The Thief Hotel, Oslo
First things first, if you don’t know who Susan Miller is then check her out now.. or right after you read my post about The Thief.
The Thief Hotel Oslo
Susan Miller is an astrologist with scarily accurate predictions. According to her on the weekend of 6th/7th March “Mars will orbit close to Venus, and Uranus will orbit close too so things may happen spontaneously.” … Say What??
Norwegian Airlines… GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER
Yes this was the exact weekend I had planned to go to the Arctic circle via Oslo flying with Norwegian Airlines, it was also the same weekend Norwegian Airlines went on strike and cancelled all domestic flights within Norway for over a week.
Tjuvholmen, Oslo
But before I get all teary eyed thinking about how I didn’t get to see any reindeer, I have to note that Ms. Miller also wrote that the week of the 7th to the 14th was an ideal week to go on a holiday with a friend and although the trip “is likely to bring completely unexpected developments, they will likely be happy opens”… Looking back on it no truer words could have been said as my friend Amber and I ended up spending the weekend in the most rockstar hotel there is… The Thief Hotel in Oslo!
That is my first attempt at a video, and yes all the shaking up and and down was totally on purpose, I wanted to give it a more authentic feel.
We flew into Oslo Rygge airport which in typical Ryanair style is not actually in Oslo but deep in the Norwegian countryside. As we landed by what seemed like endless deserted fields I was a tad worried about where on earth we had ended up, but it turned out to be fairly easy to get into the city with express buses waiting right outside the door of the airport. The journey took about an hour and cost €34 return.
Clever
Once in Oslo we went straight to the Thief Hotel in Tjuvholem, if you are wondering about the name it is a word play on Tjuvholem which means Thief Islet in Norwegian, it also refers to their motto of stealing you away from everyday life.
The Thief sits right on the waterfront and is surrounded by gleaming modern glass buildings and art galleries, the vibe is definitely swanky. Once inside this artiness continues with curator Sune Nordren’s hand picked contemporary art pieces decorating the lobby.
Do you feel hipster yet?
Our original plan was to stay one night at The Thief then travel north to the Arctic and on our return stay one more night at The Thief, but once we had explained our Norwegian Airlines woes at check in the lovely lady at reception made no fuss about our booking to two consecutive nights in the same room.
Walking into the room was a very exciting moment…
Deluxe Room at The Thief Hotel
We rushed around just looking at all the cool stuff…GENEVA SPEAKERS! NESPRESSO MACHINE… AAAAAA!
I probably should have edited myself out of this one… ah well
The bed was uber chic and topped with small mountain of pillows, in fact there where so many pillows that whoever supplies the hotel with bedding is probably sitting on a beach in the Bahamas as I type this.
After a short battle with the door we made it out onto the balcony. Surprisingly we did not freeze in the Scandinavian weather, it was only slightly crisp.
Reading up on Oslo before the trip I saw that it was repeatedly mentioned how expensive the city was, in preparation for this we stocked up at duty free.
If you didn’t manage to plan quite so far ahead then no fear the room is stocked with all you could ever need..
Designer Water and Mini Moët Rosè Champagne #Essentials
And things that you don’t even know you need..
Once we had finished bouncing around our room in delight we made our way down to Fru K Restaurant on the second floor.
Fru K
Fru K serves up a range of traditional Norwegian and Scandinavian cuisine with a contemporary twist. Now for the shameful part… I nearly can’t bring myself to write this but due to it being after 10 pm we eschewed traditional Nordic cuisine for burgers.. yes burgers, I’m sorry.. but they were incredibly delicious!!
The Thief Burger in a brioche bun topped with Gruyère
So delicious that Amber then claimed she would like to take a bath in the burger sauce.
Baked Potatoes with Chorizo
Delighted with herself
Head Chef at Fru K is Mr. Johan Laursen who originally worked at 2 Michelin Starred Maaemo before brining his expertise to The Thief. Two burgers and two glasses of Chianti worked out at just under €100, pricey I know, but in fairness it was not that much more expensive than anywhere else in Oslo.. it is just an expensive city so fill your wallet before you go!
Bar at The Thief – Rooftop Bar is closed in Winter (sad face)
Post dinner we went straight to bed… or perhaps that is what we should have done, but instead we went out till about 3 am and woke up the next morning in desperate need of coffee.
Thankfully we had the wonderfully refreshing view over the fjord to wake us up.
Oslo Fjord
We felt even better after the epic breakfast that is included in all room rates… We did however manage to glare at the man next to us wearing gym gear and munching on a pile of fruit while we tucked in to waffles galore!
Nom
Feeling very full and rather guilty we threw on our own gym gear and went down to the gym. We then looked in the gym which was modern, spacious, and very impressive, and we then quickly turned around and went to the spa instead.
Zen
There is always time for a selfie
Feeling zen we made the mistake of checking our phones only to find out our flight for the next day had been cancelled as well (Norwegian Airlines, seriously what are you doing?!), it was a bad surprise but this bad surprise was made so much better by a good surprise that was left waiting for us in the room.
Before venturing off to explore Oslo we trundled down to the basement of the car park of the hotel, and that is where things got hairy… actually that is where there was a really cool pop up art gallery by famous British photographer Terry O’Neil.
Gallery by Terry O’Neil at The Thief Oslo
Photo by Terry O’Neil
An odd location no doubt, but it was full of hipsters so we knew we had come to the right place. It fitted the theme of the weekend perfectly as it really was yet another an unexpected surprise.
Terry O’Neil at The Thief
Feeling Cultural
As for the ultimate question of would we return to The Thief? Hell yea! I would move in tomorrow if I could. Or in the words of Amber “this place is the bomb dot com”.
Cheers from Oslo
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