A giant waterslide set up along a gently sloping city street in Oslo over the weekend attracted thousands of participants who seemed to have fun, but would have liked a bit more speed. The arranger said he’d look for a steeper street next year.
“It went very slowly, but it was fun to try Norway’s longest waterslide,” nine-year-old Elisa Salomon told newspaper Aftenposten. The giant waterslide was rolled out in Treschows Gate at Bjølsen Saturday morning and arranger Morten Brøndmo said nearly 4,000 people bought tickets.
He and his colleagues quickly found a way to help customers slide faster. They bought several bottles of the popular liquid dishwashing soap called Zalo in Norway, and that speeded things up. It also led to soapy water running in the river Akerselva that flows through the center of the city.
“According to our information, Zalo poses no environmental hazard,” Mads Aulie of the city’s water and sewage department told state broadcaster NRK. “But they’re not supposed to slip things out in the river.”
Other young participants thought it was also a rather chilly experience, given the cold water in the slide and cool morning temperatures. Brøndmo was nonetheless pleased by the response and hopes to make the waterslide an annual event.
“Next year we’ll try to find a spot that’s steeper,” he told Aftenposten. “This is a pilot project in Scandinavia. We need to use our experience here to make it better later.”
newsinenglish.no staff
