Sunday, 18. September 2005, 22:44:07
I spent this weekend with family in
Nordmarka. That I don't take the time to visit this beautiful part of Oslo more often is a pity, because it is so close to the city and at the same time so quite and peaceful.
Like most people from around here, I walk these woods Saturdays or Sundays and normally go home after a few hours looking for berries or mushrooms. Of course in the winter time, we only move towards, which ever goal we've set, and then hurry back home. Both ways on cross country skis.
This weekend we had a closer look at one of the privately owned cabins in these woods, Maristuen, which in fact was part of the Norwegian pavilion at the World exhibition in Paris, 1937. The place itself, placed only 1,3 km from the Tryvann tower and right next to
Åbbortjern, is a nice log cabin.
So why am I blogging about our weekend in a cabin on a typical web browser oriented community site?
Well, the answer is easy, I work for Opera Software and this is what I did this weekend.
I thought I could share with you, through different small pieces, some impressions and thoughts on what it means to live in Oslo. I don't plan to write allot in danger of boring you, and only time will tell how often I'll write and about what kind of things.
Anyways, our trip started out at Majorstuen, where we entered the Subway (aka Vestkantbanen) to Frognerseteren, not fare from the Holmenkollen ski jump arena. Frognerseteren (500 meter over sea level) is one of many entries to Nordmarka, but probably the easiest to get to, due to the Subway. Getting there takes less than 40 minutes.
There, at the border of the deep Nordmarka woods, only your means of transportation limits you. During winter, you wont get fare without skis. Some tourists try, to much amusement to themselves and others. This time of year your choices are a bicycle or the apostles horses (aka; your feet). Either way our destination was about 40-50 minutes away, due to the longer route by bicycle. In real distance we didn't move more than 1,3 km away from the starting point.
Arriving as the last for the evening, dinner was served on arrival. On these kind of trips you eat and drink what you can carry. No shops around and no going back if you forgot something. Closest store isn't at the forest border and especially not at night. Not to worry, we were organized.
Saturday, after breakfast the forest, basically off road, was there to be entered. It didn't take much time to get the necessary amount of mushrooms for lunch and blue berries for dessert. So two hours in the woods and a coffee at Skjennungsstua, which is a meeting point for people out on a days walk, was enough activity to comfortably head on back to the cabin. For Toast alá Fungi.
After lunch, some of us took off for more mushroom and blue berries for dinner to accompany our steaks.
Sunday, what better day to head on home. Without kids, one could probably make it in less than an hour. And you actually wouldn't have to pedal more than ten rounds to get all the way down town. But we did have kids in the group, so stopping half way for a barbecue was nothing short of natural. Making fire in the woods is normally not a good thing to do, but this time of year it is pretty wet everywhere and we found a small stream to build it next to. It is nothing to it, making a nice meal in the open. And it is a great ending to a nice weekend.
Every year before Christmas, the guys I grew up with and I manage to get together for a lutefisk dinner in Oslo. Naturally we aren't all in contact throughout the year, but somehow everyone of us has contact with at least one of the others. Last year the question came around if we could meet more often and possibly for a weekend. So it was decided to do just that, meet for a weekend in addition to the traditional lutefisk.
WIDGETIZE