Photos by David Von Nordheim
In case you haven’t been following my social media posts (and who could blame you?), I spent the last week of March on vacation in Scandinavia. My fellow The Arts STL contributor Zach Johnson and I were in Oslo to cover Inferno Fest, an annual heavy metal festival held in Norway’s capital city every Easter. (For some background on the history of Inferno, check out our preview article.)
Although this was Zach’s second time covering Inferno as an official fest photographer, this was my first time visiting Europe at all—or anywhere outside of North America, for that matter. As a lifelong metal nerd, I had always read about the legendary European heavy metal fests—e.g., Wacken in Germany, Brutal Assault in Czechia, Hellfest in France—and longed for the day I would have the determination and funds to experience one for myself. There is so much more to experience in Europe than heavy metal tourism, of course, but as someone that has always used concerts as an excuse to travel to other parts of the U.S., it was only natural that an event like Inferno would be my initial point of entry into Eurotravel.
International travel can be a daunting prospect, especially for those who, like me, 1. Grew up in a working class family that did not have the funds to vacation internationally; 2. Did not pursue study abroad opportunities in college; and 3. Do not have a job that involves international travel to any degree. For that reason, rather than diving immediately into my perspectives on Inferno 2024, I decided my first article about the fest should serve as a primer for those who are curious about making their first foray into Europe, through the specific lens of visiting Oslo, a city absolutely drenched in history and culture. Bear in mind that my suggestions throughout the article are mostly specific to visiting Oslo and Goteborg, the closest major city in Sweden to Oslo, rather than Norway as a whole (or other parts of Europe for that matter). I believe much of my advice, however, can be applicable to anyone visiting Europe for the first time, regardless of their background, destination, or motivation.
With that said, let’s start by getting the obvious out of the way:
How bad is the flight (and jet lag)?
For many Americans interested in Eurotravel, the single most daunting obstacle is the very first step of the adventure: the costly, grueling, daylong ordeal of an intercontinental flight. Although I was fairly experienced at flying within the U.S. before this trip, I have always detested every aspect of air travel, and for most of my life, the dread of being stuck in an airplane cabin for 8+ hours was enough to keep me on this side of the Atlantic. Although experienced travelers may scoff at this, for many, the anxiety and discomfort of air travel ultimately outweighs the potential joys of travel itself. After having finally weathered my very first international flight, I have these words of consolation to offer to my fellow aerophobes: yes, those two days of flying there and back will suck, but it’s worth it.
With Lambert offering few direct international flights (only Jamaica, Cancun, Toronto, and Frankfurt), you will most likely be enduring three consecutive flights in order to reach Norway: one interstate, one international, and one inter-European. For me, that route was: St. Louis to Detroit (~1.5 hours); Detroit to Amsterdam (~7.25 hours); and Amsterdam to Oslo (~1.5 hours), with layovers in each airport along the way. All together, including layovers, flights, and the train ride from the Oslo airport to the hotel, the entire journey took roughly 20 hours. As someone who is physically incapable of falling asleep on an airplane, that meant being awake for nearly an entire day, and by the time I reached the hotel, I was sore, dirty, sweaty, and tired beyond belief. But the worst part of the entire trip was already behind me at that point.
Bearing in mind that the central Europe time zone is also 7 hours ahead of us in St. Louis, my circadian rhythm had been effectively smashed to pieces for much of the trip. I tend to be a much earlier riser than usual while traveling, and I found myself routinely waking up at 6:00 AM, 3:00 AM, even 1:00 AM and being unable to fall back asleep. This would be distressing enough in its own right, but because each night of Inferno Fest had acts playing until well past midnight, this also meant that I was regularly skipping a large portion of the lineup because I was simply too exhausted to stay awake for it. Although I have never been fond of taking medication for sleep, I would highly recommend bringing melatonin with you to help with the adjustment, or buying it from a pharmacy (an “apotek” in Norwegian) while you’re there. Around the third day of my trip, I was finally able to get 8 consecutive hours of sleep in a single night, and from that point onward Scandinavia was my playground!
What should I bring?
