Norway’s capital, Oslo, seamlessly blends urban perks like shopping and museums with a love for nature revealed in its pristine parks.

Norway values its rural life far more than the urban sprawl that many Western lands mistake for progress, so it’s no surprise that Oslo embraces the great outdoors even as it offers cosmopolitan features. One reason that Norwegians spend so much time outside is that winter and summer here are diametrically opposed: due to its extreme northern location, Norway receives up to twenty hours of daylight between April and October, while the cold season plunges it into nearly unrelenting darkness.

As soon as temperatures start to rise in early spring, Oslo's citizens cast off their winter garb and head for Oslo Fiord, where fishermen sell fresh shrimp on the docks and boats offer tours of the islands. You can ride around for hours just breathing in the cool, bracing air that blows over the sparkling blue water, and then disembark at the Bygdoey, a peninsula that serves as Oslo’s cultural hub. Here you can visit museums like the Fram and the Viking Ship Museum, both dedicated to the Norwegian seafaring tradition. Meanwhile, art lovers will flock to the Munch Museum, a huge collection of works by Scandinavia’s most famous artist, Edvard Munch.

To best take advantage of an Oslo summer, though, you must stay outdoors, preferably at Nordmarka, a park that encompasses trails and lakes for outdoor activities. Daring souls will also enjoy scaling the Holmenkollen ski jump, a 407-foot landmark that commemorates the Norwegian invention of skiing. Don’t forget to take home a souvenir either; a hand-knitted sweater from the Basarhallene market will remind you of sun-drenched Oslo even in the dead of winter.

Oslo is considered a global city and ranked "Beta World City Plus" in studies performed by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network in 2008. Oslo has for several years been listed as one of the most expensive cities in the world alongside cities such as Tokyo, Copenhagen and Paris. In 2009 Oslo regained its status as the world's most expensive city. Oslo is a pilot city of the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme.