Last full day back in Oslo. We arrived late last night from Lofoten. It’s been a great trip; we feel so grateful that we are able to take a 3-week trip. None of us wants to go home tomorrow (it’ll be a long travel day; 4:30 pm flight to Keflavik and then onward to Boston).
We stayed in Ballstad in a traditional fishing cottage that are now ubiquitous rentals, albeit more comfortable now than they were for the fishermen back in the day. One day, we visited Nusfjord, which was the biggest disappointment of the trip. Instead of the interesting original fishing village we were expecting (which it still is), it’s actually maintained by the resort and you have to pay $10 to enter and gawk at original buildings with not much context/exposition of what you’re looking at. If one never visited a place like Å and only visited Nusfjord, I suppose one would be satisfied. But it felt like a highly Disney-fied version of a fishing village. There was a fancy restaurant and a…wait for it…a Neapolitan-ish pizza joint. I was stressed at the pressure of posting about yet another pizza meal. 
Margherita (SO loved it) and a salami/ricotta/pistachio for B. SO made one breakfast with eggs and sourdough with lingonberry jam.
After a couple of nights in Ballstad, we had one last night in the best cottage yet, in Tjeldsund. I did some work—not a bad view. We were in finishing-up-food mode, so meatballs with SO’s homemade lingonberry jam for dinner. I had some rando fish soup from the grocery store with knekkebrød. Next morning, we checked out and headed to our northernmost spot in Harstad and went to an underground water park, which was a lot of fun. We stopped at a very nice park afterwards in our to the airport, where we picnicked on cheese and knekkebrød. SO had a Circle K hotdog (not as good as Icelandic pylsur, according to him).
There is nothing in the Harvik/Evenes airport so we walked to the nearby restaurant. SO had the pasta carbonara which be declared to be delicious. B and I passed on eating and got some nuts on board. B had a Mikkeller IPA on-board with a neat label.
We arrived to our place in Oslo around 11 pm. Bedtime! Today, we visited the excellent National Museum , where SO couldn’t wait to see Munch’s “The Scream.” He loved the fun kids’ museum bingo. We promised SO that we would go to The Salmon, which we visited on our last trip and I wasn’t impressed. It seemed a bit better today. B splurged on the 3-course salmon menu (sashimi, tartare, grilled). SO got his usual order of nigiri and salmon avocado, while I had the sashimi platter. I tasted B’s tartare and found it farm-y tasting. My sashimi was uniformally fresh-tasting, while SO swooned over his sushi. Chocolate gelato from Paradiso for SO’s dessert.
We tried to go the pinball bar afterwards but it’s 20+ after 5 pm. But we saw this blast from the past parked outside—the Lemonheads are playing at a venue across the street tonight! (For those who don’t know, they’re from Boston.)
We’re trying to figure out our last dinner. We’re in Grünerløkka again, so we might walk through Mathallen and see what stalls are still open.
