A trip to winter wonderland: Tonstad, Norway

Have you ever wondered what Scandinavians do in the cold, windy, dark winters? They visit the mountains. They stay at cabins. They ski.

I know the other part of the world must be thinking if I'm crazy to talk about winters and snow in March as you are probably approaching or already approached warmer season. But remember, we live in the North? The cold is still happening here and we're just back from our winter break coping up with the on and off cold climate. Exciting no?
Basically when you live in Scandinavia, you'll see 2 categories of people in winters. One which goes to a warm place like Spain to skip the dark winters and get some sun and tan. The other goes to mountains to ski and embrace more snow. I'm definitely in the latter category.. despite the fact, that I sometimes still get annoyed of dressing up in too many layers and the darkness. But as they say, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing!

When we were invited by our friends to their old traditional private cabin, we felt very lucky. It is their family cabin built around 50-60years ago on a mountain top by their grand parents in just the right way - with no water and no electricity. That's how the cabins are supposed to be, right? 

When we were invited by our friends to their old traditional private cabin, we felt very lucky. It is their family cabin built around 50-60years ago on a mountain top by their grand parents in just the right way - with no water and no electricity. That's how the cabins are supposed to be, right? 

All set to be welcomed by our cabin.

It gave us a very good experience of how people lived there in the past. We need to carry water ourselves, do dishes ourselves and save electricity. We did have a nice fire place to make it cozy and comfortable. We had all the necessities from our friends who came along with their 3kids.. that added more fun to our trip. We had a lot of good food, memorable conversations, skied a lot and played games. It's quite an exciting experience for first-timers. I would've loved to stay there longer if only I owned it like Norwegians. The only thing I'm a bit skeptical about living in a cabin is the toilet and the shower. Well, I can live with the shower part, but the toilets are a bit nasty to use after a couple of days. 

I'm unable to post any pictures of interior as it is a private one. But here I've got some pretty good pictures from our trip. Hope you enjoy!

Not sure what you be doing after shoveling snow off the cabin? Just jump!

View from the cabin window

Snow accidents are common.

The foot wear that can apparently make the snow walking easy. Too big for the feet but they worked great.

If you thought cabin trips are all just fun, then well, noooo! There's a lot of work out to be done as well. When I was tired of skiing and all those long walks in the snow, I wished if someone could just carry me all the way back to the cabin.

But well, I love being dragged too!😊

My most favourite food at the cabin.. cooked salted-prawns. I finished half the box 😋😋

We did make some spicy Indian food as well which was perfect to have in that cold and cozy place and ended it with a chocolate cake.

When we were invited to our friend's parent's cabin that was near our's, we were quite surprised and excited to see this. They had a hole to dig water that could be used for drinking. And the water was so clear and fresh.

We ended the day with some beautiful sky lanterns.

I'm pretty serious about writing cabin diaries.. :)

If you like cabin life just like me, do watch this video of Ylvis. It's quite almost the same except the peeing part. Not very sure about that!