What an Easter! Here in Norway the locals love a holiday, the Easter break is from lunchtime on Wednesday until Monday. We (Joel, Emma and Cooba) packed our little VW Polo to the brim with supplies and headed off at the crack of dawn for the long drive to Oslo. One of Joel’s lecturers from the AMC in Tasmania, Jan Søholt – a native of Oslo who currently resides in Launceston, kindly loaned us his cabin for the weekend. It’s about 30 minutes north of Oslo near a town called Lillestrøm. It was Emma and the boys – Cooba, Joel, Ryan and Mitch. Most of you who read this blog will know who these people are by now.
The drive was very loooong – nearly 9 hours (with the easter traffic and long windy mountainous and coastal roads) but we arrived in one piece and were pretty excited about our rustic little cabin. Jan warned us that it was very basic – “you might prefer to spend Easter at Guantanamo Bay instead” I think were his specific words, but we found it charming. Keep in mind though no running water, no electricity, very little insulation and a long drop perched so precariously on the edge of a cliff that it took us 2 days to work up the courage to use it! It was pretty much camping but with a roof over our heads and a fantastic wood stove that we kept well stoked the whole time we were there. Here are some lovely pics of Coobs that we took on the weekend with Joel’s new camera.
Joel quickly went to work (within about 5 seconds we reckon) baptising his new purchase – a chainsaw – cutting down some trees for firewood. The cabin is situated amongst loads of fir trees and Jan said that the way to heat the cabin was to pick out a nice fir tree blocking the view and chop it down … so we did! It is a very picturesque area with a beautiful view of the lake from the cabin. The boys were pretty impressed with camping ‘norwegian style’ – we grabbed some nearby snow and added it to a few buckets for a ready made esky – although it was somewhat colder than the Aussie ones. The snow remained frozen the whole time we were there. Sure beats dropping into the servo daily for ice! The Cloudy Bay Sauv Blanc and Nøgne Ø Wit Øl never tasted so good!
The highlight of the weekend (apart from Emma’s Homemade Hot Cross Buns – they are not available here so we had to make our own) was no doubt our day trip to Lillehammer. The name may ring a bell – it was the home of the 1994 Winter Olympics. We had perfect conditions and went to Hafjell skifield where many of the Olympic events were held. Blue sky, no clouds, no wind, and reasonable snow coverage were an ideal way to test our new skis out – and we were very happy with our purchases. Here is a pic of Joel on Lillehammer with the very famous backdrop of the Olympic man cut out of the trees as well as a pic of Ryan Emma and Joel in the luxurious gondola lift heading up to the top of Hafjell for the first run of the day.
The drive was very loooong – nearly 9 hours (with the easter traffic and long windy mountainous and coastal roads) but we arrived in one piece and were pretty excited about our rustic little cabin. Jan warned us that it was very basic – “you might prefer to spend Easter at Guantanamo Bay instead” I think were his specific words, but we found it charming. Keep in mind though no running water, no electricity, very little insulation and a long drop perched so precariously on the edge of a cliff that it took us 2 days to work up the courage to use it! It was pretty much camping but with a roof over our heads and a fantastic wood stove that we kept well stoked the whole time we were there. Here are some lovely pics of Coobs that we took on the weekend with Joel’s new camera.
Joel quickly went to work (within about 5 seconds we reckon) baptising his new purchase – a chainsaw – cutting down some trees for firewood. The cabin is situated amongst loads of fir trees and Jan said that the way to heat the cabin was to pick out a nice fir tree blocking the view and chop it down … so we did! It is a very picturesque area with a beautiful view of the lake from the cabin. The boys were pretty impressed with camping ‘norwegian style’ – we grabbed some nearby snow and added it to a few buckets for a ready made esky – although it was somewhat colder than the Aussie ones. The snow remained frozen the whole time we were there. Sure beats dropping into the servo daily for ice! The Cloudy Bay Sauv Blanc and Nøgne Ø Wit Øl never tasted so good!
The highlight of the weekend (apart from Emma’s Homemade Hot Cross Buns – they are not available here so we had to make our own) was no doubt our day trip to Lillehammer. The name may ring a bell – it was the home of the 1994 Winter Olympics. We had perfect conditions and went to Hafjell skifield where many of the Olympic events were held. Blue sky, no clouds, no wind, and reasonable snow coverage were an ideal way to test our new skis out – and we were very happy with our purchases. Here is a pic of Joel on Lillehammer with the very famous backdrop of the Olympic man cut out of the trees as well as a pic of Ryan Emma and Joel in the luxurious gondola lift heading up to the top of Hafjell for the first run of the day.
Back at the cabin we quickly made friends with some of the other locals in nearby cabins including Frøde, Geir, and Peder. Cooba also made great friends with Frøde’s Airdale Terrier Freda whom he had a bit of a crush on we think. We even got invited up to our Kjempeflott friends cabin for some drinks and a tour of their lovely renovated cabin. Here is a pic of our cabin with Mitch and Ryan cracking the top of their first beer for the weekend.
On the last night of our stay we had a fantastic dump of snow and awoke to a beautiful white soft forest. Here is a pic of the cabin the night when it started snowing and another posed shot.
We also found this ski jump 5 mins away from the cabin which actually has these polished porcelain dimpled tile tracks for use in the summer. God knows why anyone in their right mind would do such a thing (it was very scary at the top – Ryan commented he found it more scary than Preikestolen!) but it was a good climb to the top and this pic hopefully gives some perspective on how tall it was (Emma is a vague dot all the way down the bottom to the left of a green shed). We also found a bum-sliding-toboggan-thing which of course we put to good use.
On the last night of our stay we had a fantastic dump of snow and awoke to a beautiful white soft forest. Here is a pic of the cabin the night when it started snowing and another posed shot.
We also found this ski jump 5 mins away from the cabin which actually has these polished porcelain dimpled tile tracks for use in the summer. God knows why anyone in their right mind would do such a thing (it was very scary at the top – Ryan commented he found it more scary than Preikestolen!) but it was a good climb to the top and this pic hopefully gives some perspective on how tall it was (Emma is a vague dot all the way down the bottom to the left of a green shed). We also found a bum-sliding-toboggan-thing which of course we put to good use.
We had a fantastic time and really appreciate Jan for lending us his cabin for Påske (Easter). His red shed is now fully stocked with stove-sized fir tree firewood! Hope everyone had a great holiday, we're thinking of you all.
Snakkes!
Emma and Joel.
G'day Guys,
ReplyDeleteit just wouldn't be pikey without a bloody fishing rod in his hand would it!
Looks like your easter was a blast!
Take it easy,
tristan
Cheers Tristan,
ReplyDeleteYeah it was a very lovely way to spend Easter over here in Norway.
Pikey had no luck with the fishing unfortunately but we had plenty of tinned mackerel fillets to keep us fed!
Hope life in Melbs is going well.
J