Norway, part 1: Plans change
Greetings dear reader. I thought to take a little break from the hiking in north-Transylvania series and instead focus on one of my most important and beloved travel-experiences: Norway. The story begins around early 2013. I was at one of my lower points in life, jobless and aimless, waiting on promises that would never come. I still clung onto a strand of hope that I would leave the country for a better future somewhere else. But it was becoming less and less clear where, or how.
It was during this time that one of my best friends, Daniel, was trying to cheer me up with ideas of going on a summer adventure somewhere abroad. We were half-joking about going to Thailand and then maybe I’d just stay there and try to open a cheap bar. I say half-joking, because there was real intent to the madness. I just needed to get away and do something else, start anew. But for me, money was constantly an issue, however Daniel promised he’d help me cover a lot of my travel costs. Slowly, but surely, as summer drew close it was becoming less of a joke and more of a plan.
However, the plan would change when a high-risk for tourists warning was given out for Thailand during that time. We floated around a couple of other ideas for places we’d like to go to. The one that ended up sticking was Norway. We were both fascinated by the Viking culture and dreamed of seeing the great fjords and mountains in the cool, wild north. Thus, as August drew close, we began planning our great road trip from Oslo to the west-fjords.
Plans change… again
Our plane landed in Oslo at around 11 pm. We were giddy with excitement to step onto “sacred” Viking land for the first time. We initially didn’t plan to book any accommodation, instead wanted to grab the rental car and start camping from day one. However, thanks to peer-pressure from our families we decided to book a room for the first night. This ended up being a very wise move. We quickly made our way to the car rental place. Daniel was in charge of the whole driving thing, I was a but a simple co-pilot and car-dj. As he was taking care of the paperwork, he starts searching through his wallet for his credit card. I will never forget how his expression gradually deteriorated from high excitement to sheer despair as he realized he forgot his card…
There we were at Oslo airport, extremely underfunded and unable to even take out the car he had rented. Our glorious travel plan crumbling to pieces. I started laughing hysterically, while he was beating himself up over how he lost his card. I mean, what can you do? Shit happens. It was cartoonishly funny.
We ended up taking probably one of the most expensive taxis ever to our hotel. Then I called my parents and kindly asked them to heavily load up my credit card with money. They would, of course, get this back once we returned. That took care of our financial issues, but we still couldn’t rent out a car, because they wouldn’t allow for one person to rent and another to drive? I don’t remember the reasoning, but it was very weird… Suffice to say, we had 7 days to spend in Norway and one night to figure out what to do.
Just have an open mind
It was a good thing we had that first night accommodation booked. It was also a good thing we didn’t have any other accommodation booked. We briefly considered spending the week in Oslo. Then we thought about taking a train up north to Trondhejm, or beyond. We could either find a camping ground, or go wild-camping, since this is allowed in Norway. In the end, we decided to just go to the Oslo bus terminal and take the first bus going north and get off where we please. Then, the next day, we’d do the same, in a different direction. Rinse and repeat until we both complete our primary goals: to reach the big fjords and to hike up a glorious Norwegian mountain.
Now I can’t say how the initial road-trip plan would have went. I imagine it would have been fun. But what we ended up doing instead was a way better adventure-trip then we ever expected! Perhaps it was the hilariously unfortunate beginning, or the sheer spontaneity that forged our plan. I don’t know, but every day was like opening a mystery box. Where are we? Where are we going? Don’t know, don’t care, but it’s fun as hell! This would be my first big lesson on how it’s better to be flexible and not stress about planning out the details of your travels.
Dokka – a little place in the middle of nowhere
We took our first bus up north. It was there that we discovered one of the joys modern western society: Nettbus, bus with free internet! Well, actually year later, Daniel tells me that Nettbus means grid-bus in Norwegian. But hey, there really was free internet! The experience was nothing like traveling by bus in Romania. The drive was so smooth and enjoyable. The roads were extremely well maintained. Everything was so clean… The landscape was also quite different. Mostly birch-covered gentle hills flanking lakes and marshland. We just sat back and enjoyed the ride, the scenery and the free internet!
After around 4 to 5 hours on the bus, we decided to get off in a small little town of less than 3000 people called Dokka. The little town seemingly in the middle of nowhere had its own campsite! This was where we stayed for our second night. The camp was located near a small river. It was very peaceful, not crowded at all. The perfect weekend retreat after a long weeks worth of work. Daniel was hyped about trying out his mad fishing skills for the first time. I believe it was here that he lost his first fishing hook. Score one for the river.
Our evening in Dokka was very relaxing. We cooked our meal by the river and had our first “wild” Norwegian sunset with some ramen noodles. On the next day, we decided we’d start heading west towards the mountains.
