Ikea;

We have made two trips to Ikea so far to purchase items for the new apartment. The Ikea is about a twenty-minute ride from center of the city. Ikea has a wonderful bus service to bring customers with out cars to the store. Two special “Ikea buses” takes turns going to Oslo every half hour. The buses are fitted with lots of shelf space to accommodate all the boxes and bags.

The Ikeas here are just like the ones in the US. They are big and have everything from furniture to household needs. Ikea’s style is affordable, good looking modern furniture that you assemble your self. The items are also meant for setting up your first house, which means that they are not meant to last a lifetime. Since we were looking for items we can dispose of in four years, Ikea was a perfect fit.

We found everything we needed for the bedroom and the kitchen. The best item we found is called the “Ikea kitchen starter set”. Literally this set contained everything you need for cooking in your new kitchen. The set had pots, pans, casserole dishes, a timer, cutting boards, hot pads, potato peelers, scissors, a cheese grater, mixing bowls, Tupperware, every cooking utensils needed, and even a set of knives. Best of all, you got all this and more for about a quarter of the cost of buying the pieces separately.

Besides the obvious convenience of Ikea, the store is a nice destination for a day trip. It takes us about an hour to walk to the center, and then about fifteen minutes for the bus to take off. Walking around Ikea takes another hour at the very least, then the bus ride back to Oslo. After the half hour ride on the city bus and the walk home, we are pretty much done for the night. Just like in America, you never go to an Ikea on the weekends. This means that I go by myself during the day, or after  work.