Where time stands still

And so I brought Kristine, Pål Are, Jostein and Rune along for a trip away from the city, expecting the place to be just as I remember. It seems my memory served me well for once, and my optimism was duly rewarded. The surrounding area and the cabin was exactly as I remembered it. The mountains, the forest, the lake.. untouched since my last visit. It seems our cabin is actually the newest building, dating back to 1985.

Our cabin.

The view.

The cabin itself has 4 bedrooms with 7 beds total, and an unwritten rule that nobody sleeps in my grandmothers room. So in effect, that leaves 3 bedrooms of 2 beds each, one of them being a double bed. Lots of floor space though if we really want to fill it up. Running water, a shower, indoor toilet and electricity makes for a pretty comfortable place. The three windows you see lead into the living room with an open kitchen solution, a dining table and a couch. All in all, comfortable and spacey.

Arming the fly-swatter.

Just down from the cabin lies the lake, which is somewhat cold this time of year due to the snow melting. This did not stop us from plunging in several times over the course of the weekend.

Taking a swim.

On Saturday we went for a walk up the mountain, hoping to find a mountain lake where I remember fishing when I was a kid. Not being to sure where the trail went we followed the one trail we found, took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the middle of the forest. Parting ways, Jostein and I just went straight up the mountain side while Rune, Kristine and Pål Are went back down to where we took a wrong turn. 40 minutes later the two of us was at the top, looking down at the three of them. Look closely and you can see three little dots.

Us.

Them.

And of course, we rewarded ourselves with meat and a bath when we came back down. Jostein, apart from bringing a decent camera also brought his cooking skills. It's good to have friends with a skill set that differs from your own.

Tasty tasty murder.

On Sunday, clouds started rolling in and the idea of a last swim didn't seem as tempting as the night before. Instead we went for a drive around the surrounding area, checking out a few of the waterfalls and taking some pictures before trying our luck fishing in the lake. Rune didn't get anything, I got a small one which I tossed back in.

Rune fishing.

Afterwards we made some food, cleaned the cabin and aimed for home. It's not too far from Bergen, roughly a 3 hour drive which includes one ferry. If we get more weather like this I'm definitely going back before the summer is over.

Reflecting.

It was a nice trip, one that I'd love to repeat when the sun returns. And next time, maybe I'll try bringing even more people.

Childhood Memories

So, new blog and everything. It needs some customization, but I figured it's better to just get started writing again and take the layout and setup as I go. Also, I wanted to do write this out before I left.

When I was a kid, we used to go to my grandmothers cabin in Sunnfjord. It was a nice place to spend parts of the summer, down by a lake where we could fish or go swimming, a forest clad mountain where we picked blueberries, a farm next door where we used to visit the piglets. I have some good memories from that place. It's always green and it's always sunny. And in the evenings, we played board games and read Care Bear comics my cousins brought with them.

I haven't been there in 15 years, yet for some strange reason I expect it to be the same as I left it. I remember the cabin itself as being pretty big, more then enough room for two families. A small road going along the lake, our cabin somewhat secluded on a hill moving up towards where the lush forest comes creeping down. Neighbors, but not a lot, and nice and quiet except for an angry dog named Wolf. An area untouched by the cabinization of Norwegian lakes.

This weekend I've gathered some friends to go back to the cabin for some quiet relaxation. People say it's going to be completely different from what I remember. Overpopulated. Some claim I won't even be able to recognize the cabin, leading us on a wild goose chase around the lake.

Lets see how well my childhood memories serve me.