Vinter Ferie (February 18-26)

February 18th to the 26th was winter vacation! The first day I went to Åre (if you haven't read about that then you should click here and read it!)


On the Tuesday of vacation I went with Mamma, Pappa and Thea to a town called Røros. 


Every year they have a market where people come from all over to sell goods and food. It was officially started in 1854. 
When we first got there we walked up through the streets to a place where this huge crowd was gathered listening to people giving different speeches. Thea and I didn't find that particularly exciting so we moved on.

Mamma, Thea and I
There were tons of people there!

We walked back down the old, crowded streets of the town looking for somewhere we could buy lunch. One of the stands was selling moose burgers, so we each got one.

After we had eaten we walked up to see an old church in the town. It was very pretty.

We wandered around the narrow streets all afternoon, looking at goods, tasting different types of smoked sausage and fighting the ridiculous crowd while trying to keep our tempers down.  Thea and I got very annoyed with all the people there... 
We also found a sheep statue with really weird eyes.

There were so many different vendors and handicrafts. There were hand knit sweaters, hats, gloves and mittens in almost any color imaginable. There were trolls and dolls, hand made cups and taxidermy booths with mounted wild animals.
We got gløgg, a very special warm drink that is very common in the winter time here. We got to keep the nice mugs that it came in.
I bought a little doll dressed in traditional Sami clothes. The Sami people are indigenous to the northern most part of Norway, Sweden and Finland (Lapland).
After thoroughly exploring the outdoor market we stopped quickly at a smaller indoor one. There were more knitted goods and a lot of beautiful jewelry. 
On the car ride home I fell asleep and woke up at this cozy little restaurant and we ate dinner. I was exhausted.


My friend Kristin invited me to go on a hyttetur (cabin trip) on the second weekend of vacation with her and her Parents. (If you have been following my blog you should know who Kristin is... She has showed up quite a few times--especially in "Has it Really Been 21 Days?" and "Rubber Boots are a Girl's Best Friend")
We left Thursday night and drove to their cabin. When we got there it was dark. We strapped on our head lights and back packs, clicked on our cross country skis and headed up to their cabin. 
I'm sure you can imagine how amusing it was for them to watch me try to cross country ski...
With a heavy back pack on...
Up hill...
In the dark...
Eventually I made it. Their cabin was so nice!
We spent the evening playing card, then playing with the cards. 

Kristin is very good at building card houses!

Me on the other hand....

It looked really good for a second there.
We went to bed really late Thursday night and slept in a bit Friday morning.
"A bit"...
We were eating breakfast while Kristin's father was eating lunch...
Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day so we decided we should go to the ski area. 
The plan was that Kristin would go skiing and I would rent a snowboard.
We got to the ski area and they actually had a pretty nice snowboard that I could rent and it was really cheap too! Only like 20 dollars (which amazed me because everything in Norway is SO expensive). So I was about to pay for the board and the guy said they didn't have any boots I could rent...
Wait.... What?
So I wound up having to rent (wait for it..)
Down Hill Skis
Dun dunn dunnnnnn.....
There are absolutely no words to describe how terrified I was.
However, I figured I might as well try. It was a gorgeous day.

That picture was taken at the top of the mountain, before I had tried to ski at all.
The smile didn't last for long.
Thank god Kristin was so patient... The first run was horrible. I couldn't figure out how to control the skis, I couldn't turn, I always fell (once even on Kristin).
I was absolutely terrified. 
A hill that would have taken me about 7 or 8  minutes TOPS on a snowboard took me an hour and fifteen minutes.
That's right:
One hour. Fifteen minutes.
It was scary, it was painful, it was embarrassing but I tried again.

At least the T-lift wasn't so terrifying... My second time I showed a little improvement, but not much...

Just look at that form! I make every skier ever so proud.

By the third run, I kid you not, it took me LESS than 15 minutes to get down the mountain. I took more than an hour off my original time.

However, I fell. Well, I fell a lot, but this time I fell really hard and hit my head, really hard...
We went once more. I was doing pretty good, feeling more confident, starting to have fun and maybe being able to see why people enjoy skiing. Until...
Until I fell. Again. Worse than ever. 
Sometimes when you fall in a certain way it immediately sends your body into shock. It happened to me. I couldn't move... I couldn't feel anything for a moment. I opened my eyes and saw my ski lying at an impossible angle: the only way it could be in that direction is if my left leg was horribly mangled and broken in a couple places.
Panic swept over me.
Then the pain came. 
Then all other feelings and I could tell nothing was broken. 
Thank goodness!
Now, being a snowboarder, I am used to my board staying on, so it never even came to my mind that skis detach sometimes.
Yard Sale...
It took me a few minutes to straighten out my crooked limbs, compose myself and click my ski back on (that took the longest). 
Oh, did I mention I was only about 30 yards away from the bottom of the hill? So everyone saw this happen.
The only thing hurting more than my ego was my neck and head (which actually continued to hurt for more than a week). 
After that fall, I had to call it a day. I told Kristin that she should go a few more runs because there was half an hour or so until the lifts closed and I felt bad for making her go so slow (and for only 4 runs) since we started. I went inside the tiny ski lodge and ate an orange.


I'm really not sure if this video will be able to play or not, but I might as well try to upload it. 
My form is horrible, I look awkward and I nearly get run down by two little kids, but considering it was my first time ever trying to ski I think I did alright.

(by the way, this wasn't THE fall... not even close.)


Later that night we watched a few movies and played cards again. We also built more card towers.

5 Stories! 


On Saturday we slept in again. When we were finally up and ready to go we got on our outdoor clothes and went cross country skiing! 
I enjoyed this quite a bit more than the attempt at alpine. It was much less terrifying.
It was a gorgeous day.

Posing for a picture....

Then I fell...

Typical.

To get to the cabin we had to ski there (as I mentioned earlier). 

It is also up hill.

True to form... I fell...

Again, typical...

They had to shovel the snow off the top of their cabin and this created a great opportunity to jump into HUGE snowbanks. We had quite a bit of fun doing that on Saturday.

Kristin

Avery

Kristin

Avery

Rough landing?

Here we go...

Saturday night Kristin succeed in what seemed to be the impossible: a six story house of cards.

Look at that!

Sturdy?

 While Kristin's talent seemed to be building amazing card towers, I discovered I was very good at making a monkey puppet dance.

Super talented....

We watched some more movies and, again, stayed up very late. It was so much fun! Sunday we packed up and washed the cabin a bit then we left for home. 


I had a very good time with Kristin and her family. I am so glad they invited me to their cabin with them! 
Overall it was a great winter break, but I can't believe that time is going by so quickly!