Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

Last weekend was really sunny, and on Saturday we decided to go skiing on Kvaløya (the island just west of Tromsø), with Sevim and her boyfriend. There were lots of people out enjoying the day, especially since it was the first nice day since we got half a metre of snow. And the snow was fantastic! We had a short break at a wooden “lavo” that had some deck chairs…

The sun was so strong we could sit outside in the warmth and were in danger of getting mildly sunburnt. Now that we had a Norwegian with us, we had to dig a snow bench before we were allowed to eat our lunch. Now we are experts in the technique, and learnt that you can use your ski’s to sit on as well! After lunch we kept climbing, and the views kept getting better 🙂

We then enjoyed a very fun descent, we took our skins off (off the skis, we’re not reptiles!) and practiced Telemark turns in the soft snow. 

The following day was even sunnier, so we couldn’t resist going skiing again. We went to Kvaløya again, so we could maximise our sunshine intake – it has south facing slopes unobstructed by other tall mountains that might cause nasty shadows 😉 This time we went to a different area though. We found another wooden lavo here too… 

This panorama shows the mountains behind Tromsø (the largest is Tromsdalstinden). On the right you can see the island of Hakøya, connected by a bridge. The ship in the middle is the Lance, which spends every winter here in Eidkjosen. All the tracks you see in the foreground are snow scooter tracks, this area seemed to be a playground for them!

This area is quite windy and after all the fresh snow, we found some very nice snow formations, like the “wave” in the photo below. The photo on the right is taken on top of the “mountain”, it’s called Sjurfjellet and it’s 161 m high – I felt like a lazy Sunday so we didn’t climb any “real” mountains this time 😉 The views were really nice, but it was extremely windy there.

Here you can see Paul all wrapped up and protected from the wind, just before we started our descent. The clouds were beautiful, I wish I had brought my wide angle lens!

We ended our little trip at the church on the bottom of the slope. On both sides of the entrance, they had bouquets of roses frozen into blocks of ice – quite cool! I had never seen this before. They were melting and the roses were only half inside the ice block by the time we got there, but it still looked really nice.

Let’s hope for the same weather for next weekend 🙂 In the mean time we are giving our muscles a much needed rest!

Last Tuesday I went dog sledding with my sister, at the Tromsø Villmarkssenter. When we arrived, they told us we were on a special list as we had booked to drive our own sled. We had no idea that we had done that! My sister panicked a bit, as she was hoping just to sit in the sled 😉 but I was really excited!! We first had a look around the centre, they have about 250 dogs there, incredible! They all have little houses and are on chains, but they are very friendly and playful.

We had crazy snowfall on Tuesday (about half a metre fell that day and during the previous night) and many of the dogs were sleeping outside, curled up to protect themselves from the strong wind. Very cute! 

There were puppies too – ohh they make your heart melt. I am actually not really a dog-lover (I’m scared of big dogs!) but I make an exception for Husky’s and especially puppies, hehe. 

(Don’t you like my fashionable suit and hat by the way? They were provided by the centre…)

And then it was time to go sledding! Here my sister is waiting next to our sledge. I got some quick instructions, and off we went! We were the only ones driving ourselves, the other tourists were sitting in couples on the sledges, with a musher driving the sledge (a musher is what you call the driver of the dog sled).

Since my sister didn’t want to try, I drove the whole way (about 45 minutes). It was actually quite easy, the dogs follow the sled in front of you anyway, so all you have to do is brake. And keep the sledge in balance, that’s actually the hardest part! Our sledge had 7 dogs in front, and they did a great job. The sledge has a brake that you need to apply most of the time (wow, we would go so fast otherwise!). If you brake hard enough, the dogs stop. Then if you want to go again, you simple push the sledge a bit and they start running – they are so keen!

We couldn’t really take photos during the trip – I was too busy, and my sister was trying to stay warm in the crazy snow. The photo below is another team coming in after us, and a photo of me as a musher 🙂

This is what we looked like after braving the snow blizzard… luckily I was wearing goggles during the trip, or I wouldn’t have been able to see anything!

Afterwards we warmed up by the fire in one of the lavo’s (Sami tent) and had a nice lunch of reindeer stew, while they told us all kind of things about the dogs, running the centre and competitions. It was a fantastic experience, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would! I was ready to apply for a job at the centre after our little trip 🙂