School holidays and this weird weather....

So two weeks ago it was the winter holidays, despite it being far from winter with temperatures of nearly 10 degrees!

A very summery looking Trondheim. This was taken when I was out running in the school holidays.

In the first part of the winter holidays I went to Sweden with Kine, Berit, Tora and Ragna. We took the train over the first day which took 4 hours, the first half on a Norwegian train which wasn't anything special and the other half on a Swedish train which was like a 5 star hotel! We then stayed the night in a small town called Østersund before a big day of shopping. It may sound a bit strange but Østersund was like Invercargil, fairly flat and nothing utterly special. But I did enjoy the shopping, spending far more than I should of.

On the train in Sweden - it was super fancy!

Blueberry marzipan cake in sweden :)

Then later on we made a day trip to Røros, a picturesque old mining town situated in one of Norway's coldest spots. It was interesting to compare Røros mining life to that I have learned at school of central Otago and the main conclusion I came up with is the men from Røros must have been lots tougher because of the extreme temperatures of over 20 degrees in the summer and below minus 10 in the winter (really just like central with a colder winter). Unfortunately I forgot my camera that trip but a quick scan of google images or google maps with street view and you will see how incredible it is!

Røros on google maps - defiantly worth a look! I included the coordinates at the bottom of the picture so it is easier to navigate as the town happens to be under cloud on google earth!

I had hoped like some Norwegians and most exchange students that the snow would come and we would all live happily ever after. Unfortunately, that day still hasn't come and people are beginning to lose hope. I was doing a ski course once a week but now we have been pushed off ski field to the burbs to do a little bit of hill bounding with ski poles. Its sad but I still live in hope unlike many of the sports stores who have started their winter sales early after a disheartening amount of snow left customers with little shopping momentum.

In general this year has been very dry also due to a weather phenomena which has blown warm, dry saharan winds over northern Europe. This has been particularly bad for Norway as it has caused many fires because of the amount of wooden buildings. Once the fires start it is very difficult to control them in the given conditions. Some of the buildings which have been burned down were of historical significance also. In the olden days when Norwegian towns were closely packed wooden houses fires were a common tragedy but a reason why this is such an important news event now is that it has something that seemed to fade with technology but with extreme weather, it can unfortunately be brought back.

Thats all for now!
Briar :)