Winter holidays = time for skiing

Published: 19.02.2020

Another trip started last Friday: it went to Vinstra, to Marion and Manuel.
It had snowed well in Dale during the night, so there was about 20 cm of snow now. Luckily, this time I didn't have any suitcases with me.

Friday

In the morning, the eight-hour journey began (by the way: this is exactly the same route as in December, only this time I caught all the buses). It went over several mountain passes and plateaus, which brought wonderful views. You can see the pictures at the end of this blog entry.

In the afternoon, I arrived at the train station and after we had picked up all the skiing equipment from a rental shop, we met the volunteer who was in Vinstra last year at the train station and went shopping together with her. After a game night, we went to bed and during the night the others arrived, so there were a total of seven people.

Saturday
First, all seven people went skiing. The Hafjell ski resort is very well known and modern, the slopes are also good. While we shot down a few slopes, one of us was just learning to ski and mastered it excellently. Since the car didn't have enough space for everyone, three took the train back. Due to the lack of space, we sat on the floor most of the time, but that wasn't a problem. In the evening, there was supposed to be a party, but after "pre-drinking" I went back to the apartment.

View of the river that runs through the Gudbrandsdalen

Sunday
First, Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest, but then we went to the swimming pool, where we swam laps, tried the steam bath and whirlpool, and tested the slide.

Monday

The day of rest was put into action. Only in the morning did I accompany Manuel to his Norwegian lesson by bike (including spikes) and confused everyone with my Nynorsk (there are two written languages in Norwegian, the widely spoken Bokmål and Nynorsk, which I am learning).

Frozen river on the way back from Norwegian class

In the evening, we visited the youth club, where we played table soccer and billiards, and I had an electric guitar in my hands for the first time.

Tuesday
Packed with skiing equipment, we went to the bus stop and the bus drove almost to the ski resort. This time, there were two of us, again shooting down the slopes, and the sun was shining, just like on Saturday, so the view was beautiful. We returned by train. And because that wasn't enough sports yet (haha), the former volunteer and I accompanied Manuel to his volleyball group. Playing was really fun, and so we hardly felt the skiing anymore.

View from the gondola and memories of the Olympic Games in Lillehammer

Wednesday
What haven't we done yet? Skiing?
Today we went back to the slopes, this time with a group of three people and my skis were better. But I managed to bring the wrong ski boots, so I had to borrow some. I then had a little chat with the woman who worked in the rental shop and was German, when I returned the boots. We only paid 20 kroner (about 2 €) for the bus because of a technical defect. The weather was perfect again. When we left the house in the morning, the sky was red, the sun was shining on the slopes. Maybe I even got a little sunburn from it. When we were in a lift, a military airplane flew quite close over the ski area, unfortunately we were too slow for photos.

View from above, parts of the Jotunheimen mountains and the Rondane National Park were visible

View of a small part of the ski resort, it continues behind :)

What's next?
Mama got on the flight to Norway this afternoon and will land in Trondheim in the evening. I will meet her there tomorrow morning.

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Friday, Valentine's Day

Since the canteen is closed due to renovation work, I had the day off on Friday. However, I had to make all the preparations for Valentine's Day. The day before, I cooked 20 liters of cocoa, wrote 200 post-its and stapled them to cups, and made a wall where students could hang positive messages for their classmates.