Only Oslo, Norway

[dexter26]

[IMG]http://i45.************/28hgbpf.jpg[/IMG]
Only Oslo, Norway


(Old logo of the main public transport company of Oslo, with the Akershus fortress)

Oslo may lack the grandeur of a world city, but it still has a soul of its own and a vibrance when you know where to go. It takes a perceptive eye to notice the small details and the beauty of this city which is home to 625,000 inhabitants (with around 950,000 in the total urban area). Oslo also has an industrial past, from the beginnings of industrialization in Norway - but most of this is today renovated or put to different use. It is a city that has a fairly dense urban center that has grown organically and somewhat "jumbled" in places - centered in the "bottom" of an amphiteatre-like landscape surrounded by hills. The very city center does have places that seem dense and lacking of greenery, but as soon as one moves slightly outside the central downtown, there's actually quite abundant parks and greenery, and still 2/3s of the municipality is protected forested areas (with limited forestry and agriculture).

Oslo has been growing steadily since the last half of the 90s and still has a strong growth (for Scandinavia). The city is also opening up it's waterfront, which before the late 80s was mostly a harbor- and road/transport area.

As a start of presenting Oslo, the capital of Norway, I will repost all the Oslo posts in the thread "Urban life in Norway."

ABOUT OSLO IN BRIEF(source: wikipedia)
Population (2013)
- City/Municipality______-626,953 (Q1 2013)
- Urban______________-,951,581 (Jan 2013)
- Metro______________1,422,442

- Oslo is reckoned to be roughly 1000 years old. But for many different reasons, among them our northern latitude, and not being a very important place for a long time (at that time - 200-300 years back - Bergen and Trondheim was bigger), it took us until 1804-1805 to pass 10,000 population. 90 years later, in 1900, Oslo had expanded to a town of 228,000. Under our nordic circumstances, a very strong growth.
- Oslo is one of the worlds most expensive cities, usually competing with London and Tokyo
- Oslo is an important center of maritime knowledge in Europe and is home to approximately 980 companies and 8,500 employees within the maritime sector
- Part of this maritime legacy is the DNV (Norwegian Veritas - wiki) classification society which is one of the three major companies globally in the classification society business along with Lloyd's Register and American Bureau of Shipping. DNV has 300 offices in 100 countries, with 8400 employees. I can't find the exact numbers, but have previously heard that DNV classifies (register) roughly 17% of the total world fleet.
- Telenor, Norway’s largest ICT-company, with head office located at Fornebu, just outside Oslo is emerging as one of the fastest growing providers of mobile communications services worldwide. It is currently ranked as the sixth largest mobile phone operator in the world, with more than 172 million subscribers. At year-end 2005, Telenor held controlling interests in mobile operations in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary, Montenegro, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Telenor also holds minority interests in mobile operations in Russia. Norway also had a significant part in first developing the old NMT 450 mobile network standard, and later the hugely successful GSM standard which is still in use on a global level.
- Oslo is also, as mentioned, one of the greenest capitals of Europe, with a very large outdoors area (bigger than the urban zone itself) actually available by taking the Oslo metro/"T-bane." This area consists of forests, lakes, small rivers and creeks, and hills. Also the downhill center "Tryvann" was considerably upgraded a few years ago and now offers quality downhill skiing/slalom/snowboard easily available even from the city center (winter).
- Like in the other Scandinavian countries, the capital is the biggest melting pot in the country. Around 28-30% of Oslo's population has a immigrant background. And more than 50 children schools has more than 50% with a foreign background. There has been considerable debate about this situation in the media and it is already a 'hot topic' similar to other European cities, even if we don't have as extreme segregation and poverty as many other cities struggle with.
- There's an estimated 5000 concerts in Oslo per year.


- - - - - - - -

Simple Rules:
All who have nice pictures of Oslo, or find some, can post. Just keep it civil, don't post 100 pics in one post and don't megaquote! Thanks!

The pictures will start below! At first I'll just transfer the pictures from that other thread, later I'll post some more great stuff from this somewhat under-appreciated city.

[dexter26]

(From GSAA's thread "Urban life in Norway")
Oslo

With 610.000 inhabitants in the city and 1,5 million in the metro region, the Oslo area is home to almost one third of the country's population.

