Otta – a ghost town.

I had a wish to visit Otta for quite a long time. Not because it’s a big city or very known, but because it’s surrounded by mountains, a river and is located quite close to the highest mountain Galdhøpinggen.

I got a chance to do it, when my partner finally found his perfect car to buy in Lillehammer (he wanted to purchase a better, used car for some time already). Lillehammer is located north from Hamar and is mainly known for the ski jump place and the Olympics that had a place there (and in the surrouding cities) in 1994.

It’s just a 1,5 hour drive north from Lillehammer (a national road to Trondheim, E6 if I remember correctly) and it leads between beautiful landscapes. River, hills, mountains, a lot of green areas and pasturage filled with fluffy sheep. Quite idyllic, but where are all the people?

That was the question that we were contemplating in our heads when we had arrived to Otta. The water surrounding the city is almost azure blue, like a weird glimpse from South France, and the mountains around are beautiful and bushy… but the city is nothing more than just empty. Abandoned. A ghost city.

There were like two restaurants and one coffee shops with some old people in, and maybe one ice cream place with one family enjoying their afternoon’s snack, but besides that there were many abandoned shops and beside cars standing next to the houses, it was hard to believe someone actually live here. Maybe because it was Sunday. But just maybe.

Or is it because it’s already off-season? September can be still beautiful though. I can only imagine all those amazing hikes in between autumn-colored trees in this area. There were couple of signs inviting to rent a room, so there’s a place to sleep, and to eat of course. But if someone doesn’t like hiking or looking at the nature, he might be very, very fed up with place.

Anyway that’s all for the day. I’ve been off the blog for two weeks again, because I really struggle with motivation. When I come from work all I have energy for is to take shower and then it’s just fighting with sleepiness on a couch. Hopefully with the new car (actually it’s used car, so it’s more like new-old car) we will be more eager to drive around and visit further-laying cities.