Changes in Latitudes

Last Thursday, Pancho and I took the train to Haugastøl where Idar's family has a cabin. Idar arrived by train about an hour after us, so Pancho and I helped ourselves in the cabin first. Since it was already getting dark, we spent the evening watching movies and vanlife videos on youtube. Friday we woke up to overcast, but lots of powdery snow, so Idar thought I would like to try randonee skiing...hiking up the hill with downhill skis on (with "skins" to get grip) to ski back down. More my style downhill skiing to avoid the busy alpine resorts and my fear of crashing into people. However, the skis he thought I could borrow did not have skins that would fit for them, so I had to use a pair of cross-country skis that were barely wider than mine and were technically called mountain skis...a load of bull haha The wax wasn't working for me to go uphill, and the skis were too skinny for me to navigate the downhill. Don't get me wrong, I had fun even though I fell...

The weekend before last we visited a friend's cabin in Dale, which is about 45 minutes by train away from Bergen and then 15 minutes in the car to his farm. Carey was with us and we met up on the train. Eirik's farm is his family's farm which he has taken over to keep it in the family - as it has been in his family for many generations. He has sheep, chickens and a cat (named Putin). Out of his freezer he showed us a fox he had shot...and he is an avid fisherman. Eirik and his sheep For lunch he made us traditional rice porridge with a side of dried lamb leg and "saft" (fruit concentrate, in this case hand picked blueberry, that is watered down). After lunch, we all slapped on some skis to head into the valley where the cabin is located. It was steep and the snow was deep in some spots, so we used about two hours to ski into the valley. The cabin was small, but plenty of room for up to four adults. It is heated by a wood stove and we had to use candles for...