Why Oslo?
More low-key than Stockholm or Copenhagen, Oslo is a relaxing place where you won’t wear yourself out with things to do. Having said that, large sections of the capital’s extensive waterfront are now unrecognisable even from a few years ago. Fjord City refers to the immediate area east and west of the city centre, where ports, docks and industrial areas are giving way to modern apartments, parks and museums. In Tjuvholmen these include the new Astrup Fearnley Museum, and, behind the new Opera House in an area called Bjorvika, high-rise apartment blocks have been built. There’s a new waterfront and several new museums are under construction. In the centre around the main transport hubs, whole new residential and hotel districts have been created. Yet despite the changes, and increasing levels of immigration, there’s still an air of quiet sophistication and calm here, especially beside the water, where, if the weather is warm enough, anyone can jump in for a swim. In what is a very expensive city, many of the best things are free. The villagey feel of this capital city may be about to change, so go now.
A comfortable bed
The city's grand dame is the Grand Hotel (www.grand.no), an elegant, historic property dating from the 1800s. The Grand Cafe, its main restaurant, where Ibsen and countless other luminaries once dined, is particularly atmospheric and its central location is excellent; rates for double rooms start from Dh574, including breakfast and taxes. The nearby Hotel Continental (www.hotelcontinental.no) is also excellent, but its best available starting rate is higher, from about Kr1,995 (Dh910) per night, including taxes. In Tjuvholmen, The Thief (www.thethief.com), a modern, but plush design hotel with all the luxuries Gulf travellers expect, including a full-service, purpose-built spa with swimming pool, air-conditioning and an internationally-connected guest relations manager. Doubler room rates start from Kr2490 (Dh1,135), including taxes and breakfast.
Find your feet
Oslo's centre is close to the waterfront: from the Central Station, make your way along Karl Johans gate to the hulking mass of Oslo City Hall, with a grand interior that's covered in murals and open to the public. To the left along the waterfront you can see Akershus Castle, a collection of buildings dating from 1299. Walk the other way, past the Nobel Peace Center (www.nobelpeacecenter.org), to Tjuvholmen, where you can end your day in the cafe of the Astrup Fearnley Museum, overlooking Oslo Fjord either inside or outside. For more ideas and to plan visit www.visitoslo.com.
Meet the locals
Oslo has some great home-grown coffee shop chains, so you're never far from a gathering place. Grunerlokka, a green, trendy, low-rise and somewhat historic area north of the city centre, features many small one-off cafes, restaurants and shops, and has a youthful, slightly bohemian atmosphere. Stand there with a map and someone helpful will come up and give you their suggestions on where to go. Staff at the Astrup Fearnley Museum (www.afmuseet.no) are unusually well-informed and keen to talk to visitors (in perfect English) about the artists and the work on display. There are also guided tours. The collection, though it's got all the big names, doesn't feel earth-shattering.
Book a table
For innovation, location, atmosphere and value, it's hard to beat Tjuvholmen's Sjomagasin seafood restaurant (www.sjomagasinet.no/english), where a three-course lunch costs Kr355 (Dh160) per person. At the Grand Cafe (www.grand.no) the large pot of steamed Norwegian mussels with chilli, french fries and aioli is delicious and comes at a good deal of Kr215 (Dh98).
Shopper’s paradise
There are excellent shopping opportunities in Oslo, from independent stores to large malls, and it's a more relaxing experience here than in most other European cities. Unfortunately refinement comes with a price, so most travellers restrict themselves to small design trophies such as homewares, or to jewellery, crafts or local foods. House of Oslo (Ruseløkkveien 26, houseofoslo.no) features a wide range of Scandinavian-designed homewares. On Karl Johans Gate, Paleet (www.paleet.no/) is a newly opened mini-mall with a historic facade – there's a great bookshop and some attractive cafes downstairs.
Don’t miss
The view out across the fjord from the new Renzo Piano-designed Astrup Fearnley Museum is hard to beat, especially on a summer evening. If you have the time, take a boat cruise out around the fjord, or to the nearby island of Bygdoy for a visit to the Viking Ship Museum (www.khm.uio.no). For a great collection by Edward Munch, including various incarnations of The Scream, visit the National Gallery (www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en) or the Munch Museum (www.munch.museum.no).
What to avoid
Holidays here can be very expensive, so look for package deals bundling flights and accommodation. Emirates Holidays (www.emiratesholidays.com) can tailor-make a trip to Oslo, and it has an 8-night tour of Norway from Dh19,700 per person, including all flights, accommodation, taxes, internal transport and some meals.
Getting there
Return flights with Emirates (www.emirates.com) from Dubai to Oslo cost from Dh3,465, including taxes. The flight takes seven hours.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Best Foreign Language Film nominees
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More on animal trafficking
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
RESULT
Arsenal 0 Chelsea 3
Chelsea: Willian (40'), Batshuayi (42', 49')
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
THE BIO
Occupation: Specialised chief medical laboratory technologist
Age: 78
Favourite destination: Always Al Ain “Dar Al Zain”
Hobbies: his work - “ the thing which I am most passionate for and which occupied all my time in the morning and evening from 1963 to 2019”
Other hobbies: football
Favorite football club: Al Ain Sports Club
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