Inferno Fest is always held over the Easter weekend. Just like in the United States, the final weeks of March are generally considered the start of spring in Norway. Those accustomed to “springtime” weather in the Midwestern U.S. will realize that means Oslo will continue to have snowfall and winter weather through April, so pack accordingly.
Oslo is located at the innermost point of the Oslofjord, which connects the city to the North Sea, the body of water separating Norway from Denmark and western Sweden. I would generally describe the weather as “brisk” and not anything someone from the Midwest or North Atlantic U.S. wouldn’t be accustomed to in March. I often found myself enjoying a refreshing sea breeze while out in my jogging shorts, to which confused Norwegians would often comment “Hey, it’s winter in Norway, you know?”
Other than the obvious luggage you would bring on any trip, you will want to bring an adapter so you can plug devices with American power cords into a European outlet. These typically run about $10 and can be easily found on Amazon. Most countries in the EU use a “Type C” outlet, so if you purchase a “Type C” adapter you will be able to use the outlets in essentially any EU country. Likewise, European hotels will often have multi-prong outlets that are compatible with non-EU electrical plugs.
Do I need to buy an international SIM card/will I be able to use my cellphone?
If you have an Android or iPhone with a major cell carrier, you will most likely not need to purchase an international SIM card (i.e., you will not need to get a new cell number just for the trip). Most major cell carriers will allow you to add international roaming to your wireless plan, enabling the exact same cell service you’re accustomed to in the U.S. while traveling overseas. For both AT&T and Verizon, this will cost you an additional $10 for each day you are outside of the U.S., so for a weeklong trip, it would be an additional $70 on top of your usual phone bill.
What if I don’t speak Norwegian?
It is a common misconception among Americans that fluent English speakers are rare outside of the U.S. and U.K. This is completely false! Virtually everyone in the European Union learns English beginning in elementary school, and Norway is no exception. I did not encounter a single person who did not speak fluent English during my trip. Oslo is a major international tourist destination, so anyone you would be interacting with likely works in hospitality, tourism, or business, and is incredibly used to conversing in English, which is by far the most common second language in the world. Everyone from the hotel concierge, to the train conductors, to the bartenders, to the clerks at the 7-11, spoke perfect English, in both Oslo and Goteborg.
Another common misconception I hear from Americans is that although people in Europe may speak English fluently, they resent doing so, and will either avoid talking to Americans unless forced to, or at worst, will be deliberately rude and condescending to them. Although I am certain that somebody with that attitude must exist somewhere in Scandinavia, I never encountered that person. All of the Norwegians and Swedes I spoke with were delighted to meet an American, were excited to have an opportunity to use their English, and greatly enjoyed asking me to explain the rules of baseball and American football.
That said, I think it is always fun to pick up a few phrases when you’re traveling abroad so you can at least be civil to the locals in their mother tongue: “goddag” = “hello,” “takk” = “thank you,” “jeg vil kontakte ambassaden min” = “I wish to contact my embassy.” (Thankfully, I never had to use the last one.) There are many pocket phrase books available in a variety of languages—I recommend Lonely Planet’s Fast Talk Norwegian—although again, no one in Norway will expect you to speak Norwegian. Everyone in Oslo seemed to immediately identify me as a tourist and automatically addressed me in English; in Goteborg, people usually addressed me in Swedish first, but would gladly switch to English when prompted.
Where should I stay?
If you are visiting Oslo for Inferno Fest specifically, the choice is an easy one: The Hub, one of many Clarion hotels operated throughout Scandinavia. The Hub is a 4-star hotel with all of the amenities you would expect with that label: incredibly clean and comfortable rooms, a full gym and spa, and crucially, the most magnificent breakfast buffet I have ever borne witness to. I cannot understate how incredible this breakfast at this hotel was—the phrase “you can get anything you want” is barely scratching the surface—and how often I found myself counting down the hours until it opened at 7:30 AM.