Karl Johan's Street - Oslo's and Norways main street. The yellowish building is the royal palace. Photo is from our 17th of May constitutional and national day.
image hosted on flickr


Aker Brygge, Oslo's magnificent boardwalk (converted from old shipyard) located a few minutes by foot from Karl Johans Gate.
[IMG]http://i50.************/2uqcaie.jpg[/IMG]

The famous Vigeland Park.


A multi-million dollar villa in the upper-class district of Frogner.


Tøyen, an area with a large immigrant population. Over 25% of Oslo's inhabitants are foreigners.


This is from Grønland, a small neighborhood which is practically the same thing as Tøyen only closer to
the city center (Tøyen and Grønland are next to each other and without a clear border between) .
image hosted on flickr

Originally Posted by dexter26

OSLO


A quite typical street in the borough, Majorstuen (inner west side of Oslo, west side is the more upper class part of the city).


A shopping street in the borough Grünerløkka, which lies in the inner east part of Oslo.
It has gotten a reputation as Oslos equivalent of Greenwich Village, or maybe Soho in London.

image hosted on flickr

One more from the borough Grünerløkka.
Restaurants close to the small park/square Olaf Ryes plass.


B&W image of Karl Johans gate, Oslos parade street. Seen from in front of the Royal castle.
To the right of the picture, Norway's cute little parliament building, Stortinget, can be seen.


B&W again, alley with shops in central Oslo.

image hosted on flickr

Very nice overview and night shot of some of the densest areas of Oslo outside the city center.
This is from the eastern parts of town.

And to finish off, a great overview picture of Oslo that amazed me when I saw it here on SSC.

This picture shows mostly parts of the west side of Oslo, so actually, the most densely urbanized areas in the eastern
and north-eastern directions are not visible here (and not our two tallest buildings, Oslo Plaza and Post building either)...

This is just a few of so many picture worthy things in my city : ) : )

Sources: Several are Flickr, a few are from various sources.

[dexter26]

Originally Posted by dexter26

Oslo: street life

Okay not to take over your thread GSAA, but I figured that my post on Oslo wasn't too good when it comes to displaying our "urban life" like in the thread's name - so here's a few photos to make up for that:

(Flickr is source for almost all of them)

1 (Flickr photo: regenfeld)
[IMG]http://i36.************/aeqx5e.jpg[/IMG]

2 (regenfeld)
[IMG]http://i37.************/veqdrk.jpg[/IMG]

3 (regenfeld)
image hosted on flickr


4 (Árni Svanur)
image hosted on flickr


5 (olli Vasse Bery (c))
[IMG]http://i33.************/169ivjr.jpg[/IMG]

6 (olli Vasse Bery (c))
[IMG]http://i34.************/2vn1hg5.jpg[/IMG]

7 (stigkk)
[IMG]http://i37.************/2re408h.jpg[/IMG]

8 (olli Vasse Bery (c))
[IMG]http://i36.************/htsd1z.jpg[/IMG]

9 (hidumpling)
No collection of Oslo-photos is complete without at least one photo of Karl Johan street - our main parade and pedestrian street.
image hosted on flickr


10 (unknown)
One of the real old streets in Oslo, this one goes by the name Damstredet.


Hope someone got some enjoyment out of these...

Originally Posted by UrbanLife

Western part of central Oslo:

..

[dexter26]

Originally Posted by dexter26

This one I saw thanks to GlennHGSD over at the N&B forum:
image hosted on flickr


And found these five on a FB group for Oslo and Oslo photos:

We have them too, those damn "mimes!" just kidding


Gotta feature our wonderful forest areas, fresh nature fresh air easily available


Aker brygge: warm January evening 2007 part 1


Aker brygge: warm January evening 2007 part 2


Karl Johan spring 2008

Originally Posted by dexter26

3 Oslo art in the streets:

..

[dexter26]

Originally Posted by dexter26

Map of Oslo's "subway" system (most of it is in open air except centrally):
In Norway we call subway "T-bane" similar to Sweden "Tunnelbana" but some now want to change its name to "metro" - anything to sound important

[IMG]http://i39.************/34pc750.png[/IMG]

Map of all railbound systems in Oslo
Many-colored are subway/T-bane lines
Grey lines are the local trains
Blue lines is the tram system
[IMG]http://i39.************/30ndp21.jpg[/IMG]

Originally Posted by dexter26

Park life in Oslo, Sofienbergparken
(taken by UrbanLife, you can find the picture in this Oslo thread in N&B forums - scroll down that page to see the photo)

..

