I had an afternoon plus a full day to explore Oslo before an early morning flight back to the US. I arrived at my Airbnb midday after an embarrassing mishap with public transportation.

After returning my camper, I thought I would take the bus instead of a ride-share back to the airport. From there I would take the speed train into Oslo. Not only would that provide a good challenge but it was about 10% of the price.

I waited at the stop just a few minutes before the bus arrived. But instead of stopping, it just drove past! I was completely baffled. Surely he had seen me. Finally, I realized that I was standing on the wrong side of the road. I was at the stop that journeyed deeper into the countryside, not to the airport. I felt humiliated but also could not help but laugh at myself. I crossed over to the correct side and waited 30 long minutes for the next one.

My Airbnb was very centrally located which made for easy walking to plenty nearby. The first evening I explored the area around the Oslo Opera House. While doing so, I noticed the floating saunas in the harbor. Practically addicted to saunas by that point, I was intrigued!

Later that night I booked a slot for the following evening at KOK Sauna. After all, what better way to commemorate the end of my time in Norway than an evening of sauna and cold plunging into a Norwegian Fjord! Plus it was a steal- $24 for an hour and a half.

The next day I walked up the famous Karl Johan shopping street. And there I found not only all the people in Norway, but all of the Americans!

I was fortunate enough to find a vintage jeweler where I purchased the perfect ring I had wanted to commemorate my time in Norway.

I aimlessly walked around for several more hours and then returned to my Airbnb to get ready for my sauna-filled evening.

As I had purchased the public sauna option, I was paired with an Indonesian couple and a father and son from France. Our sauna was wood-powered and we were in charge of keeping the fuel going. As such, there was no way to control the temperature and at one point it got well over 200 °F (93°C)! We mistakenly thought it would be a good idea to add some water to the rocks to create steam. This was a horrible idea in such a hot sauna. Anyone who has used a sauna knows that there is a bit of a delay from when you pour the water on the rocks, to when the steam coats your body. As soon as the steam settled into our skin, we scrambled for safety as the sizzling set in. Lesson learned! Later that night when I got home, I saw I had cooked my skin. I literally had dark red splotches all over my shoulders. Oops!

Despite that, we all had a wonderful time chatting and swapping in between the sauna and plunging into the fjord to cool down. What really struck me was how relaxed the whole affair was. There were no waivers to be signed, no safety briefing, no one monitoring the temperature in the saunas, no heat protector over the scalding hot wood stove handle, no anti-slip floor mats on the slippery deck, no lifeguards watching as people jumped into a fjord seemingly hundreds of feet deep. We were expected to use our brains and be smart. What a wonderful reality to exist in. The expectation of personal responsibility was one of the best aspects of spending time in Norway.

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Lessons from: Oslo- A Norwegian Farewell

• Flytoget is a speed train from the Oslo airport to the Central Station. It is very easy to navigate and you can purchase both your entry and your return ticket at the same time. It is a bit expensive but very convenient. https://flytoget.no/en/
• To use the Norwegian bus system, I used the Google Maps bus option to determine routes and times and then the app Ruter to purchase the tickets.
• Along with the shared sauna option at KOK you can also book a private sauna or a sauna that slowly cruises the fjord!
• Oslo has a multitude of sites to see that are close to the Central Station. Some of them are: the Vigeland Sculpture Park, the Royal Palace, the Viking Ship Museum, the Munch Museum, and the Oslo Opera House.