I Lived in Oslo Before I Really Started Seeing It

The founder story behind Soul of Oslo, Kleqt's self-guided audio story walk through Oslo.

It was the end of April 2025 when I first moved to Oslo. The city was preparing for its short summer and those long, sunny days that still feel slightly strange when you are new here.

My wife got a job at the University of Oslo, which brought us to the city. We liked Oslo almost immediately. There was something inviting about it.

We walked a lot — through streets, neighbourhoods and much of central Oslo on foot. I honestly do not remember the last time I had walked this much in a single month.

We walked past Akershus Fortress, crossed Karl Johans gate many times and saw the Royal Palace, Stortinget, Oslo Cathedral and Rådhuset. We knew what they were called. We knew they were important. But honestly, we did not really know what we were looking at.

Then one small incident pushed me to start looking at the city more carefully. I was going to meet a friend for the first time and, thanks to Google Maps, somehow took a much longer route than I needed to. I arrived a little late, which led her to give me a simple suggestion: "Just walk around the city. You will learn the routes better."

I remembered it.

Akershus was a fortress. Stortinget was the parliament building. Rådhuset was City Hall.

Then small details started catching my attention. Near the old City Hall, locally known as Gamle Rådhus, I noticed a large bronze hand pointing towards the ground. It was the hand of Christian IV. My first question was simple: why was it made that way?

Then the questions started. What was the real story of Akershus? Who were the two huge bronze figures outside the National Theatre? Why were lions guarding Stortinget? And why was there a memorial of iron roses outside Oslo Cathedral?

At Rådhuset, I found something that made me laugh: an untuned bell by the harbour that could only be rung with a foot pedal.

I genuinely loved these kinds of details. How many times had I already walked past these places without even asking a question?

Oslo was not necessarily hiding her stories. The stories were there. I simply had not learned how to notice them.

My walks became slower. My questions became more frequent. And the city became much more interesting.

Maybe I simply had the time to look

There is one part of this story I cannot separate from my wife. Moving to another country brings an obvious pressure to establish yourself professionally and find a job. But she never turned that into pressure for me. That gave me more mental space to think, explore and let ideas grow.

She also has a very creative way of looking at things. I could spend hours thinking about an idea, explain it to her, and sometimes one sentence from her would change the whole direction. Annoying at times. But useful. Very useful.

Kleqt was my idea, but I had the freedom to keep exploring it because she never made me feel that I was running out of time. That mattered more than I probably told her.

Then I started thinking about visitors

If I could live in Oslo and repeatedly walk past these details, what about someone visiting for two or three days? They'd stand in front of Akershus, take a photo, walk through Rådhusplassen, and at the end of the day say: "I saw Oslo." But would they notice the bronze hand, the roses, the untuned bell? Probably not, for the same reason I hadn't.

The funny thing is, Kleqt began as a souvenir

The first idea was not an audio walk. It was a souvenir — something you could keep to remember Oslo.

Then came the obvious question: how do you make someone care enough to want it? That question pulled me back to the walks, stories and hidden details I had been collecting. Maybe the souvenir should not simply be purchased to represent Oslo. Maybe you should experience Oslo before you collect it.

That is when the audio walk started taking shape. I wanted something between a guided tour and a Google search: something that let you move at your own pace without leaving you standing in front of a building reading a webpage full of facts.

What if Oslo could tell you her own stories as you walked? Instead of simply pressing "next", you would look up, turn around, find a symbol or notice something hiding in plain sight. And at the end, you would leave with the physical memory I had imagined from the beginning.

Then a friend gave the story a fox

As the experience started taking shape, I kept thinking about the stories. How should Oslo speak? How do you make someone look at a building instead of constantly looking at their phone? How do you make history interesting without making it feel like a classroom?

Then one of our mutual friends suggested something very simple: why not use a localised mascot? A character who could make the experience lighter and more fun.

The idea stayed with me, and eventually Qiro appeared — an Arctic fox. Slightly opinionated, unapologetic and usually more interested in the strange detail everyone else has ignored. With dry humour, of course.

Qiro changed the whole tone of the experience. Suddenly, it did not just have audio. It had a companion.

Someone actually had to walk it

An idea sitting on my screen was one thing. Someone actually walking it was another. A friend from Germany, visiting Oslo, became Kleqt's first walker, our first real guest. Watching her experience the route showed me what I couldn't see myself: what needed more context, what needed to say less. I went back and rebuilt parts of it.

That is still how I think about it. Kleqt is not finished. It is being walked into shape.