Christmas continues...

After Tore Ramsrud picked me up from Morton Indrelid's house, I settled back into the room I was staying in while at the Ramsrud's. The next day, Tore took me to a forested area 5-10 minutes away from his house to take me cross-country skiing. It had been 12 or so years since I had been on skis, and I have never tried anything but downhill, so it was a new experience. It was a lot of fun and I managed to stay on my feet alright as we did a short 3-4 kilometer loop before returning home. During the time on skis, I only fell and ate snow twice, but both of those times I managed to get covered in snow. I think the greatest difficulty in cross-country skiing is turning. At least it was for me, but I may just be inept. Here is a picture of me in the act:

It was a lot of fun and I think it also was a positive experience because I was able to move forward and stay on my skis, rather than falling down all the time. Tore explained to me on our trip that this was a very common thing to do with family on a weekend in the wintertime. All ages of the family would get on skis and go out on the ski trails together. He also mentioned that Norwegians were born with skis on their feet, which makes it quite painful for the mothers. During our loop, we passed by an old German airstrip from World War 2. It was all covered in snow, but you can still clearly see where the old thoroughfare was:


After skiing, Tore and I returned home for lunch. One of the things on the menu was rakfisk. Rakfisk is trout that is cleaned very thoroughly and then salted and fermented for 3 months. This cures the fish and it can be eaten without cooking. This process also tends to make the fish smell terrible. At stores, you can actually get different smell levels of the fish, and the kind I tried was the low-to-medium range of smell. It still smelled bad. In addition to the food, Eldebjørg brought to my attention the serving spoon being used. On the back of the spoon's handle there was the Nazi insignia with the eagle and swastika. It apparently came from Eldebjørg's cabin when they first bought it. After buying the cabin there was a bunch of junk that had been left there and as she and Tore were going through it, this spoon surfaced. They've kept it ever since because it is an interesting artifact. They told me before I began that I would need all the luck I could get for this meal; not only was I having rakfisk but it was being served with a Nazi spoon.

Rakfisk is usually had on lefse with sour cream and onions. After trying some, I have to admit that I did not really like it. Tore told me that no one really likes it when they are young and you only like it as you grow older. Clearly, I am not old enough. Still, I am happy that I tried it, and will try it again in say, 5 or 10 years to see if I'm old enough to enjoy it then.

Later that night, I met with more relatives. These were two sisters and a brother who were cousins to Tore and grew up with him. Their names were Bjørg, Turid and Svenn. I was able to hear several stories about them growing up and talk a bit about family. Here is a picture of us all below. Svenn is on the left, then me, then Bjørg, Turid and Eldebjørg (Tore was taking the picture).

In addition to meeting them, we all enjoyed one of the best spreads of Norwegian food that I have ever seen, not to mention been able to enjoy. So many delicious things were there, Kransekake, gorokake, about 5 other types of traditional Norwegian cookies, chocolates, and other incredible treats. I think it is probably one of my favorite "meals" that i have had in Norway. It was all desserts, but I think we ate enough of all of them to have it count as a meal. Wonderful tastes, if perhaps a bit unhealthy. Still, it's the holidays!

That night a good deal of snow fell and Tore and Eldebjørg's grandchildren Maren and Selma came to visit. I figured the grandchildren would enjoy a cave to play in so I piled up a great deal of snow and then began hollowing it out from the inside. After an hour or so it started to take shape and I was actually surprised and how large it got. I kept working to improve its size and make sure it was sturdy enough to stay up safely, and after another half hour, Eldebjørg came outside with cake and hot chocolate for everyone. The snow cave was large enough that Maren, Selma, Tore and Eldebjørg were all able to sit inside at once while having hot chocolate and cake. The picture below shows the cave with all but Tore inside it.

Now we have everyone inside the cave at once:

And here is a cute picture of Tore's two-year-old grandchild, Selma:


My last day in Hønefoss, Tore took me to the place where my Tipp-Oldemor (Great-great-Grandmother) had lived. Hønefoss has a paper mill that used to be and still is a major factor in the economy of the town. Years and years ago they employed many workers before the process was more industrialized, and these workers needed a place to stay. My Tipp-Oldemore ran a bunkhouse near the factory that many workers used to stay at. Tore showed me the site, and while the factory is still there, the bunkhouse is long gone. All that is there now is a parking lot. Even if there is no longer any building there, it was still very cool to be able to see the site and stand in the place where my family once was.

After this, we headed to Olso Airport so that I could fly to Iceland!