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God tur!

Journeying beyond the Scandinavian countries.

Need for Speed

Saturday, January 27, 2007

When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was about a little town in Norway that is occupied during World War II. The Norwegian government has hidden a large supply of gold from the national treasury in a mountain cave nearby, and they need to get it down to a ship that's waiting in the fjord, so it can be transported to America where the Germans can't steal it. So, they ask the school children of the town to take it down the mountain on sleds.

The book spends a good bit of time describing the sled run these kids go on, and it's really very long. Growing up in a very very flat bit of country, I don't think I could ever quite grasp what it would be like to sled out of town. That is, until yesterday.

If I haven't mentioned it before, Oslo boasts more forest within its city limits than any other capital city in the world. They've designated a huge national forest that you can reach from the city center in 15 minutes by taking the t-bane (subway system). I live a five-minute's walk away from part of this forest. Mostly, the good citizens of Oslo use the forest system for hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter. Mostly this skiing is of the cross-country variety, however, because there are so many hills around Oslo, a variety of downhill activites are also possible.

One of these is to take the t-bane 1 line all the way to Frognerseteren (the last stop), rent a sled (or bring your fancy steering-wheel equipped sled with you, if you're Norwegian), and sled all the way down to Midtstuen, another stop on the 1 line. It takes at least 10 minutes to get from Midtstuen to Frognerseteren by t-bane, so, as you can imagine, this is a pretty long sled run.

I can't remember the last time I've been sledding, and, since my dad was an ER doctor for 10 years, I've heard many many sledding horror stories. But, I have to say, other than my initial fears about whether or not I'd be able to steer this thing, I had a ridiculous amount of fun yesterday. I mean, ridiculous. Apparently, there exist video clips of me bouncing down one of these said runs, but for now you'll just have to take my word for it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 5:50 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

  1. Anonymous Anonymous said:
    8:32 AM  

    Ah, Snow Treasure! Thank you! I read that book a few times as a kid, too, but I forgot the title. I've described it to several people to try to figure out what it was, but to no avail. So thank you. I can rest at ease now.

  1. Blogger Lindsey said:
    12:05 AM  

    I am terribly jealous. You have just brought to life one of my childhood dreams which, was caused by that book. I even made a diorama of that book, and spent many a night with a glue gun and popsicle sticks, making sleds and then carefully concealing a piece of gold paper under each little person my dad jigsawed out of wood. (I think they need to bring back the diorama as an artistic expression alternative to the semester English final) I was always fascinated in that story by words like "kroner" and "fjord."

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