Sporty spices

This is Maren writing Allie's blog for the day. Let's start from the beginning. These are my versions of events. Be prepared: this is going to be a detailed blog post about our day, but I will also try to include many pictures for you. That way it's easier for you (whoever you are) to visualize how we spent our day. 

Last night when we were partying, we were kinda ambitious about getting up early in the morning making the most of our day. Well, that didn't happen as you probably guessed. At least we woke up before noon. The weather was nicer today, so during our breakfast we were planning our day. Finally we decided to go hiking over a mountain straight above my house. Allie and I made sandwiches, filled our water bottles and brought some norwegian chocolate which we put in our backpack. My brother Christian, who also was kind of hungover (am I allowed to write that here?) decided to come with us. We drove for about three minutes up to the downhill skiing slopes, which is called Voss Resort. We parked our car and started our hike. There was a bike race, so we got to see some bikers going down the difficult trails. Allison is the sweetest - she's so exited about everything!!! Christian had to stop and wait for us cause we were stopping taking pictures all the time. We made him take pictures of Allie and I. I think it was too much for my brother when we were saying "can you please take one more" (just one is never just one). He decided to go back to the car, but the girls (the sporty spices) kept going! Our shoes are made for walking...

 

The hiking trails are steep so we definitely needed our water. We took a break eating our lunch when we had walked for about two hours. And we didn't sit down just anywhere... The chair lifts are standing still in the summertime, so we jumped on one and ate our lunch. Comfy seats!

I made us go outside of the trails so we got our feet wet, whoops. Sorry about that Allie. We were feeling really adventurous and talking about how we're gonna have so many good memories, even though Allie though her tour guide (me) didn't know where we were going. She was so worried, because we were supposed to be back at my house in like one hour. So Allison told me how we would never make it back in time (we had to get ready for a BBQ with my family) but I told her she should have more faith in both her tour guide and also the clock. When I'm stresses out my mom always tells me "the time will come to you". 

I could see the frustration in Allison's eyes. She was so worried that we would be late for the BBQ. It's a good thing though to have respect for the time and getting on time. When we finally got to the top of the mountain, her faith in me eventually came back. 

Are you getting tired of reading yet? FYI we're like half way through my story. Let's keep going. 

We're at the top of the mountain looking down on my house on one side and the town of Voss on the other side. Allison is stoked about it, going crazy with her new camera (which btw I'm stealing all the time - Canon takes great pictures). (Now I'm suddenly writing in present time, which is kind of weird compared to what I did before). --> I call my mom saying that we will probably be running a little late, but she tells me not to stress. Don't worry, be happy. This made Allie feel better, that my mom wasn't upset. We start our hike down on the other side of the mountain, going toward the town. The trail is really steep going down. We're running for about 20 min to make the street car before it stops going for the day at 5pm. There's a restaurant at Hanguren, which is 660 meters (2,165 feet) above sea lever. From the top on Hanguren you get a panoramic view of the centre of Voss. That's a great way to get a sense of direction, because I pointed out all the places I had shown Allison so far. 

We actually met a woman from Allies home town in Milwaukee. (She lived in Brookfield for 30 years and now Madison.) That was so funny, cause we asked her to take our picture and then Allie asked her where she was from. Obviously we could tell that she was American. From the top of the mountain we could also see a lot of hang gliders jumping off the mountain cliff, which was fun for Allison to see. It's also kinda scary - imagine doing that! 

However, we finally got back home, taking the street car from Hanguren back down to town. My mom picked us up. We showered real quick before leaving for my uncle's BBQ. Allie met my big family. 

     The cousins

I think it was fun for her to spend time with my cousins as well. We ate delicious food, jumped on the trampoline, played with the two dogs and played soccer. At 9pm Allison, myself and my two girl cousins Kari and Thea left my uncles house. 

We drove back to town to go in the festival tent ("Ekstremsportveko"=extreme sport week) to watch today's video. It was so cool to think that we actually saw some of the extreme sport today (the downhill bikers and the para gliders). When we got home we face timed Carolyn and later Nancy. I also played the piano and sang for Allison . We just relaxed and hung out the rest of the evening putting pictures on my computer, looking at old photos in the albums with my mom and two brothers (Even and Christian) from when my family went to the states. 

So that was literally what we did all day. I think I covered it all. Hopefully Allison will approve of this. Maybe she'll freak out about how much I actually wrote. Whatever. We're going to my cabin tomorrow. Allison will write more later - to be continued. 

One last thing: thank you Allie for taking the time to help me expand my vocabulary and explaining to me words and expressions that I don't understand.  

- Maren, Wednesday 26th of June.