A Tale of Two Capitals: Journeys in Amsterdam and Oslo

September 2022, I found a super cheap flight to Europe and decided that it provided the perfect opportunity to explore Amsterdam and Oslo with my friend Jon. This is a log of my day-to-day adventures at these two incredible capital cities.

Friday, September 9

Friday: got to JFK and chilled at the Centurion lounge while waiting to board flight. In honor of US open they had a speakeasy and shoe cleaning! Had some great food and drinks then headed to gate. They messed up check in and put both mine and Jon’s seat under my passport. They eventually straightened things out but forgot to give us our passports back. Good thing we reminded them 😬. Flight to AMS wasn’t that bad. Extra seats in plane so there was nobody next to us.

Saturday, September 10

Landed in AMS and found out we definitely had to fly to OSL then back to AMS to avoid our return trip getting cancelled. Ugh. Chilled in airport until flight to OSL. Cool boarding process— we took a bus to runway and boarded from the front and back. What a nice idea—why don’t we do this in US? Chilled at lounge in OSL then flew right back to AMS. Train to hostel and we were finally done traveling. Hostel not bad! No privacy but fun bar in entry area + free breakfast. Left and grabbed some food after exploring the city for a bit. Came back, grabbed a drink, then did some more wandering. Got some McDonald’s (slightly different food offerings than US) then headed back to hostel for an early bedtime.

Sunday, September 11

Woke up, ate breakfast, and hit the city to do some work at a WeWork. Then did a little shopping + had a lovely meal for lunch right on a canal. After that we headed back to the hostel and then went to a gym and got a workout in. Gym was super modern and cool! Then headed back to hostel, showered, and headed towards the Rijksmuseum to try to get on a boat cruise. We failed in that endeavor but then went to see BANKS (American electro pop artist) at a cool concert venue inside an old church! Post-concert we got some food at a restaurant with plenty of outdoor seating. They had lights that turned red when you flipped them over to indicate that you wanted the waiter to come over. Another great idea—wish we had this in the US. We then wandered back to hostel and fell asleep after waiting like 2 hours for some people in our room to stop talking.

Monday, September 12

Woke up late and headed to gym for a workout. Then showered and headed back to a WeWork. Jon had work stuff so I headed solo to Heineken experience for a pretty cool tour of their old brewery! Was much different from brewery tours in WI—lots of lights, experiences, and was very modernized inside. Then walked to a park to play some spikeball with the Amsterdam Spikeball group. According to their social media they meet every Monday for pick up games. Post-spikeball, I took the tram to meet up with Jon for an hour-long nighttime cruise on the canals. The trams are very nice—much nicer than buses in US. All electric + have a counter with an attendant inside if you want to buy tickets. There are separate doors to enter and exit tram to avoid running into people. The screens show you what the next stop is + what other trams come to that stop + when they’ll arrive. Very smart design. Anyways, canal cruise was almost empty and was in an open boat. We sat at the back on cushions and chatted 1-on-1 with the boat captain the whole time. He was a super cool dude — told us a lot about the history of the city. After the cruise, we sat out by one of canals and had some really good italian pizza. Then we walked back, got some ice cream, and hit the hay.

Tuesday, September 13

We woke up pretty early and checked out from our hostel. We then spent the morning/early afternoon in a WeWork before heading to our next hostel (we booked two different places for Amsterdam to try out more stuff). After checking in, we dropped of our stuff and spent a couple hours in the Rijksmuseum. The building was incredibly beautiful, and they had some awesome Rembrandt works there. We left the museum when it closed and walked to the nearby Vondelpark. It was very beautiful—we sat by a stream and watched dogs run around and play and jump in the water. We chilled there until the sun set, then headed to a rooftop restaurant inside the W and got super tasty dinner there (sashimi, slow cooked lamb, and a rib eye—all great). After dinner, we got a beer at a bar and played a fun game with some locals called Regenwormen that involves rolling dice to obtain “worms” (dominoes with worms on them). We then headed to a club for their “techno tuesday”. We ran into another group who were also trying to find the entrance for the club and ended up cutting the entire line with them and walking right in. The music was definitely not my cup of tea and so we headed out pretty soon after to sleep.

