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. :)