The Hub has a partnership with Inferno Fest, and offers a generous discount to people who are visiting for the fest. (The rate in my room, with a queen bed, was about $174 per night). The hotel is a 15-minute walk from the Rockefeller, the venue most of the shows take place at, and all of the fest’s daytime programming is conducted in the hotel’s conference rooms. Conveniently, the Hub is located across the street from Oslo Central Station, where you can catch the train to the Oslo airport or other cities in Norway and Sweden. As someone who will gladly stay at the most godforsaken motel they can find to save a few bucks, I can easily say my stay at the Hub was the most leisurely accommodation I’ve ever experienced.
For the rest of my trip, I stayed at two other hotels—one in Goteborg and another in Oslo—that I also booked through Strawberry Hotels, the same company that manages the Hub. These hotels were cheaper and certainly not as swanky as the Hub, but very high quality nonetheless. It would be terribly unfair to compare their breakfast offerings to those of the Hub, but I definitely did not find myself wanting for my pre-sightseeing coffee and pancakes. (Note: I am not a paid spokesperson for Clarion Hotels—it is just a damn fine hotel!)
How do I pay for things?
The national currency is the Norwegian kroner (NOK), which trades at roughly 10 to 1 USD. (The Swedish kroner, or SEK, trades at roughly the same rate.) You will see prices listed in NOK and SEK, and to determine how much something costs in USD, simply divide it by ten. For example, a coffee that costs 290 NOK would cost about $2.90 USD.
Any major U.S. credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) should be accepted everywhere in Europe, as will pay apps like Apple or Google Pay, so you can simply pay for things as you normally would in the U.S.—no need to go to a currency exchange before you leave, unless you would prefer to have some emergency cash on hand. My credit card did tack on a small international surcharge to each transaction, usually around $1, although your experiences may vary.
How do I get around?
One of the most stunning things about visiting Oslo, as an American, is how incredibly clean, efficient, and organized everything is, both in terms of the layout of the city and the peerless quality of its public transit system. Norwegians pay some of the highest tax rates in the world, and for a tourist, the “bang for the buck” they get in exchange for that is probably the greatest public transit I’ve ever experienced outside of Chicago, D.C., or Philadelphia. (That’s to say nothing of their universal healthcare system or completely free universities, but we can save that for another time!) The buses and trams run continuously throughout the day in Oslo, with multiple lines running 24/7. To pay for bus fare, you can download the Ruter application, which is available in English. Purchasing a one-way fare through the application (about $4 USD) will give you an hour-long window to get to your destination. Simply purchase the fare on your phone, board the bus, and exit when you arrive at your destination. Both the Ruter app and Google Maps will tell you every available bus line going to your destination, and you can simply hop on the soonest one available. Easy as pie.
Oslo also has a public bicycle rental system, similar to those I have used in cities like Philadelphia and D.C. From my experience, there were bike rental stations located near virtually every point of interest throughout the city. To unlock a bike, download the application (Oslo Bysykkel, available in English) and purchase either a one-time ride or a subscription. (I purchased a month’s subscription with unlimited rides, roughly $5 USD). You have up to an hour per ride, and can return the bike to any of the Oslo Bysykkel docks located throughout the city.
If you’re interested in visiting other parts of Oslo outside of the city center, or traveling to other cities in Norway or Sweden, you can easily catch a train at Oslo Central Station, which, again, is within walking distance of the Hub hotel. You can purchase your train fare at the station, or use either the Entur or Västtrafik applications to purchase it in advance (both available in English). Both applications, as well as Google Map, will tell you every train line you can catch to reach your destination. My train fare from Oslo to Goteborg (a roughly 3.5-hour trip) was about $14 USD one-way. Try catching an Amtrak for that cheap!
Okay, but what about the METAL?!
Oslo embraces its identity as (along with Bergen) one of the birthplaces of black metal so much that Inferno Fest is sponsored by the Norwegian Arts and Culture Commission. By way of comparison, that would be like if PBS sponsored Maryland Deathfest or a similar event in the U.S. Black metal tourism is a legitimate phenomenon, and there are many sightseeing tours, including some organized by the fest itself, focused specifically on that element of the city’s cultural identity.
