What: Self Organised Cross Country Ski Trip
When: March 21st-23rd, 2018
Where: Ljosland
This student lead trip was one of the more low key ones for me. It was quite relaxing to be honest. Everyone was doing there own thing this week as it was the week before our Easter break. A couple classmates talked to one of our teachers that has a cabin up in Ljosland near Evje and he had lent it to them to stay at for the week. They went at the beginning of the week and my friend Frankie and I decided to join them a few days later. I had never heard of Ljosland but it was fairly easy to get to. It only took about two hours to get there but we started on a bus then a shuttle then finally arrived there in a taxi. We had no idea what this place looked like or what to expect but we walked up a small hill and found the cutest little cabin. It was set up sort of like a DNT hut but much, much better. There was electricity and running water( most DNT huts do not provide this). There was 2 wood burning stoves, a big couch and 5 beds. Immediately we knew it was going to be a cozy week. 
The first day we didn’t arrive til the afternoon so we made a nice lunch and relaxed for a bit. I heard from the others that the ski conditions weren’t the best but since i was in the beautiful place and there was new ski trails I hadn’t been on i wanted to at least test my skis by going on a short ski. The cabin we were staying at was on the top of a hill so you had to ski down a steep bit until you were on the actual trail. The others were right-the snow conditions were wet, icy and just overall not ideal. The temperature outside was great through so i waxed up my skis and headed down the trail on my first little solo ski. It was quite difficult as I kept slipping often. After an hour or two I took my skis off for a bit and just laid in the snow taking in the wonderful weather. It was probably one of the first warmer days we had since being in Norway. All i needed was a light jacket. I went walked up the side of the mountain a bit and the view just kept getting more breathtaking. I faft around a bit on my own before heading back to the cabin to see what the others were doing.I put the skis back on and went pretty fast down the hill to the bottom of trail where i had begun. Just as i was reaching the end I saw the others coming back from skiing and right at the bottom greeted them with a nice wipeout. Classic Abby style. We all headed in the cabin but the weather was just too good to stay in so Frankie and I brought some chairs outside, made some tea and read our books in front of the house surrounded by an extraordinary view. As it got later the temperature dropped so we went inside to start a fire. We all cooked together this night an awesome meal that Linda and her boyfriend created. It was filling, nutritious and delicious. We played some games, had some good talks around the candle lit room and headed to bed. 
The next morning was equally relaxing as the previous evening. This quite the luxurious trip then what we were used to-aka tenting in blizzards on top of mountains. We all slept in a bit, made a good breakfast and then Frankie and I decided to go out and do some more exploring. It was a little chillier this day so we just put on an extra layer and were good to go. We had to play with our wax a bit as it had rained over the night so the snow was extra wet and icy-yay! We each tried differnt colors/layers with the wax but neither had much luck and we were sliding like crazy. We only went for a short while til we decided to set our skis to the side and walk to pretty trail instead. It was an enjoyable walk until it started to down poor. We weren’t in an hurry to get back so we didn’t sprint down the hill, instead took our time and walked through the rain. We went back to the others who had just been enjoying the cabin life. We all did some yoga together, made food and honestly just chilled. Like i said, most relaxing trip thus far which i think we were all more than okay with since the previous weeks had been non-stop go, go, go. The next day Frankie and I decided to head back a day before the others since we both had visitors coming to Norway for the Easter break and had to pack our things up. Was a nice trip before being super busy again even if the ski conditions weren’t the best!
