Ice Skating

Every winter, between the Stortinget (the Parliament) and the Nationaltheatre, there is an ice skating ring set up. It is exactly the place with the large fountain that, especially in summer, attracts many people for relaxation, kids playing or refreshing.

In winter it becomes the place where people meet for ice skating, families to keep their kids busy, wanna-be talented ice skaters to show off... and teenagers to hang out together.

Jana, Moritz and I were neither hanging out teenagers, nor did we have kids to occupy and we were definitely no talents on the blades. We were just three normal people who simply decided to meet up after work to have some fun skating.

Right after work, Jana picked up Moritz and me and we went straight down Karl Johans gate towards the Royal Castle. In a tent next to the ice skating ring we rented out some ice-skates. Of course, they were pretty crap, but still...

So we went out on the ice and it felt quite weird. I hadn't been on skates for ages. It took us some rounds to get used to moving on the ice again. However, slowly but surely we warmed up and our movement became a little more elegant and the rounds quicker.

Unfortunately, there were two issues that kind of "disturbed" this ice skating experience:

1 - The ring was filled by those above mentioned hanging out teenagers which were not really there for skating. For them it was a place to meet away from the parents, smoking secretly among friends and feel cool.

2 - The skates were actually more than crap! I remembered not having been too bad on skates actually. But tonight, I simply couldn't stand on them. I had absolutely no hold in them and my feet were totally bent inwards. That way it was nearly impossible to speed up, set one foot in front of the other one when taking a corner. In somehow I felt a little helpless and stupid on the skates this time. Sad, because I know it would have been so much more fun otherwise and I know I could do it better...

Well, nevertheless, I actually did have fun tonight! Simply for that fact that we always have fun when being together. Additionally also because we were just doing an activity, something different. So, it was nice.

However, after about an hour or so, also the others felt their feet aching and the shoes pinching. Furthermore, Moritz had to be back home soon, because he had an appointment with a guy who was interested in buying his mattress which he wanted to get rid of when leaving back to Germany.

Consequently, we gave the ice-skates back and split up, each of us going back home.