[dexter26]

Originally Posted by dexter26

Informational video on the ongoing fjordby / Oslo fjord city process of development

(more pictures coming soon)

[italiano_pellicano]

Amazing Photos

[dexter26]

I promise you, it will get better! Many interesting things to photo here still!

[alitezar]

Very beautiful city
Thanks

[חבר1.0]

Great city! I hope one day I will be able to afford to visit there!

[christos-greece]

Great, very nice photos from Oslo, dexter

[dexter26]

Originally Posted by Ingenioren

Tokyo-Cherries outside City Hall:

Originally Posted by Ingenioren

Oslo from the Pwc today (June 7th 2009):

..

[dexter26]

Originally Posted by City of Rain

do you have any pics of that area right outside of Oslo S with the tram, oslo city and plaza in the background? its the coolest place in oslo!! so urban its sick.

Originally Posted by marshol

Coming up below: Pictures of the most central square in Oslo, the Railway Square (Jernbanetorget in Norwegian)

[dexter26]

Oslo Central Station / "Railway square" (Jernbanetorget) part 1

The most central square of Oslo and its surroundings, May 2010. Photoseries.

By e_ht12 on flickr.

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[dexter26]

Oslo Central Station / "Railway square" (Jernbanetorget) part 2

image hosted on flickr


The clock tower (NSB is the Norwegian national rail operator)
image hosted on flickr


Trafikanten ticket and travel service 1
image hosted on flickr


Trafikanten ticket and travel service 2
image hosted on flickr


View up Oslo main street, Karl Johan, from the railway square
image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[dexter26]

Oslo Central Station / "Railway square" (Jernbanetorget) part 3

The old railway station, today a shopping area connected to the new main hall
image hosted on flickr


The tiger. A nickname for Oslo is "Tigerstaden" which could be translated "Tigerville," coined by national poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson - the nickname was meant to describe Oslo as a dangerous and unruly big city
image hosted on flickr


South side of the railway station, looking towards Hotel Opera
image hosted on flickr


Hotel Opera again, new angle
image hosted on flickr


Looking back at the railway square from the same position as above
image hosted on flickr


The "theatre boat" MS Innvik
image hosted on flickr

[dexter26]

Oslo Central Station / "Railway square" (Jernbanetorget) part 4

.. And time for approaching what must be considered the "jewel" of the area, the Oslo Opera House (the surroundings are still waiting to be rebuilt)
image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


Stairs going up to the "new" Central Station
image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


The Central Station entrance itself - yes it's not too pretty, it was built around '79/'80 or something, a new complex is currently being planned
image hosted on flickr

[dexter26]

Oslo Central Station / "Railway square" (Jernbanetorget) part 5

image hosted on flickr


Square on top of stairs (note that this area is sort of "waiting for an upgrade")
image hosted on flickr


Byporten shopping mall & hotel
image hosted on flickr


Byporten restaurant Egon
image hosted on flickr


Byporten restaurant Egon 2
image hosted on flickr


Byporten restaurant Egon 3
image hosted on flickr


Looking through north part of Railway Square towards Oslo Plaza HDR
image hosted on flickr

(this shot by Gunnar Bangsmoen)

Close to the same motif as above, but at night and maybe a bit more stylish photo
image hosted on flickr

(this shot by Geir Halvorsen)

One note: I believe these shots for the most part were not taken at the busiest times of day.

[dexter26]

Originally Posted by dexter26

Picture by me from earlier today (June 1st), in Sagene, Oslo. Finally summer is hitting that high note!

Originally Posted by dexter26

Oslo
This is the beautiful interior of the Oslo city hall, where they present the Nobel Peace Prize.

Oslo city hall, started 1930 and completed 1950, where the Peace Prize award ceremony takes place:

From the waterfront (the "monumental" entrance is on backside).
image hosted on flickr


Some of the "monumental" backside entrance. The clock is a bit special and has a functional astrological clockwork in it.
image hosted on flickr


The clock.
[IMG]http://i46.************/9j10sx.jpg[/IMG]

The building may look a little brownish and boring from a distance, but it has quite nice, and unique, decorations and details on it.
image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


Woodcarvings on each side of the "monumental" entrance.
image hosted on flickr


"Warning of Ragnarok" (Ragnarok=judgment day) woodcarving.
image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


(All comments appreciated by the way, so thanks alot to the commenters above! )

[thicken]

so beautiful