Instagram pics from Oslo, 2014–2019

Posted October 17th, 2021.
Cataloged under Photography and Oslo

Deleted my personal Instagram account some time last year, but thought I’d repost some pics here for posterity. The first batch are photos from my old hometown of Oslo. (Warning: I’m the only person to find these interesting.)

2014

Mallards in the snow. Akerselva near Sagene, Oslo. — February 6th, 2014: This is the river (or creek, really) Akerselva, that splits downtown Oslo in twain. Most of these pictures are taken nearby, since I lived and worked right next to it for many years. (See the bird pics post for more of those mallards.)

Outside the laboratory at Ullevål Hospital, Oslo — May 8th, 2014: Out for an evening walk and photo safari with my buddy Peder. This is outside the lab building, Bygg 25, at Ullevål Hospital. (There will be more photos of that building.)

Garden elephant statue near Ullevål, Oslo — Also May 8th, 2014: Earlier that evening, we came across this sinister-looking elephant in someone’s garden. Maybe an evil sculptor lives there.

2015

Black and white photo of a sunset, a park lit by street lamps. — February 10th, 2015: This sunset was crazy, but simply too garish to reproduce in color. (As a sidenote, this was the view from my office, and my apartment was at the other end of the park. Short commute!)

Partial solar eclipse visible through cloud cover — March 20th, 2015: Watching a partial solar eclipse from my balcony. The cloud cover made it possible to watch the eclipse without sunglasses or anything, which was pretty cool! At 10:53AM, the sun was just this little grin in the sky.

A hot air balloon floating over Oslo. Tall brick chimneys in the foreground. — August 12th, 2015: Another balcony shot of unusual things in the sky, this time: a hot air balloon! (And some chimneys, I guess.)

Rooftops, downtown Oslo. View towards the town hall. — August 15th, 2015: More rooftops, this time from downtown Oslo. The brick towers belong to Oslo’s City Hall. The green thing on top of the left one is a marvellous carillon, playing live music (!) every hour from 7AM to midnight.

Rooftops silhouetted against the sunset. — October 26th, 2015: Sunset view from my apartment, liked the rooftop silhouette.

From Ullevål Sykehus, Oslo — November 2nd, 2015: Here’s that lab building again, Bygg 25. It might be brutalism. I love it.

2016

Building silhouetted against a sunset, showing a vertical column of light known as a sun dog — January 7th, 2016: Left-hand sun dog.

Snowed down old cars in front of a decaying building — January 8th, 2016: An old Ford of some kind? Project cars, I guess.

Signage — February 17th, 2016: Retro-looking, not-in-a-good-way-but-somehow-cool-anyway, signage above Grensen.
Pepsi was invented by a pharmacist in 1893. That very same year, the royal apothecary Kronen opened right across the street from this, a pharmacy run by my great grandfather from 1931 to 1950.

Old tram rolling down the street on a sunny day, Norwegian flags on the roof — February 27th, 2016: An old tram! Beautiful old machines, a rare treat to see one out and about. This one is barreling down Vogts gate, through Torshov.

Rooftops near central Oslo — July 1st, 2016: I love rooftops. These particular rooftops are seen from a theatre building downtown. The domed building near the top-right corner is the National Theatre, a much grander specimen.

Wooden houses at Sagene, Oslo — October 18th, 2016: Oslo has these little oases of old, wooden buildings right in the middle of downtown, it’s like stumbling into a time machine.
The yellow house is called Biermannsgården and dates back to the first half of the 18th century. It houses a music school for kids, among other things.

Sad elephant statue near Akerselva, Oslo — December 7th, 2016: Another elephant! Was walking to work one morning when someone had installed this sad-looking elephant statue during the night. The mallards seemed to enjoy its company.

2017

View from inside a hallway, looking through a window with many panes out onto a winter street scene. — February 8th, 2017: From the main stairwell in my old apartment building at Sagene. Used to be a dorm for nurses. (The apartments were very small.)

A street sign underwater — April 7th, 2017: Vandalism, Maridalsveien

Apartment building near Stensparken, Oslo — April 23rd, 2017: Liked this little stairway down from Stensparken.

St. Pauli Biergarten, Oslo — May 24th, 2017: St. Pauli Biergarten (and nursing home!), upper Grünerløkka.

Architecture at Ullevål Hospital, Oslo — August 17th, 2017: That building again.

Koi fish in a shallow pond at Akershus Fortress, Oslo — September 23rd, 2017: Having a hipster moment at Akershus Fortress, watching the koi and writing in my Moleskine notebook after attending a talk by extraordinary illustrator Malika Favre.

Architecture at Ullevål Hospital, Oslo. Concrete building reflected in a glass building. — October 19th, 2017: Can’t get enough of Bygg 25, apparently. (The reason why we were visiting the hospital so much this fall, by the way, was because we were expecting our first daughter in November.)

The Oslo School of Architecture and Design — December 7th, 2017: Back to school! Spent most of December at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design’s library, doing research and preparing to work on my diploma project.

Alley near Paleet, Oslo — December 8th, 2017: An alley behind the buildings of Oslo’s main street, Karl Johans Gate. Love stumbling into these hidden areas.

2018

Snowed down bus and tram stop, Disen, Oslo — January 16th, 2018: Oslo had one heck of a snowfall. This is a bus and tram stop, the glowing numbers are expected waiting time. Oslo’s public transport is never on time, but rarely more than 5 minutes late. 17 minutes usually means: “nothing’s running today, hope y’all have good shoes and a warm coat”. (I had good shoes.)

Old trams at the Oslo Transport Museum, Majorstua — April 21st, 2018: Visited Oslo Transport Museum, a dusty old train garage full of time machines you can climb aboard. (It’s one of my favorite museums.)
Was there to do research on a network of trolley buses that no longer exists. The regular trolleybus was called a hippo, and the extra large hippo was lovingly referred to as svigermor, meaning mother-in-law.
The tram with the fancy behind is a goldfish.

Øvresetertjern, Oslo — May 16th, 2018: The last week of working on my master thesis, I drove up to the woods to get some peace and quiet. Here I’m sitting with my feet in the water, after rocking in a fetal position for a while. A few days later I hiked for an hour and set up my laptop on a picnic table, which was nice.

Mounted police, Karl Johans Gate, Oslo — May 25th, 2018: Clop clop, it’s the sound of the police. The long face of the law spotted at Karl Johans Gate.

Fire trucks outside an apartment building at Disen, Oslo. — July 15th, 2018: Some of our neighbors used their dry-ass balcony flower pot as an ashtray. Shouldn’t have done that.

Karl Johans Gate, Oslo. — August 23rd, 2018: Karl Johans Gate again, bootleg Mickey sneakin’ around. (Where are the horse cops when you need ’em?)

From Vestre Gravlund, Oslo — October 21, 2018: Strolling through the graveyard.

2019

Grensen, Oslo — February 8th, 2019: From Grensen, looking toward Stortorvet and Oslo Cathedral a chilly morning.