One of the most famous metal tourist destinations in the city is Neseblod Records, owned and operated by Attila Csihar of Mayhem fame. The record store was used as a performance venue for many early black metal bands, and also functions as a museum for black metal culture, containing memorabilia and rare vinyl records. Mayhem was one of many bands associated with the infamous string of Norwegian church arsons of the early 1990s, which makes the apparent truce between black metal and the Norwegian Arts and Culture Commission all the more fascinating. (In an irony likely lost on no one, Neseblod Records was itself recently the victim of a fire.)
Although I realize I was in Oslo for the “biggest Norwegian metal event of the year,” one thing that is quite stunning for an American tourist is how much people in Scandinavia, and Europe in general, still adore rock and heavy metal. The city is full of nightclubs and bars adorned with heavy metal paraphernalia with local bands playing every night. Unfortunately, I did not have the energy to go to any of the Inferno performances outside of the main venue, the Rockefeller, but it was still a bit overwhelming, as an American so used to the cultural dominance of pop and rap music, to be in a city where I could hear King Diamond being played as casual background music in a hotel lobby.
I will elaborate more on my experiences going to the shows at the Rockefeller in a later article. For now, I will say I was simply floored at how incredibly polite, respectful, and civil all of the attendees were—a compliment I would easily generalize to the rest of Oslo as whole. Again, as an American, the tranquility of the typical Norwegian metalhead was quite stunning to see. By and large, metal crowds in Norway do NOT mosh. Nearly every performance, with some major exceptions I will get into in the next article, was greeted by people casually and politely standing stock-still and keeping their hands to themselves. No pushing, no shoving, no screaming. I spotted maybe two crowd surfers during the entire fest.
I could see where this would all seem very exotic and almost perverse to someone accustomed to the demi-gym bro culture at many U.S. metal shows, with people attempting to start a “Wall of Death” before the first chord is even played. Personally, I found it to be an incredibly refreshing change of pace—I have never had my personal bubble so well-respected during a metal show in my entire life!
What else should I do there?
With Oslo being both the political and cultural capital of Norway, the amount of attractions and sightseeing destinations seems nearly limitless. A few highlights from my own journey were: the Edvard Munch museum, which houses the works of Norway’s most famous painter (as well as one of the most widely recognized works of art in the world, The Scream); Frogner Park (Frognerparken), a large public park housing dozens of unique statues by Norway’s most celebrated sculptor, Gustav Vigeland; Akershus Fortress, a medieval castle located near the Oslo harbor that also houses the Norwegian Resistance Museum, which documents the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Norway; and the Norwegian Folk Museum (Folkemuseet), a sprawling, open-air museum that features authentic architecture from throughout Norwegian history, including the famous Gol Stave Church. All of these destinations are easily accessible from the Hub hotel by either bus or bicycle.
There are also many sightseeing tours throughout the city—I highly recommend taking a boat cruise of the Oslofjord. Admission rates for every cultural attraction I visited were incredibly reasonable; I do not recall ever paying more than $15-20 USD.
Which other countries can I visit?
Many Americans visiting Europe for the first time are tempted to get as many passport stamps as they possibly can in a single trip. Although I respect our nation’s naturally competitive inclinations, I would highly recommend having as deep of an experience as possible in Scandinavia specifically (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland), and saving the rest of Europe for another time.
The two biggest non-Norwegian cities near Oslo are Goteborg, Sweden (about a 3.5-hour train ride); Stockholm, Sweden (about a 5-hour train ride); and Copenhagen, Denmark, which you can either reach by ferry or a roughly 7-to-8-hour train ride. Reaching Helsinki, Finland is quite a bit more complicated—you would need to either fly directly from Oslo, or take a train to Stockholm, followed by a boat trip across the Baltic Sea.
I ultimately spent two nights in Goteborg in addition to my stay in Oslo. Like Oslo, Goteborg is a beautiful harbor city, full of old stone buildings and cathedrals and many interesting cultural attractions. There is also a fair amount of heavy metal iconography in the city, as it was the birthplace for many famous Swedish death metal bands in the ’90s, chief among them being At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and of course In Flames, who are something like the Swedish equivalent of Metallica in terms of their fame and popularity in Europe. Metal-themed bars in Goteborg, like 2112, will proudly display memorabilia for In Flames and other Goteborg bands.
