We spent Wednesday on the train from Røros to reach Nesbyen on the line between Oslo and Bergen, then up to visit Kristine, Tor-Einar, and Odin at their Haglebu hytta. Another gorgeous setting with lots of snow and great company!
The hyttas again were cozy and snowy! There were 3 little cabins, ours was on the left behind the snow and it had a full bathroom and electric sauna. The common rooms and kitchen were in the middle cabin, behind the snow. And Kristina and Tor’s family stayed in the right cabin, next to the snow. These hyttas belong to Kristina’s parents, who were there to greet us on our first evening and had dinner with us. It was very generous of them to invite us to stay.
On our first evening we played games after dinner–several serious games of Jenga, then the kids started an epic game of Norsk Monopoly (all Norwegian properties) while the grown-ups played Norsk Bananagrams. It’s easy to handicap the Norwegians by asking them if our words are right every few minutes ;).
In the morning, the kids went out to sled right behind the hyttas for awhile, then we took a walk up the road toward the mountain so that we could slide back down, part way on the spark (kick sled) and part way on regular sleds. Nora and I shared a sled for part of the way and it was fast!
Kristina and I sat outside and soaked up the sun for a bit. Despite all of the snow, the sun is warm on your face and feels so good after the long winter. Just get bundled up and sit on some sheep skin and you will stay cozy.
The main goal was to get us cross country skiing (what the Norwegians call “skiing,” but if you want to be very specific you can say “langrenn”) for a real påskeferie, so Kristine and Tor put out a call for skis and we borrowed some from the mayor of Ås–celebrity skis! Anders and Odin took off using the “skate style” technique, with Anders learning all he could from Odin. The rest of us stuck to classic style. We had a great ski tur afternoon in an area that has a large lake and endless ski trails through the woods and into the hills. We stayed on fairly flat trails so that we could work on our technique.
After skiing for awhile, we found a nice place to stop and build a campfire and have a snack. This is such a classic ski day activity, and we were treated to all of the tips and tricks. They brought along foam and wool pads to sit on so that our butts stayed dry and warm, warm drinks, chocolate, along with pølser and fish cakes to cook over the fire!
This is the inside of the Kwikk Lunsj, a classic candy bar that is just like a Kit-Kat, but has a special relationship to the Easter holiday. You take them on your ski tur, and on the inside of the package are the “mountaineering rules” about how to stay safe when you are out on an adventure. It says something special about your country’s relationship to the outdoors when the candy bars carry tips to keep you from dying in the wilderness.
We had a delicious dinner with good company, then the boys took a sauna complete with a jump in the snow! It was the whole hytta-tour package!
