After a full day of traveling, I was greeted in Norway by some pesky little virus, which is to say, every Nordic skier's worst nightmare. So, I was put into isolation with little internet. As a result, I got bored very quickly. I would read until I could feel my eyes shutting, trying my best to adapt to the time change, I wasn't allowing myself to nap. Fortunately, I was still able to get out and ski a little bit. Unfortunately, I had to make the tough decision to sit out the races over the weekend. The good news is that those races weren't World Cups, but some tune up races to prepare for the World Cup. The bad news is that now my first race of the season will be a World Cup sprint, which is not a place to get your feet under you, it is a place to ski perfectly and really quickly. While this was really less than ideal, I learned a good lesson about traveling. You can't expect good things to happen when you are stressed to the max, not sleeping much and then travel for 24hrs and try to adapt to a 10 hour time change. Something had to give. I know now, I cannot handle this and will have to rethink my plans the next time I am trying to fly to Europe.
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| Out for a morning jog in the crisp, clear air. |
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| Enjoying a late sunrise. |
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| The town of Beitostolen is a small resort like town with lots of Nordic trails and a small alpine hill. It is filled with sports shops, hotel and lots of these little cabins. They all have sod roofs and are very cute! There is a big lake nearby so I imagine it is a popular place in the summer as well. |
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| Lighted ski trails everywhere! |
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| Looking at the mountains off yonder |
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| It was Sadie's 24th birthday and we got her 24 presents that she received throughout the day. |
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| XC skiing is a BIG deal in Norway, the stars of the national team are National Heros and are found in pictures everywhere. Promoting cereal, sports juice, gloves, you name it. At the check-out in the grocery store, next to the candy lies ski wax and supplies. Most people in the U.S. couldn't even tell you what Swix is, let alone what extra blue hard wax is. |
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| I did manage to get out and ski. Here Sadie and I pause on the big uphill with the lake in the background. |
Now, we are off to Ruka, Finland, another resort village very close to the Arctic circle. The sun rose about 10AM today and is setting as I write, 2PM. I don't know how the elves in the North Pole can work when its so dark all the time!
