Weekend in Holmenkollen –11th-13th of March 

This year the Biathlon World Championship took place in Holmekollen Oslo. We went there to visit this event, and to learn more about the Ski History of Norway. Holmekollen is a 371 metres high mountain and is located in the northwest of Oslo. In addition to being a residential area, Holmekollen has been a ski recreation area since the late 19th century. The famous Ski jumping hill Holmenbakken is also located in Holmekollen. Holmenbakken is one of Oslo’s most famous tourist attractions and hosts competitions since 1892.

Day 1 (11th of March):

On this day we visied the Fram Museum and met there at 2.  The Fram Museum was inaugurated on 20 May 1936. It honours Norwegian polar exploration in general and three great Norwegian polar explorers in particular ( Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen). The museum also exhibits images of the fauna of the polar regions, such as polar bears and penguins.

The Fram Museum is centered principally on the original exploration vessel Fram. The original interior of Fram is intact and visitors can go inside the ship to view it. Fram was commissioned, designed, and built by  shipbuilder Colin Archer to specifications provided by Norwegian Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who financed the building of the ship with a combination of grant monies provided by the Norwegian government and private funding in 1891.

Around 5 pm we drove to our campsite in Holmekollen. Our camp was near to the ski tracks and about a 10 minute walk far away from the stadium. After we build up our tents we made a bonfire and had dinner. In the evening we play around with the slides, which I brought, and went to bed around 10 pm.

Day 2 (12th of March):

In the morning I went skiing in the area around our camp side, with Mike, Martynas, Chris and Marek. We skied between all the athletes, who participated in the world championship. We also went up the smaller ski jump hill, where we had a great view of the surrounding area. In the afternoon Martin joined us to watch the men’s relay. We didn’t buy tickets, but we were lucky and found a very good spot to watch the relay. It was right next to a track, which all the athletes passed during the competition. Lot of Norwegian chose this place for watching the event and the atmosphere was amazing. In the Evening we got closer in contact with a Norwegian family, who camped right next to us. They shared their dinner with some of us. They cooked a Moose-potatoe-hotpot. Later, when most of our class went to sleep, Michael martynas chris and me made a huge bonefire with them. They had a lot of wood left and we used about 5 sacks of wood. Even they said that this was their biggest bonfire during the wintertime

Day 3 ( 13th of March ):

After Breakfast we put down our tents and drove back to Kristiansand around 12 am.

Evaluation:

All in all it was a nice trip. I am not really into Biathlon, but supporting the German team during the relay was quiet fun. I also enjoyed the great atmosphere during the race and the whole event.

In the last evening, when we made the bonfire with the Norwegians, they told us a lot about their life and jobs in Norway. They spoke about the thinks they like/don’t like about living and working in Norway. It was quiet interesting and we got a better imagination of how it would be to live and work in Norway.

Learning out comes:

•  Experienced to make a bonfire during the wintertime
• Got more practice in working with the gear we got from the University (tents, cooker etc.)
• Learned much about the polar expeditions which were made with the Fram

Equipment/Gear:

• Could test my Sleeping bag and sleeping mat in colder temperatures because it wasn’t very cold  during the overnight trip in Jegersberg

Group Dynamics:

• We had lot of fun together. Especially during the evening activities on Saturday. This trip was a great chance to be together in bigger groups and spend time with people you don’t know that well, yet.