A Norwegian ski-venture

A few weekends ago I went with a friend on a ski trip to Norway. His Norwegian girlfriend and a bunch of her friends had a cabin for the weekend at Hafjell, a ski resort a few hours north of Oslo, and they had an extra spot for me to tag along. I later found out that Hafjell is right outside of Lillehammer and was one of the mountains used in the Winter Olympics back in '94, so it was actually a really nice resort/mountain. Anyway, I took a bus up to Oslo and then we took a car (farther) up to Hafjell to spend Friday through Sunday in the mountains.

Now, I'm not much of a skier. I went for the first time with my family when I was in high school, and then my second ski experience was five years later in Michigan. A couple of years ago I also learned how to snowboard in Michigan, but that's quite a different type of balance and skill. Now, another five years since my last time on skis, I wanted to give skiing another shot. While I fully expected to be a disaster around a group of seasoned Norwegians (someone in Gothenburg had told me that people in Norway are basically "born on skis"), it actually went pretty well, and I was able to handle all of the blue slopes we tried with only one soft fall at the end of the first day. So, we skied most of Friday and Saturday, and we hung out in the cabin with my new Norwegian friends in the evenings.

One cool thing that the resort held on Saturday afternoon was an "afterski" party at a lodge/bar/restaurant near the top of the mountain. This was basically a giant, sweaty mess of people who had been skiing all day gathering indoors, drinking, and dancing in a club-like atmosphere. I'm not sure if they have this at American ski resorts, but if not, they should - it was really fun.

A few thoughts on Norway, as this was my first time there (and I believe it's the farthest north I've ever been!). From what I saw, it is absolutely beautiful in the winter. Both the drive there and the views from the top of the mountain were breathtaking. I didn't really get a good look at a fjord (I was only in Oslo when it was dark out), but we drove around the largest lake in Norway, Mjøsa, which was an amazing scene. Another thing about Norway is that things are very expensive, but I was expecting this - from what I had heard from others, things in Norway are twice the price of things in Sweden (where prices are already ridiculous by American standards). Maybe it was because I was prepared and because I didn't buy very much, but I didn't think it was quite that bad. Okay, so a cheap beer at the afterski was the equivalent of about $14, but at an expensive place in Gothenburg it could be $11 or so. Other stuff that I saw at grocery stores and convenience stores only seemed a bit more expensive than it would be in Sweden.

Regarding the language, Norwegian is very similar to Swedish, with a few notable differences that I caught in my three days there. First, when they want to show appreciation, instead of the Swedish "tack så mycket" (thanks so much), they say "tusen takk" (a thousand thanks). Also, they pronounce the word for "no" differently - in Swedish we say "nej" (pronounced "nay"), but they say "nei" (pronounced "nigh"). Also, they have different vowels - the Swedes have the same vowels as in English plus the additional vowels å, ä, and ö, which the Norwegians replace with å, æ, and ø. Lastly, I noticed that a lot of words that in Swedish start with a "v" are spelled in Norwegian with an "hv", but pronounced pretty much the same. I'm sure there are many other differences, but that's all I noticed with my limited Swedish skills in my limited time in Norway.

All in all, I have a fairly favorable opinion of Norway - Sweden's happy, oil-rich, silly neighbor to the north. I guess it's kind of like Canada is to the U.S., eh?

Tusen takk for reading!
Steven

Oh, and here's some pictures and the foundation for my 2013 running album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/115872916923607849736/albums/5848636155282993857?authkey=CNa0m8etr8_gWA