Before the snow melts ...

... a few pictures of all the snow we had this winter :) Best Norwegian winter I have had.

The entrance to my flat.


My street.

On the way to the T-bane station.

Snø

Finally we had some more fresh snow and skiing is now fun again because there is a small trail with lights which is mostly used by hikers, runners and people walking their dog. I really like that trail but after a while the snow is so trampled down that skiing is not that much fun on it anymore.
A really great thing here in Norway is the "lysloipe" - illuminated ski tracks so that you can go skiing even after work in the dark. The only thing I do not like so much about the main lysloipe is the amount of people - it sometimes feels like on a highway and many people also take their dogs who then just run into your path while in great speed downhill. Since I prefer to make my own tracks and less people, this small lysloipe is perfect for me - almost no people and you can ski at your preferred speed.
Here a few pictures but since it was dark and I had been doing some exercise it was rather hard to keep the camera steady which resulted in the pictures either being blurred or too dark when I changed the exposure. But they are enough to get at least an impression.

Mission travel bug completed!

This time I was successful reaching the destination AND finding the cache. It was a hiking trip in the snow - according to the GPS ~5.2 km in a nice round trip. Since a few people have used the path, hiking was fairly easy except for a few rare areas where I sank in. And the big advantage: no people on the trails at all - they are all skiing on the illuminated track. Since it was getting dark I even saw two moose which is the very first time I've ever seen them close to Oslo. Due to the lack of light and them moving away from me very fast and a missing zoom lens I couldn't take a picture to proove I've seen them :(
Yet I can show some other moose pictures from Alaska:

Running ...

... looking...

... picking up junior...

... and into the woods.

All taken from the car in the middle of the day (on a road with no cars though). We didn't understand why she was running parallel to the road but after the small one turned up to our surprise it was clear where she was running to.

May 4th

Night skiing

One really cool thing here are the lighted slopes so skiing is possible even after work when it is getting dark. There was just some new snow again when we did the night tour - and partly we even skied in the falling snow. This time we were more restricted because there are not that many slopes with light - so we chose Frognerseteren - Ullevålseter and back. It was fantastic! The pics are not so good due to the lack of a tripod but then they are just to get an impression ;)





Now it is definitely spring - so we are glad that we used the opportunity to ski over Easter.

Kikutstua

On Sunday, we were only two and one of our dreams was always to go for a bigger skiing tour, so we decided to start at Frognerseteren again (it is just so convenient) and ski to Kikutstua and back which is something like 25 km. The distance itself was not really the problem but the steep uphill slopes were quite strenuous and the steep downhill slopes quite hard to manage with cross-country skis and some of those were despite the new snow quite icy (here the slopes are sometimes more like hiking trails and not like these totally prepared slopes in Germany and Switzerland - has advantages and disadvantages). Still we managed the tour and it was fantastic - the weather was great and there were not too many people because most Norwegians went on holidays somewhere else over the Easter weekend. Kikutstua is quite funny itself because you can get drinks and waffles and some other food in the middle of nowhere - as it seems. Of course there are gravel roads going there but 'normal' people cannot go there by car ;) In summer it can be quite nice because somewhere I saw that they rent out canoes (maybe the is not up-to-date anymore) since it is on the shore of Bjørnsjøen - a quite big lake there.
Some pics:



On the lake:

Time flies

Already more than a week ago! Of course that one day of skiing wasn't enough for us, we went the next two days and had fantastic weather. Unfortunately I forgot to switch back some settings of the camera so the pictures are not really good but they will do to show how much snow we had and how nice it is with sun ;) Friday and Saturday we made something like 8 km loops - so quite easy going. On Friday we started at Frognerseteren and ended the round at Holmenkollen. On Saturday we started at Voksenkollen and ended the tour at Frognerseteren with a stop in the Cafeteria there.

