work at every single training session, work that teaches you a lot of interesting techniques and body moves, there is always plenty of good mood among the people in the group. This makes every effort seem lighter and the trainings are really enjoyable.

The club offers trainings Mondays, Tuesdays and Friday afternoons in three different locations in Oslo (check the website for details), mainly around the Sogn area. It is free to try at first and then it’s rather cheap compared to most of the monthly sport subscriptions I know of in Oslo. 

Tuesdays it started offering one hour of Qi Qong & Tai Chi, which make for a nice and relaxing addition to the actual Kung Fu practice and of course, you can only join this class if not interested in Kung Fu.

Some of the most common images in the postcards from Oslo are with sculptures from Vigeland park. It is part of the Frogner park, covering about 320,000m2 and hosting 212 bronze sculptures realized by Gustav Vigeland. These works of art reside along an 850 meter-long axis divided into six sections: Main Gate, Bridge, Children’s Playground, Fountain, Monolith Plateau and Wheel of Life. You can read about the meaning of each on the park’s website.

Each sculpture depicts people performing different actions, all together being part of a Cycle of life that the author has visioned. The statues are playing, running, dancing, jumping, hugging but few of the statues have a bit of an abstract touch.

Besides admiring the statues, I enjoy sitting in the grass, having a barbecue, playing various ball or card games, trying to walk on a rope, walk around the beautifully arranged roses or feed the ducks by the river. Occasionally, I spotted people training for various ‘sports’, from skate boarding, roller blading to fancier fire eating or one wheel bikes driving.

The Vigeland Museum is situated south of the Vigeland Park and as their website states, the majority of the Museum’s exhibition space is a presentation of Vigeland’s oeuvre. The museum represents the studio where Vigeland worked until 1943 and is currently hosting various art exhibitions, besides the artist’s sculptures, wood-works, drawings and books. In the mausoleum, which has an amazing acoustic, they host concerts that are listed on the museum’s website.