... that's basically the state of my body right now... and further it's, as everybody should know, the degree of difficulty of slopes in a ski-resort.
This morning S., E. and I came back from Levi, which is the most important winter sport resort of Finland. Recently there was also the downhill and slalom world cup taking place. We had rented a cottage a little bit outside of the center of Levi, but close enough to walk.
The whole trip started on the 12th of January, the day, when S. and E. came back from Spain. I picked them up from the Airport, we went home to Kannelmäki and re-packed our stuff and went to Prisma to buy some food. We decided to bring some non-perishable things like bread, pasta and especially beer from Helsinki, as we expected them to be extremely expensive so high up north. We had to hurry a bit, as we had to catch in Pasila the night train to Rovaniemi. It left at 22.30 in the evening and was going 12 hours. We were spending the time with eating, drinking, talking and a little bit of sleeping, which was actually pretty comfortable, even tho we were three people in the small compartment.
In Rovaniemi we had to change from the train to the bus, which was taking us the last 170km to Levi. There we had, as we didn't know where and when the free Ski-Bus was leaving, to walk to the cottage. This however, wasn't that bad, as we anyways had to pass a supermarket, where we received the key for our small house. The rest of the way was a little bit of a pain. It was cold, the bags were heavy and we didn't know how far the cottage was away. It is weird, how much longer the way feels, when you don't know where you are going. I realized this, when we walked back from the cottage to explore the village. The way seemed so much shorter, as we didn't had our backpacks with us anymore and as we knew the way.
Levi itself is pretty small. I reckon we also came exactly after the realy busy high season, after everybody was there already for the Christmas holidays. The village was totally deserted after the sun went down, which was around 15.30. The shops were open and so we walked into all the rental shops to get price lists, to choose the best offers for us. The evening we spent, cooking pasta and having a sauna. It was so relaxing and really good, as it was warming us up a little bit.
The next day started as early as 8 o'clock. We had breakfast, prepared sandwiches and packed our stuff, we thought we would need during the day. Then we went to InterSport to rent Skiing and Snowboarding equipment. E. went for Skis, as he had skiing experience already for a couple of years and S. and I rented snowboards, as it is so much cooler than skiing :-P
S. didn't had any experience of snowboarding whatsoever and I had been standing on a snowboard one time before for about 4 hours inside of a skiing-hall. So we decided to start off with a blue slope in order to get (again) a feeling for the board. It went well... the first 50 meters until we came to a pretty steep and tight part of the slope. We fell several times on a 20 meter long hill, but we didn't give up and somehow made it to the bottom. Then came the next surprise... an even steeper and longer hill. Also here we fell several times, but didn't lose our motivation. All the people passing us were able to go down the hill without falling, so we had to be able, too.
We then finally made it to Gondoli, one of the lifts and went to the hill-top, where we had, thanks to the good weather on the first day, an amazing view over the surrounding. From there we found a pretty easy blue slope, where we decided to get the hang of snowboarding. E. however went down some red and black slopes several times, while S. and I tried to go down the hill once. Soon it went better and better for me and I was really having a lot of fun. I went down the blue slope over and over again and wasn't "scared" anymore.
The evening we were cooking again and spent some time in the sauna and infront of the TV. We were all so tired of the trip and the whole day of wintersport, that we decided to not go out. We actually spent the whole three days on the slopes. E. on the most difficult ones of the resort and S. and I on the easier ones. However on the third day, when the blue slope got boring for me I went for the red slope.
When going up with the lift I got really scared. The slope looked so much steeper from the top than it did from the valley. Also the people were going so much faster than it looked from the bottom. My legs were shaking and I thought I would go down the hill more sliding on my butt, than standing on the board. Anyways, I took a deep breath, went for it and... of course fell after the first ten meters. However after some attempts I was going... slowly, but steady. I went several times up and every time I went down I became more confident and better. After the lunch break E. took me to other red slopes as he said, they would be better for me to practice.
I lost my inspiration already for a couple of days. I am sitting in front of this entry and don't know anymore what to write... therefore I am going to publish it now and will write about Levi maybe later or maybe not. Anyways... it was a really good time in Levi, I am back in Helsinki and feel good here, I've been out already two times here, I will go to my first Swedish class today and after that I will go out again. It is really nice to be back, but somehow it is different, as so many people left already. I really miss them and hope to get to know new people soon.
