Norway – Oslo – Intility Arena

Oslo trip 29/04/2023 – 04/05/2023

So the first ever trip to Norway was better than expected. Originally the plan was to take in the Oslo derby on the Monday afternoon / evening however, the chance came up to catch another game while I was there and I took it.

After a train from Kilmarnock to Glasgow Central at 10am, another train to Paisley and from there the bus to Glasgow airport it was a case of planes trains and the automobiles. A short flight to Amsterdam, even though I promised myself I wouldn’t fly from there again, and it was on to Torp airport just outside Oslo.

Torp is an interesting wee airport and arriving at midnight was an eerie feeling. A four minute taxi journey to my first hotel cost me 40 euros which was a shock to the system however, I now realise what everyone means when they say Norway is expensive. In fairness I think Mr Driver said whatever Norwegian is for “uh huh, a tourist”.

The next day, Sunday morning, I realised I could get a bus back to the airport which was much cheaper but the drama didn’t end there.

I thought I was smart paying 31 euros to get the two hour journey by bus to Oslo and considering when you come out of Torp there are bus signs on all the lamp posts I assumed I was at the right place to get the bus.

You know what they say about assuming and what it does to you, well, its right. After doing a bit of Googling when the bus failed to turn up I realised I was 3 kilometres from the bus station. I noticed there was a free shuttle bus to the train station and to be honest by now I just wanted to get to Oslo so off we went.

Five minutes to the train station, another 30 euros down and feeling a mixture of stupid and embarrassed I headed for the train and I was on my way.

There’s no doubt about it Oslo is a beautiful city and arriving at the main door of the Bondeheimen hotel the place looked smart, modern and most of all comfortable. After quickly changing and freshening up it was downstairs to meet the Dutch guys who were also taking in the Oslo weekend.

As always they were a great bunch of guys (and a female) and by Tuesday I was being invited to see Groningen play in the Netherlands albeit on Friday nights as they are in the process of relegation from the Eridivisie.

Our first game was Stromsgodset against Tromso who are actually based in the Arctic circle. After a not very exciting ninety minutes the away team won 0-1 and I’ll go into further detail on the stadium and the away fans amazing support etc in the soon to be released book Around The World In 90 Minutes.

A short train journey back to the hotel and off we went to enjoy dinner which surprisingly was a reasonable price for what what we all had and well, we were in Oslo.

Sunday May the 1st saw an intriguing sight as there was a parade going through the city to mark Mayday and it seemed like every Trade Union had their own brass band on show. Early afternoon and we visited the Bondeheimen Sportsbar which it turns out is a supporter run bar by the members of the Valerenga hardcore fans.

Here we met our hosts for the day and the guys showed us some excellent hospitality, taking us by train to Valerenga’s next bar and let us sample a few locally known “shots” of alcohol which would wouldn’t have gone amiss in your petrol tank.

It was a short walk to the stadium which I couldn’t recall much of the journey, not because of the shots of alcohol but due to the amount of pyro that was going off in every direction. I quickly realised Guy Fawkes was probably a Valerenga supporter at some point in his life.

And so to the main event, the local derby of Valerenga versus Lillestrom. With the away fans taking up the entire “short side” behind the goal they managed to create an impressive atmosphere with loud singing, a full stand tifo and yes you guessed it pyro.

Valerenga quickly took the lead and it seemed that after 35 minutes and them being 3-1 up the result was going to be a happy one for our great hosts. The referee and VAR was to change all that though. After what seemed like an innocuous tackle by Valerenga’s Juklerod in the 37th minute a red card was produced and as it turns out that was to change the game completely.

Lillestrom came out fighting in the second half and scored in the 46th minute and from there it got progressively worse for the home team. Lillestrom equalised in the 90th minute and I said to one of our hosts Trond that it felt like a defeat at this point having lead for so long.

Then 96th minute and Adams scored his hat trick goal and it ended at 3-4 to Lillestrom. It was a somber bus trip back to the Sportsbar but some local beer on the bus made the journey go quicker.

The last day in Oslo on Tuesday was uneventful, with a train to Oslo’s main airport for my flight back to Amsterdam, another one to Glasgow and a train to Kilmarnock.

Summary; Oslo is very expensive, even the public transport is costly but people are warm and friendly and there is a good choice of restaurants for eating out. Maybe just don’t jump in a taxi though.