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EVERYDAY LIFE OF A SOCCER PLAYER IN NORWAY 24th Sept 2008

It is very easy to waste away days here in Norway when we are not involved in soccer. It is easy to squander hours away when we are not at practice, or at the sports ground or gym. So, D, Amy and I have been working hard to ensure that we make the most of our time here in Norway, and we are trying to do something different every day.

Last week, the three of us headed into downtown Oslo, and took the metro to the outskirts of the city, where we had googled to find that a great walk is available. I was a little nervous about the level of difficulty of such a hike; perhaps it would not be challenging enough. This thought was reinforced when we arrived and hundreds of little kids, I am talking three or four hundred, were running around with their teachers and along the trail. The kids were not just hiking the first part of the trail, but others, a little older, maybe 12 - 13 years, were several kilometers in. I found this very impressive, even as I wondered if we had picked too easy a hiking trail

I was delighted to see that the Norwegian teachers were brave enough to make the kids do something like hiking in class hours, and unbelievably impressed that all the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves. I don't think you would find this back home. Here. it just seems natural that a teacher would take her class of kids on an hour long hike through the woods, and that the kids would enjoy it.

Thankfully, once we were several kilometers into the trail, we stopped seeing other people and the level of incline on the path became more challenging. We were soon stripped down to t-shirts even though the weather was not hot, and we actually started to feel like we were exerting ourselves and testing our fitness. However, it was hard to feel that we were on a serious hike as Amy had chosen to wear jeans.

We had finally chosen this hike as the website had mentioned that there were fantastic vistas to be seen. It took a while to find them. This is not to say that there were not many beautiful things to look at as we walked through the woods. We passed some magnificent lakes and rivers, but these were just not the vistas we were expecting.

We had one interesting moment, when we started to see hiking trail signs that were definitely warnings of some sort, but we were utterly unable to decipher them, so, as you would expect, we continued onward to see what all the fuss was about. It turned out that the bridge on the trail was missing!!!!

It was hilarious as we walked up to the bridge as we could see from pretty far away that something wasn't quite right with the path ahead. However, it wasn't until we actually arrived at the bridge that we could really understand what had happened. A chunk of the bridge had spun upside down, and another chunk was completely missing and had been replaced by a boat that someone had kindly left. This was my favorite part of the hike, as with fingers crossed and heart in my throat, I took my first steps across the expanse of the missing bridge: Thrilling stuff. Obviously this event may well have not been my favorite incident if I had not safely made it over. Similarly for the other two, but if they had fallen in, I might still have enjoyed the moment. As it was, we all made it over safe and sound.

About two hours later, we came out of the woods into a clearing with a restaurant in it. Yes, I love Nordic hikes. It turns out that the area we were hiking is part a huge cross-country skiing area, and that the cottage restaurant in the middle serves as a gathering place. We therefore sat down and had an amazing bowl of soup halfway through our walk. I could get used to this kind of hiking. The strange part of the story about this restaurant is the fact that there were crowds of babies there. Seriously, everyone, or almost everyone else who was there, had brought their babies with them. I am sure there must have been another and easier path, as i could not see all these moms balancing their babies as they crossed the ruined bridge. Later, I found out that there was a metro stop quite close by- thank goodness.

The second part of our hike took a while to get into. The warm bowl of soup may have had something to do with this. On this next stretch we all became rather tired. And, the markers became more and more confusing. There were red and blue ones, but they always seemed to be on more than one trail. We started out by choosing the paths less trodden, but we soon gave up this romantic literary notion as our diversions into the woods turned out to be paths like mud pits. So, we stuck to the better, main trails, even if Mr. Frost would have been disappointed.

This part of the hike was a bit disappointing as there were sections of clear cut forest and there wasn't much more than the path to look at. We had pretty much given up on the promised vistas, when, about half a kilometer before we arrived at the town we were heading for, we found an amazing view of Oslo. It really was gorgeous, and we were glad to know the website doesn't lie. We sat and looked out at the panoramic vista it for a while and all felt really pleased we had gone on the hike.

Also, if we had not gone on the hike, we might have missed being introduced to Amy's artistic side. This consists, very simply, of choosing an ugly piece of dead fir and taking as many pictures of it as possible through the tree. Perhaps it is performance art?

Once we reached our destination, we came across some great old buildings right next to the metro stop that was right there to take us home. It was perfect.. We were all really tired by this point, but we still found enough energy to get off the metro in Oslo and walk down the main street there, called Karl Johan, Then, we took the train home. It has been a wonderfully busy day here in Norway: Fantastic. Rhian