Korketrekkeren sledging day

Korketrekkeren is the bobsleigh course used for the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. And as this video from the internet on youtube shows here, the runs down are quite some fun.
The toboggan run is located right next to the original bobsleigh run, built for the 1952 Olympic games. You take the local metro to the top of the toboggan run, to Frognerseteren station where you can also rent the sledges and helmets for an actually pretty good price and then you just rush down at great speed. When you get to the bottom of the run, you simply get on the metro again to reach the top!

I had done this tobogganing run already last year with some friends and we definitely had to repeat it this year. So for this Sunday we had organised a group of people. At 2 p.m. we all (Audrey, Jana, Carla and two Italian friends of hers and me) met at the metro station Frognerseteren from where the track starts.

(f.l.t.r.: Stefano, Mariagavina, me, Audrey, Carla, Jana & Alessio)

We first rented some rentals and immediately went for a first run down. With respect to last year it was a little bit icy and the track was pretty bumpy!!!
After the first run we took the metro up again to the top where we met another friend, Alessio, who joined us with a little delay. Several other runs full of fun and whirled up snow followed until we decided to stop for this time and warm up with a cup of hot chocolate at the nearby Frognersetern restaurant and bar.

So now I'm back home, warmed up and looking forward to a good night sleep. Activities in the fresh air make tired!

I'd say we all had a lot of fun. This was a good weekend :-)

Jana's birthday dinner

Right before Christmas it had been Jana's 27th birthday. At that date she had already been in Germany for the Christmas festivities. Since it wasn't sure if she'd do some celebrations back in Oslo, Audrey and I had already had a little dinner including present at Audrey's place in the beginning of January, right after everyone's return from the holidays.
However, for this weekend, Jana had invited to really celebrate.

Tim and Inema trying to open a wine bottle by "rescuing" the already broken kork.

The plan was to have dinner at her place and going out later on. But in the end we never made it to any other place than her flat. I think we were all soooo full from from all the good food she had prepared that we simply couldn't move anymore. Unfortunately three people had cancelled at last minute which left us with more food to "cope" with :-)
Already the snacks for starter were filling enough: some raw vegetables with all sorts of dips, crackers, Italian salami and parmesan cheese, crisps and nuts and two huge loafs of home made cheese-and-onion-bread.

Tim was surprised when Jana served two, also home made, baking trays of pizza as he didn't expect more food to come after all that.  However, the hightlight of the evening was surely Jana's lovely decorated "shoe cakes" :-)

Someone in Germany had given her a shoe-shaped baking form she was very eager to use.

The outcome was nearly too pity to cut... but noone could resist not eating it :-)

After all this food you might understand that we weren't able anymore to move. So somewhat after 1 a.m. we all left and I rushed to get my nightbus back home.

Hafjell ski trip with Audrey

It's winter! However, despite this winter being faaaaaaaaaaar too warm, the skiing season has started. At least the ski resorts in Norway have enough snow to have the slopes open and have the season going.
This is also the time for Audrey and me to go skiing again - from Friday 20/01 afternoon until Sunday 22/01 evening :-) It was just us two and we decided to repeat a trip we did already last year: to Hafjell.

So, once more we took the train after work from Oslo to Lillehammer where we had stayed at Clarion Collection Hotel Hammer.

 

Initially we had the idea of trying the Quality Spa & Resort Hafjell, located near the ski centre. However, the bus connection from Lillehammer train station was not very good on Friday evenings. We would have had to wait over an hour. On top of that we would have had to pay pretty much for eating à la carte in the restaurant for dinner while the dinner at the Clarion Collection hotels is always included in the room rate in form of a "light evening meal". This would save us some money.
The next morning we got up early to have breakfast and leave the hotel at 9 a.m. We walked some 7 minutes to Lillehammer train station to take the bus to Hafjell Alpinsenter which welcomed us with "some" fog!

 

Unfortunately Audrey and I lost nearly an hour to get the ski pass, to rent our ski equipment and to get ready for skiing before we hit the slopes. We had figured out that it was much colder than we thought so we had to put one more layer of clothes on as well.

But shortly before 11 a.m. we eventually managed to take the first lift. Once on the slopes it actually wasn't only foggy, but also snowing pretty much. This was good in one way as the snow conditions on the slopes were pretty nice: not much ice, but a layer of fresh, fluffy snow :-) But apart from that, the continuously falling snow combined with wind and low temperatures made us wrap all over with wind/snow proof clothes like hoods covering the whole head, snow and fog skiing goggles etc.

