what we love about winter: sledding.

Living in Oslo this winter has turned me into a winter lover- at least, a lover of winter when winter includes lots of snow.  People in Oslo seem to come alive in this cold, snowy weather and there are lots of fun snowy activities to do.  There are probably more people out and about in the forest than there were in summer. Joshua and I have also gotten into the spirit of snowy activities.  One of the things we love about winter is the sledding. A few weekends ago, a group from Christian Union went sledding at really long sledding track called Korketrekkeren (or cork screw) at Frognerseteren (an area in the North Forest around Oslo).  We rented a toboggan to share, walked over to the sledding track and flew down the hill.  Seriously, we flew.  We didn’t quite know how to steer and we only kind of knew how to slow down. During our first run down the hill we slid off the track and into a tree. No major harm done, just a face full of snow. After that we were both a little scared to keep going, but we persevered.  We quickly figured out how out how to steer and decided that one person would do the steering, not both.

The course was way longer than any sledding hill we had every encountered before.  It's about 2 kilometers long and took around 10 minutes to get down.  The end of the hill brought us to a Tbane stop and we just rode the Tbane up to the top of the hill to sled down again.  After a few runs we stopped for a lunch break in the lodge.  It was super crowded, but we found a cozy little room just for us- it was actually a conference room that we probably weren't supposed to be in.  After a couple more runs we headed home.  Doing five or six runs, combined with traveling up to Frognersetern, took most of the day. It was a great way to spend our first Saturday back in Oslo.

Yesterday Josh and I decided to go sledding again by ourselves for a fun date.  We each rented our own sled (or sledge as the Brits say) and we didn't hit any trees!  This time we knew how to steer and we knew where the dangerous turns were.  Five runs down the hill felt like enough for us.  It was a lot of fun, but we think it's probably our last Korketrekkeren sledding outing for the winter.  Perhaps we will take out our little plastic sled and slide down the hill near our apartment.  

Happy Winter!