One Dramatic Wednesday

The image looks so calm but my week was not.

We were suppose to be in Oslo on Wednesday morning for an appoinment. We booked tickets for Tuesday late afternoon. Tuesday morning Western Norway was hard hit by a snow storm. Right in the middle of a meeting I got a message from my husband “Airport closed indefinitely“. Later came more news on traffic problems. What shall we do?

A significant number of flights were cancelled but ours was on time. Can you believe this? 

Every possible obstacle was thrown on our way to the airport but we reached the gate right in time. I was even able to fill my water bottle. Was I thirsty? Have you ever walked on heavy snow? Yes it is tougher and therefore takes longer.

We knew Oslo will be fiercely cold but we were ready for that. Temperature was in two digits below zero. I think it was around -15 C. Reaching Oslo in time was such a relief.

Street in Oslo

Fortunately our work was done in time. We thought of taking lunch in Oslo city centre before taking train to Oslo airport. I like sushi but my husband isn’t really a fan. He insisted me having lunch first as it was hard to have our choice of food in one place. I agreed as it was way past lunchtime and I was hungry.

Before heading towards my husband’s choice of restaurant we passed the railway station. To our surprise it was jam-packed. It was all new to us. Heavy snow and particularly low temperatures have put all trains on halt. The security person on railway station told me very coldly “No train no plane“.

Later we found a queue of passengers hoping to reach airport. Due to train problem busses were arranged. We join the endless queue. By the time it was our turn no bus was available. The train authorities decided to hire taxis. It was already 3:00 pm. We reached aiport at 5:15 pm.

“Oslo airport has stopped all flights from landing and departing amid heavy snowfall and extreme weather around the Norwegian capital, the east of the country and parts of Sweden.“

“The airport operator Avinor said it had taken the extremely rare step to suspend flights at about 12.35pm local time on Wednesday for safety reasons after large volumes of snow and strong wind meant the lights on the runway were not visible.“

Our 5 pm flight got cancelled and we were rescheduled on a flight at 8:30 pm. As if it was not enough 8:30 pm flight was cancelled and we were told to get new Information around 9:20 pm. We boarded the plane at 10:30 pm and reached home around 1:00 am.

Lens artists photo challenge

Here is a newsclip: https://www.euronews.com/video/2024/01/17/severe-winter-weather-causes-chaos-across-northern-europe