Join me at our winter cabin in Norway - What a weekend!!
Few things beat taking a weekend break to join my family to our winter cabin an hour and a half of driving from where I currently live in Stavanger, Norway. Especially when the weather is as amazing as this!
Our family's dog, Shiva, enjoying the view from the sunny side of our Cabin
Waking up this morning and seeing the stunning weather outside, there was not a whole lot to do except eat breakfast, put on the first handful of sunscreen in 2019, get dressed and go out to ski! (Ok, admittedly I also had to upgrade a new building on Drugwars, rob my usual targets, and look twice at the STEEM price following the night's pump! But I guess that goes without saying...)
After skiing the first couple of kilometers from our cabin, Shiva is still looking ahead :)
While I understand most of you prefer going to the slopes, I much prefer cross-country skiing, despite having enjoyed snowboarding since I was a kid. There's a certain feeling of freedom that comes with going across the mountains at your own pace enjoying the scenery and not being limited by the length of a slope that is truly unique. Especially in Norway where there is so much untouched and open nature, free for anyone to roam as they like. When the sun is also as high and mighty as it was today, not being stuck inside an astronaut suit-resembling skiing gear is also an advantage.
Looking back, we've already climbed a fair bit since where we started
Also, while the lift is clearly convenient, there is a sense of accomplishment that comes with climbing mountains yourself! It may take some time, it may take some effort, but the view is totally worth it!
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Shiva at the top of the closest mountain, approximately 1000 meters above sea level.
Also, there's nothing quite the same as coming back home to the cabin afterward and enjoying some well-deserved treats!
Our family's cabin seen from below. Coming back home from a tiny apartment in Paris, it feels funny to be in a 100sq cabin and using it as a "vacation space" ^^
Anyways, it was the type of day that had to be shared! I hope you enjoyed the pictures and got some more insight to what life in Norway is like :). Having a cabin in these particular mountains is extremely popular for most in our city.
Hope you've all had a great weekend and let's see what we can do together to take Steem further in the week ahead :)
@fredrikaa
You're so lucky to have such a beautiful cabin! 😊 Oh, and you have still so much snow. I wish I enjoyed snow a little bit more this winter. There us already spring behind our windows here.
Lovely photos! The sky is so so so blue! Beautiful 😊
Thank you for sharing! Have a great start of the week!
Thanks for the nice comment! It's actually quite little snow, as January and February have been the hottest months on record (thank you climate change!) so many of the waters where we would normally be able to ski across with ease at this time of the year were wide open....
Anyways, with weather such as this, there was nothing to complain about!
Have a great week you too!
Wow - it looks so quiet and peaceful there.
I think if I had this place, I'd tell my boss that I didn't have internet there when I was going on vacation.
It sure is! This is where I come to do a mental reset whenever I've been overworked or need a break ^^.
Well, your boss is not allowed to call you if you're on holiday?
Is this true where you live?
In the US we have no laws regarding how much vacation time we're supposed to get, and most career oriented people are too afraid of losing their competitive edge if they're out of touch with the office for more than a day. So even when we're on vacation, we're expected to answer calls and emails.
We have no health insurance either. In fact, when laws were passed requiring companies to provide health coverage to full time employees, most responded by firing all their full-timers and bringing in part timers. When I was a manager, I would get in trouble if I scheduled anyone to work more than 25 hours a week, because they'd qualify for health and vacation benefits.
Workers in Norway are entitled to 25 working days worth of paid holiday. So you cannot employ people without giving them that guarantee.
In France they've gone even further where any company with more than 50 employees are obligated to specify hours (not just holiday but every day) where neither employers or employees are allowed to send each-other emails in order to respect spare time.
I myself would never consider moving somewhere that didn't give priority to people's wellbeing over whatever delusion some employer may have that their constant pressure on employees will do more good than harm for the company.
Yeah I wouldn't move here either - but here I am!
The more I read about other parts of the world, the more I'm convinced I'm the one living in a third world country. We have less freedoms than most places in the world and yet we're fond of flag waving and shouting that we're the "land of the free."
Sorry dude, didn't mean to get political. I'm glad you have such a lovely place and the time to enjoy it too!
Looks like you had the perfect weekend. Amazing captures, Fredrik! Thanks for taking us with you :)
Funny that you seem to have a better internet connection on the mountain than many people do have at some economic hotspots :)
Yeah there's fibre broadband in the cabin! So coming home from Paris it was funny to have faster and more reliable internet here than I used to have😜.
There's also pretty good 4G in most of the mountain areas, although you'll often lose it in the bottom of the many valleys.
No kidding, you even had fibre?! You may have considered to move and do your business from there, haven't you? :-))
I do have a 4G connection that - depending on the day time - breaks every 5-15 minutes due to a miserable signal to noise ratio. I'm actually unable to do video chats. That's #islandlife ...
I think I'm now jealous. Beautiful!
Love the part of having to upgrade on drugwars first!
Priorities;)
Shiva is such a handsome doggo. I think their presence enhances all the photos in this post. Lovely white and blue shots also, but Shiva stole the show :).
I know! Didn't even bother adding a picture that I'm in as there's no way to compete with the Queen!
Norway is my dream place to visit and a hut in the middle of the virgin nature is simply a blessing. Half of my life, I've craved to live at such places where man is not visible and the nature is left undisturbed.
I love those vast and empty spaces. Thanks for sharing and have a good day! :)
I know it looks almost too good to be true for a lot of people. When living in Paris with pavement, pollution and the smells of litter all over the place, this was what I longed for ^^. It's funny how we Norwegians come to take this type of nature for granted. Maybe it takes living abroad like I did to truly appreciate how lucky we are!
Glad you liked it! Take care :)
Of course, the contrast of experiences is a prerequisite to make the right choice in life ;)
That is a beautiful place to go to get away from it all! That would be quite a workout! I have skied on groomed trails through the forest, but breaking trail would be much more difficult!
There are good trails for the most part ^^. You can easily ski here for hundreds of kilometers without ever leaving the trails if you want to. I just happen to find more enjoyment when I leave the trails for a bit and go where I'll be all for myself :)
That seems like the perfect choice to me!
This is stunning!! Funny, you made me crave the beach with one of your other posts and now I’m back to wanting snow. Stop torturing us all! 😜
Shiva is beautiful btw.
You know I'm all over the place!
And yes, she's adorable!
Cross country for the win. Although I’m more used to ski trails in forests and over frozen rivers. This vastness is quite amazing :)
Hell yeah!
Beautiful!