ESN "hiking and grilling" at Sognsvann (25.02.)

If you're wondering by now, "Hiking? Again?", then, yes, this is part of what Norway is all about! But don't worry, one of my fellow students here showed a quite similar reaction when I was talking about my plans for the weekend.

But yeah, ESN organised another event for international students on Sunday. We met at Sognsvann T-bane station, the final destination of the metro line 5.

If "Sognsvann" rings a bit of a bell: yup, that's where I went on my very first day in Oslo to experience my first adventure. However, this time, we did not just pass the lake and then walk up to the Vettakollen viewpoint. Instead, we walked around the lake. And as it was a really nice winter's day, have some photos here:

Not much of a lake to see, to be honest. :D

We didn't make a full round around the lake though (another one of these "hikes"). Instead, we stopped somewhere on the other side to start with the grilling part of "hiking and grilling". Which turned out to be not as easy as expected. I mean, there were a lot of people and a lot of snow:

The attempt to create a flat area, so that you wouldn't sink knee- or even thigh-deep into snow when you made just one wrong step, was semi-successful, I'd say. We ended up having sort of a safe space, but it was not really big, so we were having a fun time making our ways from A to B and back.

I didn't participate in the grilling, I have to mention. I had actually brought some eggplant slices, as ESN only provided sausages, but really didn't feel like fighting for a bit of space at the fire. But yeah, still, I was kind of impressed that they managed to get a fire up and burning in the snow. Although I came to the conclusion that I definitely prefer barbecuing in summer...

Anyway, for the way back, we (not the whole group of internationals, just some of us) decided to not walk around the lake - but on the lake. At the moment, the layer of ice on Sognsvann is so solid that you can actually walk or ski across the whole lake without being afraid of falling through the ice. That's how cold it is, or rather has been for quite a while!

People just ski everywhere.

And lastly, I guess it's time for a photo of proof that I've actually walked on Sognsvann:

Well, and I also made it back to solid ground - which was a bit of a challenge in the end, because the snow on the ice was rather deep and there was not as much of an established path anymore. But we left the lake and found the way back to the metro station to catch a metro back to Oslo city. (Fortunately, since I was kind of freezing at that point!)