2nd time @ Gausta and Oslo City…

…Weekend is over, just brought Sarah to the train station – another friend who I really enjoyed showing around and was happy that she came to visit!On the way to the train station it started snowing!!!! Really cool!!! So Winter is not far away anymore, the skiarea in Hemsedal (www.hemsedal.com) is opening next weekend and we are thinking to go there the week after…

Wow, so many new impressions from just a weekend…;-) Had a great time with Sarah, such a cool girl – exploring the Telemark region and Oslo City…

I go back a little… Thursday evening – Norwegian class… Sarah joined in and was pretty fascinated by the “multi-culti people” in class. Actually there are quite a few nationalities represented in class. Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Spain, Poland, Austria… all of them trying to learn Norwegian…

So the weather forecast for Friday promised a beautiful day and I considered it would be the best to take the chance and show Sarah the beauty of the Telemark Region. 3 hours drive to Gaustatoppen but worth every minute! We started to hit the road around 8 a.m. An hour to late but we couldn’t get out of bed earlier…;-) So on the road, stopped at Heddal stavkirkje and soon arrived the mountain road leading us through Sauland and further to Gaustatoppen. Still on summertyres – yes, some people never learn from their mistakes;-) until it hurts, one of them is me;-) but I REALLY wanted to change them the day before as I knew we were going to the mountains… Sarah is my witness! But they didn’t have my tires on stock, so still waiting for them… Should be here tomorrow though…;-) Anyway snow was greeting and there it was – snow and ice on the road;-) but I didn’t stop and went further, as I knew it’s gonna be okay and it wouldn’t be so far anymore until we reached the top of the pass… As the road conditions got worse, I decided it’s a NO-go and not worth going further. So we stopped along the road, mounted my NOT 100% fitting snow chains with expander… A car stopped and the man asked us if we needed help, the second question was “Summertyres?” – yeah, I know, really stupid and I’m actually always laughing at tourists coming to Austria in winter with their summertyres on…;-)

Left the car behind and hiked and hiked and hiked…;-) At 3 p.m. we reached the top of Gaustatoppen and again such a BEAUTIFUL view from there!!!

CIMG7811 — Sarah and me @ Gaustatoppen, 1883 m

…by the time we got back to the car it was already dark and we still had the most adventurous part before us…;-) Getting down this icy road without killing us or trashing the car…;-) So we had to adjust the snow chains and went for it… 10 km/h maximum speed… down the road… with the somehow fixed snow chains… went well… suddenly we heard a noise… Sarah: “Homma die Schneekette verloren?”, Mel: “Na, des kun nit sein… oba schaug amol zur Vorsicht nach…” Sarah: “Die oane Schneekette is weg…”, 100 m back the road one of the snow chains was lying in the snow;-)… but we made it down to the dry road and yes, the next thing to do is: BUY WINTER TYRES Mel…;-) We came back to Ollebakken around 11 p.m. completely exhausted…

Saturday afternoon… Oslo… Karl Johansgate and many, many shops…

Sunday – cultural day with Sarah… and me a complete “Kulturbanause”… but it was fun. She opened up my mind for other things than just sport…;-) Telthusbakken, botanical garden, Munch museum, Opera house – explored that on foot and after that we got our bikes and cycled to the Royal Palace, the Viking museum and Vigelands Park…