White Easter

Ha I really thought that they were just making a bad joke since there were so many times when they said there will be snow and what did we get - two snowflakes melting instantaneously in the air before even reaching the ground.
But not yesterday/today - they had predicted snow and I was not believing that until I actually saw it snowing and snowing and snowing - the whole night and it didn't stop.
So in the morning one could see two extremely happy people jumping through the appartment and being really enthusiastic to have another chance to ski (probably every day of the weekend) while the others just asked themselves probably for the thousandth time why they are in Oslo and not in Spain ;)
Well , we didn't care and we were happy that we were two of the same kind, picked up another one who really appreciated the snow (actually a Spanish girl) and went on skiing. And what do I have to say - fantastic! And tomorrow we will also go a round and there is supposed to be some sun. I think we freaked out quite a little bit doing snow angels and jumps into the snow ;)
Anyway - some pics:

Chrystelle posing nicely for the picture:



Snow!!!!

A whole year of summer - how depressing

For the last time ... honestly:
The last chance to complain before I will move into my summer depression.
Winter here in Oslo was for me one time ice-skating on the lake and two times cross country skiing. I have to admit that I could have done more skiing (I was also seriously lacking time) but there were about estimated 3 weeks this winter here in Oslo with snow. Of course, there are regions in Norway where there is more snow but there is this technical problem that I cannot move to any place for two hours after work (when I work until 8 pm or later anyway). I did some trips on weekends but then it would have been mich nicer not to have to drive long to go skiing.
Now, everybody is so happy that winter is over - what winter? These 3 weeks ? And they were so unbearable? Please.... now we have 11 months and a week of summer .. isn't that enough? Given the fact that it was not really warm last summer and that it rained a lot which was EXACTLY the same most of the time from November to February this 'winter'.
There is seriously something wrong with the weather - soon we will go to the Mediterranean to go skiing and southern Norway will became a second Adria.
Maybe I should plan my next Christmas vacation in Alaska - then I will at least get a little bit of cold and snow which will make me survive the rest of the year ;)
And then too much of light ... soon it will not be dark when I come home at 10 pm ... how depressing ! I can kind of survive the summer if there is at least a proper winter like in Alaska.
The PhD position here was the best choice and I would not want to change that decision - I work in a fantastic environment, I can learn a lot and people are just great. Oslo is also quite nice - at least not too big for my taste. I have a wonderful appartment, not too far from university and also quite close to the center - the subway station is in a short distance so I am also fast out of town. The people I live with are also great and we get along extremely well.
There is just one thing missing which I actually expected and that is why I deliberately chose Norway and not Spain or Greece or wherever - WINTER!
Isn't that fanstatic - all the people disliking winter end up in Alaska or wherever and I end up somewhere were there used to be winter but for some reason is not anymore. This cries for some change in location after the PhD ! And there is still that option to go to Antarctica - maybe I should hurry because otherwise there will not be ice there when I am there ;)

Feels like spring

But 3 weeks ago there was snow as can be seen here:

Skiing

Finally some snow pictures! For that we had to leave Oslo, of course. We took the train in the direction of Gjørvik to a place called Grua. While we were sitting there and talking, Chrystelle heard the announcement for the next stop and thought that the guy said Grua. So we went to the door but the stop didn't really look like a stop and in addition the sign where the name of the stop should have been was missing. So we didn't really know if we should get out or not and since we were so undecided the train started to move before we could get out. Then while the train was accelerating, we saw some kind of graffiti on another sign which said Grua. Well, we thought ... ok then we just go a stop further and try to ski back and find some other tracks. But it took quite a while until the train stopped the next time so we got out there and we were ...guess... in Grua. After this good laugh, we found the tracks quite easily and started skiing.
Here we are quite enthusiastic:



These are my two ski-mates Delphine and Chrystelle (Chrystelle is also my flat-mate).



A lot of snow! And almost nobody on the tracks - at least for the first 5.5 km. The profile was quite hilly with very steep slopes up- and downhill so it was not the easiest but we still had a lot of fun!



Towards the end, we even had some sun.

Rain in January ...

... was something I really didn't expect here in Oslo. It started so nicely with a lot of snow on Sunday the 6th when I was arriving here (it was so late that I could't make use of the snow). The next day the snow became wet, the day after it was so warm that it rained and the snow melted - the city was a big water pond. Then there was half a day of sun and it started to rain again. It was so muddy, snowy wet that I preferred to walk and leave my bike at home.
So instead of pictures of snow I will just upload a few pictures from mid-December when it was actually cold enough to do some ice scating on Sognsvann.