This weather made it absolutely impossible to take pictures. First of all I didn't dare taking out my camera due to the cold, second for it getting totally covered in snow in the few seconds I would have it out and third for not having been willing to take my hands out of my warm gloves for even 1 second!

The first picture I took of that Saturday was at lunch break when we stopped at some "hytta" for a goulash soup. However, due to the temperature change for the camera from the cold outside to the warm inside, the lens immediately steamed up.

So for this day I just gave up taking pictures and we just enjoyed the skiing.

Unfortunately, the black slope no. 8, which we had declared last year to be our favourite, was closed as in use for some slalom competition during the whole weekend. Thus, Audrey and I stuck to all the other slopes which were fine as well.

At 4 p.m. a large part of the lifts had already started closing and so Audrey and I declared the skiing being over for this day and returned to the ski storage room. This place was full of kids that had spent their day on and especially off the slopes improving their skills in free style skiing. While skiing for me has always been a big event taking place once a year during one week of holidays with my family. For the kids in this area skiing is the most normal thing to do on a weekend. Like other young people play soccer those hang out on the slopes and afterwards in those common places like this storage room... eating the lunch packages made by mum :-)

After getting changed, Audrey and I took the bus back to our hotel in Lillehammer - just on time to benefit of the free waffels offered in the Clarion Collection hotels in the afternoons :-)

The rest of the day passed pretty relaxed with some shower and the dinner later on. We enjoyed our dessert in the library of the hotel while watching the semi finals of the selection of Norway's candidate for the Melody Grand Prix competition in spring. What a shame to admit that I watched something stupid like that!

 

The next day we got up at the same time to take the bus again at 9 a.m. to Hafjell.

There was still not much sun today, but it was snowing much less and it was a couple of degrees warmer.

So at least one time I dared taking out my camera for 30 seconds. However, it was still cold enough to keep the face and head as wrapped and protected as possible.

Also on Sunday we enjoyed the skiing and sometimes repeated the slopes we liked best until the closing of the lifts in the afteroon. We returned our skis and boots and while waiting for the bus to Lillehammer we warmed ourselves up with some hot chocolate at a bar.

 Back in Lillehammer we strolled along the main street to our hotel...

...where we one last time prepared ourselves a couple of waffles with jam and cream! Then we quickly got changed and hurried back to the train station as at 18:12 the train brought us back to Oslo.

Pretty tired from the weekend we passed the return journey half sleeping half reading. Well, I actually read most of the time, despite having been super tired. But I wanted to finish my book before arriving in Oslo - and so I did with the last page the moment we drove into Oslo Central Station :-)

Thanks, Audrey, for this skiing weekend. Always a pleasure :-) I'm looking forward to our next tour - whenever, wherever with whoever hopefully soon!

Skiing combined with galettes des rois

As I have mentioned in my previous post, we went cross-country skiing with a bunch of other people this Saturday. We were a group of 10 and had agreed on meeting at 2 p.m. at the metro station at the lake "Sognsvann".
It was our first cross-country skiing of the season... which is starting kind of now. Until now it has (and partially still is) still far too warm for this period. However, a little bit outside the city centre of Oslo there is already a bit of snow. Just enough to drag all the Norwegians - and Non-Norwegians - on the tracks for their National sport: langrenn.

Just to start the season we had decided on taking it slowly and started with a tour along the Sognsvann lake and up to the Ullavålseteren, a kind of farm. Though we all had slightly different (beginner) levels and cross-country experiences, we managed to keep a good speed which suited me. Not too quick and not too slow.

As we had started our tour pretty late, it was already starting to get dark when we arrived Ullavålseteren, so that we decided not to have a coffee break up there, but immediately turned around and went back the same way we came. Being dark is actually not a problem as this popular track is illuminated all the way. However, Audrey had still invited to her place after skiing and the first people were already invited for 5.30 p.m., so we had to hurry up a bit for getting back.
The light on the way back was great and I tried to catch the sun set with my camera, but of course, my camera isn't able to get situations like that. In the end it's just a pocket camera which simply does have its limitations.

I was back home at around 5:30 and just had time to quickly rush under the shower and leave again to Audrey's place. A first couple had already arrived and one by one also the others arrived.
Audrey had invited to have some typical French pastries. First of all she offered us some home made "galettes des rois" (King Cakes), which are a French tradition in this period around Epiphany, fresh from the oven! It was super delicious :-)

And from her Christmas holidays in France, Audrey had brought some "gâteau breton" called "Kouign Amann" typical from the region of Brittany. It consists of butter, butter, butter and even more butter...

 

...and is slightly warmed up pretty yummy.

Well, and with these two pieces of cake that evening I definitely didn't need anymore dinner for that night!

