我想念您

It's been almost two weeks now since coming back from snowy Oslo and not much worth talking about has been going on over here. Just work really, although it didn't feel like 'just work' to me lately. Half of my days at the office I have been working late, struggling to reach deadlines and to get an overview of what I actually have been doing. Two new projects have started and as I was appointed to work on those, it's been incredibly busy these last weeks. Both are for customers in China (thus my Chinese title ;) ) and that requires quite a different approach. I like the fact that I can do something new now and it is quite a challenge, but at the same time so tiring. :P It gives a good feeling knowing that things are going easier already and knowing that I did have some hand in that. :) The next two weeks will remain very filled I am sure, but as the cooperation with all the Lu's, Li's and Chang's is going quite well, I have good hopes the stress level will slowly start to diminish...

Oslo III: Last days and return

The start of the weekend also meant moving rooms at the hostel where we stayed. From our spacious double room we changed to a 6 bed dormitory where there wasn't so much space for my big mess anymore. The hostel had already given us some surprises, some less good than the other, already starting our second night when a man died in the entrance hall and the police two hours later nearly closed down the place with the person lying in a bag in front of the window. During the third night the fire alarm went of around 3 in the morning for no apparent reason, causing me to jump out of my bed, terrified by not knowing what the hell was going on after waking up from a deep sleep. :P The weekend however gave us roommates and those were rather special as well. Whilst sitting on our beds, suddenly two men entered, one dressed in a giant red/orange suit, the other in a bright yellow one. Rather than polar explorers, they turned out to be two dutch guys who had been walking in the snow in that same suit for a full week about 2 hours north from Oslo. They themselves called it northern Norway, they were after all only 2000 km off...

The King of Norway (in the centre on the photo) himself had decided to attend both race days for the biathlon and so had a lot of other Norwegians. The stadium was packed and the atmosphere incredible, not in vain as on both days Norway's most successful athlete cleared his way to the victory. All our voices suffered, but it sure was worth it. :) You see quite a lot of weird people when attending big events like these, most peculiar to us certain fan clubs. Often middle aged Germans visit world cup races during the entire winter, this seeming to be a burden and an obligation. They almost never smile and can't stop complaining about how Norwegians truly aren't able to prepare "Bratkartoffel" (fried potatoes) the way real Germans would. :P Quite sad in a way, but of course not all are like this.

There were also some weird people in the crowd... :P

The week was very well filled but unfortunately monday came as well and this meant taking the bus in the morning back to the airport. A large part of the athletes also was there, taking their flight to Russia with quite a dodgy sounding airline. Due to a computer wich needed resetting and some prioritised biathletes we could spend about one hour extra in Norway, befoe flying back to a much warmer Belgium. I'm pretty sure we'll attend the races again next year, it has become a tradition in the past years and I wouldn't want to miss it anymore. :)

Olso II: Biathlon and weather issues

Thursday morning the first biathlon race of the week would take place. (For those ignorant people out there, combination of cross country skiing and shooting :P) With that also the first and only sunny day of our trip was a fact. During the women's race the sun came slowly through the clouds and by the men's race in the afternoon there wasn't a single cloud visible in the sky above the Holmenkollen hill. The races itself weren't a total success yet for our favourite Norwegians, but that couldn't withhold the enthousiasm of the crowd, us included. :)

The stadium in between the races and crazy norwegian fans

After the races we found it ridiculous to not enjoy the rest of the sunny day outside, so instead of going to our hostel and take a hot shower, we decided to visit the Vigeland Park once more. First there was ice cream and then we took a stroll down the park to see the sunset behind the trees and the hills in the distance. This park is the most visited place by tourists in Norway, although I could very well imagine some prude americans wanting to put an age limit on entering it. :P The artist Gustav Vigeland built all of the statues in the park and he is known for his naked work. All the sculptures show naked people, men, women and children. Very nice place in my opinion.

The sun setting over the Vigeland park

Friday was free of competition and as we has seen most of Oslo already in the past years we decided to take the train to Fredrikstad, the best preserved northern fortified city. Both my sister and I are sure it must be a really cute town, very lively and all, but all of that probably in summer and not on a stormy weekday in march. :P It was cold, raining, blowing, everything you don't want whilst visiting a city. My umbrella lost it's use after twenty minutes in the wind and rain, but of course we wouldn't like Norway so much if we couldn't handle a small hurricane. ;) Full of courage we visited some of the old fortresses, we took a very wobbly ferry over the river and had a great lunch in a cafe/shoe shop. Yep, weird combination, but as the main visitors were young mothers, I suppose it worked. :)

Oslo I: sledging and skiing

Arriving in Norway gave us the first feeling of winter of the year. The little snow we had those few hours in Belgium was nothing compared to the piles that were lying near and at some places even in Oslo.

Our main reason of going to the north last week was watching some biathlon races, but it would be crazy to not enjoy everything else that Oslo has to offer together with it. During the first day we visited some cultural places in the city and began to warm up our muscles by making a walk on one of the hills surrounding Norway's capital. To no avail, as the evening of the following day still turned out be a painful and bruised one. :P I had convinced Joke to go alpine skiing for once, it would be her first time and my third. Our cross country experiences gave us some steadiness on the now already, but some day I would like to have a teacher instructing us how exactly carving is done. We can get down a mountain in one piece, but some real technique at a more decent price would be welcome. :) Norway is known for it's expensive rates, ski instructors there follow that path... It was great anyway, especially after we found the green slope after having struggled on the so called baby slope which turned out to be way steeper (and shorter) than most other slopes at the area. ;)

Me on ski's and one of the ski lifts in the snow

The next day it would be one of the last cooler days according to that days weather forecast, so we decided to go and try out the sledging track once more. In one of my earlier posts I had a video of it, but this day the snow quality was far worse due to the relative high temperatures. It became a very bumpy ride indeed, but awesome as expected. Joke even filmed the entire track, near crashes in pools of melting water included. :P

The start of the track and Joke with the camera on the sledge

So our first days in Oslo ended, the next ones would be filled with lots of cheers, sunshine, storms and royal presence.:)

Off to the North once more

Tomorrow morning I will leave for Norway again! This means I haven't got much time left until then, which is quite a problem as I haven't really packed anything yet... For some reason I always intend on doing this in time but I never succeed. Always something comes between, like a friend to talk to or an unseen episode of Lost or a biathlon race on TV. Packing doesn't take long anyway, just grab all my warm and waterproof clothes, stuff them as neatly as possible in a bag and ready I am! So I'd better go and do that now, otherwise people here at home might get annoyed by me running around like a chicken without a head tomorrow morning. I was wondering today if that was an expression in English. It is in dutch and also in Spanish, so I think it had to exist in any other language as well. :P So that's all for today! Many snowy pics will hopefully follow in one week from now, that is if the weather allows it. It's not freezing anymore in Oslo so the snow might be melting away rapidly now. We'll make the most of it anyway!

Ha det bra, as they say in proper Norwegian!