Hmpf

Naturally, the snow was gone by Saturday and we had a very inviting rainy foggy weekend and the weatherforecast even promises warmer weather - up to 8°C. As my Norwegian roommate at work said: it is almost like August.

Natürlich war der Schnee am Samstag schon wieder weg und wir hatten ein richtig einladendes Regen-Nebel Wetter das ganze Wochenende und der Wetterbericht verspricht sogar noch wärmeres Wetter - bis zu 8 °C. Wie mein norwegischer Zimmergenosse auf der Arbeit sagt: es ist fast wie im August.

Promising ...

... is the small now cover which made it through the day for the first time. This and last week we had the same procedure almost everyday: snow over night, the guy with the tractor cleaned the soccer field, then it became warmer and soon everything started to melt and in the evening it froze to the ground. But not today so there is some hope and it is still snowing and it is weekend - so with a bit of luck I can ski tomorrow or Sunday. Funnily enough just about a hundred meters down at the university and downtown, the snow melted away.

Vielversprechend ist die Schneeschicht, die sich den heutigen Tag über gebildet hat. Diese und letzte Woche hatten wir fast jeden Tag die gleiche Prozedur: es schneite über Nacht, der Typ mit dem Trakor säuberte den Fußballplatz, es wurde wärmer und bald schmolz der Schnee weg und alles gefror an den Boden. Aber heute nicht, also gibt es doch noch etwas Hoffnung und es schneit immer noch und es is Wochenende - mit etwas Glück kann ich morgen oder am Sonntag Langlaufen. Lustigerweise blieb der Schnee nur etwa hundert Meter weiter unten auf der Höhe der Uni und in der Innenstadt nicht liegen.

I forgot...

... to mention that I want enough snow to ski. We got some snow yeah ... 2 mm over night and they melt during the day because it is getting too warm. Well, Oslo wasn't really my favorite location anyway but why is snow everywhere where people even don't want it and none (2 mm is a joke) here? I know the answer - because I WANT it ;)
Sure I could go to some other places in Norway but no time for vacation.

Ich hatte vergessen zu erwähnen, dass ich genug Schnee zum Skifahren haben wollte. Wir haben zwar Schnee aber die 2 mm, die über nacht fallen, tauen am Tag wieder weg, weil es einfach zu warm ist. Natürlich war Oslo nicht gerade mein Traumziel aber irgendwie finde ich das schon gemein, dass es sogar überall da schneit, wo es die Leute gar nicht wollen und hier hat es keinen Schnee(die 2 mm sind ja echt ein Witz). Das ist wahrscheinlich, weil ich Schnee HABEN will. Natürlich könnte ich auch woanders hinfahren aber ich habe keine Zeit für Urlaub.

Why snow?

Therefore:









And before you get the wrong idea - no there is still no snow here in Oslo. The pictures were taken in November 2004 in Alaska. As long as I cannot take any new pictures here I just have to look at "old" ones which I think are still nice.

Definitely not funny...

... is it when there is more snow at my mum's place in Germany than here. Come on - why did I come here ? (ok I am here because of this good position but location wise I am still sad that I am not in Tromsø or Alaska.) If it continues like that I will definitely have to go to Antarctica for a winter after my PhD - probably then all the ice is gone there, too ;).

Ich finde es nicht sonderlich lustig, dass es bei meiner Mutter in Deutschland schneit, während hier noch keine einzige Schneeflocke vom Himmel gefallen ist. Warum bin ich denn hier? (ok mal abgesehen von der guten Stelle die ich in Oslo bekommen habe aber Tromsø oder Alaska würde ich als Orte schon bevorzugen.) Wenn das weiter so bleibt, dann habe ich keine andere Wahl als nach meiner Doktorarbeit einen Winter in der Antarktis zu verbringen - wahrscheinlich ist dann dort auch alles Eis geschmolzen ;).

snow-Schnee-snø-snow-Schnee-snø-snow-Schnee-snø-snow-Schnee