16 December 2009

Snowboarding Norway [Day One]

Our (Shaun & I) Saturday started at about 2am, after only a couple of hours of sleep. We headed down to Clapham Junction station, to catch our train. After about 5 minutes of being there, this dude turns up in a suit, stumbling around. After a couple of minutes he spews all over the platform. Nice!

We had 10 minutes to get from the train to the bus. As Shaun and I are in fine physical form, this was not a problem. The bus not so much a bus as a large van. It also had a mad-man behind the wheel. This guy was plain nuts. So any hope of getting any sleep on the journey was not looking good.

We arrived at Stansted Airport, through security, then tried to get some shut-eye. Things didn't go too well, we got about 10 minutes sleep between us. After a big English Breakfast, we were on the plane - no delays so we were happy.

The flight was pretty standard. We touched down at Moss Airport, Rygge at about 11am. There are not many ways into Oslo from Rygge, the easiest/cheapest being the bus. Unlucky for us, two flights arrived at the same time, meaning there was a mass of people trying to get on. The worst part was there was no queue of any description. It was basically just a 'push your way on' type of thing. After two buses left we finally got on one.

After about an hour on the bus we arrived in central Oslo. It took us a while to orientate ourselves, but once we did we were off! Our hotel ended up being only about 10 minutes walk away. Perfect! We tried to check in but had arrived too early. So we ended up using the luggage storage room, donned our snow gear, then headed for the mountain.

It is insanely easy to get up the mountain from the city. The Metro goes right up - pretty much to the chair lifts. This was definitely a big plus. Part of the track was under repair at the time, so we had to take a replacement bus, but was still nice and easy.

We finally got up the mountain at about 2pm. After hiring a board and getting our lift passes, we headed for the powder. Only drawback, there wasn't much powder to be found - it hadn't snowed in about a week. This meant a lot of the runs were not open, and those that were, were icy in places. Not ideal conditions, but we were still loving it! Sometime during the afternoon we both realised that we had left our travel insurance documents at home. Also our phone network was not supported in Norway - so we were pretty much screwed if something were to happen. Whoops.

It took us a while, but slowly we found our feet, and after a couple of hours we were flying down the side of the mountain. The sun set at about 3.30-4pm when the lights came on. I have never boarded under lights before - it was awesome! And the sunset was spectacular.



A quick video I took while boarding - almost face-planted a couple of times!


The mountain closed at 5, so we headed back down into Oslo. Checked in to our Hotel to find we had been given a 'double' room. And the bed wasn't even a double! More like a king single. I was like 'Oh no you di'int!', went back and they put us in a twin, thank GOD!

We headed out for a bit of a look around and a bite to eat. We were quickly learning that Norway is definately not a cheap place to visit - and our budget stretched as far as BK. We wandered around, checking out all the Christmas lights - it was really nice!


Random story - on the way back to the hotel there was this guy lying on the footpath, looking rather drunk and/or homeless. As we passed I noticed he had a fishing rod! We must of disturbed him as we passed as he started shouting and trying to hit me with his fishing rod... wierd.

As we both were suffering from a severe lack of sleep, we were in bed by about 10 and off to sleep soon after.

Next Post - 'Snowboarding Norway Day Two'

4 comments:

  1. It sounds like a lot of fun!! I have never skied or snow boarded or done anything of the sort. Not sure about waking up at 2am though...

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  2. Do it! So much fun! Im going to try to head to France or Austria to go again this winter. Definitely worth it

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  3. One of these days I will have to give snowboarding a go. It looks like it could be fun....

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  4. hi, is my first time to visiting here, introduce me. im oyz, im glad to be read in here, wow ur blog/site is very very interesting....., maybe someday i'll be same like u. thanks

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