Ski Jumping, Ice Hotels, Skiing and Bobsledding for 90 quid a go

Lillehammer, Norway

13th January 2008

We've been here in Norway for about 5 days now. It's been nice. I've been skiing 3 times so far. Once, I had the whole hill to myself with the exception of the bloke who operated the ski lift and made sure I didn't over use my pass. The other hill I've been to is called "So Beautiful", I would write the Norwegian name but I'm not sure if this site is setup to use unicode properly :) The place is spot on and really enjoyable, a lot of 75 degree drops mixed around here and there and some nice jumps to go off to. Tomorrow I'm off to what has been described as the best hill in this part of Norway: Hafjell. There are plenty of black run courses there which help keep the insurance company's christmas parties at bay :D

People here become instant friends and come to life when they hear I'm from Canada. It's funny how they think that all 32 million of us are nice. Everyone here is speaking spot on English as well. I've had to ask for directions to various places in the last few days and everyone I spoke with had the language down, it's really amazing.

I've got some photos from ski jumping, an ice hotel and some other attractions I've come across here. The ski jumping was amazing. I got to the point on the platform where they jump off into the abyss but my battery died from the cold before I could get any good up close shots of them coming right off the jump. There are some wide shots with Lillehammer in the background while the men are in mid-flight to make up for that.

One thing about Norway, nothing costs less than 10 quid. This is the most fucking expensive country I have ever been too, all of the other 21 were much cheaper.

Some prices:
hot dog in the airport with a drink: 8 quid
snickers bar: 1.60 quid (compared to 0.20 in Parnu, Estonia and 0.45 in London)
90 minute train ride: 22 quid
crappy waffel and orange pop: 4 quid
330ml can of beer in the supermarket: 2.40 quid
quarter pounder meal at McDonalds: 8.50 quid
skiing: ~22 - 40 quid a day, 11 quid for a half day, 12 quid for 10 runs

I would never buy anything in this country unless I absolutely needed it and would die or lead a miserable existence until my death without it. I laughed when I heard Norwegians drive to Sweden to buy alcohol, I don't think it's very funny anymore :(

It's amazing how attractive people here are and how in shape everyone seems to be. I saw lots of people out jogging in these freezing temperatures and everyone seems to be into cross country skiing.

So there you have it: they are richer, nicer, more beautiful and more sporty than me :)

Overall, this has been one of the most amazing places I've visited this year. The only downside is that my nephew and niece won't shut up for 30 seconds. I'm ready to dig an igloo in the snow and sleep there just for some rest!

Shouting children = bad
Shouting children at 7am (6am london time) = shite
Shouting children at 7am (6am london time) in German = ueber schiesse
Shouting children at 7am (6am london time) and continuing until 10pm at night 5 days in a row = a good way to extract information from terrorism suspects