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Published: March 27th 2011
So last night I got a call from my "friend mom" asking if I'd like to go long skating with her and her partner. I have to admit I questioned this considering the weather has been so warm around here lately...but i went with it because I thought if nothing else it would be an amazing experience.
For those who don't know, long skating is quite different than normal skating. You have boots that sometimes have a square toe, and you strap the blades on to that and kind of just tie them around. It requires a fair amount of equipment to get out there on the lake. My friend family go out quite a bit so they happened to have everything. I had a backpack with extra warm clothing that had to be strapped across my chest and through my legs in case I fell in the water. GULP. Then I had this red thing around my neck that is a line I can throw to someone if they fall in or can be anchored in case I fall in...I also wore a helmet, knee pads and elbow pads and of course had the poles common to long skating.
I basically felt like I was going into combat. We got all this stuff on including all the necessary warm clothing (my friend mom looked at me like I had 8 heads when I told her I wore cotton socks...only wool is acceptable on the lake...she supplied me with some), got out on the lake and then they decided the ice was no good and we should change locations. I thought they were kidding.
When the weather warms up around here the ice remains pretty solid for a while but the surface gets a bit fluid and then the wind blows it and these little peaks form. When it re-freezes it's like all these little bumps all over the ice. VERY difficult to skate on. So, we hopped back in the car and rode to the next site. I kept my helmet, knee pads and elbow pads on for that part.
At the next site we tried again and decided the ice was much better. We skated around for a while and found this enormous rock to take pictures by. It had water all around it and my friend mom thought it would be great to get kind
of close to it for the pictures but I just didnt trust my ability to stop enough. The wind kept blowing me closer to it so I kept my distance as much as possible (and my death grip on those poles). Also at one point my friend mom tried to take my poles to see if I could work on my balance without, and it almost got violent. I was pretty sure I couldnt survive without those poles. I am happy to report though that I stayed in the upright position at all times during the 5km journey.
After we were out for a bit we found an island and had fika. Thank goodness they are the most incredibly prepared people I've ever met. We had delicious hot kaffe med mjölk (coffee with milk), ost och bröd (cheese and bread), and kanelbullar (cinnamon buns) while overlooking the lake and scenery and sitting on these padded cushions with blankets on. It was Kafe Eva och Sverker!
On the way back Eva offered to pull me in case I was tired. Okay they are super active and do long skate often but I thought...if I at 22 need to be
pulled by someone who is in their 60's because they are CLEARLY in better shape than me...I might never get over it. So I powered through the pain. I swear I would hire her as my personal trainer. Anyways muscles I never knew I had were hurting and it required a nap when I got home but I proudly made it through more than 5km (normal journey if you join a club is like 20km haha) without even falling! Proud day. I feel like I tried some kind of extreme sport or something. Biggest wimp ever!!!
So this Saturday I head out to Malaga, Spain for a little R&R week which will hopefully include me coming home with some kind of tan. Talk about a change of pace! On to new adventures!
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Gerrie
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Yea for fika!
Fika was my favourite part of your day!