Norway to spend Christmas

It may seem to make no sense but when you understand that the place we are staying now is pronounced ´Yaylo’ you will appreciate it for the comedic genius that it is. Or possibly you need to be as tired as I feel for it to make any sense at all. Let me back up a little. There was a very early alarm this morning as we had to get up to catch the shuttle to town so we could pick up our skis and spend the day on the slopes. It is always a bit of a hassle to get the six of kitted out, then it is always awkward to get used to walking in ski boots but we got it all sorted and then we were set.
The sun hadn’t even poked its head out by the time we were on our first run and there was a bit of a wind and it was cold. So we took our time to get into the swing of it again, gradually making our way a little further up the hill to the higher slopes, but as we got to the high point the wind was blowing hard and it was bitter, any exposed skin felt freezing. On the plus side, the slopes were fairly empty so we could make the most of that and we looked like a very cool family on the piste, although I was bringing the levels down slightly. We made our way along the side of the mountain, zigzagging and connecting with different runs but eventually we needed a bit of lunch so we found what we thought would be the most overpriced and poor value spot in the resort and we weren’t disappointed. But the girls managed to find many bros to be snacking on so they weren’t too bothered.
After lunch we headed back out for more and after a few successful runs the tiredness in my mind and my legs started to kick in and on three consecutive runs I had a little tumble. Once you go it is very hard to stop or recover so I slid on a few occasions and I knew that I wasn’t going to improve so I thought that would be enough. The problem was that after getting our regular shoes back on, and picking up what we needed from the shop we still had over an hour to wait for our bus, and the temperature was dropping, from a fairly low starting point. The girls were ok with this and were their usual raucous selves, but Jess was not happy, and not for the first time today started to go downhill. On several occasions I was told that ‘this will not be happening again’ and if I say that random strangers tried to make polite conversation and she wasn’t having any of it , then you know how bad it was, that’s not like her at all. To top it all off, the bus was about 10 minutes late, just as I was having it explained to me that if this went on much longer she would ’lose the plot’ it eventually was spotted up the road. I am glad I did not have to find out what that would look like.
We made it back to our accommodation and a nice cuppa tea and several biscuits helped to take the edge off. Then we had a bit of time in the sauna in the apartment which really warmed us up and I had a little napette to help me recover from the exertions before whipping up a tasty dinner. We get to do it all again tomorrow, without such an early start and hopefully without the long wait.Read more

The last day of the year and here we were in Oslo with no idea what to do or expect, there is a distinct lack of information to be found online. So our plan, such as it was, was to wander into town and just see what the day had in store.
First impressions of Oslo is that although it is a capital city it is a fairly small city, and not one that is overrun with tourists which is nice. So we strolled along the road towards town laughing at humourous Norwegian names and words and just being quite chill and eventually arrived at the Royal Palace which is a large but not particularly attractive building overlooking the town centre. We watched the guards in their silly hats march about with their semi-automatic rifles very randomly, it looked like they were still learning what they had to do as they seemed about 16 years old. Then we continued to meander through the Christmas markets, which like most these the world over, consisted of stalls selling crappy, overpriced food. The girls had a Korean corn dog, which we are happy to report consisted more of corn than dog. As we didn’t have a plan we started to vaguely think about where we could get some lunch as we minced about, although there was no great urgency.
It was quite cold though, especially when on one of the streets that didn’t get any sun at all, so our urgency was growing slightly. We passed on a few options, including Max Burger, and carried on. Sometimes when walking around a new city you just take a wrong turn, or head in the wrong direction, without even realising and end up walking away from your options. This is what happened to us as we decided to walk around some of the waterfront area. Our options dwindled from a low base and the ice floating on the water gave a good indication of how cold it was. We did try a few places but for various reasons none was quite right, including Jess being called a liar in a Subway. At one point on our walk, as the cold was really setting in there was a gentle thwack on my arm, one of the local seagulls had felt it necessary to dump a load of good luck on me. This at least lifted everyone’s spirits. After an hour or so of walking we started to recognise some of the shops and found ourselves outside Max Burger which seemed like a good choice. It certainly was passable.
After food we were all feeling a bit more energised and Lily had found something called the Nordic Pixel Forest, basically a light installation hanging in the trees in a city park, and as it was starting to get dark this was a perfect choice. As we wandered through the park we thought that it had a good view of the city and would be a good place to return to at midnight to view whatever fireworks were going on. The pixel forest itself was very impressive, the changing colours of the hanging lights made for some good photos in the otherwise dark park. It was one of those good discoveries where you don’t expect much, there isn’t really much to it, and yet it inspires amazement and leaves you feeling good.
A tram home followed, we had a few hours to kill before we needed to head out for dinner so we just took it easy in the apartment. As we were going to be out late in the cold we needed to layer up, so we all had thermals under our clothes which we hoped would do the trick and keep us warm. We had a reservation at a Lebanese restaurant in central Oslo, we weren’t sure what to expect, but choice was fairly limited, so many places just weren’t open, which seemed strange to us given it was New Year’s Eve. The restaurant was busy and the food was very tasty, although for 13€ I was expecting my pint to have some sort of magical qualities, however it turned out to be just a regular beer.
With a bit of time to kill before midnight we needed to find something to do that would keep us warm and the boys had seen a frozen pond earlier where people were ice skating and they thought this would be good fun to walk on. It was slightly disconcerting at first, a little slippery and you really have to put your faith in the solidity of the ice. All the young ‘uns had no problem and were busy sliding around, including some full body slides, boys are so silly.
After this it was time to head back up the hill to the view point we had found earlier, we had about 30 minutes to spare and it was starting to fill up. The view was awesome and we could see the whole city and there were just random fireworks going off across the city, nothing was organised it was just people letting off fireworks, including on the hill behind us. It was non-stop the whole time we were there and it just kept building up and up as midnight approached. Eventually the countdown arrived, it was quite haphazard as there was no official clock anywhere but I think I timed my New Year’s kiss to perfection. There was no let up in the fireworks, they just kept going and I think it was one of the best fireworks displays I have ever seen, the lack of organisation just meant that everywhere we looked there were fireworks going off, easily more than a hundred locations. The description and the photos probably don’t do it justice but the only word that truly describes it is ‘spectacular’. After a while they did start to slow down and we were all fireworked out so we headed for home. The tram stop was rammed full of people so we decided to walk and as did it started gently snowing giving everything a cover of whiteness, it was the perfect end to what had been a very cool and unexpected day. Happy New Year!Read more