Jasmine A.
Yelp
Unfortunately my sister and I only had 1.5 days in Oslo on our multi-country European trip, and the Nobel Peace Center was on the top of our to-do list. I agree with the other reviewers that the Nobel Peace Center isn't anything to write home about, but it was still interesting to learn about the Nobel Peace Prize and laureates. When we went in April the main exhibit was Malala and children's rights.
There were a few annoying things about the Nobel Peace Center. First, when we entered, there was no one at the front desk and we couldn't find any staff. Confused about where to pay (we should have just walked in for free!), we wandered into the gift shop and paid for our admission there. I'm not sure if they usually have someone at the front desk (it wasn't a particularly busy place), but there should at least be a sign at the front desk letting people know to pay at the gift shop!
Second, when we paid for our admission, the woman insisted that we lock up our purses in lockers. I have no problem with museums asking you to lock up your large bags (in fact, I would rather not carry around a lot of stuff so I prefer leaving my jacket, extra bags, etc in a locker/secured area), but to ask you to leave a purse is ridiculous. Not only for security reasons, but I need my purse to carry around my stuff! I'm not a guy who just shoves everything in my pants pocket! Not only do I need to carry essentials like my phone and wallet, but I have other items I don't feel comfortable being without for long periods of time, thus the necessity of a purse. (What if I were menstruating and needed a tampon? Am I supposed to carry around a freakin' tampon in my hand while I am walking through the Nobel Peace Center?!) In addition I was mildly sick and needed to have tissues with me, amongst other things. I don't know if the Nobel Peace Center doesn't allow small purses or if the woman was mistaken (my money is on the latter, as a total ban on all bags/small personal items is absolutely ludicrous), but we snuck our purses in. So just a warning: you may be told to leave ALL your belongings in a locker.
Third, one of the permanent exhibits, "The Nobel Field", while quite interesting and informative, was flawed from a user's point of view. The exhibit consisted of tablet-sized screens displaying information about each laureate, and in order to activate the motion detecting screens, you had to stand right in front of it, making it difficult for two people to read it. If you stood even just a little to the side the screen would not activate, or if you shifted over while reading the screen, it would go dark. It was frustrating to try and stand in just the right spot to activate the screen. Also, there was absolutely no control over the information displayed. The Nobel laureates' stories were displayed in both Norwegian and English. The Norwegian version was presented first, then the English. But you could not skip the Norwegian version or select which language you preferred; instead you would have to wait for the Norwegian information to play through until you came to the English version. Also, the information presented was not static; after a set amount of time it would continue onto the next screen, and if you hadn't finished reading it, tough. Great idea, poor execution.
On an unrelated note that has nothing to do with my review, it was quite the ordeal getting to the Nobel Peace Center. While we could have easily taken transit or walked, we didn't want to fuck around trying to find the place as we only had one full day in Oslo, and in previous cities we had wasted precious time walking around trying to find our destinations, so we wanted to pay for the convenience of quickly and effortlessly getting to the center. We told the cab driver to take us to the Nobel Peace Center and he said he knew where it was and didn't ask for an address. He was friendly and didn't try and scam us [see my review of Christiania Taxi]. However, it turns out that he was a bit of an idiot. He dropped us off, but it wasn't the Nobel Peace Center! I can see the confusion as there was a bust of Alfred Nobel out front and it said "Alfred Nobel" on the building, but it wasn't the correct place, and we had paid for a ride that didn't get us to our destination. So in the end we did waste time walking to the Nobel Peace Center, as well as money on a cab.
That experience, combined with the Christiania Taxi experience, is a warning to never use a taxi in Oslo. Awesome city, but terrible taxi service. [I would have written a separate review of the taxi ride, but I didn't catch the name of the company.]