Oslo's first snow

I didn't have any specific plans for my last day in Oslo, and so when Lina-lotta's flatmate, Trine, mentioned needing help for a surf camp contest, I volunteered to be her photographer.  The goal was to get her a free ride to surf camp in Morocco, and to do that we had to demonstrate the most enthusiastic surf selfie imaginable.  I figured the snow would get us at least halfway there.  

Trine jumped right in, like a true surfer.  She looks happy, but trust me, it was damn cold.  Note Lina-lotta's jacket below.  

There were lots of folks down by the water: a brass band if you can believe it, a group of young adults toweling off after presumably jumping into the frosty water sans wetsuits, and some teenage boys and their father who had built a fire and were roasting anything they could get their hands on (dough when we were there.)  Neither of my local friends had any more clue than I about why all these people were there, but that didn't stop us from all hanging out together.  I guess we were the weird ones doing an impromptu surf shoot in a cold river with no waves to be seen.    

Nice landscape, right?

Yeah, it's cold.  

I had just enough energy to ride the tram through town one more time.  

It was a very cold, windy night.  The phone camera captured the feeling somewhat.

     

We took the train all the way up to Oslo's ski jump, a remnant of their Olympic games.  Once the snow piles up, kids and adults like to train it up to the jump, rent or bring their own sled (with true metal runners for proper steering), don a helmet, and fly down the hill for 3+ uninterrupted kilometers of fun.  Then, you can hop right back on the train and do it again!  Even though it had only been snowing for one night, and the wind took as much snow up into the air as was coming down, there were already people on our train car with skis and two teenage kids with a sled.  As we got off the train at the top, crossed the tracks, and huddled together waiting for the next to bring us back down, we saw their teenage heads disappear over the hillside followed by yelps of, "wooooohoooooooo!"  It was pretty funny.  

...and finally, we stop at the grocery for dinner supplies.