Lads Cabin Trip

Apologies once again for the gap between posts, it is shocking however this time I have a better excuse than ever.

Last week I was with little notice invited to a lads week in a Cabin just outside Stavanger. There were between 5 and 8 of us throughout the week ( this was because people came and went as per there personal commitments not due to fatalities) and I was the only Englishman invading what was a very long tradition between this group of life long buddies. I was a little worried before the trip, being a clear outsider only knowing one of the guys well (Pål my girlfriends, sisters boyfriend) and meeting 3 of the others just once before. I needn't of  worried though, everyone was great and I had an awesome week!

We spent all our time simply chilling, chatting and drinking. Drinking a lot in fact! Despite suffering heavily each morning and one in particular where I didn't move for around 10 hours (except to excuse myself for regurgitation) it never stopped me enjoying the big BBQs we had every single night. A great idea that was met with zero resistance every time from every man present.

But anyway that is enough of all that, I really wanted to mention a few other observations I have made about Norway. Firstly many people have cabins in the country, I found this strange coming from England where space is scarce and property is expensive but given the change ratios of land to people in Norway it does make total sense. I've always been a big fan of camping and the cabin culture is similar in many ways and I'm hooked early. People should enjoy their own countries for a little get away and realise that going abroad and spending thousands is not always necessary. I  even came back from the cabin trip with a nice little tan!

What I found most interesting though was the location of this Cabin. To get to it, one could either drive up a very steep rocky road (impossible with front wheel drive and a challenge in anything not designed for off road driving) or park a little way down the mountain and walk (this is what we had to do). This does not sound so bad and in hindsight it wasnt. But at the time as I was trying to drag my case 5 minutes up a wet hill using a mud track and climbing over rocks I couldnt help think that noone would ever do this in England. Why would you build a house somewhere you cant easily get to? its madness!! we visited a peer later in the week and again to get from one side to the other you had to scale over rocks, this didnt bother me at all but I just found it really strange no one had built a path. 

I asked one of the guys about all this lack of convenience stuff (trying very hard to appear inquisitive and not just lazy) and he explained quite simply that in a country like Norway with so many mountains, rivers and other natural obstacles and such a sparse population their is just no point trying to avoid things all the time and Norwegians are very happy to accept the challenge. Personally I think there is definitely a novelty element here and it wouldnt hurt to build an extra path or two, but what is wrong with a nice little challenging novelty. Answer, nothing actually so I should probably just drop it.

One of the many beautiful panoramic views from the cabin. I already wish I had more but drinking and BBQs seemed much more important at the time