Writings for Tempo

One part of Tempo is called the Invisible Attractions. It shows some attractions through such a personal way that they become other things. I hope you can guess what I am talking about when I describe…

…the Colorful Showers
As a city with so well defined seasons - and its main activities strongly connected with them -, the best time to enjoy the Colorful Showers of Oslo (to be honest, the only time they are actually functioning) is between mid-september and mid-november. If you are in town during that period, it won’t be hard to find them: just go for a tour in one of the many parks around the city. The more the wind, the better. And don’t worry about it not being so warm outside: the color this shower drops is actually very dried.

… the Fjord Museum
The Oslo Fjord Museum provides you with beautiful different angles of Oslo Fjord. This museum is so big that it contains a whole transport system to move people around it. At the east aisle of the museum, one can enjoy an amazing view of the fjord from the harbor - even count the colors of the containers, or the number of small islands. At the west end, you may appreciate another view while tasting the best apple cake in town. At the main hall of the Museum, you get sea level perspectives, which are ok but can be too crowded sometimes, since visitors tend to be a bit lazy and not explore this museum to the fullest.

… the Home Food restaurant
This restaurant is extremely exclusive and cannot handle more than 10 clients per night. Here it’s very likely you will feel the real coziness and hospitality of norwegians, enjoy a good conversation and make friends with the people on your side enjoying the same experience. If you are lucky, you will still be able to learn some tricks with the chef himself. His open kitchen is together with the salon and one needs to be perspicacious enough to balance equally the amount of chatting: the chef can get a bit distracted and mess up with the food. The good thing about this restaurant is that you can pay with a bottle of wine or a gift from your homeland. The bad? It works with invitation only.

… the biggest white carpet in the world
Norwegians are crafty and it’s not a coincidence that the biggest white carpet in the world belongs to this country. This piece of art is a must-see because it is so big that it goes up until the horizon and over all the mountains your eyes can reach. Almost every norwegian, in a “dugnad” frenzy over the winter (when everyones joins to create something together), ties the knots of this cold, slippery carpet. Some people love it, some of them are just tired of it. Most of the people I know try to have fun and take advantage of this cold extra layer, before it is destroyed by the warm breezes of spring. Yes, I forgot to say: it is not heat-friendly.

…the itinerant outdoor shopping mall
The company that owns this shopping mall likes to be flexible: in location, prices, number of owners and, unfortunately, quality. That’s why every time this mall opens - and it is open less than we would like it to -, you can see greedy customers running to grab the best goods. If you are late, you might just find crap, and waist the time and effort of finding out where it was and how to get there. Here you will find all sorts of goods and it’s likely you will buy the ones you don’t need. Which is ok, if you can charm the seller and get it half-price, which is most of the fun anyway.
But note: these itinerant malls are open only during spring and autumn. Winter is too cold and summer is too nice to shop. Even in these shops.

Do you have other personal attractions that only you can see? Send it to me!