Holmenkollen

We went for a weekend trip to watch the World Championship of Biathlon and go to the polar expedition museum.

The Fram museum was very interesting, there we could explore the actual ship that the men sailed to south pole. It was really hard to imagine what kind of life they had to have lived in these hard conditions. The ship didn’t look to be very insulated so I think they must have been very cold during the worst times. Also everything was very small, all the rooms were small and the beds were small and I can’t imagine it was very uncomfortable to stay there for months, the men must have been very short. We also saw a documentary about the different trips to Greenland, the north pole and the south pole. There was also an exhibition about the Greenland expedition. I learned a lot that I didn’t know, that they stayed there for months and they were breeding the dogs, they had a small village at the south pole which I thought was kinda cool.

After the museum it was time to get ourselves to Holmenkollen to get our camp up. We put the tents up in the middle of the cross country field which I thought was kind of strange but we were told it was the norm. When we got the tents up it was time for dinner, I wasn’t motivated at all to heat up my food so I just ate my pasta cold. It was really cold outside and I was testing a new mattress from my dad, found out it wasn’t really well insulated so my nights in Oslo were really really cold and I decided on the trip to ask my family for a new sleeping bag with a better comfort temperature (which my grandmother and parents gave me and works so well).

During the day we went to Oslo and looked around. We went to the library and walked around the city. In the middle of the city there was a huge market where a lot of people had booths that were selling food or other merchandise. Then when the competition started we went to the main square at the university where there was a stage and huge screens set up. I watched half of the show there and half of it in one of the coffee tents. The atmosphere in the crowd was amazing! Everyone was in high spirits and cheering for their team. Then when the competition was over with Norway winning we wanted to watch the medal ceremony so we stayed it seemed like the whole city was in town during the medal ceremony. It was crazy , the people in front of us was really friendly and gave us their flags and hats to hold and cheer with.

During the evenings we had fun sliding on ass-slides down the nearest hill and some even skied down, we talked next to the campfire and tried to stay warm. I learned that having a fire on ice for a long time will turn into a deep and big hole in the ground. That makes it was for oxygen to get to the fire to keep it going and makes a lot of smoke. It was important to constantly add the logs to the side of the fire and not on top of it like usual.
It was probably the coldest trip so far.