Danskebåten

This is a very funny norwegian invention. You pack 2000 scandinavians between the age of 40 and 75 (ok, during the weekend, the age average might be a bit younger) on a boat to denmark, offering them a duty free shop and cheap alcohol and then see what happens.
First of all, I have to thank Donata (or actually her landlord, as he gave her the free tickets) for taking me on this funny journey and making me experience the results of this experiment ;-)
So on wednesday, the two of us began our adventure on danskebåten. I should maybe mention, that the cabin we had was one of the most luxurious I have ever been in on a boat. Well, actually, the only cabins I have ever been in on a ferry were on the same level as the cars... So this was like a 200% percent upgrade to be like 2 floors above sealevel :-D
First thing we did after eating in a nice italian restaurant was hitting the duty free shop and buying a survival package for the night, consisting of Martini and red wine. Hehe, they even sell painkillers in the duty free - how thoughtful...
After quite some Martini and wine, we decided to explore the mysterious "Dancing Palace" - and this place was like a scary future vision... I might find myself here again, 40 years from now, dancing to some crappy norwegian folk swing music trying to prevent my completely wasted husband from stepping on my feet all the time while he's hanging with all his weights on my shoulders... Or I'll be one of the even more pitiable old ladies that have to dance with their even older girlfriends cause their probably even older husband has died a long long time ago... (Yeah, you might discover a reason for me favouring younger guys... ;-) ) No, to be honest, I also felt some kind of admirance. I mean, actually it was really cute to see those old couples still having so much fun together. I have to admit, I have great respect for that.
Anyway, before getting too semtimental, let's focus on the fun part again. Being one of the few girls under 30 and with my pretty and tall companion, of course you draw attention (unfortunately maybe also because there obviously is quite some prostitution going on on the boat as Donata's landlord told her) and so we always had someone talking to us, making sometimes more and sometimes less sense. Here I'm referring to the duty free and the cheap alc in the bars... the good thing about this was however, that we also did not have to pay for our drinks. Hehe :-D Oh my god, I was kinda wasted. Thank god not wasted enough to defend myself against very cheesy hitting-on-me-tries... Brrrr, alcohol seems to triple the viking genes effect which is usually not visible at all when this species is sober. But in a drunk state, they get at least as possessive and touchy as mexicans ;-) but to their misfortune, these poor norwegian guys kinda lacked the latin charm :-S This lack and the overdose alcohol are a very unlucky combination, I can tell you.
In the early morning hours, when the security kicked us out of the last bar, we managed to escape our viking followers and went back to our cabin. So much for our plans to get off the boat in the morning and see a bit of Denmark... But when we woke in the afternoon, we went back to Duty free where we, together with everyone else, bought more alcohol to smuggle into Norway ;-) We even met the guys we had been drinking with the night before, but as expected, they didn't dare to talk to us anymore. So we just sat down in a pub and watched the old people continuing drinking. Unbelievable...
But from a sociological aspect, this trip was very interesting and revealed a lot in a cultural sense ;-) And of course, we did have a great PARTY!!!!!!!! No complaint about that :-)

NEVER AGAIN...

... cross-country skiing on a SUNDAY!!!!! No no no. There is more traffic on the slopes on Sunday as there is on the roads during monday morning rush hour...
And then me, with my really excellent skiing skills among all those people who overtake although it's a very narrow way anyway or who cut you in a downhill curve...ahhhhhhh: SCARED!

But the worst you have to encounter on a Sunday:
SMALL CHILDREN!!!!!!
Either they are even slower than yourself, or they fall just in front of you, or they come from the opposite side using YOUR slope... or they just scream (which i really don't get. I mean I would be more than happy if Daddy pulled me around in this cosy windproof sledge. Wouldn't mind switching, no I wouldn't). Anyway, very annoying. And so unfair, I think. Everyone is soooo considerate with those little ..., but who is considerate with me?!?! I'm a f... beginner too!! But no, noone says sorry to me when fall (cause I had to change lanes because of this child standing in my way, and somehow my right ski changed faster than my left one)... No, instead I get angry parent looks when I nearly fall into their child, just because it fell down right in front of my feet. That is not fair!
Maybe it would help wear a sign saying: "Beginner - can't break".

Another lesson I learned today is that although new paths might look adventurous and exciting and therefore are very tempting - following them might just as well turn out to be very stupid after all. You might end up doing things, you had never taken into consideration before. Especially when those paths suddenly end and you find yourself in the middle of the downhill piste. And there is no other way down. At least you don't see any. Damn, that wasn't fun. I looked like a snowball, the way I went down this piste. Standing - falling - standing - falling - ...
But I also learned, that mankind can actually handle a lot when it boils down to pure survival instinct and that you really don't need different kind of skis to manage a slalom slope - all kinderfasching.

So guys, now I have deserved my nap, today was really not an easy tour ;-)