~M~
This morning S., E. and I came back from Levi, which is the most important winter sport resort of Finland. Recently there was also the downhill and slalom world cup taking place. We had rented a cottage a little bit outside of the center of Levi, but close enough to walk.
The whole trip started on the 12th of January, the day, when S. and E. came back from Spain. I picked them up from the Airport, we went home to Kannelmäki and re-packed our stuff and went to Prisma to buy some food. We decided to bring some non-perishable things like bread, pasta and especially beer from Helsinki, as we expected them to be extremely expensive so high up north. We had to hurry a bit, as we had to catch in Pasila the night train to Rovaniemi. It left at 22.30 in the evening and was going 12 hours. We were spending the time with eating, drinking, talking and a little bit of sleeping, which was actually pretty comfortable, even tho we were three people in the small compartment.
In Rovaniemi we had to change from the train to the bus, which was taking us the last 170km to Levi. There we had, as we didn't know where and when the free Ski-Bus was leaving, to walk to the cottage. This however, wasn't that bad, as we anyways had to pass a supermarket, where we received the key for our small house. The rest of the way was a little bit of a pain. It was cold, the bags were heavy and we didn't know how far the cottage was away. It is weird, how much longer the way feels, when you don't know where you are going. I realized this, when we walked back from the cottage to explore the village. The way seemed so much shorter, as we didn't had our backpacks with us anymore and as we knew the way.
Levi itself is pretty small. I reckon we also came exactly after the realy busy high season, after everybody was there already for the Christmas holidays. The village was totally deserted after the sun went down, which was around 15.30. The shops were open and so we walked into all the rental shops to get price lists, to choose the best offers for us. The evening we spent, cooking pasta and having a sauna. It was so relaxing and really good, as it was warming us up a little bit.
The next day started as early as 8 o'clock. We had breakfast, prepared sandwiches and packed our stuff, we thought we would need during the day. Then we went to InterSport to rent Skiing and Snowboarding equipment. E. went for Skis, as he had skiing experience already for a couple of years and S. and I rented snowboards, as it is so much cooler than skiing :-P
S. didn't had any experience of snowboarding whatsoever and I had been standing on a snowboard one time before for about 4 hours inside of a skiing-hall. So we decided to start off with a blue slope in order to get (again) a feeling for the board. It went well... the first 50 meters until we came to a pretty steep and tight part of the slope. We fell several times on a 20 meter long hill, but we didn't give up and somehow made it to the bottom. Then came the next surprise... an even steeper and longer hill. Also here we fell several times, but didn't lose our motivation. All the people passing us were able to go down the hill without falling, so we had to be able, too.
We then finally made it to Gondoli, one of the lifts and went to the hill-top, where we had, thanks to the good weather on the first day, an amazing view over the surrounding. From there we found a pretty easy blue slope, where we decided to get the hang of snowboarding. E. however went down some red and black slopes several times, while S. and I tried to go down the hill once. Soon it went better and better for me and I was really having a lot of fun. I went down the blue slope over and over again and wasn't "scared" anymore.
The evening we were cooking again and spent some time in the sauna and infront of the TV. We were all so tired of the trip and the whole day of wintersport, that we decided to not go out. We actually spent the whole three days on the slopes. E. on the most difficult ones of the resort and S. and I on the easier ones. However on the third day, when the blue slope got boring for me I went for the red slope.
When going up with the lift I got really scared. The slope looked so much steeper from the top than it did from the valley. Also the people were going so much faster than it looked from the bottom. My legs were shaking and I thought I would go down the hill more sliding on my butt, than standing on the board. Anyways, I took a deep breath, went for it and... of course fell after the first ten meters. However after some attempts I was going... slowly, but steady. I went several times up and every time I went down I became more confident and better. After the lunch break E. took me to other red slopes as he said, they would be better for me to practice.
I lost my inspiration already for a couple of days. I am sitting in front of this entry and don't know anymore what to write... therefore I am going to publish it now and will write about Levi maybe later or maybe not. Anyways... it was a really good time in Levi, I am back in Helsinki and feel good here, I've been out already two times here, I will go to my first Swedish class today and after that I will go out again. It is really nice to be back, but somehow it is different, as so many people left already. I really miss them and hope to get to know new people soon.
~M~
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