I found the museum on the first Antarctic explorers very interesting. It compared the Norwegian expedition team lead by Anderson with the British expedition team lead by Robert frost. In a race to the south pole the success and failures of each trip came down to preparation and planning. Anderson used 127 huskies for transport whereas the British used a combination of horses and dogs.

The cross-country ski event itself was amazing to see. We arrived on Friday Night and set up out tents in the snow. Compared to the other thousands of Norwegians surrounding us we looked very under prepared! They brought EVERYTHING! It was luxury camping! Norwegian national pride filled the atmosphere. We all joined in waved Norwegian flags and got very drunk. We partied so hard if there was ever a chance Richard and I were going to get together it would have been now. But I hesitated and nothing ever eventuated.

We left our drunken spot in the forest on Saturday morning and headed to the main ski arena. Many members of our big group left at different times in the morning so we all split up. I was with Emma and Kathrin when we watch the Norwegian and finish elite 50km skiers battle it out for first place. Emma was so excited she taught us a finish cheering song which was really cool to learn. In a sea, full of Norwegians, we found some other finish people and all started singing this song at the top of our voices. The Finnish spirit was very strong to see and it was nice to see a contrast to Norwegian culture. The camera crew noticed us and put a live video on the big screen. The others apparently saw us on the TV which I thought was crazy! What are the chances of that happening at such a big event? As we made our way back down from the grandstand we found the others at the spot where they were handing out free quick lunch chocolates. No surprises Bowen had like 5 chocolates. We then watched the ski jumping all as a group. I remember being so happy that the group was finally all back together. The Jump itself was crazy high and looked so scary. These athletes were literally flinging themselves as fast as possible into the air to gather speed and distance. Which ever athlete landed the farthest won. By the end of the competition some of the athletes were nearly landing on the end of the landing runway. Surely this changes of landing angle is not good for their joints. Maybe in the future they will need to build even higher jumps.