Volcanoes in Oslo's green calm

This is part two of three. You can read the other posts here and here.

Vi hittade en rundtur lite av en slump som de kallar ”Alternative Culture and Street Food Tour” och det visade sig vara en lyckträff.

The tour begins with a walk through Oslo's green lung, which got its name from the green area that runs along the Akerselva. The river is approx. 10 km long, starting at Maridalsvannet in Nordmarka and exiting in the Oslofjord. In the past, the river was an important source of power for the city's industries, but this also led to the water becoming unusable due to all the pollution. In the 80s it was decided to clean up the area and today it is a beautiful environmental park with no less than 22 waterfalls and 23 bridges.

Some of the old industrial buildings also remain. Perhaps the most distinctive of them is Vulkan Jernstøberi, which was rebuilt into The food hall, Oslo's first market hall. The redevelopment was part of a redevelopment project to bring life to the district and which resulted in what they call ”en liten by i byen, et sanselig univers og levende møtepunkt for mat, kultur og opplevelser”.

In other words, there is a big focus on culture and food, but there are also other things such as e.g. the Nordics' first Scandic hotel that is completely self-sufficient in energy, clubs, shops, housing in all its forms and House of Nerds... 🙂

The tour was also filled with interesting and slightly different facts about the area. We got e.g. learn why the Catholic Church worked to ban hot dog sales and how the city funded a major street art project to give people in the poor neighborhood something meaningful to do. Somewhat unexpectedly, they also received a collection of unique and exciting art. It also laid the foundation for the many artists and cultural workers in the district. Before Grünerløkka became a hipster area, it had been so rough that taxis didn't dare go there and people were advised not to stay out after dark.

We also learned that if you occupy a house in Norway for twenty years and no one claims the property during that time, the right passes to the occupier. The house at the beginning of the post is an example of this. Incidentally, it was a very outspoken guide and we may have to save the slightly more colorful stories for another forum or if you take the trip yourself... 😉

In addition to various art projects, there is also an exciting house project for students where they converted an old silo into cheap apartments. In the lower picture you also see the associated farm, Lower Foss, which used to be a farm but which now instead houses a restaurant, café, wine bar, brewery bar, cocktail bar and microbrewery.

Up on some of the houses is another project that aims to create better conditions for bees through meadow flowers and beehives. Below we see the beehives at Dansens Hus, which has both concerts and dance performances of high international class.

After we went through the exciting part of the city, the actual tasting began. It started with Oslo's oldest sausage stand, The seven kiosk. A traditional Norwegian sausage with lompe was served here, i.e. a flatbread made from potatoes. Everything, including the sausage, was based on my own recipe, but because due to the nature of the premises, they had rented out the actual sausage stuffing to a local butchery.

For the sausage, we got Tøyen-Cola, which is what they called democratic cola, or if you prefer, open source cola. What they mean by this is that the recipe is widely available both in the bottle and online so anyone with the right ingredients can make their own Coke. They also shared that the producer had been in trouble a few times. Partly in a lawsuit over the name Jallasprite, which the Coca Cola Company thought was an infringement of their trademark, but also in the spread of conspiracy theories about Covid-19.

Next in turn Cocoa Cafe which claims to have Oslo's best chocolate. It was undeniably very good, but since we didn't have time to really test all the chocolate places, we dare not promise that it is the best. You also got free access to toppings, which we made sure to use. It was a really cozy place that also looked like it had good dishes and cakes.

The guide also brought a stack of plastic-wrapped cardboard plates that we didn't really understand the point of until we got to a nearby park. On the plates were some Norwegian specialties that we got to try. It is somewhat unclear whether it was a reward or punishment. There was, among other things, whale carpaccio, reindeer heart, Gamalost from Vik, but also some slightly more ordinary taste experiences such as smoked salmon, two kinds of salami and caraway cheese. Honestly, I never thought the taste from Gamelosten would go away… 🙂

Harald's Waffle was a place that was initially run from a window in his apartment. However, it was not particularly appreciated by the landlord, so after four years of controversy, they acquired a real premises. They were, as far as we understood, at least as famous for their provocative flow in social media, which was mainly aimed at running with the royal house. We saw some examples of their animations that they publish and you can perhaps understand that the royal family is not completely satisfied. The owner received an official title from the government a number of years ago, Minister of Norwegian Waffle Culture. That made him Norway's youngest minister of all time.

We were somewhat skeptical about the waffles when we heard what they were garnished with, sour cream, jam and brown cheese. However, it turned out to be an excellent combination. The Brunosten was a bit like having caramel on the waffle and all the sweetness was nicely broken up by the slightly sour cream cheese. Very good!

On the way home we found another super cozy street in the middle of central Oslo and it will probably be an excellent summation of our feeling and experience. Oslo is truly a city that has an exciting surprise behind every street corner. The old meets the new in a wonderful mix and you really have no idea what you will come across next. You can read more about this in our two other posts about Oslo that you will find here and here.