Wednesday, September 14

We woke up early again, showered, and headed to the WeWork after checking out from the hostel. Did some souvenir shopping then headed to the airport. AMS was kind of a mess so we barely made it to our flight, but we had time to grab some sausage rolls really quick before we boarded (super tasty—puff pastry with ground sausage inside). Upon landing, we took a train to the city center and Tor, our gracious Norway host, picked us up from the train station. He took us to his farm and gave us a tour. He is a software consultant of sorts, but also has a garden, chickens, and is developing his farm more outside of work. Location is very beautiful. He made us potatoes and moose steaks for dinner which were super tasty. After dinner, me and Jon both called it early and went to bed.

Thursday, September 15

I woke up and had some coffee then took a bus to the city to a WeWork. The bus in Oslo, just like the trams in Amsterdam, is super nice. Our WeWork is right on a harbor so the view from the window is very pretty. We then headed to a nearby burger bar for lunch, where we grabbed a burger, fries, and a shake. We sat outside with a great view of the harbor—very scenic! We then headed back to the WeWork and worked until about 6 PM. I’ve been spending my WeWork time trying to clean up my digital footprint and work out some final logistics for October travel. Post-work we found a nearby gym that sold day passes, so I got a solid workout in + a shower. We then walked round along the water and there were tons of outdoor restaurants with lighting and heat lamps. We picked one that looked like it had a good ambiance and got some boar parpadelle pasta and a gratinated lobster. Both very good! Meal was kind of pricy but tipping not being compulsory helps a lot. Post dinner I unfortunately missed the bus back to the farm (long story) so I had to wait an hour. I wandered along the water and stumbled upon what looked to be a dance rehearsal on some random little beach. I sat and watched the rehearsal for a bit—it had a man playing violin too. Very random but a pretty memorable experience. Then I snagged the next bus home and went right to bed.

Friday, September 16

We headed into the city again and started the day off with another workout, then we stopped at a french bistro for a late breakfast. I got a croissant and some avocado toast—super tasty. Overall very impressed with the food so far. We then headed to the WeWork and grinded there until dinner time. It was culture night in Oslo where a ton of museums and performances were going on for free for the public. We went and checked out one modern art installation that was literally just mostly empty rooms with power tools and speakers playing construction sounds. Very modern I guess. We left that pretty quickly and got a veritable feast at a popular Indian food spot. It was definitely too much food, so we went back to the WeWork after and kind of rested it off for a couple of hours. At that point, it was pretty late and we really didn't feel like going out or anything, so we walked back to our bus stop and headed back to the farm.

Saturday, September 17

We woke up and hung out with Tor and his wife (Ruth) for an hour just chatting, then took the bus into the city to go thrift shopping. We went to a couple stores in the hunt for Norweigan sweaters but unfortunately had no luck. What I did have luck finding is a new raincoat, so I’m happy to be bringing that back with me (especially if it rains in NY this coming week). We swung by a great gyro spot for a quick lamb pita lunch then walked to the Munch museum since Ruth got us free tickets. We looked at a bunch of Munch’s works (his most famous painting is “The Scream”) then went to the top of the museum to the sky cafe and sipped coffee while looking out on the water. We decided for our final night to stay in at the farm and cook for everyone since they were so kind to host us, so we headed back to do some grocery shopping (but not before grabbing a panini and some boba tea at the train station). We made coq au vin and succotash—it was a hit! We spent the whole night drinking wine, eating food, and talking with Tor, Ruth, the Ukranian refugee that they’re hosting, and Tor’s sister. It was really a great time, and they said that they loved having us stay with them. I made sure to convey to them how thankful we were for their willingness to host us. We went to bed at literally like 1:30 AM, and had to wake up at 3:30 AM so Ruth could take us to our bus stop.

Sunday, September 18

We got to our bus stop at 4 AM and took the bus to the Oslo airport. Security was very quick, so we stopped by the lounge for some smoothies, baguettes, and cereal. We then boarded our flight to Paris and I crashed. Upon landing, we sped out of the airport and ubered into Paris to try to make the most of our day. My reciprocity with a club in Paris meant that we were able to head right to this literal mansion, check our bags with the club, and get lattes and an omelette in the banquet hall. We walked from the club after breakfast to sightsee, going by the Eiffel tower, hotel des invalides, louvre (where we took a lovely hour-long nap out on the grass), palais garnier, and the basilique du sacre-coeur de montmatre (most beautiful church I’ve seen and an incredible view of the city from it to boot). We took a subway, ate some pastries, and had lunch at a nice French diner. I did some final souvenir shopping, and we ubered back to the airport. We sped through security (nice and empty today for some reason) and made a pitstop at the airport lounge. Then another 8 hour flight, 15 minute tram, 20 minute train, and 3 minute subway later I finally made it to my resting spot, where I’m composing this message now.