Summer in Oslo, Norway

Norway was country number five on our 52 Countries in 52 Weeks adventure, and if there's one thing Norwegians have figured out better than almost anyone else on earth, it’s how to enjoy themselves outdoors in the summer. Not occasionally. Constantly. Every single summer afternoon, without fail, these people are outside doing something. If the sun is shining, Norwegians are in the water, mountains, on bikes or boats, basically enjoying every ounce of summer they get.

We based ourselves in Oslo, right on the waterfront, and it immediately became clear that the harbor isn’t just part of the city; it is the city. People swim here before work, after work, during lunch, probably during meetings. Everywhere you look, there are paddleboards, kayaks, floating saunas, people jumping into the beautiful, clean water with big wide smiles.

The best part of the trip was my wife Juliana flying in and officially joining the adventure. Which was perfect timing because Oslo feels like one of those cities best experienced with someone else. It has this incredibly social energy to it. Everybody’s outside. everybody’s active. Everybody somehow looks refreshed all the time. Honestly, I almost got tired just observing the locals.

We spent hours around the harbor swimming, jumping off docks, kayaking, and fully embracing Oslo’s waterfront culture. The water is clean enough to swim in right in the middle of the city, which feels illegal if you grew up anywhere else. One minute you’re surrounded by modern architecture and restaurants, the next minute you’re diving into the fjord with locals who make this their daily ritual.

Then came one of the highlights of the entire Norway experience: the famous floating sauna boats.

And yes, they are exactly as incredible as they sound.

You rent your own private sauna barge and slowly drift out into the fjords while sitting inside a beautifully designed Scandinavian sauna that looks like it belongs in an architecture magazine. Every few minutes somebody jumps into the crisp water, screams with joy and shock, climbs back into the sauna, warms up, and immediately decides doing it again is all they want to do all day long.

Sauna. Swim. Sauna. Swim.

Repeat until you effectively become Norwegian. It’s one of those experiences that sounds gimmicky until you actually do it. Then suddenly you understand why the Nordic countries are consistently ranked among the happiest people in the world.

They’ve built entire cultures around doing difficult things followed by intense periods of joy-maxing. Honestly, it’s genius.

From there we headed to SNO, which may be one of the most absurdly impressive indoor ski facilities I’ve ever seen. Calling it an “indoor ski slope” doesn’t remotely prepare you for what this place actually is. It’s enormous. The runs are long, the terrain park is legitimate, and somehow the entire experience feels closer to a real mountain than a warehouse filled with fake snow.

Brianna and I tried these Nova skis while we were there and had an absolute blast. The whole place feels futuristic in the best possible way. One minute you’re in a modern Scandinavian city by the harbor, the next minute you’re skiing indoors like you accidentally walked into the future of winter sports.

Then it was back outside because apparently Norwegians refuse to spend too much time indoors under any circumstance. We made our way to Oslo Summer Park, a huge outdoor climbing and obstacle park built into the forested hills above the city. Rope bridges, climbing walls, zip lines, elevated obstacle courses, all suspended high enough to give you a mild heart attack. It was harder than expected. Much harder.

At one point I was watching children fly through obstacles with the confidence of Navy SEALs while fully grown adults hung from ropes, reevaluating their core strength and upper body mobility. Humbling experience. Beautiful setting. Highly recommend. What surprised me most about Norway wasn’t the scenery, although it’s obviously stunning. It was the lifestyle.