My favorite place I visited in the city was Slottskogen, a massive public park that houses Goteborg’s zoo, natural history museum, and other attractions. Essentially, it is Goteborg’s equivalent of Forest Park in St. Louis!
How much will it cost?
All of my travel suggestions come with several caveats: 1. I was a solo traveler paying exclusively for myself; 2. I have a job where I am actively encouraged to “log off” and not worry about work obligations while on vacation; 3. I have a modest, middle-class salary and zero dependents, which enables me to “treat myself” while on vacation to a reasonable degree. Although I was not dining at five-star restaurants or buying luxury goods of any sort, I had plenty of money saved up for this trip and did not have to actively worry about a budget while traveling. Also bear in mind that I was given a press pass to cover Inferno, which gave me some leeway for covering other travel expenses, although I am including the cost of a fest pass in my calculations below.
With that being said, here are my quick “back of the napkin” estimates for the total cost of the 8-day trip, with the stipulation that your own expenses will vary depending on how long you plan on being there and what you plan on doing (all estimates are in USD):
- Round-trip flight to Oslo, including flight insurance and baggage checks: ~$1,000
- 8 nights of hotel stays (split between 3 different hotels with differing rates): ~$1,230
- 4-day pass to Inferno Fest: ~$340
- Meals and drinks (estimated at $70 per day): ~$560
- Admission to attractions (estimated at $20 per attraction): ~$120
- Train fare (to and from the Oslo airport, to and from Goteborg) and other transit expenses (e.g., bus fare, bike pass): ~ $80
- Cost of international roaming for 7 days ($10/day with AT&T): $70
- Total: ~$3,400 USD
Don’t Panic!
The immortal words of wisdom of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will get you very far on any trip, international or otherwise. Traveling can be a stressful experience: in our own daily lives, we are accustomed to practicing restraint, frugality, and pragmatism. International travel, even for something that you love like a heavy metal fest, inherently requires a bit of courage, confidence, and an openness to experiencing situations and people outside of your usual comfort zone. I think you will ultimately find, however, that you will have much more in common with people living over 4,300 miles away (that’s 6,920 km for our European friends) than you might assume. Although I tend to be a more extroverted and social person than many, I was surprised at the ease with which I struck up conversations with Norwegians, Brits, French, Aussies, Swedes, Icelanders, Spaniards, Danes, Canadians, Nederlanders, and of course, many fellow Americans, both at the fest and around Oslo and Goteborg.
You will be amazed at how interesting and exotic you will seem to people as someone from the Midwestern U.S., a region we are routinely gaslit into thinking is the most boring place on Earth. People would routinely ask me questions about how the U.S. government functions (my default reply: not very well) and how people in my part of the country differ from people in Texas, California, and New York. They were all fascinated to learn that our part of the U.S. had been originally colonized by France, hence why so many of our neighborhoods and streets have French names. You might find yourself greatly exaggerating your American slang, to the delight of Europeans who are not used to being referred to as “bro” or “dude,” or explaining why Slipknot means so much to people who grew up in the Midwest. (Also, people could easily tell I’m an American, not only because of my accent and love of Slipknot, but because I am very LOUD and hyper-talkative, which in fairness is something I am routinely told by other Americans as well.) And if you’re visiting Oslo specifically for Inferno, you will realize that everyone’s “common language” is nerding out about metal, which is something you probably look for every excuse possible to do in your daily life as it is!
I admire the bravery and audacity of anyone willing to take that first plunge into an overseas adventure, no matter their reason or destination. There is so much more to Oslo and Norwegian culture besides heavy metal, but for those whose entry point into learning about Scandinavia was guys wearing corpse paint screaming about Odin, I think you will find yourself right at home. If you have the grit and determination to join the ranks of the International Heavy Metal Jet Set, mark your calendar for Easter 2025 in Oslo! | David Von Nordheim
Stay tuned for part 2 of our Inferno Fest coverage, coming soon!
