Norwegian birthday weekend officially over

Unfortunately, time to go back home today!

I must admit that we didn't really get to see that much over the weekend (apart from two kitchens and two living rooms, that we saw a ton of!), but it's not like Oslo's one of those heavily interesting places sight-seeing wise. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't call it heavily interesting any-wise.

*      *       *       *       *

Yet again, CS turned out to be humankind's most awsome invention when it comes to individual travel. Actually, group travel as well - 5 already constitutes a group, right?

We had a most charming CSer help us out on the spot and the sweetest host (who's not even a CS host, mind you) we could imagine, which got us all very relaxed and well, kind of lazy when it come to leaving the house.

*      *       *       *       *

We managed to have some highlights, and those - for me - included:

- buying a 6pack of beer at the airport for 55 NOK and later seeing that the price of that same beer (in the amount of 1) sold for 62 NOK;

- going to a take away burger joint where a burger would be twice as expensive as a whole burger menu in a restaurant in Warsaw;

- dancing with the dance-moves-infected En in a pub where all the Norwegians looked as if they wanted to put us in a room (a white room) (a room with cushioned walls and without doorknobs);

- a kick ass birthday pancake breakfast;

- cheering for the Norwegians finishing the annual Oslo Marathon (and almost starting to cry when I found out there was one - my goal for this year was to take part in a half marathon but I couldn't find any in a suitable date before I leave for the States, so I decided to move that goal for the next year. Turns out I could have done it during a trip. On my birthday. With the Vikings. I don't think it gets better than that...);

- cooking the most delicious birthday dinner with two other Poles, an Australian, a Lithuanian and a Romanian (ha, I bet you didn't know Norway is so multicultural, did you?). Getting the maximum taste after having stuffed our faces with leniwe in a creamy garlic broccoli sauce, mushroom and cod fish risotto followed by home made chocolate cupcakes mixed with caramel ice-cream. I don't remember the last time I had so many food babies;

- a pancake carnage of a Sunday breakfast - eating so many melted chocolate & banana pancakes sprinkled with the best halva since my Belgian days that I had to skip lunch and dinner, because I wouldn't feel any hunger;

- going mushroom hunting in a wood surrounding a beautifully set lake on the outskirts of Oslo and realizing there were no mushrooms to hunt;

- doing a 40 minute jog back home and finally beginning to digest breakfast (breakfast - 11 am, jog - 6:30 pm);

- dancing on a stage behind a crazy blues band at Oslo's most talked about Sunday night venue - Bla.

Not too bad, me thinks!

Running away to the Vikings

You know what they say - if you wanna feel young again, roll with the Vikings!

(Ok, admittedly - I might have made that one up.)

However, that's still what I'm doing this birthday weekend. In order to embrace my age more gracefully (a quarter of a century already!), I've decided to make myself feel younger by spending my d-day (b-day) in a beautiful settings with a looong history. Thus, Oslo - beware!

*      *       *       *       *

In the beginning it was supposed to be just me, then Ewa & me, then like 7 people & me, suddenly 12 people & me. Now, as everyone's been cancelling, up until the very end, it will most probably be 4 people & me. Plus our hosts. Plus their surfers and maybe other CSer. So still quite a party. And yes, I'm counting on being the youngest of the bunch! ;)

*      *       *       *       *

See you from Norway!

Flight tickets rampage

"So where are you going on holiday this year?"

"Oh, no - I'm not going anywhere. You see, I want to work and be serious in Warsaw."

That's the kind of a conversation I was having those past couple of weeks with some of the people I know.

And then last night I realised the job I had to be in Warsaw for, I do it two days a week. My dance and Zumba classes - Tue & Wed nights. Everything else I do is pretty much via Internet or over the phone. So, unlike most of the people I know - I have to work on the spot for 2 days and I can have a longer weekend. A 5-day weekend. Every week.

That's quite a game changer right there, huh?

Well, I do believe I'm action-oriented so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that flights were bought today. 

16 flights. 

Now that might be a bit of a surprise.

*     *     *     *     *

It just so happens that Ryanair had a two day sale, ending tonight.

It just so happens that a friend posted a link about a start up weekend in London taking place in the middle of Sept. I was sure the flight would be expensive, as London usually is, but decided to check anyways. 

The exact dates I wanted (13-17 Sept)? 

-> 100zł RT, that's like 25€. 

Than I checked flying out of Warsaw but into Łódź (a town 1,5h away from Warsaw). 

-> 18zł to go and 21zł to come back, so the total of less than 10€. 

Start up weekend in London - here I come!

Then, being high on the London deal, I checked other flights and found a trip to Oslo, Norway for 19zł RT, so less than 5€. Not much of a thought process there - I was sooo buying it! Of course, Norway is beyond expensive and so getting to Oslo from the cheap airline airport is about 10 times the flight but I don't see Norway being cheaper any time soon, so Sept is as good a time as any to go pay it a visit. At first I was thinking about going end Sept/beg Oct and alone. Then I thought of Ewa, a girl I run with in WITC and asked if she'd like to join. She liked the idea but couldn't do it that weekend. So I checked the price for an earlier weekend and it was just as cheap, Ewa said she was in and so I made the purchase. Thus realising I could add another country to the list of places I celebrated birthday in (it's Sept 22nd).

And then, wait a second, the guys from WITC like city breaks, why not ask them to join?

-> create an event on FB -> invite friends -> spend the next hour buying their flights

Thus, my solo trip to Oslo turned into a BirthDay Weekend Norwegian Style with some of the coolest people I know in Warsaw, almost all of them athletes, as we are called by our almighty President. So far we're 8, including Gaile flying down from London, but I'm secretly hoping at least one more person will join us. Coming from Denmark, it shouldn't be so difficult for her... (yes Maggie, I'm calling you out girl!)

Do you remember the feeling you had as a child -anticipating your birthday and planning out the party months beforehand? Well, I've been just taken back to my childhood. I did not expect such a trip, definitely did not expect such turn out. And now I simply can't wait for that weekend to arrive!

After all, what better place to celebrate than the one you can barely afford anything in, right? Surrounded by friends - makes no difference!

Also, I've realised how I love love WITC. Just in case anyone had doubts.

I've been craving, literally craving some trekking and been going around whining about it to some friends, saying how I wanted to get away, if only for three days some time in August. You don't always get what you want in life, but you always get what you need - that's what they say. It seems I not only wanted but needed it as well, as soon afterwards I got invited to an event organised by some other WITCers  - a long trekkingweekend in the Slovak Tatras. Finally, I'll get to wear my kick-ass trekking shoes again and soak in the beautiful scenery of a mountainous region. Just a week left to go!

*     *     *     *     *

So yeah, I'd call it a pretty productive day.

Where do you spend your holiday this time of year?