Happy 2026

The last day of the year and here we were in Oslo with no idea what to do or expect, there is a distinct lack of information to be found online. So our plan, such as it was, was to wander into town and just see what the day had in store.
First impressions of Oslo is that although it is a capital city it is a fairly small city, and not one that is overrun with tourists which is nice. So we strolled along the road towards town laughing at humourous Norwegian names and words and just being quite chill and eventually arrived at the Royal Palace which is a large but not particularly attractive building overlooking the town centre. We watched the guards in their silly hats march about with their semi-automatic rifles very randomly, it looked like they were still learning what they had to do as they seemed about 16 years old. Then we continued to meander through the Christmas markets, which like most these the world over, consisted of stalls selling crappy, overpriced food. The girls had a Korean corn dog, which we are happy to report consisted more of corn than dog. As we didn’t have a plan we started to vaguely think about where we could get some lunch as we minced about, although there was no great urgency.
It was quite cold though, especially when on one of the streets that didn’t get any sun at all, so our urgency was growing slightly. We passed on a few options, including Max Burger, and carried on. Sometimes when walking around a new city you just take a wrong turn, or head in the wrong direction, without even realising and end up walking away from your options. This is what happened to us as we decided to walk around some of the waterfront area. Our options dwindled from a low base and the ice floating on the water gave a good indication of how cold it was. We did try a few places but for various reasons none was quite right, including Jess being called a liar in a Subway. At one point on our walk, as the cold was really setting in there was a gentle thwack on my arm, one of the local seagulls had felt it necessary to dump a load of good luck on me. This at least lifted everyone’s spirits. After an hour or so of walking we started to recognise some of the shops and found ourselves outside Max Burger which seemed like a good choice. It certainly was passable.
After food we were all feeling a bit more energised and Lily had found something called the Nordic Pixel Forest, basically a light installation hanging in the trees in a city park, and as it was starting to get dark this was a perfect choice. As we wandered through the park we thought that it had a good view of the city and would be a good place to return to at midnight to view whatever fireworks were going on. The pixel forest itself was very impressive, the changing colours of the hanging lights made for some good photos in the otherwise dark park. It was one of those good discoveries where you don’t expect much, there isn’t really much to it, and yet it inspires amazement and leaves you feeling good.
A tram home followed, we had a few hours to kill before we needed to head out for dinner so we just took it easy in the apartment. As we were going to be out late in the cold we needed to layer up, so we all had thermals under our clothes which we hoped would do the trick and keep us warm. We had a reservation at a Lebanese restaurant in central Oslo, we weren’t sure what to expect, but choice was fairly limited, so many places just weren’t open, which seemed strange to us given it was New Year’s Eve. The restaurant was busy and the food was very tasty, although for 13€ I was expecting my pint to have some sort of magical qualities, however it turned out to be just a regular beer.
With a bit of time to kill before midnight we needed to find something to do that would keep us warm and the boys had seen a frozen pond earlier where people were ice skating and they thought this would be good fun to walk on. It was slightly disconcerting at first, a little slippery and you really have to put your faith in the solidity of the ice. All the young ‘uns had no problem and were busy sliding around, including some full body slides, boys are so silly.
After this it was time to head back up the hill to the view point we had found earlier, we had about 30 minutes to spare and it was starting to fill up. The view was awesome and we could see the whole city and there were just random fireworks going off across the city, nothing was organised it was just people letting off fireworks, including on the hill behind us. It was non-stop the whole time we were there and it just kept building up and up as midnight approached. Eventually the countdown arrived, it was quite haphazard as there was no official clock anywhere but I think I timed my New Year’s kiss to perfection. There was no let up in the fireworks, they just kept going and I think it was one of the best fireworks displays I have ever seen, the lack of organisation just meant that everywhere we looked there were fireworks going off, easily more than a hundred locations. The description and the photos probably don’t do it justice but the only word that truly describes it is ‘spectacular’. After a while they did start to slow down and we were all fireworked out so we headed for home. The tram stop was rammed full of people so we decided to walk and as did it started gently snowing giving everything a cover of whiteness, it was the perfect end to what had been a very cool and unexpected day. Happy New Year!Read more