Looking forward to next season's home made "galettes des rois" :-)

The world is small...

...and everyone comes from big Meckenheim!

This is so crazy and unbelievable:

I'm member of a group called "Abi 2002 KAG Meckenheim" on facebook. That is a group for all those of my hometown Meckenheim in Germany that made the A-levels with me at my school in 2002. That is basically for all my school mates. This group is currently pretty active as this year 2012 we celebrate our 10-years A-levels anniversary and a big party is planned in our all hometown.
In this connection I made a post, asking if the communicated date 30.6. will be definite or if there were any changes to be expected, as once I've booked my flights I won't be able to join any other date if changed. I finished the post with "greetings from the North".
Not long after that I received a message on facebook from a former class mate called Lucia, saying "I'm curious, but what exactly do you mean with 'from the NORTH'? I currently live for six months in Oslo and during Christmas I was at home and accidentially met Vera (another girl from our school year) and she also lives in Oslo. Don't tell me you as well?!?" And of course my answer: "Yes, exactly, Oslo also for me!"

So there are two girls from my class at school also living in Oslo, Lucia and Vera, and noone knew about the others. Well, we hadn't been too much in touch at school times, but still.
When Lucia and Vera had met on Christmas and figured out they both live in Oslo, they had set an appointment for having a drink together this Friday after work. And now that they discovered also my presence in this part of the world, I was welcome to join them as well.

As you might know, Tim, also a friend of us here in Oslo, he is also from Meckenheim. Well, he's not our year (some 7 years older), but still. When we two had met here in Oslo for the first time in January 2010 we were already surprised about this coincidence, but now also the two girls which are even from my class... that is even more incredible! And please note, Meckenheim is all, but a big town. It just counts some 25.000 souls.
So when we knew we would met this Friday, I invited of course also Tim who unfortunately wasn't available that evening. Well, that won't have been the last "Mecki-meeting".

Anyways, so we three girls eventually met for a glass of wine/beer and exchanged of course all the details of how ending up in Oslo and what we had been up to the past 10 years. Briefly, Lucia is only for a study related six months period here and will already leave Oslo again end of Fabruary. Vera had partially been studying in Trondheim and had ever since kept that connection to Norway, first with a job in Kristiansand and now - for already two whole years by now - in Oslo... without ever having met each other.

Unfortunaltely that evening at "Dattera til Hagen" wasn't too long as everyone already had further plans for the second part of the evening. However, the next day I was going cross-country skiing with a bunch of other people and since that was also Lucia's plan I had offered her to join... and she did :-)

So more on that in my next post!

Macbeth

The new year has started, we're back to business in the office and so we're also back at some opera visits. Right in the second week of January Audrey and I had Shakespeare's "Macbeth" opera on the programme.
There is not too much to say about it. The story is the one it is and has always been, so no surprises here, but the scenery was quite "special". "Special" in this context can be defined like "not existent" or "simple". There was pretty much nothing on the stage, no stage setting at all, just the actors performing. Not really my favourite this time. Maybe for some opera lover who has seen this play already in hundred versions might now appreciate a rather different production. But for someone like me, who sees this classical piece for the first time performed, I prefer to have it classical.

All above pictures: © Erik Berg - Den Norske Opera & Ballett 2012

Pizza dinner at Audrey's

Audrey was gone for the Christmas and New Year's festivities, Jana was gone on holidays and I was away as well. Now we are at the beginning of the new year and we're all back in Oslo. We had organised to meet now on Saturday. It had been Jana's birthday right before Christmas and also Audrey had announced to bring some raclette cheese and typical Breton cakes from France.

So the initial plan was to have a raclette evening, but totally overloaded already with 23 kg, Audrey had to leave the cheese behind. Only the cakes eventually made it till Oslo.

So yesterday we met at Audrey's place. I actually went already at 6 p.m., because I had a part of Jana's birthday and Christmas present on which Audrey and I still had to work. Then at 7.30 p.m. also Jana joined and in alternative to the initially planned raclette, we started preparing some pizza: one half with ham, rucola and parmesan and one half with a veggy mix and tuna.

We managed to eat nearly the whole tray all by ourselves, in three. We could have finished also the whole pizza, but that wouldn't have left any space for the very heavy Breton cake ("gateau bréton") which consists of butter, butter and even more butter... but nevertheless veeeeeeery delicious, especially when slightly warmed up :-) 

Jana caught the "fève", the little porcelaine figure entitling you to wear the paper crown - which I only know from being hidden in the "galettes des rois" (King Cakes)  around Epiphany.

The evening didn't last too long as we were all not feeling too well, especially me being close to a damn stupid cold.