100% Seji

NORWAY 2007 - PART 1
10-14 of February: Kraków, Gausdal, Lillehammer
At the beginning I was going to write that report just after coming back to Poland but... There's always some kind of "but", "shit happens", "other things on my mind" or the one and only "I'll do it tomorrow, I promise". When I returned I became focused with finding a new job, finishing a couple of things and so on.

The first part of my impressions from this year's trip to Norway makes it's way to the blog today. The rest will follow shortly (I promise! ;)).

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Marzena (my girlfriend) and I went to Trondheim, Norway, to attend this year's the International Student Festival in Trondheim (ISFiT). I was ISFiT participant in 2005 and really enjoyed it. This time it was not only a possibility to experience multinational mood of ISFiT again but also to see a bit of Norway - in 2005 I was hardly able to see bits and pieces of Trondheim only. And, last but not least, Marzena was coming with me.

ISFiT lasts for ten days, but before the festival we spent one week visiting friends and experiencing Norway with our own eyes (also hands, legs, ears and taste buds). It was possible thanks to Mara and Tomek, Borys Borys and Marzena's friends from the university who came to Oslo on Erasmus Programme.

During our trip I posted some notes on this blog, using Opera Mini, which once again I found indispensable. Mostly to let my family know that I'm still alive and kicking and to document some funny events. For the first impressions from the beginning of our journey, see: funny language mistake at Krakow's airport; Norway!; wine and ski jumping (posts are in Polish but the pictures speak for themselves).

Our trip began on the 10^th of February, late afternoon. We flew from Balice Airport and less than three hours later we arrived at Oslo Gardermoen airport. It was my fifth flight and I must say that it's like my friend said: "flying is like riding a bus - there's some noise and it shakes a little." At the airport Mara and Tomek picked us up and took for a over two hours drive to Gausdal. We arrived about half past midnight, if I remember correctly. It was a pity that we traveled by night but fortunately we didn't miss much - we took a train back to Oslo and were able to enjoy really beautiful winter landscape.

Gausdal is a small town near Lillehammer surrounded by mountains (well, nothing unusual, considering that there are a lot of mountains in Norway and the whole country's population is slightly over 4,5 million people) and, during winter, full of snow and snow and more snow (did I mention snow?). When we came, the temperature dropped top minus 15 Celsius degrees, but fortunately the weather was stable - it was sunny and it wasn't snowing too much, ideal conditions to take a walk. As we were told economy of Gausdal consists mostly of farming, tourism (winter sports) and logging. Indeed, we stayed at a typical Norwegian farm, with some old buildings and typical architecture.

And so we did next morning. Our friends took us for a long, wonderful walk to show us the place they live. We followed a popular walking trail and were the only people there who weren't wearing skies. Strange feeling, you're walking along the road and must pay attention not only to skiers but also try not to trample "ski tracks" made by some kind of snowcat truck (the point is to firm the snow and make ski-wide tracks in the snow to make it easier to travel on skis). We had a great time, playing in the snow, making pictures and just having fun. Although it didn't last long (only a couple of hours) we came back home so tired and so hungry, that we spent the rest of the day taking and eating :).

Next day Marzena and I went to Lillehammer. It was cold as hell (yes, Norse hell IS frozen :)), something about minus 20 or worse. We had a thermos full of hot tee and lots of sandwiches and sweets (remember - calories can save your life!) and a strong will to walk around the whole town. We failed. After a shor walk around the center of Lillehammer we went to see Maihaugen skansen (open-air museum). I don't remember if it was 3 or four hours of walking around and gazing in awe at old norse houses covered with snow but after that time we were almost frozen to death and so tired, that on our last legs we managed somehow to reach railway station and call Tomek that we had enough and want to go back home ;). As we didn't manage to see Olympic jumping ramps, Tomek drove us there and we spent another half an hour visiting one of the sites of 1994 Winter Olympic Games.

The last day of our stay in Gausdal was rather quiet. We took a walk from our friend's home to the town's center (the opposite direction of our first day trip), watching the countryside and saying good bye to that lovely town. As a farewell gift to Mara and Tomek (well, I was kind of forced to do this ;)) I run a role-playing game session, a thing I hadn't done for a long time I was quite surprised that it went so smoothly - I guess that running a game is like riding a bike, if you did it once, you'll always know how to do it. On the last day Mara's cat, Toska, finally accepted Marzena and me as friends, which resulted in a couple of nice pictures of the cat.

During our stay we also learned a bit about Norwegian economy and day-to-day living. The country is really small, so for example there are only two dairy brands in Norway (in Poland we have at least five major companies and almost every region has it's own local brands). Studded tires are a must during winter, especially in rural areas. And, as there's a lot of snow falling down during winters, roads can literally disappear so there are bamboo sticks put alongside the roads - they act as an indicator for snowplows where the road is and from where to where the snow should be removed. And that it's cheaper to send Norwegian salmon to China, pack it there and ship it back to Norway ;).

Final thoughts? It was Norway I always wanted to see. Not a view from a tourist folder, but a real country with real people. Small town, covered with snow, surrounded by mountains, with cows in barns and no tourists in sight. Although it were only three days, I think that it was the best part of our trip - the one I was expecting the most and the one that brought no disappointments.

PICTURES, Part 1: 10-14 of February, Norway.

Coming up next: some thoughts on Oslo and our short visit at Opera Software (finally!).

UPDATE 13-APR-2008
I was going to write about the whole trip that lasted over two weeks, but I didn't manage to to so. There will be no more posts on that trip, no more pictures. I'm sorry for that.